Autodesk has partnered with Deloitte to research emerging trends impacting the construction industry and the state of technology adoption in Australia, Singapore and Japan, providing industry benchmarks for other markets across the Asia Pacific. Last month, they shared their research findings in The State of Digital Adoption in Construction Report 2023.
The architecture, engineering and construction industry has faced significant challenges over the past three years. Companies have to deal with economic uncertainty, supply shortages, rapid rises in material costs, and significant labour shortages, putting them under tremendous pressure to stay profitable and grow sustainably.
In addition, public infrastructure projects faced a shortage of 214,000 skilled workers in 2022, and labour demand is projected to grow by 42,000 to a peak of 442,000 this year. According to Infrastructure Australia’s Infrastructure Market Capacity 2022 Report, this is more than double the projected available supply.
One crucial enabling factor for companies to navigate those challenges will be adopting and successfully implementing technology in business operations. When asked about their current use of 16 different construction-related technologies, the most used technology is Building Information Modelling (BIM) (being used by 40%), followed by construction management cloud software (39%) and drones (37%).
There are clear benefits for companies using more technology in their day-to-day operations. The report reveals that the most commonly cited benefits from introducing technologies were increased productivity (34%), improved customer experience (33%) and increased staff safety (33%). Companies that adopted an additional technology were found to have 0.58 percentage points of increased revenue for the next five years.
In addition to the increased revenue, there are substantial cost savings from using technologies, such as cloud management software, in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. As identified in two case studies developed for this report, the use of cloud technology can result in time savings of between 21% and 60% for administrative tasks throughout the life cycle of a project.
Realising the benefits requires adopting more technology and ensuring it is implemented effectively within business processes and operations. To do this, companies must overcome several barriers to adoption and implementation. The most common barrier to adopting digital technology was a lack of digital skills in the workforce (cited by 44%), followed by uncertainty about skills and capabilities (41%) and a lack of budget allocated (41%).
Regardless of where you are on your BIM adoption journey, at Modmation we trust you will find the report an insightful and valuable resource. Just click here to download the report.