Technology in construction forum recording now available

Technology can help to reduce errors in construction but it must be underpinned by the right people and clearly defined processes, delegates at GIRI’s technology in construction webinar heard.

Watch the recording.

An expert panel from GIRI’s Technology Working Group, including Melanie Dawson, director of Origin7, Steffan Speer, business improvement director at Morgan Sindall, Abhishek Srivastava, executive director of Teknobuilt, and Steve Green, framework bid writer at Bowmer & Kirkland, debated the value and limitations of technology to reduce errors across the whole construction lifecycle. 

Attendees heard a short presentation from each panellist before the panel addressed key question about technology and its use in the construction industry. The debate exposed opposing views on the issue of training. An audience poll revealed that only 6% believe the industry currently invests sufficiently in training on technology, but Steffan argued that technology should be intuitive. “If we need to train people to use the technology, I don’t think the technology is right.”

The panel also diverged on the degree to which technology can solve the skills shortage. “Workflow automation can enable one person to do more easily,” said Abhishek, and Melanie agreed, pointing to technology’s ability to automate some repetitive manual tasks, but Steffan questioned whether technology can actually help people get activities right on site, or automate complex, specific tasks.  

The panel then discussed the timing of technology implementation, its ability to capture the Golden Thread of information on projects, and questions of redundancy and interoperability. 

Watch the discussion on our Youtube channel.

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