The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has issued a sector directive on using AI and data to drive better health and safety outcomes.
The CLC said its Information Management Initiative (IMI), which it developed with Nima – formerly known as the UK BIM Alliance – will stimulate “sector-transforming capabilities in applying emerging digital technologies”, including AI, the internet of things (IoT) and digital twins.
It argued that better data management could lead to “significant benefits” for the sector, around cost, project value, health and safety, sustainability and performance.
The new document, which can be accessed here, includes a directive for industry, a route map to 2030 and principles for the sector to consider.
Industry organisations will be invited to sign up to the overarching principles as step one of the IMI’s plan.
Step two will involve asking those that sign up to the principles to create a set of rules specific to themselves, as well as a set of desired outcomes.
Those organisations will receive a framework and resources to help them push ahead with their data and information management.
CLC deputy co-chair Richard Robinson, who is also AtkinsRealis president of the UK and Ireland, said: “Effective management of trusted, quality information across the whole life of built and managed assets is a key foundation for growth, supporting a safe, healthy and sustainable environment where people, businesses and civil society can thrive.”
He added that the CLC will “require support from across the sector to bring about the changes in information management needed to become a more digitally-enabled industry”.
In July, Balfour Beatty mandated human-recognition cameras on large plant to improve site safety. The technology aims to prevent workers from being struck by moving vehicles.
Thirteen organisations, including engineering contractor McGee, the Construction Products Association (CPA) and AtkinsRealis, have already signed up to sponsor the IMI. But Nima and the CLC are calling for further support from across the sector.
Nima chair Anne Kemp, who is also a fellow and technical director for digital engineering and BIM strategy and development at AtkinsRealis, said the purpose of the IMI was “not to hinder, but to help, making things clearer and less ambiguous”.
“The aim is to ensure the new approach – the IMI – is relevant and achievable across the whole of the built and managed environment both now and in the future,” Kemp added.
The CLC’s push for greater use of technology in the sector follows a study by Costain last month, which said a wider use of technology in construction could boost the sector by £417bn within two and a half decades, months after the Chartered Institute for Building said construction workers should treat AI as a “new colleague.
The announcement also follows the decision in August by the CLC to abandon a tech project to use data as a way of eliminating retentions. It was shelved due to a lack of industry engagement.
