Unlike other industries, engineering and construction (E&C) has been slow to adopt new technologies and has never undergone a major transformation. As a result, productivity has stagnated over the last 40 years or, in some cases, even declined.

This unimpressive record looks set to change very soon, however, and very dramatically. Profound changes are already taking place—though not yet on a sufficiently wide scale—in many aspects of the construction industry. A famous phrase from the writer William Gibson fits the industry perfectly: The future is already here—it is just not evenly distributed.

The key is digitalization. More and more construction projects are incorporating systems of digital sensors, intelligent machines, mobile devices, and new software applications—increasingly integrated with a central platform of building information modeling (BIM).

The challenge now is to achieve widespread adoption and proper traction. Wherever the new technologies have properly permeated this fragmented industry, the outlook is an almost 20% reduction in a project’s total life cycle costs as well as substantial improvements in completion time, quality, and safety.

Construction Reconstructed in All Its Phases

Technological advances are now revolutionizing almost all points in the life cycle of a built asset, from conceptualization to demolition. Exhibit 1 shows the relevance of digital technologies along the E&C industry’s value chain.