Date/Time
Date(s) - July 14, 2022
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Location

Categories

• Training Webinar

DIGITALISING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT FOR EFFECTIVE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

PROBLEM STATEMENT.

Increasing demand for quality and timely infrastructure delivery underpinned by the need to provide value to stakeholders has brought critical challenges in the construction sector. Extant studies have revealed the intensity of the damage caused by the lack of an effective information management system to drive systems, workflows and processes in the built environment. Efforts are emerging from using digital information management as a platform to enhance infrastructure delivery and rethink how we construct, maintain, and sustainably sustain delivered infrastructure. The increasing use of information technologies has transformed the way things and activities are being undertaken in the construction industry.

The material value in this technological-enhanced practice is that construction stakeholders can manage the construction process by simultaneously visualising the digilitsed assets while also making critical decisions vital to determining project success. The complicated task of information handling in modern project management demands constant decision making to update plans with continuously renewed project information, communication and collaboration. The benefits derivable from using digital tools for processes include performance analysis, data management, production of sustainability information, visualisation, time and cost efficiency, data interoperability, and facilitating decision-making. Previous studies
have identified the need for construction professionals to use the emerging technologies as a leverage to facilitate the implementation of productivity enabling practices in the built environment in the era of rapid urban developments.

Therefore, this discussion brings critical issues for digitilising the built environment through conversations on emerging tools and technologies, strategic issues with policies, standards, organisational learning and roadmap for adoption. Furthermore, the economic case for digitilisng the built sector and how to balance this with other critical adoption factors and the wider gains for the economy is discussed. This then raises the following questions;

QUESTIONS:

1. Why should the built environment be digitilised and what are the emerging digital technologies able to optimise productivity and achieve value for stakeholders?
2. What is the current state of policy, expertise, supply chain and prospective adoption approaches to enable the implementation of a digital built South African Construction sector?
3. How can we balance the economic case to implement digital information management, policy requirements and critical adoption barriers for large and small construction organisations?
4. Beyond optimisation of infrastructure delivery, what are the wider socio-economic gains for investing in digitalising the built environment?