Solid ground for growth

Reversing a decline in productivity growth in the construction industry won’t happen overnight, but Komatsu customers are ahead of the curve, thanks to its technical advances and comprehensive customer support.

As slow labour productivity growth continues to sting parts of the construction industry nationwide, Komatsu is actively delivering solutions to ensure its customers can reap the benefits of its technologies today.

Komatsu General Manager - Smart Construction James Muir has a wide breadth of experience in the construction technology space. His over 30 years’ experience has seen him work in leadership roles across the United Kingdom and Australia before joining Komatsu in 2019.

Now leading the company’s Smart Construction Division, Muir says new technologies mean the time to improve labour productivity growth in the Australian construction industry is now.

“Komatsu’s Smart Construction range is a game changer for construction productivity,” says Muir. “Through the application of as well as Komatsu iSite, a fleet management solution that gives the user a complete, real-time overview of all of their machines throughout the working day. Also in the Smart Construction range, Komatsu’s Dashboard combines 3D design data with aerial mapping and intelligent machine data, providing operators with a digital view of their job site. Smart Construction utilises Internet of Things (IoT) technology to gather data, software to analyse it and to create information, and then uses that information to optimise and improve the processes for the customer. It makes full use of Komatsu’s Intelligent Machine Control technology and provides comprehensive project planning and logistics – for a stunning improvement in productivity. At the heart of the concept lies a central operation control system, a cloudbased platform, that creates a flow of real-time at worksites around the world, and as part of a company spearheading solutions in this area, Muir says the industry has a major opportunity to find a solution to its productivity challenges.

But many companies are reluctant to embrace the changes, he says, and a great deal of government and industry are still putting this issue on the backburner.

According to McKinsey & Company’s 2017 report, Reinventing Construction: A Route to Higher Productivity, constructionrelated spending accounts for 13 per cent of the world’s GDP, but the sector’s annual productivity growth has only increased one per cent over the past 20 years. Further, the report finds $1.6 trillion of additional value could be created through higher productivity – that would meet half of the world’s infrastructure needs.

In 2023, the statistics have barely improved, if at all. “There’s a number of different elements to how this can be addressed and applying technology is at the top of the list,” says Muir. “If we were to achieve technology adoption across the industry, our taxpayer dollars would be better spent because we could build more with less.”

Today the entry point to apply technology in construction is lower than ever before, as increased competition and innovation have lowered the cost of investment, opening up more opportunities for more businesses to take the technology leap.

Muir says the gains of technology far outweigh the initial investment cost.

“Whereas a traditional machine would dig and rely on the skills of a very good operator, now you can have a machine that does the majority of the work for you,” says Muir. “It eliminates human error in the way that it won’t allow things like over-digging resulting in rework.”

“Our smart machines mean a business can hire an operator that doesn’t have 20 years’ experience who ordinarily would cost further dollars to upskill, because even newer operators can be brought up to speed very quickly on our intuitive and user-friendly technology.”

Komatsu’s digital monitoring technology (digital twin) can be adopted by the industry right now, explains Muir. A digital twin is an accurate, virtual representation of a real-world physical object such as a piece of equipment or even an entire building. These exact replicas allow the operator to measure things like project progress and cost in near real-time to better manage resources, make accurate predictions and estimates, and improve safety on site.

Opportunity cost

When it comes to technology adoption in the construction industry, government action could inspire positive outcomes, Muir says.

“We need a fundamental government policy change within the construction and infrastructure sectors to encourage the adoption of technology,” he adds.

“These policy changes need to address, at the very least, risk sharing to allow contractors and various entities to utilise more capability into applying technology rather than having to worry about the ‘all on them’ cost if something goes wrong on a project.”

Muir explains that in Japan, the government is working together with the construction industry through the i-Construction initiative. Introduced in 2016, the initiative promotes the use of automated machines and information and communication technologies (ICT) on construction sites to improve productivity across the local industry. The Japanese Government provides concessions to the engineering firms and contractors that adopt more ICT or semi-autonomous machines within their business.

“The successful implementation of the i-Construction initiative in Japan is proof that with more government support, the industry can thrive,” says Muir. “It’s not that the technology doesn’t exist, the technology is absolutely there, it really comes down to why we haven’t applied it.”

“There used to be an argument that technology can’t be applied into the infrastructure or construction industries because we’re out in the elements and there’s too many variables that we have to factor in.

“That used to be a valid argument probably 20 years ago – now we have machines that are so intelligent, in terms of their ability to operate in the field, that we can measure a job down to the millimetre.”

Muir explains that it comes down to