Ahead of speaking at the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in Geneva this month, Autodesk’s head of industry associations strategy, Marek Suchocki, spoke to Infrastructure Global about the take up of digital technology in the infrastructure sector.
How are clients leveraging digital solutions and the use of data on projects and how is this helping engineers and other project leads to deliver certainty and reliability?
The importance of data management for infrastructure projects continues to grow where we are seeing more clearly articulated data demands from clients alongside value being derived by the industry supply chains. Historically data was siloed in domain specific tools, maintained by expert users with only the bare minimum shared between actors on projects. Today consistent data platforms such, as the Autodesk Construction Cloud, permit many project participants to create, share, use and update information throughout the project lifecycle. Many systems can be linked through APIs, direct integrations or use of open data formats, so that the right information is available to the right users at the right time increasing certainty and reliability.
What key changes have you seen around technology in your time working in our industry?
I began working as a civil engineer in the early 1990s when CAD was becoming pervasive. However, CAD was principally computer-aided draughting or electronic ink rather than computer-aided design. I was fortunate to explore the potential of new solutions early in my career as a researcher at the University of Reading and was a founder member of a group called Advanced Construction Technology (ACT) where we trialled new ways of working, leveraging tools used in the aerospace and automotive sectors, geospatial and earth imaging tools as well as emerging innovations in the construction sector.
In the subsequent three decades many of these solutions have now becoming readily available from providers such as Autodesk including BIM, data management, virtual reality, photo-realistic visualisation, design automation and GIS integration and we are now seeing machine learning and artificial intelligence offerings extending the art of the possible.
Is the pace of change quicker now and is the industry keeping up?
Technology pace of change does seem to be accelerating however our industry is quite conservative and risk averse, so innovations still take time to be accepted and widely adopted. For example, in recent years there has been lots of promotion of digital twin solutions or numerous start-up offerings frequently leveraging AI where the business case is unclear, setup costs potentially high or only niche benefits are identified. When technology costs outweigh the benefits, industry professionals err towards proven solutions that deliver value from project to project and want reliable offerings that are relatively intuitive without steep learning curves or user training overheads. Nevertheless, there is a growing appetite for using advanced technologies with many businesses establishing digital procedures and expert teams with ambitions to say improve the quality of work, increase productivity, diversify services and attract new workers.
What are clients looking for when it comes to digital innovation and how is this affecting how professionals in our industry, especially engineering consultants, work?
Built environment clients are becoming more aware of the importance of digital workflows and data handback from their suppliers. The public sector in many countries has identified BIM and other digital approaches as a way to derive better value from investments for taxpayers, which was initially focused on the capital phase, but there is increasing realisation that a foundation of good data in the operational phase can open many long-term repeat benefits.
Many clients now have a focus on providing clear information requirements alongside physical asset requirements to their suppliers. They may be reluctant to specify the technology but will encourage considered innovation and adoption of standards, such as the ISO 19650 series, to provide consistency of approach and alignment across the different actors in projects. This helps incentivise engineering consultants and contractors to invest in adoption of BIM tools, process standards, technology platforms, data skills and other innovations with the expectation of appropriate reward and potential repeat work.
How does a more effective use of digital deliver reliability?
In the early days of BIM there was uncertainty about what constitutes good as the technology understanding was limited. What became clear was that there needed to be more time invested upfront to deliver a contractual output such as a drawing than in a traditional CAD approach. However, the flipside was that well-developed multidisciplinary models reduced ambiguity and errors such as clashes became less frequent, with overall greater certainty of completeness and opportunity to consider buildability as designs developed. Layering design automation, analysis and multiple data parameters extends the confidence in the solution to provide better cost and time certainty as well as quality of delivered assets.
Does the use of digital solutions and the application of data-driven infrastructure bring with it any specific challenges?
A data-driven infrastructure approach should be seen as an investment from the client, the suppliers and ultimately the funder, which is typically public taxpayers. It does require commitment to be done well, with realisation that new skills may be needed within the engaged organisations for example to prepare digital specifications and information requirements, implement new technologies, verify the quality of deliverables and to update and maintain data during the capital and operational asset phases. It is perhaps the availability of the requisite skills coupled with commitment to a data-driven approach that present the greatest challenges as skilled resources are currently scarce and the lure of going back to the known old, but almost certainly less-effective, practices can be hard to resist.
Marek Suchocki, Autodesk’s head of industry associations strategy, will be speaking at the Global Infrastructure Showcase session at the 2024 FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in Geneva on Tuesday 10 September 2024.
