• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile

  • CORONAVIRUS
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • REGIONS
    • Asia Pacific
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East/Africa
    • North America
  • THINK TANK
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Construction's Slow Digital Transition Is Becoming Dangerous for Business

Construction's Slow Digital Transition Is Becoming Dangerous for Business

Construction
February 6, 2019
Ed Rusch, SCB Contributor

The improving economy has significantly increased construction activity, which has put additional pressure on the availability of materials, equipment and skilled labor.

Most construction projects have a strict time line that must be met. When speed bumps occur and a supplier can’t deliver the right materials or equipment, an entire project can be thrown off schedule. Poor visibility that results in materials shortages means faster, more expensive delivery methods have to be used to get materials on site. The main impediment to major advancements in the construction industry is the lack of technology solutions that drive dynamic interactions between business partners.

End-to-end supply chain visibility is needed to uncover roadblocks in shipping deadlines, accommodate volatility in customer demand, and prepare to mitigate risks — such as supplier failure or driver shortages. According to McKinsey & Company, businesses in the Heavy Building Materials (HBM) space invest less than 1 percent of revenues annually on IT and less than 20 percent have trading-partner connectivity. In too many ways, key business practices in construction more closely resemble a Sears and Roebuck catalog experience than an Amazon one.  

Today, construction is a $10tr global industry. Nearly 15 percent of the world’s GDP is used to fuel construction. And these figures are growing rapidly. Yet, the industry is stuck. Productivity across heavy civil or mega-projects has only increased by a mere 1% over the past 20 years. The extent to which a company can optimize their activities, processes, and services depends directly on the quality of connectivity and the level of visibility achieved. Insufficient knowledge transfer has caused gaps in the industry — but the opportunity for growth can be found with the help of next-gen, cloud enabled technology.

This technology transforms the supply chains of trading partners in the Heavy Building Materials ecosystem; from bulk materials suppliers, producers, and logistics providers through to heavy-civil contractors, DOTs and project owners. By automating manual processes, companies can streamline their inter-enterprise operations, which lowers costs and creates greater efficiencies. Enhanced supply chain visibility equips more informed decisions, and as the data from disparate systems is harmonized across the industry, insights gathered will be put to work to transform how businesses collaborate with one another to achieve superior outcomes. This is particularly important with critical path materials like aggregates and concrete. 

An expanding and increasingly competitive marketplace means customers have more options today than in the past, and many of them face their own competitive pressures. If they do not already, your customers are going to expect shorter cycle times and will be less tolerant of late deliveries or mistakes. Having a transparent, more efficient supply chain and a better flow of information is imperative to meet these demands. A system that provides a single view of the supply chain will help develop more consistency in measuring units and enforcing timelines.

Without this kind of visibility, different points of your supplier network become silos. Communication breaks down, orders go unfilled and customers begin exploring other options. When businesses use supply chain visibility solutions, they gain a real-world view of what materials are needed to keep inventory at the right level, or what materials need to be ordered to fulfill a customer’s order.

The goal of implementing visibility systems is to gain insights that inform growth strategies and enable better, timelier decision-making. Supply chain visibility comes when companies connect with their suppliers, customers, logistics service providers, and other external trading partners to share data, documents, and order information. This analytical approach to collaboration and data will not only improve your supply chain performance today, it will help you anticipate the future

The Outlook

The construction industry will undergo a digital transformation because it’s the only way the industry will be able to meet — both cost-effectively and on time — the large need for infrastructure investments around the world. Not to mention, federal and state agencies and competitive pressures are also demanding it. With digital transformation, all paper-based processes will be replaced by electronic documentation and transactions, accelerating financial reconciliation and enhancing the customer experience. 

Ed Rusch is vice president of marketing for Command Alkon.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Supply Chain Visibility
KEYWORDS Supply Chain Visibility
  • Related Articles

    Is Your Leadership Style Dangerous for Your Business?

    Six Barriers to Becoming a Digital Business

    Is your Business Network Optimized for the Digital World?

Ed Rusch, SCB Contributor

Construction's Slow Digital Transition Is Becoming Dangerous for Business

More from this author

Wake up to Coronavirus Updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • Coronavirus-watch-Armada

    Virus Update: Cuomo Seeks to Buy Vaccines Directly; EU to Push for 70% Vaccination by Summer

    Coronavirus
  • U.S. and China Trade

    How China Won Trump’s Trade War and Got Americans to Foot the Bill

    Global Supply Chain Management
  • AT&T

    How the Pandemic Has Altered AT&T’s Global Sourcing Strategy

    Coronavirus
  • U.S. Vaccine Shift Stirs New Unease as 128 Million Join Line

    U.S. Vaccine Shift Stirs New Unease as 128 Million Join Line

    Coronavirus
  • container port

    New Global Visibility App Sees Delays Before They Happen

    Logistics

Digital Edition

Scb home issue 27

2020 Supply Chain Innovator of the Year

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • LSP Saves Customer $1.5 Million a Year With MPO Global Inbound Management

  • Auto Supplier Wows Key Client Using riskmethods Supply Chain Savvy

  • Integrating Shipping and Compliance Saves Conglomerate Millions

  • How a Consumer Goods Giant Upped Its On-Time Delivery Performance

  • LSP Wows Global Client, Quickly Advances to Become End-to-End Provider

Visit Our Sponsors

6 River Systems ArcBest Armada
aThingz BluJay Burris Logistics
DSC Logistics DCSA (Digital Container Shipping Association) DHL Resilience360
Genpact GEP Honeywell Intelligrated
Infor Logility Magnitude Software
MPO Old Dominion Oliver Wight
OpenSky Ports America Purolator
QAD Precision Red Classic Riskmethods
TGW Systems Transportation Insights Watson Land Company
Westfalia Technologies Workjam Yang Ming
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright © 2016 - 2018 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing