The concept of internet of things, or IoT as it is popularly referred to, came into being when it was discovered that it is possible for computers to communicate with devices ranging from simple home appliances to industrial machinery and equipment without the need for any human intervention. The fact that IoT makes it possible for computers to simplify manufacturing processes and bring about a radical change in our daily lives, making this technology an important step forward and in tandem with cloud computing. In this chapter, the authors discuss the contributions that IoT can make in construction industry. With IoT it is possible for a machine to let a remote computer know from any part of the world its current status and physical disposition. For construction firms that need to operate machinery and equipment in distant locations, IoT makes it possible to collect monitor and manage in real-time.
TopHow Iot Enabled Construction Company Works?
A hypothetical example of IoT system in action after a construction company decides to upgrade its systems and implement it, can be described as follows:
The example involves a construction supervisor who begins a typical day at the beginning of a week. He boards a company-provided transport that automatically logs in and tracks vehicular movement reporting the data in real-time to central servers and connected software time clocks. This automatically enables the company’s systems to record consumption of fuel, stops made, if any, and general speed and direction of travel. More sophisticated systems can make use of Google Maps to plot movements collected from data received and plan optimized routes considering daily commute routine of the supervisor. Once the vehicle carrying the supervisor arrives at site, geo-fencing systems and on-board IoT devices inside the vehicle communicate to log arrival. Simultaneously and subsequently, information and supervisor’s availability and presence in site is transmitted to authorized personnel.
A supervisor can have access to locational information of heavy equipment and personnel at site. Monitoring of data and locational awareness of assets and human resources can go a long way in reducing losses. Routine tasks that can be performed through automation can be controlled from central servers located at a Data Center several hundreds of kilometres away. Operational processes, either segmented or integrated, such as orders, deliveries, inspections, quality controls and invoicing can be optimized to adhere to budget and costs. As such, streamlining daily operational procedures is possible and facilitates in systematic record-keeping and coordinating administrative activities efficiently. IoT enabled systems can help predict potential issues before these can snowball into major problems. This feature is important as costs can be kept to a minimum and sudden escalations can be avoided. Analysis of operational downtimes and data related to equipment use helps supervisors and managers to coordinate maintenance schedules and predict requirement of spares. This, in turn, helps in maintaining a low inventory at a time when inventory carrying costs can pose to be a significant issue in keeping operational costs as low as possible.
While the above example is a snapshot on the capabilities of IoT and what is possible using this technology, it is important for us to discuss and make a note of the areas in which the emergence of IoT can have a lasting impact: