How can digital twins boost profitability within construction?

Profit margins are at an all-time low across the construction industry, with the average profit margin at just six percent. A recent study in the Journal of Building Engineering found that almost half of all construction projects result in a loss, creating an enormous strain on businesses and making them vulnerable to unforeseen project issues.

For a construction project to be profitable, site managers must consider delivery time, changing costs throughout the project lifetime, and any unexpected on site issues that might cause delays.

After years of following traditional practices, the construction industry is now adopting digital solutions to transform its operations and increase profitability. Digital twins can be hugely beneficial to project leaders, reducing the amount of time staff are required on site,whilst enhancing safety and allowing decisions to be made virtually.

As we all know, time is money. Digital construction improves profitability in a myriad of ways,including by freeing up time for the site manager. By reducing commuting time and speeding up the efficiency of all-important data and file transfers that are essential for doing the work,site managers can spend less time on administration tasks.

This increases capacity to work across more sites and oversee a larger portfolio of construction or earthmoving projects, as well as spending more time liaising with suppliers and clients to ensure accuracy and prevent potential errors.
Digital construction tools also grant stakeholders access to view a job site virtually, alleviating the need to travel multiple times a day, saving on petrol and commuting costs across all outputs.

For Sina Motsch, site manager for HEITKAMP Corporate Group, it is crucial that she finds an easy way to make sense of the job site and make use of the information effectively. By utilising Komatsu’s Smart Construction Dashboard, Sina was able to collect as-built data and generate an accurate digital twin that was automatically updated as the site changed almost daily. Using a digital twin of her project site enabled Sina to immediately discover any delays, developments or potential issues across the jobsite without having to visit in person.

Digital twins are here to stay and, when utilised well, project managers can gain a wider status understanding, resulting in quicker decision making and boosted profitability.

This article appears in the AT Journal issue 152 Winter 2024 as "How can digital twins boost profitability within construction?" and was written by Komatsu Smart Construction.

--CIAT

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