CONSTRUCTION 4.0
as a result ? “ Applying some economic measures and looking at the kind of jobs we expect to be impacted by automation , we ’ re forecasting that over 600,000 jobs over the next 20 years could become available for reskilling or retraining in the UK ,” adds Gough .
“ We anticipate a number of jobs will change ,” he continues . “ We expect to see a much bigger opportunity for people to retrain and take advantage of innovation . The aspiration around this is that we can create a safer , more productive , more efficient industry . You have to believe this will all be achieved through automation .”
But in terms of real , tangible instances of automation working effectively , what has Gough seen that stands out as a potential marker for the future ?
“ We use drones to survey things like facades , so when you ’ re 40 storeys up in residential or commercial offices , getting outside to inspect the quality of the facade is a really difficult thing . Now we can fly drones up that can take high resolution images of the quality of that façade . It ’ s really useful . These could be incremental gains in the grand scheme of things around automation .”
While drones , robots , autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence are all clearly going to have a significant role to play in the future of construction , the final talking point really revolves around what the deployment of automation will deliver financially to the industry . “ If we could improve the gap between the construction industry and the whole economy , or at least halve it over the next 20 years , then we estimate the output could be up to $ 33.6bn higher per year . For the UK government , that means , in essence , for every four projects that they commission they can do an extra one . It ’ s a huge improvement and , given it ’ s such a big statistic , should give us the momentum to go and start unlocking some opportunities .”
Accelerating the use of new technology in training , informing lifelong learning decisions and revolutionising education programmes are all examples of the recommendations mentioned in the Mace report . While this process may sound profound and exhaustive , an industry that is increasingly led by automation promises to finally address its infamous productivity gap .
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