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How to Navigate the Shift from Reality Capture to Generative AI

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Reality capture was a winning tool during the pandemic when construction sites were shut and we needed to deliver with limited on-site interactions! While highly valuable for documentation and visualization, these tools cannot deliver much when it comes to automating key construction processes or generating connected, timely insights transferable to BIM, schedule, and other reporting software. So, how can we embed Generative AI into our projects, assets and businesses, and create sustainable value in the AI Era? Keep reading below!

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1. Invest in scalable data analysis

that scales your analytics capabilities and has the flexibility to offer wide functionalities in a time efficient manner. Otherwise, you’ll be significantly limiting your ability to move fast, and to realise value from GenAI!

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2. Build platforms, not tools

Ensure that the generated insights are connected across multiple dimensions, and that the underlying data is structured and accessible through APIs. Otherwise, you will end up with 100 tools that each solve 1% of the problem, but will never get you to the answers you need, and cannot feed quality data into Generative AI applications for business-grade decisions!

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3. Streamline tech procurement

and use the right contractual and procurement strategy, as tech vendor selection is vastly different from your GC tender process where competitive selection is the answer! Also ensure that your CIO, Chief Digital Officer, etc. are embedded in the process and empowered to run agile, cost-efficient selections – otherwise you’ll be left behind!

Get in touch

For more information on the above and to find out more about how to generate automated insights on progress, quality, quantities, and risks through using Contilio‘s 3D AI platform please get in touch with Jack Li, or contact us via our website

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Innovo and Contilio partner to digitize construction in the Middle East and beyond

Contilio’s 3D AI analytics platform significantly reduces Delay, FTE, Errors, and Waste, unlocking significant savings and 25-30X ROI, in addition to creating intelligent digital twins that span the assets’ whole life.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, July 17, 2023 – Contilio, the Built Environment’s #1 AI Insights Platform, announced today a strategic partnership with Innovo Group, the fully integrated global construction and real estate business born out of ASGC Construction, one of the Middle East’s most prominent construction conglomerates. As a part of this partnership, Innovo will be using Contilio’s 3D AI analytics software to accelerate its digital transformation, enable digitized and efficient project delivery, and to promote safer and more sustainable construction in the middle east and beyond.

Unlike 360° job site documentation and reality capture tools, Contilio’s analytics platform harnesses the power of 3D Artificial Intelligence to automatically analyse the captured reality (Lidar and 360 images) at scale. Irrespective of how the site data is collected, construction progress/ as-built quantities, installation quality, and delay/rework risks and issues are automatically tracked in hours for projects of different size, nature, and complexity. It is this flexibility, speed, and scalability that is so valuable to Innovo, as it develops a smart and integrated system to capture and analyze vast amounts of as-built data.

By automating critical construction processes and access to actionable, data-driven insights with AI, Contilio enables digital delivery, timely decisions, enhanced productivity, and faster, sustainable and cost-efficient construction. For example, Innovo can track the true project performance in hours and identify and prevent installation issues with agility, while creating intelligent as-built digital twins that during and after construction. These digital twins enable digital handover, enhanced change and dispute management, smart operations and accelerated time to cashflow, among other benefits.

Hear from Innovo Group

“We are on a digital transformation journey to drive innovation, collaboration and sustainability”, said Innovo Chief Technology Officer Roger Wahl. “Our partnership with Contilio is a crucial part of that transformation, as we explore how integrating established and emerging technologies can transform the way we conduct our operations and make effective use of site data.”

“AI is emerging as a disruptive force in the construction sector, and it is imperative that our industry, which remains heavily reliant on manual systems, capitalize on the potential of AI-powered construction”, said Innovo CEO, Bishoy Azmy. “We are taking a leading role in accelerating the digitization of the construction sector and hope that our partnership with Contilio inspires industry peers to similarly invest in AI solutions.”

Zara Riahi, CEO of Contilio added, “We are incredibly excited to partner with and support Innovo in their digital transformation journey. As with any major industry disruption, it takes innovation champions like Innovo to drive meaningful change, and we look forward to working collaboratively to bring significant cost, time, and carbon efficiency to Innovo, and their construction and development portfolio, globally.”

What’s next?

Contilio and Innovo will be working closely together to scale Contilio’s use in the middle east and in other regions including the UK and Canada. In partnership, we will be rolling out new and critical functionalities that will help track and optimize CO2, cost and payments. This will deliver significant value and cost savings for Innovo projects, clients and supply chain partners – stay tuned!

Get in touch

For more information regarding this announcement please get in touch with Jack Li or contact us via our Website. You may also check the Innovo Group’s announcement here.

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With world’s first AI Quantity Tracker, Contilio transforms CO2 and cost management for built environment

The new 3D AI-empowered functionality enables automated production tracking and accelerates time to revenue and cash flow, as well as CO2 tracking and optimisation.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, MAY 22, 2023 – The 3D AI-powered construction analytics platform, Contilio, has officially launched its first-of-its-kind AI Quantity Tracker, to automate the resource intensive, error-prone and costly process of manually tracking onsite installed quantities during construction.

The new functionality gives actionable insights on the production rate of all installed elements in a few hours, improving the productivity of the current process and its coverage by 20 times. By automating valuations and quantity take-offs, Contilio’s Quantity Tracker streamlines cost tracking and payments. This enables real estate and construction companies to improve their cash flows and time to revenue at a time when material costs and interest rates are at their highest since 2020. Financial institutions can also use the software to gain visibility into actual progress before releasing drawdowns, and to assess and mitigate the delay and rework risks during construction.

Real Estate industry demands accurate quantities and embodied CO2 tracking

With the real estate industry facing mounting pressure to reduce its carbon footprint, shareholders, market, and regulators’ demand for automated carbon tracking and reduction for construction projects and operating assets has accelerated 10-fold.

By enabling CO2 to be monitored and optimised throughout construction and operations, Contilio’s quantity tracker reduces the carbon usage of real estate assets significantly. This means that companies can achieve their sustainability goals and benefit from increased asset values, stable revenues, and access to green financing products, offered at a cheaper rate relative to traditional loans.

CEO of Contilio Zara Riahi comments on the new capability:
“I am excited to announce the launch of our cutting-edge quantity tracker to support the fast-growing demand from our customers and the global built environment for optimised CO2, cost, and payments. Having worked in the industry myself, I have a great appreciation for how time consuming, siloed and costly the current processes can be and how hard it is to get paid in a timely, transparent manner.

“Our quantity tracker functionality has been tested in over 3.5 million square feet of building and infrastructure projects, saving millions. It will be offered as a part of our existing 3D AI platform, empowering our current and future customers to deliver and operate their construction projects and existing assets within accelerated timeframes, more cost efficiently and sustainably.”

About Contilio

Launched in 2019, Contilio is a 3D-AI-powered analytics platform that automates quantity, installation quality and progress tracking, ensuring that critical construction projects are error-free, on time, on budget and carbon optimised. Contilio also enhances the operations and sustainability of assets once construction is complete, irrespective of whether building information models (BIM) are present. 

Contilio’s powerful technology delivers 25 to 30 times ROI to developers, asset owners, general contractors and financial institutions in more than 102 million square metres of building projects and $25bn of infrastructure assets. The versatile platform is used across all types of building and infrastructure projects in the UK, the USA, and most recently in the Middle East.

Get in touch

For more information regarding this press release please get in touch with Jack Li, or contact us via our website.

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Aldar partners with Contilio to bring AI-powered project controls to a multi-billion dollar portfolio

Contilio’s 3D AI analytics platform significantly reduces delay and rework costs, and helps create smart digital twins that span the assets’ whole life.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, January 30, 2023 – Contilio, the Built Environment’s most powerful 3D AI analytics platform, announced today a strategic partnership with Aldar Properties. The real estate giant will be using Contilio for its construction portfolio, including its $4 billion Saadiyat Grove mega development.

Construction site with company logos overlayed.

Contilio’s analytics platform is not merely a 360° job site documentation tool. Harnessing the power of 3D Artificial Intelligence, Contilio automatically analyses Lidar and 360 images at scale, irrespective of how the data is captured, fully automating construction progress, installation quality and predictive risks for building and infrastructure projects. This enables Aldar and their supply chain partners to automatically augment their BIMs with actionable progress and quality insights throughout construction; it also means that Aldar is always staying ahead of delay risks and quality issues. Contilio’s platform also connects the augmented BIMs with intelligent site data and updated schedules, fully eliminating the data silos by creating “smart digital twins” that are used collaboratively by different stakeholders during construction and operations. 

“Contilio has enabled us to smartly monitor the construction quality and progress of our sites and bring about real impact” said Jonathan Emery, CEO of Aldar Properties. “The benefits and future applications are exciting, and we look forward to working with Contilio to create significant value for our shareholders, partners and customers through delivering high-quality, sustainable assets.”

“To date, we have proudly brought schedule predictability and reduced rework costs and waste to over $25 billion of projects, and over 102 million square feet of assets globally. We are very excited to be partnering with Aldar to support them on the next phase of their digital transformation journey.” said Zara Riahi, CEO of Contilio.

What’s next?

Contilio will be working closely with Aldar in the coming months to accelerate the delivery of Aldar’s ambitious digital transformation strategy in areas such as automated CO2 tracking and payments, so stay tuned!

Get in touch

For more information regarding this contact please get in touch with Jack Li or contact us via our website.

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Contilio & TÜV SÜD partner to provide AI construction quality control

Contilio,  a leading London-based construction analytics software company announces the establishment of a joint AI solution together with the global leader in testing, certification, and inspection TÜV SÜD. 3D AI Construction Inspection addresses the key needs of the construction industry by providing automated defect analysis, installation quality verification and progress tracking for building and infrastructure construction projects. The solution enables asset owners, general contractors and investors to deliver quality projects within the time, cost and risk requirements, and at the same time enhance their Return on Investment (ROI).

The global construction industry with annual sales of US$ 12 trillion is undergoing fundamental change, primarily driven by high construction costs, shortage of skilled labour and increasing pressure for sustainable, environmentally friendly operations. “Shockingly, 60 percent of all construction projects experience significant delays, and up to 30 percent of construction costs are swallowed up by the need for rework and installation error rectification”, says Joachim Birnthaler, CEO of TÜV SÜD’s Real Estate & Infrastructure Division. “In addition, more and more owners, developers, and investors are seeking to maximise the quality of their construction projects, delivering them more sustainably and with reduced carbon footprint.” 

Digital methods such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Digital Twins are instrumental in helping to deliver construction projects with significantly improved productivity, sustainability and delivery timeline as well as reduced costs.  “However, this only works when the digital models are correctly applied from the project outset and kept up to date and compliant throughout the construction with the help of advanced technology and automated underlying processes”, warns Birnthaler. With this in mind, TÜV SÜD joined forces with Contilio, using the UK-based breakthrough technology as the basis for bringing AI-based Construction Quality Control to our customers globally

 

 

 

Zara Riahi, CEO of Contilio says: “Our solution combines advanced 3D AI technology with 150 years of global inspection and testing expertise to automatically provide actionable intelligence from 3D construction site data (Lidar/Laser scans) in real-time. This is done by intelligently identifying all structural, architectural, MEP and fitout elements in 3D site data, and then automatically comparing them with the BIM and the schedule. Our AI software works seamlessly with commercially available Lidar scanners and drones and helps to automatically track construction progress and installation quality for both building and infrastructure projects. In addition, this automated comparison helps keep digital twins up-to-date during the construction and provides the opportunity to rapidly detect any deviations from plans or installation errors and eliminate them with agility.”

Data-driven risk management

The 3D AI Construction Inspection solution benefits general contractors, developers, owners, and investors by providing an informative overview of the current status of a construction project, supporting data-driven risk management and decisions. The digital solution enables all project stakeholders to access the same information from a cloud-based environment, thus improving issue resolution and communication. In addition, the automated processes reduce the cost and time required for quality control and progress tracking, which is currently done manually and based on spot checks.

“Our 3D AI Construction technology plays an important role in completing major construction projects on time, on budget and with high quality”, says Joachim Birnthaler. “The high level of automation cuts costs and reduces the ‘entry barrier’ for digital solutions in construction projects”, adds Zara Riahi.

Both experts are convinced that the many benefits of Digital Construction Inspection for asset owners, general contractors and investors represent a leap in the digitalisation of the construction industry.

For more information on the service, please visit the TÜV SÜD X Contilio 3D AI Inspection page.


Contact Details: For more information please contact  Jack Li at jack@contilio.com

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Global Proptech VC Pilabs invests in Contilio to transform the way the world builds with 3D AI

The global Proptech Venture Capital firm, Pi Labs, has led the latest investment into the AI-based analytics software Contilio to enable the global construction industry to intelligently track, predict and transform the delivery of building & infrastructure projects, with 3D AI.

The breakthrough 3D AI construction analytics platform will use the funds to onboard more customers, further advance its product & tech and accelerate its growth. This acceleration is fuelled by a c500 per cent increase in global demand for its construction progress, installation quality and risk software.

The global construction is valued at USD13 trillion. Despite pioneering a lot of technological innovation, including CAD, simulation and early machine learning applications, the building and infrastructure construction is still the 2nd least productive industry. Every year, approximately 40% of the construction value is lost in unnecessary delays, rework and waste. Increased investments in Building Information Management (BIM) and visualisation while valuable, has not done much to bridge the critical gap between construction plans and the as-built reality.

Contilio’s world-first AI platform provides actionable intelligence from 3D construction site data (Lidar/Laser scans) by intelligently classifying all structural, architectural and MEP elements and automatically comparing them with the BIM and the schedule. The easy-to-use software works seamlessly with all commercially available Lidar/Laser scanners and most recently drones. Since launching from stealth in 2019, Contilio has been used by global general contractors (e.g., Balfour Beatty), developers (e.g., Prologis) and owners (eg TUV SUD), helping them deliver building, infrastructure and data centre projects cheaper, faster and more sustainably.

On average, customers report that the Contilio platform delivers the progress and quality insights 15 times faster for 100 per cent of the construction site. This, for the first time, enables key stakeholders to automatically track construction progress, swiftly eliminate delays and installation errors, and to make smart decisions. When deployed at scale, Contilio delivers significant cost savings, better bid performance and  20x return on investment. Due to the significant reduction in construction rework and waste, CO2 emissions are reduced, helping sustainability strategies.

The next version of Contilio’s cloud-based product which will be launched soon enables the users to access the insights 24/7 from anywhere in the world with 10x better performance in terms of visualising 3D insights when compared with the likes of Autodesk. A free version will be also made available to a short-list of power users.

Zara Riahi, Co-Founder & CEO, at Contilio, says: “Construction is a pivotal part of all of our lives whether we are indoors, commuting or communicating. After spending years managing mega construction projects and investing in AI and Fintech, I realised that the 3D AI advancements would help deliver the much-needed change for an industry that I knew deserved much better.

“The Covid-19 pandemic, shortage of skilled workforce, and the growing trend for better build quality have exponentially increased the demand for data-driven insights, predictable outcomes and timely verification of installation errors. This has shifted the industry’s focus from 360 visualisation tools, to automated and scalable software, taking the value game to the next level.

“Pi Labs investment and its unparalleled access to a global network of property and construction leaders will be a great asset to Contilio as we quickly grow our customer base and advance our business in our journey to reshape the global construction industry. We look forward to working together and having a positive impact on the future of real estate and infrastructure.”

Faisal Butt, CEO of Pi Labs, says: “ESG and progression of the real estate industry have always been core to Pi Labs’ mission. Construction is a key part of that equation, where manual, costly and paper-based processes have been a core reason for wasteful errors, costly delays and significant overruns. Our research shows us that Construction is ripe for technology disruption and that Construction tech has a vital role to play as we work towards achieving net zero, optimised supply chain and efficient construction delivery.

“Contilio’s innovative solution fills a large void in terms of enhancing construction efficiency and reducing waste. Their AI software not only helps enable significant cost savings during construction, but also drives sustainability benefits and better build quality for owners and developers, enabling them to continue to reap the benefits during asset operations. That is why we at Pi Labs are delighted to be supporting Contilio’s expansion and continue to believe that Construction Tech will offer many innovations that will improve our built environment.”

Source: Private Equity Wire, Placetech.net, Property Week

For more information, please contact us at contilio.official@contilio.com.

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6 Game-Changing Tips for How You Can Effectively Use 3D Data and Apple LiDAR in Construction

3D Data (Lidar/Laser Scans) use in construction for progress tracking, installation quality verification and to create semantic digital twins

Q 1: What is 3D data? 3D data (point clouds/ LiDAR scans) has reliable depth, shape and location information, in addition to the colour and texture information available in 2D photos. This means that with reliable 3D data, you can take accurate measurements, understand what is a size of an element, how that element is related to other elements in the space and whether a specific element is behind or in front of other element(s) and by how much. As such, you need reliable 3D data to make sense of the world in 3D, for AR/VR applications, and to improve quality of photos.

Q2: Why do I need to collect 3D data in construction? for many reasons! the key one is that construction is a 3D physical environment changing on a daily basis. tTo “automate” critical processes such as progress tracking and installation quality verification, and to build semantic digital twins (not digital records), you need to have reliable 3D data, which would then be fed into intelligent AI engines for scalable automated analysis

Q3: Can’t I just collect the data using 360 cameras? 360 photos are 2D photos shown in 3D, not 3D data. Yes, you can use photogrammetry to stitch photos together and get a walkable, 360 visual record of your sites, but a) the underlying 3D data is very noisy and cannot be reliably used in automated AI pipelines (beyond applications related to safety, tracking equipment and people) b) 360 cameras are lighting dependent and very sensitive to clutter (the norm on construction sites), introducing significant performance limitations c) different photogrammetry methods have different results and the performance changes with the camera, clutter and lighting conditions! 

 So, go with 360 cameras if your goal is a) to create a 360, visual documentation of  your construction sites and b) to automate processes such as tracking people,   equipment, safety, etc (in combination with 2D AI algorithms). But if you are after  automated, scalable processes that can be systematically used across all your   construction projects, turning site data into automated, actionable insights for   the whole construction duration, and at scale, 2D Data and photogrammetry do  not cut it, period.

Q4: How can I reliably collect 3D data?  currently through stationary LiDAR scanners (range varies depending on application and device), mobile LiDAR scanners and drones. Stationary LiDAR scanners have mm accuracy and mobile scanners are 10-20mm accurate. There are some semi-autonomous systems in the market, but while fully autonomous and small sensors are the future, they are not practical yet. The data collection device and mode should be determined based on the nature of your site (linear infrastructure vs buildings), its size, and the accuracy required (healthcare and transport projects require more accuracy compared to a residential property)

Apple Lidar Q5: What is Apple LiDAR then? Apple has introduced the LiDAR technology to their iPhone 12 and latest iPad Pro lineups, but the current version cannot be reliably used in construction for global data collection given accuracy, range, etc. The current model is between a 360 camera and a LiDAR scanner and is developed with AR/VR applications, including interior scanning, human AR/VR, etc. in mind. At present in construction, you can use Apple’s LiDAR functionality to grab local LiDAR data for immediate, fast feedback that can be embedded into the reliable global 3D data. But do not take Apple LiDAR and similar technology lightly! a revolution is about to happen and soon 3D data collection will be an integral part of every construction project; so be prepped for it and build it into your strategy if you have not already done so.

Apple Lidar for local data collection in construction

Q6: I know 3D data is great, but the volume of the data is very big, what should I do? The challenges you have been experiencing is because you have been handling the data manually. You have some “pointed tools” that can help visualize Point cloud data and/or perhaps import parts of it into BIM models, etc. But these methods are slow, very manual and prone to error and they crash very regularly due to capacity constraints.

@ Contilio we have built smart algorithms that can structure the otherwise unstructured, meaningless point cloud data and filter it for what does not belong to the construction site, including trees, vegetation, material, scaffolding, etc. This helps reduce the data volume 20-fold, as well as to structure the point cloud data so it looks like your construction site. Our cutting-edge 3D AI engine (AI that works on top of 3D data and is similar to what is used in autonomous driving) automatically identifies and classifies every structural, architectural and MEP element in the Point Cloud and then compares the results automatically with the BIM and your schedule. This helps automate progress tracking, installation quality verification and predictive risk management for your construction projects, providing you with 20X value/ROI. We also create smart (semantic, structured and machine readable) digital twins, enabling you to realize further benefits during the whole asset’s life cycle. All the results can be accessed through a cloud-platform that is intuitive and easy to use. To learn more about how you could use Contilio for your construction projects and operating assets and the value you can create for your projects and organization, please reach out to us at contilio.official@contilio.com or book a demo with us on our website

Phone: +44 7523 746 824
Video: Contilio in 2 mins
Demo: Please click here to book a demo

For marketing and PR please contact Jack Li at jack@contilio.com.

Source:  Linkedin Article Dated at Jan 06 2021

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Construction’s $1 Trillion Quality Cost

And how you can turn it into better build quality, reduced rework & lower CO2 footprint

There is no denying that despite significant time and effort spent by general contractors (GCs) and their partners, construction projects of all sizes are troubled by escalating cost-overruns and waste caused by quality issues. Installation errors are caught late and based on spot checks, usually when the next subcontractor comes in, or even worse, when projects are handed over and the cost of fixing errors is 10X higher!!!

Poor installation quality and associated rework are estimated to cost the global $12 trillion construction industry around 12% every year, resulting in a $1 trillion crisis of lost productivity and margins. This doesn’t even take into consideration the time and effort required to verify the quality of installed work, which adds up to 3% of total project costs on top of immediate rework cost; nor does it include the significant waste, CO2 emissions and reputational damages involved.

As an industry we’ve tried to fix this problem by pouring more people at the problem and transferring the risks, but progress has been limited. We interviewed several experts and stakeholders in the industry and identified 5 key trends that will increase construction complexity and make things worse. But, we have also identified best practices used by industry leaders to turn these challenges into cost savings, enhanced build quality and sustainability measures, using the latest technologies. For a more in-depth example on how one of our global customers achieved 30% lower rework costs and 23% higher productivity for the construction of their new APAC Headquarters using the Contilio 3D AI analytics software, please read this case study here.

The current process: manual, limited outcomes, and little trust

“Normally, the responsibility for construction quality lies with the subcontractors,  but there is  so  little trust and so much complexity that the main contractor ends up doing much of the  quality inspection themselves, adding significantly to the project costs and overhead.”

          Project Director, Bouygues Construction

Today, the process to verify and manage installation quality is very time consuming, slow and it involves many people who need to be on site. As different trades and subcontractors complete different parts of the construction, the GCs try to verify the quality of installed work through spot checks and then manually update documents and systems spread across different “data siloes”. Construction managers, work package managers, quality engineers, and commercial teams all spend significant portion of their time on ensure quality, adding 1%-3% to the project costs just to inspect work. And despite all these efforts, teams report that at most they can check 5% of the work installed, leaving the remaining 95% up to chance, built-in contingencies and warranty packages.

In addition, quality KPIs such as number of critical defects, the time and cost to fix them, and their impact on the delivery speed are usually not tracked using a standardized, scalable process. Subjective and delayed outputs end up in various data siloes, without being meaningfully used to drive efficiencies.

While contractually the subcontractors might be responsible to track and report on installation quality, in reality, the GCs whose commercial success and reputation are closely tied to long-term asset quality and successful construction delivery end up verifying all the work done by trades! Equally if you are an asset owner or an investor, you want to ensure that the asset you ordered is what is getting built and the quality issues are identified and resolved immediately. If you are a public sector entity, you want to maximize value for taxpayers, achieve your sustainability outcomes and ensure fair payment and transparency. We live in a world where data-backed quality assurance is becoming increasing important, particularly when several trades/subs are onsite simultaneously (when MPE and services are getting installed).

This trend is only going to accelerate at a much faster pace

As a part of Contilio’s growing engagement with the global construction industry, we interviewed the executive and delivery teams from several construction companies on the pressing matter of build quality and identified five key trends making the construction quality and sustainability challenge even more daunting:

1.  COVID-19 has made manual, on-site quality verification hard: Many construction companies are forced to reduce the number of onsite crew due to COVID-19 safety requirements, but at the same time still have to track and document installation quality reliably particular for critical assets such as healthcare facilities, data centres, and technology assets. With increasing  pressure to offset the pandemic’s negative impact, this is only going to get harder. Digital leaders are turning to automated software solutions that can help verify quality of all elements in a few hours, improving productivity and safety simultaneously.

2. The labour gap is widening: Young expert and young talent is less and less interested in moving around the construction sites and “ticking boxes” to manually verify the onsite quality. They want to focus on high-value tasks and conduct their work supported by digital tools, just like what they would do in other industries. We strongly believe that digitization and adoption of the latest available AI technologies can reverse this trend and increase the construction industry attractiveness as an employer. It can also enable your expert workforce to focus their efforts on what matters the most.

3. Good subcontractors have less incentive to focus on quality: Good subs are in high demand and want to finish their jobs quickly and move to the next one to maximize their utilization. This, together with increasing delivery complexity and trend #2, makes installation quality verification and rework even costlier – something we believe our cutting-edge and easy to use solution can help address.

4. Offsite manufacturing needs verification too! Yes, offsite and modular are picking up fast and the great news is that they have the potential to drive significant efficiencies – but similar to manufacturing, the installation quality (i.e. dimensions and fit to the rest of the site) needs to be verified to mm accuracy before the components are shipped to the site; otherwise, everyone ends up paying significantly more for rework, logistics, and other costs.

5. 360 photos and videos are no “silver bullet”: While the industry has seen a few 360-degree photo tools used more broadly for site visualization, construction companies have already realized that photo-based solutions cannot be relied upon to check the installation quality automatically, whatever the marketing message. Only AI solutions that work with 3D data can offer the accuracy and the automation potential to do so.

“We have tested some photo-based solutions to visualize our sites, but we would never rely on photos to evaluate quality of subs work or for disputes, as photos do not tell the full story”

         Head of Quality Inspection, Sir Robert Mcalpine

The opportunity for Digital Leaders in construction

But it is definitely not all doom and gloom. Several construction companies have  started to test and deploy software solutions at scale to address the big quality challenge and drive a long overdue digital transformation. Besides the mitigations for trends mentioned above, Digital Leaders are additionally:

1. Establishing new digital records of transparency and trust: Digital leaders are using software tools and technology solutions to create traceable, structured and trustworthy digital records and quality insights for 100% of installed work as opposed to the traditional 5%. and they do it in just a few hours. This new transparency establishes a “single source of trust”, from which the general contractors, the subcontractors and the owners benefit alike.

2. Using analytics to finally drive cross-portfolio efficiencies: Yes, you got that right. Enabled by the latest advancements in AI and analytics, digital leaders can leverage actionable insights captured on one project and use it in real-time across their entire portfolio to predict and avoid similar installation mistakes, saving additional costs. They can also use these insights to win more tenders, and/or to drive sustainability benefits in addition to benchmarking assets globally.

3. Not settling for just a “quick digital fix”: Digital leaders do not just choose the cheapest digital tool, but rather systematically assess and embrace digital solution(s) that have the potential to drive tangible value at scale and won’t need to be replaced in a couple years again. And the good news is that advancements in 3D Artificial Intelligence (3D AI), BIM and big data combined with the power of innovative data capture solutions have enabled them to do so effectively.

How a global leader reduced rework by 30% using Contilio 3D AI

Based on decades of experience in the construction industry (yes we’ve been in the trenches) and engineering advanced technologies, we developed our cutting-edge and easy to use Contilio 3D AI analytics platform to provide objective, real-time, and fully automated quality verification for all areas of your building and infrastructure projects ranging from millions to a few billions. Drawing on the latest developments in big data analytics, autonomous driving and 3D reality capture, the Contilio 3D AI platform not only can do this in a fraction of a time and cost, and for all trades, but also, we can create machine-readable, structured digital twins (BIM connected with intelligent, structured site data) to enable additional whole-life asset efficiencies.

We are trusted by many GCs and asset owners around the world to verify installation quality and track construction progress, enabling our customers to do a lot more with a lot less, win more business, and ensure they are doing so safely and sustainably. One global customer we’ve been working with deployed Contilio’s 3D AI solution on their new Asia-Pacific Headquarters to verify the quality of 100% of installed work and to reduce the rework costs by 30%. They also experienced significant productivity gains due to significantly reduced need for travel and overhead, augmenting their construction managers and skilled professionals to focus on more value-add activities. See the case study here.

Please get in touch if you’d like to learn how we can join forces to drive significant value for you and construction projects.

Zara Riahi
Chief Executive Officer, Contilio

Email: contilio.official@contilio.com
Phone: +44 7523 746 824
Video: Contilio in 2 mins
Demo: Please click here to book a demo

For marketing and PR please contact Jack Li at jack@contilio.com.

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Contilio wins the global smart construction challenge, backed by global construction and tech leaders

Contilio brings real-time, actionable insights to the construction industry, enabling significant cost efficiencies.

APRIL 15, 2020 – The cutting-edge 3D AI Construction analytics company,  Contilio was announced by the Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC™) as the Global winner of its Smart Construction Challenge. The Challenge was designed to advance real-world validation of Smart Construction applications and solutions while integrating cloud, edge, fog and IoT technologies. Many companies from around the world applied and competed through this multi-stage completion.  As the global winner, Contilio was awarded €25,000 and the opportunity to work with TÜV SÜD on their International Business Park project in Singapore.

Contilio’s solution uses advanced technologies including 3D computer vision and deep learning to provide intelligent insights from 3D data and photos captured from a construction site. This data is uploaded to a cloud environment and processed automatically through a 3D AI platform into intelligent analytics on construction progress, installation quality and predictive KPIs on risks and issues. The analytics can be accessed through a cloud dashboard that communicates the insights to key construction employees and other stakeholders, including owners, financial partners and company management.

“We are delighted to work with TÜV SÜD, a global leader in real estate inspection and certification.” said Zara Riahi, CEO of Contilio. “Our cutting-edge analytics software and agile approach, combined with TÜV SÜD’s expertise and innovation leadership resulted in a powerful partnership at TÜV SÜD’s new Asia Pacific Headquarters, where we successfully deployed our 3D AI technology. We hope to continue to bring significant value and cost-efficiency to TÜV SÜD and their global customers in the built environment.”

“By replicating the complete property lifecycle, from initial planning to construction to facility operations, the Challenge put the focus on Building Information Management (BIM) as the foundation of today’s smart construction design,” said Joachim Birnthaler, CEO, Real Estate & Infrastructure Division at TÜV SÜD. “The Contilio team presented an innovative analytics solution that met all of the criteria. We believe it will prove to be essential for any lean, BIM-oriented construction project.”

Construction industry partners TÜV SÜD (principal partner), Züblin, Bosch and Liebherr provided the requirements and use case definitions for the challenge and assisted challenge participants in testing their proof-of-concept (POC). Technology suppliers Autodesk, HERE, Ottobock and Qtum provided relevant technology components to assist start-ups and solution providers in the creation of their POCs for further development and offered overall technology guidance. Global independent IoT research and benchmarking firm MachNation published the Smart Construction summary white paper.

To learn more about Contilio and how we are saving billions for the global construction industry by making on-track and on-budget the new normal, please visit our website at www.contilio.com.

You can also contact:

Jack Li, Head of growth
Email: jack@contilio.com

Source: IIC press release, smart construction challenge

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Innovate UK awards Contilio with a significant grant to revolutionize the way the world builds, with AI

LONDON, April 15 , 2019 – the London-based deeptech startup, Contilio, has been awarded a significant grant by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency. The grant is a part of the £170m “Transforming Construction” fund and will drive a ground-breaking R&D project, tackling the main cause of billion-dollar delays and cost overruns for the global construction industry: that is the lack of real-time feedback on construction progress and quality. Through application of cutting-edge technology, the project will equip the construction industry with real-time insights on construction progress, installation quality and risks and help deliver large construction and infrastructure projects on-time, on-budget and with enhanced productivity. Contilio is delighted to collaborate with an outstanding team from Imperial College London on this project, co-led by Professor Jennifer Whyte and Doctor Stefan Leutenegger, renowned experts in the fields of digital innovation in the built environment and computer vision.

Construction is one of the biggest drivers of the UK economy and the global GDP. The UK’s national infrastructure programme alone targets £650 billion projects by 2025. However, unlike manufacturing where the quantity and quality of output is known at any given time, in construction, there is no intelligent control room communicating progress and performance insights to project stakeholders in real-time. Project owners and contractors literally steer multi-million-pound projects “blind”, that is with partial, siloed information 4-8 weeks old.

Zara Riahi, Founder and CEO of Contilio states: “This means delayed decisions, compounding risks and costly overruns for the majority of construction projects, something we are changing for our customers. We are delighted to have been chosen by the Innovate UK’s Transforming Construction challenge to drive this change and make on-track the new normal for every major construction project. This funding is a testament to the size of the productivity opportunity for the UK construction industry and a great endorsement for our approach and the strength of our team and our R&D partner, Imperial College London. Over the next 12 months, the funding will be used to further advance Contilio’s AI-based analytics platform and to deploy our software solution on construction sites, delivering against the targets of the challenge.”

Imperial College London has assembled a unique team of experts and will use the funding to conduct state of the art research on 3D computer vision, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and machine learning techniques, contributing to the advancement of Contilio’s cutting-edge technology and the UK’s research leadership in the built environment.

Contilio would like to thank its customers and partners for contributing to this great success and the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) for their support in helping us make on-track the new norm for every major construction project at every corner of the world.

For further information or press inquiries please reach out to Jack Li (jack@contilio.com).

 About Contilio: Contilio (http://www.contilio.com) is a ground-breaking analytics startup at the intersection of construction, deeptech and enterprise SaaS. Our AI-based platform analyses site data in real-time and turns them into intelligent insights on construction progress, performance KPIs and risks. This empowers contractors, project owners and investors to have 360-degree visibility into risks and issues, make timely and accurate decisions and enjoy from billion-dollar productivity, cashflow and compliance benefits. Contilio was founded by an expert team around CEO, Zara Riahi who has experienced this massive problem first-hand managing and investing in global construction projects. Having experienced the significant productivity improvements big data analytics & AI drive for gigantic industries including finance and manufacturing, triggered Contilio’s vision to bring the same to the $12Tn construction industry.

About Imperial College London: Professor Jennifer Whyte is the director of the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and leads the Alan Turing program for ‘Data-Driven Engineering design under uncertainty’. Professor Whyte has a stellar  track record researching how big data and digitization would transform the design and delivery of major construction projects. Dr. Stefan Leutenegger is a Senior Lecturer of Robotics in the Department of Computing, leads the Smart Robotics Lab and is the co-leads research undertaken by the Dyson Robotics Laboratory with Prof. Andrew Davison.

About Innovate UK (www.innovateuk.ukri.org): Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas. We connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products, services and business growth. We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.