Year 2019 has witnessed rapid advances in MEP space, chief among them has been integration of technologies in their design and engineering processed by all the major players in MEP space. Engineering is a rapidly evolving field and MEP is no exception to this as the explosion of information has permeated through to engineering and construction industry as well. Internet of Things & Big Data are not just buzzwords for this industry and are being leveraged by them in business processes to gain a competitive advantage. Keeping this in mind we have compiled a list of 5 Mega Trends that are in play in 2020 and should be given due consideration by entire MEP business ecosystem.
1. Digitalization including Big Data and AI
Digitalization will be full steam in 2020 and it will lead to complete automation of standardized tasks especially at the design stage so that engineers and designers can focus on tasks and activities that are value additive. Moreover Big Data will lead to huge improvements in optimization of products and services. This humongous amounts of data also needs to be stored as well, earlier this was essentially stored by Engineering companies at their own captive data centers but now the trend is towards cloud which makes this data on demand as then it can be easily accessed by any kind of device, anywhere and at any time. This data is also too humongous to be processed meaningfully by human intelligence so we have also seen a major adoption of Artificial Intelligence in this space. Incorporation of AI in data processing and analysis can drive massive improvements in project management, risk management, lifecycle management and thus reducing costs massively.
2.Adoption of Drones
Usage of Drones is not just limited to gadget freaks and military but has been rapidly adopted by Construction and Engineering industry as well. They are being now deployed across construction sites for inspection and monitoring purpose. Large quantum of humans were required to sweep a large construction site but by leveraging drones this can be done very quickly. This has reduced turnaround time of many activities massively. Drones surveillance also enables detection of issues that can be easily missed by human eye. On sites having difficult terrains, drones are indispensible to construction companies and contractors as human surveyors are exposed to massive risks of injury on these sites.
3.Augmented Reality
AR in Construction Industry was dubbed as something that won’t have material impact but in last few years there has been massive amount of use cases of AR across all stages of construction from design-construction-operations-facility management in construction and engineering industry. AR has become very important in visualizing the progress of construction. Augmented Reality also ensures smooth interaction between engineering/construction firms and their clients thus having a material impact on reducing Project Life Cycle Time and costs. Real-time maintenance visualization though use of AR is one of the most potent use cases of AR as Specialized packages (hardware and software kits) like Daqri, allows to look into a building’s walls to detect water pipes, HVAC, wiring and more. To know more about the role of Augmented Realty in transforming construction and engineering firms you can have a look at our blog.
4.Sustainable Architecture Practices
Construction and Engineering firms have now realized the importance of sustainable architecture practices and its going to be a mega trend for 2020. There has been growing adoption of Environmentally friendly products in construction that have zero or near zero energy footprint.
There has been a growing trend of retrofitting and remodeling of existing projects as well.
Construction firms are focussing a lot on reduce construction-occupant-demolition related waste generation footprint of projects as well
Adoption of Energy Performance Modeling to aid the sustainable design movement
5.Prefabrication
Pre-fabrication of buildings and part of building has been prevalent for a few decades now but this trend has really caught on as all construction areas have embraced this to reduce costs and control environmental footprint of projects. It has enabled quicker construction of buildings sometimes even 50-70% quicker which brings down the cost of project substantially. Prefabrication is also driving trends like Model-driven prefabrication, Model-driven ops, procurement and maintenance and Site Safety Planning. It is also interlinked with RFID &IoT as prefabricated parts often can be monitored through sensors for capturing there condition and other contours like Energy Efficiency.
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