Tech is transforming construction sector, says AEM

Technology used on construction and demolition jobsites has been evolving quickly and that momentum “isn’t stopping anytime soon,” says the Milwaukee-based Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM).

“In recent years, there has been talk of an oncoming digital transformation coming to the jobsite—and while there are some components of this transformation that have yet to be realized, in many ways the industry’s digital transformation has already begun,” writes AEM in an analysis released in early September. 

People remain a core part of the equation, and industry managers and workers “must find ways to adopt these new technologies in order to be successful,” says the trade group, which organizes the ConExpo-Con/Agg trade fair held in Las Vegas every three years.

At an educational session at the 2023 version of that event, titled “Digital Transformation of the Job Site,” Jason Anetsberger of Illinois-based Komatsu North America spoke about available and emerging technology. “You see these themes of digitalization, automation and sustainability – in my mind those are not just industry trends, they are a reality today,” AEM quotes Anetsberger as saying.

Regarding the process of adopting and implementing new digital technologies in order to enhance or to create products and services, AEM says Anetsberger outlined phases of digital transformation and identified three key types of technology:

Digitization, which allows the industry to integrate technology and product offerings to provide customers with data-driven guidance in real time. “This is currently happening, whether in the cloud or through interconnected apps,” says AEM.

Automation is becoming less siloed, says the group. “It’s critically important recorded data and automated parts are able to work together, and that all data is able to be recorded and utilized,” writes AEM. Automation can provide safer and more optimized job sites, adds the association.

Sustainability connects customers with both product level and jobsite level tech to minimize carbon emissions and improve efficiency, adds AEM. “Ultimately, jobsite efficiency leads to sustainability, and that can be realized through the digital transformation,” states AEM.

According to Anetsberger, “When I go to end users and ask them what the future of the job site looks like, they say automation. And we are progressing in that direction. But what's just as important is the sophistication and optimization of the jobsite processes. What good is an autonomous vehicle if it doesn’t know where to go?”

In the future, the construction industry will work toward achieving a jobsite in which digital tasks are created from the optimal construction plan, and autonomy works in harmony with the machinery on a jobsite, says AEM.

That interaction could involve collecting data – from telematics to terrain data, such as that collected by drones for surveying a jobsite accurately. “A worker with a smartphone is the most flexible and perhaps useful information source available, as end users can take that data and compile it to utilize it to its fullest,” says the association.

“If we do it right a lot of these solutions are fairly simple and easy to adopt, and the value they bring is almost immediate,” says Anetsberger. 

AEM says it represents off-road equipment makers and suppliers affiliated with more than 1,000 companies worldwide.