5 Ways Construction Industry is Embracing Mobile Devices

Construction Industry is all about scale and speed. It is known to mirror the prosperity of a nation. Numerous sub-business groups like developers, manufacturers, suppliers, contractors and field workers come together for successful implementation of any construction project . The inter dependencies of these diverse groups demand efficiency in all aspects ranging from design to implementation. The industry is in constant lookout for modern ways and newer techniques to increase efficiency , reduce costs and yet deliver high quality.

While there are many new adoptions like 3D printers for fabrication, comprehensive construction management software etc, the one big trend has been widespread use of mobile devices for increasing workforce efficiency and creation of a connected and paperless environment.

Mobile technology is slowly but surely changing the landscape of the construction industry. Following are some trends that are benefiting the industry immensely:

 Real- time data availability – Engineers and project managers equipped with mobile devices access and track data on a real-time basis which in turn leads to a much improved workflow. Flow of information also becomes seamless between engineers at the site and the head office. With real time data updates, monitoring performance of projects and the organization as a whole becomes efficient and effective.

 Going green with reduced paper usage- With the introduction of mobile devices, the workers are moving to paperless processes which includes electronic delivery of job sheets and receipts, scanning of inventory, scheduling jobs and ordering of materials among other things.

 Communicating with other parties – Use of mobile devices has created a collaborative and cooperative global ecosystem of workers where communication, sharing of information and support effort has become prompt and efficient.  For example, a worker in UAE easily communicates on a video call from the field and share videos, images and other resources with his designer in the US.

 Tracking and management of assets – Theft of materials is a challenge frequently faced by many construction companies because of the remote location of most construction sites. However, with the introduction of wireless technology and mobile surveillance solutions, managers are able to monitor multiple construction sites and warehouses. This helps is reducing incidents of thefts and misuse of construction material.

 Improving productivity– Mobile devices give a lot of flexibility to workers for online as well as offline data entry. Applications on mobile devices are capable of syncing up offline data once there is connectivity.  Mobile apps can also be seamlessly integrated with existing systems. For workers, mobile devices loaded with apps are a boon as they save a lot of time and also ensure data accuracy by eliminating erroneous and duplicate data right at the source.

Issues and challenges

There are times when ensuring effective use of mobile technology becomes a challenge. Like for example, deploying unsupervised mobile devices at a construction site for data collection and inter-department communication can be an open invitation for the users to use it for unintended and unproductive activities. Device and data security could also be a problem.

Relying on technology which could trigger unproductive hours, data security threats when not monitored may defeat the purpose of its deployment. One way to counter these issues is mobile device deployment using Mobile Device Management solutions and restricting the user to only required set of activities using Lockdown solutions.

Solution

The solution to above challenges while using mobile devices in Construction Industry lies in using Device Lockdown and Device Management solutions.

Mobile Device Management solutions like SureMDM provide features to monitor, update, maintain and track deployed devices across different locations. SureMDM is widely used for remotely managing and supporting devices in the field. It integrates seamlessly with SureLock which is a device lockdown solution liked for its simple yet comprehensive features.

42Gears offers a range of products for mobile device lockdown and mobile device management. Read more about the products here.

For queries and details about our solutions, contact us at sales@42gears.com.