Digital Construction Works (DCW) Focuses on Construction Technology Integration

Sanjay Gangal, CEO and president of AECCafe, recently interviewed Jason Hallett, CEO of Digital Construction Works (DCW).

Founded in 2019, DCW is a separate services company offering digital automation, integration and digital twinning services and fit-for-purpose solutions. The aim is to simplify digital transformation for the construction industry. DCW solutions span every phase of the project – from planning to construction and operations through to asset management – creating a digital thread that connects technologies and workflows. Because DCW is a completely new separate company, it can be agnostic to technology and process improvement. This way, technology follows the operational process change but doesn’t lead it.

Sanjay: Thank you so much for joining us, Jason. Tell us a little bit about Digital Construction Works?

Jason: DCW was founded in 2019 as a joint venture between Topcon group and Bentley Systems. Our staff is comprised of construction industry subject matter experts and application developers. We’re focused on trying to really integrate the technologies that are out there used on construction projects and make the flow of information more seamless while executing construction.

Sanjay: Okay. What are some of DCW’s most recent projects?

Jason: When we started Digital Construction Works was largely doing 4D services, helping people implement advance work packaging and building out their models, for example. And then it dawned on us that there was something truly missing in the industry and that was something that we were having to develop for ourselves, actually. It was the integration of these various technologies, the data sources and the automation of workflows and delivering analytics. We started doing it for ourselves and realized, well, maybe we should make this something we offer to our clients. So, we actually pivoted the organization and started hiring more developers to build out what we call the DCW Integrations Platform.

Sanjay: And what has the pandemic meant for DCW?

Jason: We’re all excited to see the pandemic end hopefully soon, but primarily what happened during the pandemic was that companies had to really redefine the workplace. We had to find ways to deliver projects with conditions that we really hadn’t seen before in our history. We had to get used to things like working remote, and we had to develop detailed plans for disruption caused by illness or exposure or constantly changing regulations. So, I really believe that the emphasis on planning and the ability to monitor and track activities in near real time became essential. For us we see it as, if you can quickly measure what has been done versus what was planned, you can adjust the plan faster and manage the execution of any project better.

Sanjay: What kind of applications does DCW integrate?

Jason: We like to say that we integrate what should be integrated as long as it can be integrated. So, there are always dependencies, right? There’s some stuff that’s maybe not open or not available, but we really try to take a look at what our clients have in their existing technology stack and start with their needs first and their existing tools first. We put that at the center of what we are trying to do versus saying, let’s put a tool at the center and you have to do some wide sweeping change to move your organization to our methodology. We reversed it. We put them in the center and then we integrate their tools.  This is actually generating a lot of added value beyond customers’ current investments, and it also allows them to oftentimes avoid that retraining cost, which everybody knows is largely and often underestimated.

Sanjay: Can you give some examples of integrations?

Jason: One example that we recently did, we wanted to prove what we could do on a highway project and we actually took the Topcon Sitelink3D machine control application from our shareholders’ portfolio, and the hauling features of that as well as their mass hall estimation tool magnet project and we integrated that with SYNCHRO 4D so that we can actually move all of the tasks and model data out to the machines automatically. Then while those machines are performing in the fields, Sitelink collects the information around the halls and the information out there and moves that back to SYNCHRO as the actuals, if you will. So, now that you have planned versus actual, and you can then make near real time decisions where before you might be waiting for someone to aggregate the data and then provide a report and you wouldn’t have the information in enough time to really take proper action.

Jason: Another example: we were working with a big client, Mortenson, who wanted to gain real time visibility into the critical path of material fabrication, delivery, and installation. They also wanted to streamline the process of updating all their material resources and the status of that in their 4D model. If you stack the pandemic supply chain issues on that, it was even more important than ever for them to integrate and automate and streamline materials management. We integrated the Jovix RFID materials management solution with their Tekla IFC design data and then we integrated that with SYNCHRO 4D so we could provide our representation of the job site at any moment in time. So that’s just a couple examples of how we take the various tools that the clients are using and bring them together to create that greater visibility.

Sanjay: What is on the horizon for DCW?

Jason: One of our shareholders, Bentley Systems, recently acquired Sensemetrics. We are now integrating the Sensemetrics solution as we speak, because we believe if you are going to move toward level three autonomy someday, the whole ecosystem of the construction project has to be aware of everything that’s happening within it, and the monitoring side of it is just another piece. We are really moving into being able to connect with monitoring solutions and sensors that are out in the field, as well as the monitoring solutions from the top corner side of the optical instruments and the GNSS instruments. So now we are moving all of that in to connect to the platform. So now you can put schedule, Sensemetrics data and planning data together to really create almost a living digital twin.

Sanjay: Okay. What regions of the world do you provide your services?

Jason: The DCW currently focuses primarily on North America and Europe at this time.

Sanjay: What is the best way for our audience to find out more about DCW on the internet?

Jason: Go to www.digitalconstructionworks.com, or you can check us out on our YouTube channel as well. Just search for Digital Construction Works.

Tags: covid-19, digital twin, facilities management, Open BIM, Year In Infrastructure 2019

Categories: 2D, 3D, AEC, AECCafe, apps, architecture, Bentley Year In Infrastructure 2019, BIM, building information modeling, civil information modeling, collaboration, construction, construction project management, engineering, integrated project delivery, point clouds, project management, site planning, SITEOPS, TopCon, Video Interview, YII 2019

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