The Future of Automation
When you think of the future of automated construction, what comes to mind?
It’s easy to assume that the mental image of robots running around, and flying tools are simply outlandish thoughts. Turns out, it’s not actually that far from the advancements that are being made in the automated construction industry today through collaborations from businesses, governments, and academia. Many people think that the idea of automated construction is a relatively new one, however, automated construction has been a part of human history for over 2200 years, beginning with the terracotta army of Qin Shi Huang in 210 BCE. The army was made with a combination of traditional construction, offsite construction, and prefabricated techniques.
Moving closer to modern history, the well-known and loved department store, Sears, is also a perfect example of early automated construction. From 1908 to 1942, Sears had a very successful product made possible by automated construction. Known as, “Sears Modern Homes”, kit houses were sold to consumers through mail order. The Sears home kits were available in 370 different styles and contained most of the materials that the consumer needed to build a home. Sears successfully sold over 70,000 of these homes across the United States, most of which are still standing today!
Throughout human history, a lot has changed since the introduction of automated construction techniques 2200 years ago. Techniques have improved, many advancements have been made that were once deemed impossible, and the necessity of automated construction has never been higher.
So, why exactly is automated construction needed more now than ever before?
If you’re a business owner or laborer in the construction industry, you probably already know the largest part of this answer all too well: a shortage of skilled labor. While demand for new construction has only increased along with our population, the availability of skilled laborers has been steadily decreasing since the rise of high-tech jobs, combined with an aging population. As the newer generations enter the workforce, many often choose more tech-oriented jobs, over physically demanding manual labor jobs. Although exact figures are widely debated, the construction industry has another looming problem: It’s estimated that the construction industry is one of the slowest to improve labor productivity, continually ranking low in labor productivity indexes. This is due to a combination of the lack of skilled labor, supply chain issues and increasing material costs.
The construction industry is also one of the most wasteful industries globally. It’s estimated that construction consumes 40% of both the planet’s natural resources and 40% of global energy, only for 30% of construction material by weight to end up wasted at the end of a project. Coupled with the increasing demand for housing in areas with underdeveloped or non-existent supply chains and scarce resources, this industry will soon have to learn to build more with less.
Automation of construction is essential to meet the housing and environmental needs of the future. We already have a shortage of housing and it is estimated that by 2025, 1.6 billion people will be affected by the current housing shortage. The housing shortage is predominantly driven by the lack of labor within the industry which continues to drive up costs and push out timelines on project completion. There was once a time when building a house took about a month or two to complete. Today, a house completed in 12 months or more is considered standard.
Luckily for the construction industry, automation will help to solve all these issues. The construction industry of the future will be more oriented toward technological work, rather than manual labor. Programming machinery and designing robotics will soon be the new standard jobs in this industry, allowing business owners to be able to find more skilled labor, reduce errors on job sites, and utilize manual and automated labor more efficiently to complete projects in a timely fashion.
Recently, a huge win for automation construction took place when, in 2018, Autodesk and MassRobotics held the first, “Robotics in Construction Summit”. The event was intended to bring together the robotics industry with the construction industry so that the construction industry could find specific resolutions to issues and the robotics industry could find specific uses for their technology. Everything seems to be going well so far for the automated construction industry.
At this point in the article, you’re probably thinking, “Well, it isn’t all perfect yet. What about the jobs of everyone currently working in construction, what will happen to those people?”
There is a very high chance that technology will soon replace plenty of labor-heavy tasks on a typical construction site. But that doesn’t mean that manual labor will cease to exist or that any jobs will be lost in this transition. Rather, a typical job in the construction industry will instead be altered to include less manual labor and more technology-based work.
While technology will simultaneously increase efficiency on job sites and decrease waste from the construction industry, it will also have massive benefits for the construction labor force. As the newer generations enter the workforce in search of jobs in the technology industry, more jobs will be available in machinery management and construction engineering.
As new jobs open in automated construction, demand for manual labor-intensive jobs will also increase. Plus, switching from manual labor to automated construction is a slow and gradual process and won’t happen overnight. There is still a massive discrepancy between the jobs available in the construction industry and the types of jobs that the newer workforce is seeking. That means that everyone currently employed in construction has two massive opportunities coming up, They can either choose to continue to work in traditional construction, which will still always provide them with sufficient job opportunities or they could choose to upskill themselves through their current employer or by seeking additional education to qualify for the tech-oriented jobs that will soon be available and get paid more to do so!
We don’t know about you, but PLAEX is ready and looking forward to being a leader in the future of the automated construction industry! PLAEX products are already helping to reduce the amount of job site waste that ends up in landfills and our production processes have and will continue to be developed with automation in mind.
What is it about PLAEX products that makes them ideal for the future of construction?
First and most importantly, PLAEX products are already helping to solve some of the biggest issues in the construction industry. PLAEX products are less expensive than traditional building materials, require less skilled manual labor, can be assembled faster and then can be easily modified to reflect any changes to the project plan.
Due to the predictability of PLAEX products regarding the modular shape, standard sizing, and simplicity of building with PLAEX products; PLAEX products will benefit builders whether it be with manual labour or automated construction. From highly advanced machinery to typical DIY’ers, anyone can build using the PLAEX system. PLAEX products will also be very important in the future of environmental protection and disaster prevention. PLAEX products use the waste of the past to build the future. A future that is strong enough to withstand any climate change-accelerated natural disasters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Modern_Homes
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/how-to-fix-global-housing-crisis/
