Glodon vice president: Digital Building Platform drives upgrading of construction industry

Glodon is proud to co-power one of the most influential international academic conferences in construction management and real estate organized by Tsinghua University, the Chinese Research Institute of Construction Management and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

This year, the 26th International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate (CRIOCM 2021) focused on innovation and sustainability in construction management and real estate.

Mr. Pierpaolo Franco, Glodon Vice President International Markets Development, delivered a keynote speech titled Digital Building Platform and the Transformation of Construction at the event.

The Digital Maturity of Construction Industry is Very Low

Mr. Franco analyzed the current industrial situation, saying the digital maturity of the construction industry is very low and digital transformation has become the central theme of future industrial development.

Boston Consulting, a world-renowned management consulting company, classifies the industries in terms of phase of digitalization, namely "Digitalization offers added value", "Digitalisation subverts value chains", and "Digitalization dominates value chains".

For example, media, logistics and retail trade industries have been transformed into new media, new logistics and new retail trade through digitalization. The traditional value chain is being subverted and changed by digitalization in banking, communication, agriculture, automobile, medical treatment, and energy industries. But in the construction and public fields, digitalization only provides added value, which is at a relatively early stage. Still, there are also indications that digitalization has great potential for development.

Transformation Target of the Construction Industry: Making Every Project A Success

He said we have to think about its purpose when it comes to digitalization. The primary goal is to serve each engineering project, which still depends on the effect. The effect should pay attention to the progress, quality, safety, cost and other aspects.

According to the British government's 10-year plan for the construction industry in 2015: by 2025, carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 50%, progress will be accelerated by 50%, and costs will be reduced by a third and quality and safety are the most important concerns in China.

Glodon put forward the Digital Building Platform to solve the problems in the industry. "The goal is to make every project successful and elevate the construction industry to the level of industrial refinement. Under the guidance of this goal, enterprises through digital transformation will achieve great benefits in the four aspects of project progress, safety and quality, cost reduction, and environmental protection," he said.

According to him, these four aspects are Scale - efficiently allocating resources and intensively managing projects; Efficiency - greatly shortening the project period and making progress 50% faster, "Quality" - Delivering building products of the industry with no quality defect and safety accidents throughout the construction and "Economy"- 1/3 lower construction cost and 50% less carbon emission.

Digital Building Platform Drives the Upgrading of the Construction Industry

The company firmly believes in the concept of Digital Building and focuses on using information technologies to help the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry, he said.

Glodon's Digital Building, as an industrial strategy, promotes the transformation and upgrading of the building industry with information technologies including BIM, cloud computing, big data, IoT, mobile Internet and AI. Relying on the advanced theory and method of lean construction, it integrates personnel, processes, data, technology and business systems to make the whole life cycle of the building and all elements and participants related to the building digital, online and intelligent.

The strategy also builds an ecosystem for every project and the relevant enterprise and industry and promotes the industrial upgrading represented by the new design, new construction, and new operation & maintenance so that every project will achieve success. Therefore, sustainability of the built environment can be achieved, he added.