{"id":19480,"date":"2016-11-18T16:50:25","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T21:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/hard-hats-high-vis-and-smartphones-the-digital-response-to-constructions-greatest-problems\/"},"modified":"2016-11-18T16:50:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T21:50:25","slug":"hard-hats-high-vis-and-smartphones-the-digital-response-to-constructions-greatest-problems","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/hard-hats-high-vis-and-smartphones-the-digital-response-to-constructions-greatest-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard hats, high vis and smartphones \u2013 the digital response to construction\u2019s greatest problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

An industry falling behind<\/strong><\/p>\n

The construction industry is acutely challenging to operate in. It is characterised by aggressive procurement, low workflow visibility, a limited supply of high quality talent, and low margins.<\/p>\n

These combined factors have led to a lack of investment and hence a productivity gap. 74% of industry professionals believe that productivity growth is a challenge requiring changes in behaviour of all industry stakeholders[i]<\/a>. Exhibit 1 shows us that this concern has materialised through construction productivity lagging behind the rest of the economy, and Exhibit 2 shows the fallout of this in driving extensive time and cost overruns.<\/p>\n

Exhibit 1: Construction versus total economy productivity over time[ii]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"construction-productivity\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Exhibit 2: Cost and time over-runs are the norm in the construction industry[iii]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"cost-and-time-over-runs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One particular feature of this lack of investment has been the limited uptake of technology in construction. Spending on information technology accounts for less than 1% of the industry\u2019s revenues, such that across 22 industries by digitization, construction ranks 21st<\/sup> [iv]<\/a>. This presents an enormous opportunity – BCG estimates that through full-scale digitalisation, savings of 13 \u2013 21% or $21bn per year globally could be materialised in non-residential construction[v]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Technology companies are just starting to respond to this. Amongst the expected highest impact and likelihood technologies to enter construction is real-time mobile collaboration[vi]<\/a>. Until now, the industry has relied on paper processes for project management responsibilities such as procurement, cost coding, and time card allocation. As a result, information sharing is delayed, incomplete, and may not be delivered to the correct stakeholder.<\/p>\n

Time for change \u2013 Rhumbix\u2019s value proposition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rhumbix, a workforce telematics company, is attempting to solve this problem through a digitised platform. Rhumbix hopes that through digitising project management, collecting, aggregating and analysing project data in real-time, it will be able to solve cost and time overruns that for so long have bogged the industry down. Rhumbix differentiates primarily through its platform, advance use of analytics including machine learning, and simple user interface. The role of Rhumbix can be depicted below in Exhibit 2.<\/p>\n

Exhibit 3: Rhumbix collects, aggregates and analyses data for better project management[vii]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Before Rhumbix<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"sketch_rmbx7_before\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With Rhumbix<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"sketch_rmbx7_withrhumbix\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For project managers, Rhumbix creates value in three areas[viii]<\/a>:<\/p>\n