The Tech-Revolution!

Several new technologies have been making inroads in India. SC Dixit, Executive Director, Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering & Construction, elaborates.

• With the introduction of Internet of Things (IoT), an engineer can review the project progress real time on his mobile phone.
  
• Nowadays, we are also able to conduct satellite surveying of the entire contour, and access details of what is happening at the ground level.
  
• With the use of drones, we are not only able to conduct surveys, but capture activities on-site from a 360 degree perspective 24/7.
  
• The industry is now growing further on robotics. We are experimenting through robots on our site by using robotic block work for the walls. This activity does not involve labour – through the robotic
• process, blocks are lifted and the wall is created. From productivity point of view, this is a significant move.
  
• We need to look at creating a drywall system so that it is faster, factory-made and requires minimal labour.
  
• Further, there is a SAP system, which integrates the entire system from financing to process control to procurement to delivery to store inventory. RFIDs are now being tagged on to materials. We can also tag RFID to the labours to monitor them on site. So productivity can be measured.
  
• 3D printing is going to be the future. At Shapoorji Pallonji, we are at the early stages of adopting this technology.
  
• Beyond BIM what is being spoken about now is virtual reality (VR). You could walk through the entire project in advance, analyse the product and minimise mistakes.