Understanding Industrial Internet of Building Industry from 4 Dimensions

As the digital economy thrives, we firmly believe that the Industrial Internet is a great historical opportunity for the development of the current building industry and the core driving force for the digital transformation of the industry.

New pattern: building industry rejuvenating in the digital age

The initiation of the Industrial Internet of building industry will help to create a new pattern of digital transformation for it in all aspects.

The building industry as one of the pillar industry of the national economy has contributed greatly to socio-economic development. However, it also faces prominent problems such as low production efficiency and serious resource waste and is in urgent need for transformation and upgrade. On the other hand, digital technologies represented by artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, big data, and blockchain are booming and accelerating the industrial division and economic structural adjustment globally, reshaping the global competition.

The human society is experiencing a once-in-a-century change. All walks of life are facing challenges and opportunities brought by digitalization. Digital transformation has entered the deep water zone, extending from the consumer side to the industrial side. The Industrial Internet has become an important engine to drive the digital economy in the post-consumer Internet era.

In the digital age, socio-economic development has higher requirements for the building industry. "High-quality development" has become a main theme for the building industry. This is not only the inherent need for industrial transformation and upgrade, but also an inevitable choice to live up to people's growing demand for a better life, and a significant move to peak carbon dioxide emissions and achieve carbon neutrality.

No matter how the building industry is transformed, the origin of business is always to carry out production and operation activities centering on projects. The success of projects determines industrial progress and enterprise development. "Making every project a success" is the building industry's core goal for high-quality development. Achieving this goal will not only bring considerable economic benefits to building enterprises but also advance the transformation and upgrade of the building industry towards to a green and intensive society.

Regarding high-quality development of the building industry, digital transformation is the core while the building industry Industrial Internet is a crucial support. Digital Building, as an effective fusion of digital technology and building industry, is a specific embodiment of the building industry Industrial Internet and also the core engine to promote the digital transformation of the building industry.

Driven by the Digital Building, the building industry aims at creating digital scenes characterized by "new design, new construction, and new operations and maintenance" and will make significant changes in industrial productivity and production relations. Through the iterative upgrade of productivity and production relations, the overall development of the building industry will enter a new era.

In the future, the building industry will generate new industrial roles, and the industrial chain will also be reshaped. Industrial development will trigger four changes in development logic, job role, business entity, and organizational form, where (1) the industrial development logic will change from the zero-sum game to the all-benefiting ecosystem; (2) inefficient, repetitive, and high-risk jobs will be replaced and upgraded by AI; (3) digital construction service providers and other new roles will dominate the industry, and new entities characterized by "digital construction service providers + new physical construction service providers" will emerge from the current industrial ecosystem dominated by "design institutes + construction firms"; (4) the organizational form will also change from multi-level enterprise organizations to eco-enterprise organizations, and the entire industry will be rejuvenated in the digital age.

New drive: Digital Building Platform empowering the industrial digital transformation

Digital transformation of the building industry requires both support from digital infrastructure and empowerment of the Industrial Internet platform. As a new digital infrastructure for industrial digital transformation, what value can the Digital Building Platform provide for industrial transformation?

The Digital Building Platform runs through the whole process of projects, upgrades all elements of the industry, connects all project participants, and provides virtual construction services and twin construction services combining virtuality and reality. With these measures, this platform systematically optimizes the resource allocation of the entire industrial chain, maximizes production efficiency, and technically empowers participants of the industrial chain, thus providing the industrial core competence for building enterprises. On this basis, the platform will also provide financial technology services, such as digital credit reporting and big data-based financial insurances, so as to solve financial problems for massive small and medium-sized building enterprises. Through the empowerment of technology, industrial capability, and financial technology, the Digital Building Platform will become new drive for industrial digital transformation.

The core driving force of the Digital Building Platform is characterized by the refinement of its industrial capacity. The Digital Building Platform of Glodon, sticking to the "four beams and eight pillars" of "design, progress, estimation, and coordination" of projects, has developed its core industrial competencies after decades of practice and accumulation, including the digital design capability characterized by BIM detailed design, progress control capability characterized by network planning, construction estimation capability characterized by quantity takeoff, and collaborative management capability characterized by project brain and intelligent scheduling.

Through the improvement of its core industrial competence, the Digital Building Platform will comprehensive promote the building industry for high-quality development from three levels of industry, enterprise, and project. Specifically speaking, the Digital Building Platform will drive the gradual upgrade and reconstruction of core business scenarios for the building industry at the industry level, transform and upgrade the building enterprises into digital enterprises at the enterprise level, and make projects successful in a better, faster, and more economical way at the project level.

For example, the construction area of the Beijing Daxing International Airport terminal building covers 780,000 square meters and its construction process is simulated and optimized through the platform, thus achieving a structure roof-sealing 12 days earlier than the schedule. Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center introduced a smart site system for real-time traceability of safety and quality problems, which had carried out 8632 hazard investigations, achieving a rectification rate of 93% and shortening the hazard treatment time by 55%.

New ecosystem: "two types of major participants" coexisting and "industry + digital" integrating

The high-quality growth of the industry can only be achieved by relying on the Digital Building Platform, establishing a new paradigm of "all-benefiting ecosystem and integrated development", and cultivating a new ecosystem for the building industry.

The new horizon of the building industry covers the dual ecosystem of "industry + digital". On the one hand, building enterprises are still the dominator of the building industry, so the industrial ecosystem includes the building eco-chain enterprises like developers, design institutes, contractors, and suppliers. On the other hand, the digital transformation of the building industry requires the participation of tech companies, so the digital industrial ecosystem is involved. Enterprises in this digital eco-chain will enrich and improve the building industry Industrial Internet in terms of industrial big data and applications, and provide digital value-added services for the building industry.

With the dual-gene of "architectural gene" and "digital gene" and the double helix development of "architectural ecosystem" and "digital ecosystem", we will build a new ecosystem for the building industry featuring resource sharing, symbiotic development, and all-benefiting paradigm.

The cultivation and construction of the new ecosystem require the joint efforts and coordinated development of the two types of major participants. Between the two, one is the industrial operator that covers two roles. One is brick-and-mortar enterprises, which, as the core subject of the industry, represents its highest productivity, especially the leading building enterprises. The other is the digital companies of the brick-and-mortar enterprises, such as the tech companies of major building enterprises, which undertake the digital operation of the brick-and-mortar enterprises. Both roles have the core resources of the industry, such as capital, brand, and business, all irreplaceable. They also own such capabilities as construction, investment, and financing, and digital tools like ERP and BIM.

The other type is the building tech enterprises like Glodon, positioned as a digital enabler, familiar with industry, and proficient in technical operations, thus recognized as a good helper for the digital transformation of physical building enterprises by providing digital capabilities for them. Digital enabler also provides two roles. One is the platform service provider that provides integrated platform solutions, such as the Digital Building Platform of Glodon. The platform service provider possesses technical capabilities and digital tools but does not have core industrial resources owned by industrial operators. The other is the application service provider that provides terminal applications. This role mainly helps brick and mortar enterprises at the tool level.

New ideas: digital transformation of building enterprises in three steps

How should leading building enterprises complete their own digital transformation?  It can be completed in three steps.

A building enterprise covers many business aspects, including marketing, design, procurement, construction, and operation and maintenance. First, leading building enterprises shall, via their own digital companies, enable rapid secondary development by using the PaaS platform provided by digital platform service providers and develop personalized platform and applications matching their own enterprise characteristics, so as to utilize their advanced industrial capabilities for digitalization of all the above business procedures.

On this basis, leading brick-and-mortar enterprises shall complete the second challenge that is to make use of the powerful integration capability of the digital platform to remove all business barriers, improve vertical business integration, complete the digital transformation of the enterprise's whole value-chain, and efficiently bring success to customers.

Moreover, leading building enterprises shall work with digital enablers to help other small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the industrial chain complete the digital upgrade of their business so that SMEs can easily access the ecosystem of the leading building enterprises. This not only improves the management and development capabilities of SMEs but also enhance the ecosystem of the leading enterprises.

Through thorough exploration in both horizontal and vertical directions, an increasing number of building enterprises can integrate digital upgrades with the value-chain ecosystem, resulting in an amplifying effect after the penetration of industrial chain and value chain, and finally forming the new pattern, new drive, and new ecosystem for the building industry.

In this process, digital platform service providers provide digital bases for the digital companies of brick-and-mortar enterprises and also for independent application service providers, and build the digital infrastructure for the building ecosystem. They are an indispensable force guiding the digital transformation of the industry.

As a Digital Building Platform service provider, in the future, Glodon hopes to better cooperate with brick-and-mortar enterprises with concerted efforts to create the building industry Industrial Internet and accomplish the grand cause of digital transformation of the building industry.