How are current technological trends influencing the growth of the construction and infrastructure industries in India?
Cutting-edge technologies,including digital twins and constructible BIM, Augmented or Mixed Reality, AI and Machine Learning, IoT, and drones, among others, are increasingly driving the construction industry’s profitable growth, both in real estate and infrastructure segments.
These technologies are helping drive the complete digitalisation of construction workflows and processes and improving the productivity and efficiency of workers and equipment. At a fundamental level, these technologies are helping construction companies complete their real estate or infrastructure projects more confidently, on time, and within budgets. This ultimately translates to better margins and profitability, improved cash flows, and greater bandwidth to take on new projects—all key actors in driving the growth of the business and the industry at an aggregate level.

Can you elaborate on your digital construction technologies?
Trimble offers the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of hardware, software, and services designed for smart and connected job sites. Furthermore, our pioneering ‘Connected Construction’ approach takes advantage of cutting-edge digital technologies to connect and integrate all construction workflows and processes, enabling seamless collaboration among all stakeholders across the entire lifecycle of a project. This is enabled by Trimble’s hardware and software solutions for connected construction, which have some of the finest tools for the AEC industry, including architects, structural engineers, general or concrete contractors, and mechanical and electrical or plumbing (MEP) professionals. Our field technology solutions allow users to scan and accurately collect, quickly process, save, and colour asbuilt plans and buildable content, even under the most demanding conditions. With fabrication, users can increase profits, resolve conflicts, and drive out waste with solutions built for sheet metal contractors who fabricate ductwork.

Trimble also provides MEP contractors with solutions for all stages of the construction process: 3D design software, estimating software, field technology, and fabrication. In other words, these MEP solutions enable a simpler way to bid and build, reduce rework, and maximise productivity.

Tekla Structures, the industry’s leading constructible BIM software, is at the heart of our portfolio. Tekla Model Sharing is a BIM collaboration tool that allows you to work offline, so you can build flexible, remote teams without worrying about poor internet connectivity. Trimble’s Building Construction Field Solutions include 3D printing, laser scanning, robotics, and site management solutions. This further empowers stakeholders in every construction project to collect accurate information and conditions, build efficiently, maintain quality control, and easily manage and monitor projects.

How are you addressing safety and sustainability in projects using Trimble’s Connected Construction?
The construction industry accounts for a high proportion of workplace injuries worldwide, which makes it imperative to keep an unerring eye on the health and safety of workers on site. Trimble’s connected construction ecosystem can help contractors plan onsite logistics ahead of construction and pinpoint and address potential hazards in time. Furthermore, onsite management solutions like Trimble CrewSight allowproject supervisors to ensure that every worker has been enrolled and has submitted and signed all of their documentation as per the site rules defined by the project manager. Every time a worker attempts to enter the site, the system will check that all site rules are met and up to date. It also helps supervisors keep tabs on everything vital to their project so they can quickly respond to accidents and proactively
address risky situations.

Further, to enhance sustainability in construction, Tekla Structures offers dynamic embodied carbon calculation functionality for the design and detailing processes through an Embodied Carbon Calculator. This tool allows users to evaluate their design decisions’ environmental effects easily.

According to a report, construction takes up almost 50 per cent of global energy, leading to 80 per cent of land and equipment loss. Every year, sustainable construction saves up to 30–40 per cent of energy and carbon emissions, making it the ideal construction industry form. Thus, the construction industry’s future depends on its acceptance and flexibility to adopt techniques that will benefit society economically.

Please share their unique features that can help you save money.
Construction projects all too easily run over time and budget, and in an industry grappling with thin margins, even the slightest of delays can hurt profitability. Tekla Structures BIM technology allows contractors to see the whole project before work starts. It will enable them to explore various options and settle on a shared vision early on. By doing this, the possibility of needing to make time-consuming and expensive alterations after construction has started to decrease. Our site positioning systems are designed to eliminate downtime by helping contractors manage multiple job sites, communicate information faster, and make better decisions. In addition, Trimble Connect allows the full spectrum of construction services to be connected, eliminating the need to rekey data and saving countless hours.

Ultimately, using Trimble technologies helps construction companies finish their projects faster and with fewer materials, fuel, and workforce. All of this directly translates to significant financial savings.

Why is connected construction integration a step forward in bridging the gap between contractors and owners?
“Connected construction” is a ground-breaking approach to construction in that it simultaneously connects the digital world of modelling, measurement, and data with the physical world of contractors and the job site at each phase of construction. This starts with pre-construction planning and continues through actual construction, handover of the completed project, and maintenance and operations. As such, connected construction relies on inter-connected hardware, software, and services to unify each project’s people, processes, and phases. The most significant advantage of using Connected Construction is that each stakeholder has real-time access to accurate data and information to make better decisions.