The construction industry globally is slow in adopting technology innovations despite a rise in project complexity and associated risks, according to a KPMG report quoted in the Economic Times.
Just 8 per cent of the total 218 project owners and engineering & construction companies surveyed rank as ‘cutting edge technology visionaries’, while 64 per cent of contractors and 73 per cent of project owners rank as ‘industry followers’ or ‘behind the curve’ when it comes to technology, shows the report named Building a technology advantage – Global Construction Survey 2016.
The report quotes Geno Armstrong, International Sector Leader, Engineering & Construction, KPMG in the US, as saying, "The survey responses reflect the industry’s innate conservatism towards technologies, with most firms content to follow rather than lead. Many lack a clear technology strategy, and either adopt it in a piecemeal fashion, or not at all."
According to the news item, a relatively high proportion of mid-size companies, with annual turnover between $1 billion and $5 billion, rank among the cutting edge technology visionaries.
From a regional perspective, a higher proportion of companies from the Americas and Europe are technology leaders, with Africa considerably behind other parts of the world.
Almost three-quarters of the respondents don’t use advanced data analytics for project-related estimation and performance monitoring, while just 20 per cent have a single, fully integrated project management information system (PMIS) across the enterprise.
In India, the construction sector is expected to generate 7.5 crore jobs by 2022 and emerge as the largest employer in the country. The country is among the fastest growing construction markets globally and is poised to become the third largest globally by 2025 with a size of $1 trillion.