[QUOTABLE] How Technology Can Solve Construction’s Workforce Shortage

Two contractors' technology managers At Procore software's user meeting answer the question, "What do you see coming next in construction technology?"

“In my opinion, the future of construction technology all comes down to analytics because we have such a workforce shortage right now,” says Dustin Burns, IT director with Kansas-City-based general contractor McCownGordon Construction. "And there’s so much waste in construction when you compare it to healthcare and manufacturing, the focus is going to be on becoming as efficient as possible in construction.

“It’s going to depend on business-intelligence dashboards (concise, simple presentation of comples data) because we want to know where waste is," says Burns. "It’s going to be tough for the industry, but I think it’s going to come down to workforce management – like tracking where people are on the site and when, and what’s the process they take to get from Point A to Point B.”

“I would say that’s absolutely accurate,” says Chandler Brooks, project engineer in operations technology at Dallas-based Andres Construction Services. “What we possibly take for granted right now is all the experience that’s about to leave the workforce. We’re going to have to rely more on the data that technology provides to help the younger guys, that don’t really have the experience, to make informed decisions. They’re going to be able to look at this information – with the help of the intuition of one or two higher-level guys – and make decisions.”