Oracle Launches A Construction and Engineering Innovation Test Lab
Construction productivity has been declining since the 1990’s (Mckinsey&Company).
With the rapid growth of digital technology and IoT, Oracle is developing a 15,000-sq-ft facility that provides a space for industry professionals to test new products – the Construction and Engineering Innovation Lab, in Deerfield, Ill.
According to research from Mckinsey&Company, large projects take 20% longer to finish than scheduled and are up to 80% over budget.
The innovation Lab by Oracle could be the key for construction. It can help encourage productivity and minimize projects that risk running over-time and over-budget by testing new technologies before placing them onto the job site not knowing how it will work.
The lab provides a space to assemble “in-progress” construction sites; As stated by the Senior Director for the industry strategy and innovation at Oracle’s Construction and Engineering global business unit, Burcin Kaplanoglu: “Every single day, companies reach out to us with new solutions they want to integrate. And we believe in the open ecosystem,” […] “But we didn’t have a place to test these technologies: We don’t have construction sites. So, this is a place for customers to be able to test out technologies with us, and for us to test out technology integrations.”
Mike Sicilia, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Construction and Engineering says, “IoT is coming into our space in great numbers, so it’s not uncommon now for drones, sensors or wearables to become end users of our products, providing data to our project management systems”. He says, “The real devil of a problem is how do you police, monitor and secure all of those different devices just like they were real end users?”
And that’s where the Innovation Lab comes in to answer those questions. David Wilson, chief innovation officer at Bechtel. Says, […] “that while Bechtel runs its own pilots, having a space where different technologies can be tested together without disrupting real jobsites is a plus. I want to see how things like data collection, AR, VR, how all that will mesh with the drones and the robots, so we can collect and distribute that data to the workforce.”
The whole idea is to have a mock construction site with the basics such as steel beams, gravel floors, internet and a construction trailer to help demonstrate these different technologies and to see if they are worth implementing.
Source: ENR.com
What do you think about this new Construction and Engineering Innovation Lab that is being constructed by Oracle? Leave your comments below.
