Tracking Infrastructure

Since Facebook changed its company name to Meta, there has been a lot written lately about the metaverse. As a combination of augmented reality and video that people can experience virtually, it creates a lot of consumer excitement for the potential that it can offer by bridging the virtual and physical worlds. There has been a parallel movement in B2B markets (some argue that it's part of the same movement) in the form of Digital Twins. As is often the pattern in technology, it is likely that the surge in consumer interest will be followed with business adaptation. Get ready for Digital Twins.

Advances in information technology over the past 30 years have created a foundation for improved manufacturing productivity that is often dubbed the Second Industrial Revolution. In the first revolution electricity was the underlying technology. But it was the application of this technology to a new manufacturing model... the assembly line... that created the productivity break-through. Today, information technology is serving as the foundation for another new model... the industry platform.

This is the second in a series of posts drawing from our vision statement for the future of infrastructure manufacturing. Today we discuss how manufacturers can provide a quantum leap in the value that they offer by using a customer-facing platform to provide seamless data sharing.

In its 2017 report entitled Reinventing Construction: A Route to Higher Productivity, the McKinsey Global Institute revealed that the construction industry lags all other major industries in productivity. In fact, the construction industry experienced a productivity decline of almost 1.5% per year from 2005 through 2014. In this, our third in a series of blog posts drawn from our recent web report, The Promise of Smart Infrastructure, we discuss the ways in which development of smart infrastructure will induce the construction industry to become more productive.

The globe faces three major problems that impede the construction of adequate infrastructure over the next 20 years:

1. $94 trillion of investment is needed.
2. The construction industry is not presently equipped to address the need.
3. Government budgets are constricting investment and maintenance funding.

The construction of smart infrastructure will address these problems head on. It will also provide public benefit that will make 'dumb' infrastructure obsolete in the not-so-distant future.

There is a lot of talk about "smart" things, infrastructure included. But what does that really mean? We have recently released a new web report entitled The Promise of Smart Infrastructure. In it we answer this question and present the opportunity that smart infrastructure provides for addressing the investment gap that exists between current spending on global infrastructure and the (much greater) need for new investment over the next 20+ years. During the next few weeks we will offer a series of blog posts presenting sections of the report.

At the Smart Cities Connect conference in Denver last week there was discussion about how to make the most productive use of the enormous amounts of data that will be connected as cities implement smart city initiatives. Dell EMC's Chief Technology Officer, Rob Silverberg, said that cities should consider creating a singular data platform for collecting all data rather than  creating information silos that will ultimately need to share data. He suggested a "system of systems" strategy for creating a holistic smart transportation system rather than a series of individual initiatives... such as smart parking, smart lighting, etc.

This strategy is not unique to smart cities. With data collection and analysis becoming central to improved productivity, data centralization is critical to most industries these days. This includes the manufacturers that provide cities with their infrastructure.

In its 2017 report, Reinventing Construction: A Route to Higher Productivity, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that inefficiency costs the global construction industry over $1.6 trillion per year, primarily as a result of industry fragmentation. Diving a bit deeper, MGI further estimates that collaboration issues, supply chain management inefficiencies and lack of technology adoption combine to create about one-third of this inefficiency... about $500 billion dollars annually. These factors suggest that a reinvention of the construction supply chain will make a large impact on improving productivity.

This is the third post of a 3-part series that discusses how technology will affect the infrastructure product manufacturing industry. In the first we discussed why the construction industry will embrace the Internet-of-Things. In the second we presented the role that smart infrastructure products will play in the future of civil projects. In this we provide our vision for how technology will enable the industry to reinvent itself as new, more efficient competitors enter the market.

The movement toward 'smart cities' has developed momentum in the past few years as forward-looking city planners recognize that connected devices can provide value and create efficiency that was not possible previously. This will quickly become a driver for the construction of 'smart infrastructure' that collects the data. Of course, it will not only be cities that become 'smart'; states, regions and nations will all need smart infrastructure in order to take full advantage of the potential of connected devices... the Internet of Things (IoT).

This is the second of a 3-part series that discusses how the evolution of technology will affect the infrastructure product manufacturing industry. In the first post we discussed why the construction industry will embrace IoT. In this we discuss the role that smart infrastructure products will play in the future of infrastructure. In the third, we provide our vision for how technology will enable the reinvention of construction manufacturing in response to new, vertically integrated mega-firms.

IoT (the Internet-of-Things) has become a buzz-phrase that is thrown around a lot. It seems to be one of those phrases that is easy to shake off as a pipe dream offered by 20-something techies that will likely take decades to reach the floor of an infrastructure product manufacturing plant. (Perhaps, but don't get complacent.)

This is the first of a 3-part series that will show how the evolution of technology will affect the infrastructure product manufacturing industry. In this post we discuss why the construction industry will embrace IoT... and soon. In the second, we will discuss how smart infrastructure products will be demanded for projects. In the third, we will provide our vision for how technology will enable the reinvention of construction manufacturing in response to new, vertically integrated mega-firms.

GS1 is one of the most important underpinnings of commerce that you've likely never heard of. Over 5 billion scans are performed each day using GS1 standards for product tracking. GS1 is an international standards board with over 1 million members in 100 countries. We benefit from its impact with almost every product we purchase. And yet, it seems to work 'under the radar' for most of us. It's influence is now quickly moving into infrastructure product manufacture so we thought we would shed some light.