Friday, 27 May 2016

COMIT Construction Day

by Steve Slater, Chair for Construction

At the end of last month COMIT held a Construction Members workshop day which was kindly hosted by Bentley at their offices in London.


The aim of the day was to better understand the issues facing COMIT Construction members and to prioritise topic areas that can be put to the Technology members. 

The workshop was a great success and was thoroughly enjoyed by the 14 members that attended. Iain Miskimmin opened the session and welcomed everyone to the Bentley-Crossrail BIM academy. A number of presentations were given during the day to prompt debate:

  • The State of Innovation in Construction - Steve Slater
  • Trending in Construction - Stuart Young
  • Setting Innovation Requirements - Iain Miskimmin

The workshop included the opportunity for each of the members to describe their own priority issues and a number of themes emerged with Collaboration and Communication generally being seen as the greatest challenges. 

Interoperability also continues to be a barrier to information transfer and more collection of data in the field at the point of work is needed to improve efficiency. Interestingly it seems there is still a lot to be done on the adoption of mobile forms, even though it is one of the earliest mobile technologies to be have been used in construction,

Unsurprisingly site connectivity came up, but specifically connectivity and hardware performance were seen to be limiting the use of BIM on site. We need to explore how we can improve this, perhaps by exploiting cloud technology.

In summary, the main issues raised and some of the comments are:

Collaboration
Both internal and external. Too much reliance on email, problems with silo'd information. Some alternatives suggested were Trello, Slack and Google drive. Gamification might help, as might restricting the number of systems available and the use of a common data environment.

Communication
Alternatives to email needed. Additional fields within Outlook may help to prioritise and manage emails. Restrict the use of attachments.

Rapid Site Set-up
It is still taking too long to get connectivity on site. 3 to 6 months plus for a BT line on site, which is not always fit for purpose. 3G/4G coverage improving but still insufficient. 

Safety / Issue reporting
Need requirement to report safety issues as soon as possible - and this can be by the public. Waze sat nav reporting was discussed as an example of where this works well.

Plant asset/incident reporting & recording
More use of in-vehicle camera's and suggestions for a a plant "blackbox".

BIM on site
Being constrained by limitations in current hardware and connectivity. Could cloud computing help to resolve this? Ability to view 4D model's with feedback required.

Forms - Electronic v Paper
Adoption still an issue. Mandating use may improve this and keeping the form as the original may help.

Dispatch / Deliver notes
Interesting developments but little progress. Speedy's E-POD implements this and scans the delivery vehicle registration number. Take-up not great.

Orders of Materials
Changes to the programme to reschedule deliveries of concrete e.t.c. would be good if possible.

Field / Site Plan updates
Real-time updates to the programme would improve the quality of planning information.

Internet of things
Interoperability was considered as key to exploiting this

Data Sharing
Fundamentally seen as poor but no suggestions for how it can be imporved

Environmental Monitoring
Of increasing importance. Capture of CO2 from site plant and products used in construction was discussed.

Remote Asset Sensing
There is an ongoing and widespread need to improve the maintenance of assets.

As usual at COMIT events there was also a lot of informal discussion and networking, especially around the lunchtime refreshments. Many thanks again to Bentley our host and to my colleagues from COMIT for facilitating the event.



If you would like more information about this event or if you want to learn more about COMIT and what we do, then please visit us at comit.org.uk and email us via the contact page.

Thursday, 19 May 2016

The COMIT Conference #comit2016


Regulars will know that COMIT holds a construction-focused mobile IT conference each autumn. Planning for this years' event is well under way and will be hosted by COMIT member CH2M at their London headquarters on the 28th and 29th September.



The theme is delivering value through innovation under the title of  Digitally Building Britain. The objective is to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of innovations and solutions that deliver value to the construction industry - and of course for the delegates to share their views, network and learn about new and breakthrough technologies.

The two days will be broadly themed CAPEX and OPEX and tickets will be available for single days for those delegates who can only make one or the other - although we hope that most will join us for both days to benefit from the full TOTEX experience.



This will be COMIT's 8th Annual Conference and we are going back to our roots to deliver a more intimate and networking-focused event. Delegate numbers will be strictly limited to 100 on each day, so early booking is advised (booking opens June 1st ).

We are re-designing our usual conference schedule to create a slightly more relaxed pace, In previous years the only complaints that we've had from delegates is that there is just too much to take in. So this time around we are easing back a bit to allow more time for networking. 

There will still be a dozen quality presentations plus panel sessions over the two days but also more time to talk around the subjects and absorb the material. We are also planning a meal and networking event on the evening of the first day (28th) where we hope delegates will join us to relax and discuss the issues of the day.



A call for presentations went out to COMIT members a couple of months ago, but is now open to everyone. We still have a few presentation slots to fill and are looking for high-quality submissions from organisations directly involved in providing or implementing innovative solutions in construction. We are looking for the latest research, innovations, achievements and technologies that can deliver value to our industry. The conference program is aimed at all levels of the construction supply chain, from Owners to Contractors, Consultants and Suppliers.

So if you have something you would like to share with an international COMIT audience then please visit our website and download instruction on how to apply. The closing date for submitting an abstract is the 30th June.

Sponsorship & Exhibitor packages are currently being finalised and will be announced shortly. If you are interested in sponsoring the event or exhibiting at the conference and would like to get to the head of the queue then please contact us. Exhibition space will be more limited this year so an early response is advised.

Many thanks to those sponsors who have already been quick off the mark. In particular to CH2M for hosting the event, to @SuButcher and @EEpaul  and  for being our Social Media Sponsors and to @CITY_INSIGHTS for being our New Media sponsor.


Just Practising pwcom.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you in September!