Transforming Construction with Automation?
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July 2018
Reflecting on our morning at the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre in Hamilton, Roy Henderson, director and Claire MacLean, marketing executive, are keen to engage with academics and businesses who are keen to collaborate as part of this incentive to improve efficiencies and reduce costs and times of new house builds. The competition briefing event as part of the £170m Transforming Construction: Manufacturing Better Buildings Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund included an opportunity to hear about the objectives and scope of the CR&D programme, an opportunity to learn how to get involved in the CR&D programme and opportunities to network and develop ideas and partnerships for the competitions.
The main difference between the construction industry and Manufacturing is a time-lapse. Manufacturing has seen steady improvements over the years, with the introduction of automation and robotics, whilst construction has been stagnant, as it is only now making headway into streamlining its production. SP Technology has solved manufacturing problems in the industry for almost 35 years, with some recent installations solving problems related to construction, including routing, cutting, nailing and modular transfer systems. In addition, photovoltaic production lines have also been designed and built by the Company. Construction is now utilising many of the technologies that SP Automation & Robotics have been developing and using since its opening in 1984. This also includes data capturing to bring in IOT, Industry 4.0, to ensure a controlled and monitored production process.
There was a brilliant turnout for Innovate UK & Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) ISCF Transforming Construction at the event today and a focus on the launch of the Collaborative R&D call and how organisations can get involved.
Mark Wray was keen to build connections and relations across the UK, linking both academia and the construction industry. Innovate UK has up to 6000 projects on the go and once and involves 55 thousand members. Ewa Bloch, also from Innovate UK, talked about the requirements for the fund and how the budget, whole-life value, and productivity would all be areas that require improvement within the construction industry.
We were amazed to learn that an increase of just 25% efficiency could lead to double profit margins for construction companies. Also, by comparing off-site manufacturing of the National Space Station to what the construction industry should utilise and learn from.
The challenge will look at three core areas:
- How we manufacture buildings
- How we design & manage buildings
- How we power buildings
In doing this, it is hopeful that the construction industry can deliver newly-built assets 50% faster and 33% cheaper, halve the lifetime emissions and improve whole-life performance. Cross fertilisation between construction and manufacturing is what is needed, engaging with each other to accelerate progress to help reach the KPIs set.
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Read more about our automation here…
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- Robotic Automation
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- Cost of Industrial Automation
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