Construction Prefabrication and Robotics: Job Site Threat or Opportunity?

The construction industry is seeing prefabrication, robotics and automation solutions increase across the board. These new technologies save on costs, increase worker safety and improve quality control. But construction leaders should be proactive in engaging employees early if they’re bringing on these solutions. That’s because employees may be wary of change and could resist new processes, holding up the implementations and productivity along the way.  

In this episode, Christian Burger, president of Burger Consulting, shines a light on the latest prefab, robotics and automation technologies and explains how they benefit workers. He explains how construction leaders can engage their employees with new solutions by sharing how they’ll provide value and by establishing training protocols.

Key Takeaways:

1. There is a shortage of construction workers, but technology can help. The vast majority of construction firms need to increase their overall productivity. Technology such as robotics and automation can take on low-yield work like pouring cement and data entry so employees may focus on higher-value tasks.
2. Prefabrication technology streamlines and improves productivity. By leveraging prefabrication technologies, employees can be more effective and their output more accurate and reliable. That’s because it enables teams to work safely in warehouses and away from crowded job sites.
3. Implement the technology that gives immediate value. When starting to use technology to automate processes, start with the ones that will give you the most immediate impact with the least amount of pushback, such as labor tracking and bookkeeping. Same goes for your prefab and robotics efforts. Start with one job code at a time, and master that before moving on.