Initially, the goal of connecting office and field staff at active construction jobsites may have simply been to eliminate the need of physically delivering design file updates as changes came up. But then that goal expanded far beyond. Now, we expect and rely on pipelines of data to flow. Listen in to learn how the industry is leveraging connection for production.
Initially, the goal of connecting office and field staff at active construction jobsites may have simply been to eliminate the need of physically delivering design file updates as changes came up. But then that goal expanded far beyond. Now, we expect and rely on pipelines of data to flow. Listen in to learn how the industry is leveraging connection for production.
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Speaker 2:Hello everyone. And thanks for listening today. Uh, today we're going to be talking about the connected job site. My name is Mike Whalen and I'm the product manager for Topcon's cycling 3d services. And today I'm happy to be joined by my friend, Scott Lang from digital construction works. Scott, how about we take a second here and let you, uh, tell a little bit about yourself and what you do with, uh, digital construction works.
Speaker 3:Sure. Thanks, Mike. Um, yeah, I'm uh, currently managing or directing the partnership program or different partners that work with digital construction works. Um, joined digital construction works after about 20 years of working with, uh, survey measurement, positioning technology and, uh, joined the new organization, um, as a digital integrations, uh, we're, we're a services company. We can be hired for consulting to help construction companies and construction professionals be more digital in what they do and, uh, building those connections and between technology and people and going digital that's that's my job.
Speaker 2:Yep. And I, I certainly think there's a great need for that out there, uh, in today's digital world. Right. But, uh, you know, as I was, uh, preparing for today's, uh, uh, topic of the connected job site, you know, I started trying to think to myself, you know, well, what is a connected job site? And it kinda got me thinking back to my, uh, introduction to cite link and, and, uh, uh, uh, connected job site. And, uh, I thought I'd just start today with kind of a little bit of a backstory and, and, uh, kind of discuss how, where we started with site link, you know, with the idea of a connected job site in and what it's kind of evolved into today and where we think it's kind of going in the future. So, uh, if you, if you don't mind, Scott, I just start with that. And, uh, you know, me and my background, but, uh, for those that are listening, that, that, uh, don't know that I'll, uh, I'll be completely honest and say, I, I started on the other side of the fence, you know, I was, before I came to Topcon, I was actually a Topcon customer. And, uh, as, as you know, I worked for a, a fairly large civil contractor for over 25 years and I was managing, uh, their machine control, their surveying and kind of everything that falls out of that, right. Um, all the, all the 3d modeling, the volume calculations that the system maintenance and so forth. But, uh, anyway, um, you know, we, we're always experimenting with new technologies and, and, you know, trying to keep that edge on our competition. Uh, so we were early adopters of GPS, uh, technology, machine control, technology, and so forth. And anyway, I, I lose track of time, but it was probably somewhere in the 2007, 2008 timeframe that a Topcon had reached out to us. You know, we had been, uh, pretty heavily invested in Topcon equipment and, uh, they reached out to us and they had this, uh, they wanted to have a meeting and, and present this concept that they had for this, uh, thing that we're calling sitelink. Right. Of course we said, yes. And a couple of weeks later, we gathered everybody up in a big conference room, some of our executives, project managers, equipment managers, and a couple of guys from Topcon. So, uh, so then the top gun guys, they start explaining their, their ideas for this thing they call sitelink right, and how it's going to involve connecting all of our machine control systems and rovers, uh, to the internet. And, you know, they exp went on to explain some of the things that are going to be possible once, once they get those, those things connected. Now you got, remember, you know, this is back in 2007, 2008. It doesn't seem that long ago, but, but I mean, if you really think back, these are the days before I-phones, before Android even existed, you know, there were no mobile apps or anything like that. So, um, being able to read your email on a Blackberry was a big deal back then. Um, but anyway, um, as, as the guys at Topcon, they started to explain these different things that we're going to be able to do. Once we get these, these, uh, machines and these rovers connected, you know, they're going to be, we're going to be able to send a 3d models, you know, make these changes, any changes that come in, we can send those directly out to the machines. We're going to be able to, uh, support our operators remote, you know, through a remote desktop, uh, application and, uh, be able to train them and do any troubleshooting and keep them, keep them running. Um, you know, be able to see them in our software package, in our 3d office software and so forth. You'd be able to see the machines, what they're doing. Who's running the machine, um, in real time, what surfaces they're grading to, what offsets they've got set, see all this information, right, right in front of you, and, um, be able to message the operators and so forth. So this was all really, really new stuff for us, you know, and really kind of game changing. Um, but, uh, but then they started to explain a little more and they started explaining how that getting these machines connected. You know, we're going to also not just be able to see what they're doing, but we're going to be able to record what they're doing so everywhere that machine moves throughout the day, you know, we're able to track and actually record some as-built data from that machine. What that cutting edge is, is grading too and so forth and collect that just like we're out there collecting a Topo survey, but now we're doing it in real time all day, every day, while the machines are working and having that information, uh, streaming into, uh, into sitelink is going to allow us to generate reports, calculate these volumes, um, and actually see some of this information in real time. So that was, you know, kind of blew us away a little bit. And we were really amazed at some of that. So anyway, the, the, the, the top gun guys, they start wrapping up their presentation and, you know, we're all kind of looking at each other like, wow, this is, you know, this is pretty incredible, but then, but then th and this is kind of why I wanted to tell this story is because something that really stuck out to me is, you know, as we began to ask questions, um, everybody seemed to have a little bit of a different take on what they just heard. You know, everybody kind of heard how sitelink or just job site connectivity is going to ease some of their pains. Right. Um, you know, me as the, the guy that's responsible for managing these systems and training the operators and so forth on how to do all this, I saw what was going to help me be an able to send the files straight to the machines, being able to remotely connect and help the operators that was going to help me a lot. But then you get the project managers, you know, they're, they're the ones that are going to be looking for some of this data. That's going to be streaming. And, you know, some of this real time productivity information, they're interested in that. And then you get the owners that there, he's more interested in. How am I, how's this going to save me money? Am I going to, you know, now I'm going to be able to have less supervisors on the job. If, if I can have one or two super one or two supervisors doing what it was taking three or four supervisors to do by remotely, uh, managing some of this and being able to monitor these, uh, multiple operations at the same time, that's going to save me money. And, and so that's kind of where I, why I wanted to tell that story is that job site kinda activity has so many different means so many different things to so many different people. And, um, you know, that's back in the days when there was not even, you know, basically sitelink was the only job site connectivity service out there. Then now, you know, fast forward, you know, 15 years, and now there's all these different applications. There's cloud services, texts, mobile phones. I mean, there's all these different bits of technology and services out there. And it, you know, the genie's kind of out of the bottle now, and it's exploding in every direction with this connectivity. So I guess, uh, you know, my question to you is, is, you know, we've got all this data flying all over the internet now in all these different different services and how do your customers, how are they starting to, you know, try to wrap their arms around it and make sense of it and consolidate some of that information and, and use it to their advantage.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think you're right that, um, you know, looking back when you see different people in your organization there, as a, as a user different people saw different benefits for what role they had to fulfill. And, uh, same thing applies now. Um, you know, we've, we see a multitude of apps on people's phones, you know, uh, inspection guys coming in with different apps on their iPads. We see the machines coming out of the factory, uh, with built in GPS, built in telematics. What else, you know, you've got surveyors on the job site, multiple engineers and surveyors on the job site. So really the, the parts, all those digital parts have dramatically increased. And, uh, it's a challenge. It got, you know, it got to be pretty hard. It is pretty challenging for, for users. So, um, it, it does come down to who, you know, who you're talking to and what their interest is the same, your same need that you had about getting, you know, common design files and machine control files managed still exists. And people are still looking for that. You know, some of the big challenges today are mixed fleet, right. You know, the major major guys of, uh, machine manufacturers have, you know, they should kind of have their own telematics idea. They each have their own, um, you know, idea of managing data. So, you know, what happens if you're a, you know, a normal normal buyer and you have a mixed fleet of thing. So it mixed fleets are challenging. Um, so we get called into chitchat about that and talk about connecting, uh, various kinds of machines and mixed fleet software. You know, you could have, uh, if it's a public works project, you might have a design file coming at you in a certain way. If it's, uh, you know, private building more of a structure building BIM approach, you'll have data coming at you in a different format. And ultimately you want to bring them together and then work with all your subs. So it's, it's gone, but get more complex since Oh seven that's for sure. Um,
Speaker 2:No doubt. I mean, the, just the different, uh, the different people that are wanting that information now, you know, I was gonna say, initially it was just a contractor. We were just the contractor and, you know, we wanted that information, uh, for ourselves. Right. And, you know, there was nobody specking that we had to return this, this digital information to them as part of our contract. Whereas now we have so many of these, um, projects that are requiring that as part of, as part of the project is you have to return them this digital, um, digital as-built basically of, of what, of the work you did. So, um, that's, that's, the whole contract has kind of evolved because of connectivity and in this technology as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah. How did you get, how did you finally get the, the yes. You know, from your management and ownership? Like what, what finally said, yeah, we're going to go for this.
Speaker 2:Honestly, it, it kind of, it kind of evolved. It wasn't just a immediate yes. You know, it was first w we'll try it on this one job site. Right. And we, we did that and it, it proved itself. It was amazing. There was, it, it changed my life. This job site was about 250 miles away. And I probably would have spent, uh, you know, 50% of my time on the road or out of town, uh, away from home. But, but with technology, with sitelink, I was able to do that, you know, all the work that I needed to do from, from my office. And I didn't have to travel to the job site, uh, you know, maybe 5% of what I would have had to do before that. So, so we, after it saved us on that, that one, uh, job that we initially tried it on, it was, it was a given, it was a hands down that, uh, there's no doubt. This is, this is the way to go in the future. So, you know, we, we started spreading around and we adopted throughout out our whole fleet, uh, you know, across all the different job sites. So scattered around, you know, seven, eight States, uh, at the time. Cool. Another thing that, uh, that I wanted to touch on is, you know, that I think connectivity and, and there's certainly a lot of interest in how connectivity can play a role in a job site, safety, you know, obviously, um, uh, safety is forefront on every contractor's mind, all the time, very critical part. And, uh, you know, through connectivity now we're able to provide, uh, some sort of real-time visibility where people are at and what they're doing. Um, are they in a dangerous area that they shouldn't be in? You know, if I'm operating a machine, cannot, I see that guy that's on the ground behind me on, on my screen, on, in, inside my machine. Do I, do I know when there's, uh, somebody behind me? Uh, so, so, you know, connectivity, and I think that's just, you know, one of the aspects of where connectivity is going to play a role in safety in the future, do you have some of your contractors or your customers as well, um, looking to improve safety and all through, through, uh, the job site. Yep.
Speaker 3:Yeah. In fact, when you, you mentioned the, uh, like, uh, having an area of a job site, that's unsafe made me think of the potential that we actually all have a six foot zone around us, this unsafe, you know, with the, uh, with the COVID site restrictions and different things. There's, there are a lot of, uh, I guess you would call them exclusion zones right now. Um, so we, you know, we, we lived through the COVID time, so it was that helped, uh, heighten the level of safety quite a bit, and, and really bring it to the worker, you know, worker positioning. And, um, so we have a number of technologies that we see out there that are tracking, you know, the, the individual and maybe they had to, uh, they were, they were wearing something to, to know whether that person was bending over to pick something up and whether he was, you know, having correct posture. And, you know, there are some human tracking devices out there that help with, uh, job site safety like that. And, uh, now a few of them have committed, you know, to, uh, some specific application that will record your proximity of people, to people for, uh, you know, COVID, so it's, you know, that connected people on the job site for the employer to know that people are being as safe as possible in, in, uh, in, in COVID times. And, you know, I think it's more applicable to our customers who talk about, um, who we're working on refineries, you know, more of the industrial plant refinery, uh, BIM environment, you know, close-quarters certainly different than, uh, you know, operating a dozer and coming too close to, uh, to a scraper or something. But, um, yeah, but it's, that, that was the most recent thing that came to mind. Um, you know, beyond that the, you know, the connectivity challenges, uh, you know, really go back to, uh, just the, the number of number of programs that a person has on their phone, you know, and, uh, really worrying about, you know, uh, trying to get that, that information connected back to a central job is it's the fundamental is a site link. I remember, I remember the days you, you spoke about well and, and Oh seven about just having a central location for everything to be shared. We were the customers that we talked to or users that we talked to today really want that central location to share the information, whether it's data file, time sheets or employee safety, because a lot of the management is, you know, stuck in a protected office or, uh, somebody, you know, working from home, you know, to support their family and, uh, and through the COVID days. So, you know, this shared location of all the information is, is, is really critical.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. No doubt. The, uh, um, COVID, I think has probably had an impact. And, you know, I don't know that it's, it's, uh, changing what's really happening as far as people that are actually physically working on the job site, but certainly the management aspect of being able to remotely manage the job site, um, is definitely, has definitely playing a big part. So, Scott, uh, earlier, you know, we were talking about how technology has really evolved and things have changed over time. Um, you know, and, you know, today there's this term, the cloud, right. And what is the cloud? Well, you know, when, when sitelink started originally site, the cloud was a server that was sitting in my office that was storing all this data and processing, you know, so there was very, very slow, limited processing power in general. I mean, it was a huge improvement over a thumb drive and, and so forth, but, but, uh, you know, what the cloud has evolved into today, you know, we've moved everything from these server based, uh, services and applications into the cloud where all this data is being stored and in all these different places and, uh, trying to aggregate all that together and, and make sense out of it is, is really, uh, difficult and our, how our people, your customers, beginning to integrate, um, these different cloud storage areas of, of, you know, where all their data is stored. How is that being integrated in?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. There's, it's, it is a challenge, the, uh, the cloud, I remember, you know, yeah. Just trying to explain the cloud about where you would store data and, uh, you know, the cloud has certainly evolved into a very cloudy sky, right? There's lots of clouds, you know, like I look at it, it's nice day out my window. There's not many clouds today, but, um, there's a hundred clouds out there for probably every construction professional that they could, uh, they could touch on you. So one might be recording man hours, you know, one could be a cloud connection to his subcontractor who he's really happy with working and he trusts the data there. And then it could be another cloud connection to the subcontractor that he knows he has to really watch the data because there'll be some kind of change order dispute later. So, um, we get a lot of, uh, users, uh, asking about how to connect that information, like in, in integration. So there's, you know, we know about like the cloud and the cloud being available for some applications and software, so like software as a service through the cloud. Um, there's, there's, there's a new aspect of that where it's an integration platform as a service. So it's a company and there, there are a few of them out there that are building an environment and integration platform that can, you know, grab a file from the, um, or not just a file, but grab information from the seal fabricator, you know, the company that's building the steel and, uh, exchange that file from their cloud into the plan and the pro uh, procurement plan of the project, and then deliver it to the job site for the guy that's literally standing on the job site, receiving the there's, the fabricated steel parts and pieces, and getting ready for a, uh, install. Um, you know, what I just said there involves connecting three or four different cloud sources of information. So, um, you know, I would, I would say we're at the beginning, you know, there there's some out there and we're at the beginning of it, the company I work for now is, is taking that on very much on the project, uh, approach, you know, engaging with a client and seeing what their specific need is to connect the different, uh, cloud sources or different sources of information. So we're, we're providing that kind of integration platform to, to fit whatever that specific client's project is. And kind of, like you said, your story about, um, you know, site link, you, you brought it onto one project to prove it, you know, and that probably took months to years or something, and then it just stuck. Right. And you kept doing it more and more confusing and more and more that's where we're at with integration platform, uh, work where we're, we're taking a project at a time for our client building it out specifically for what they need. And, and then, uh, the anticipation that they'll continue to roll that out in their later platforms. So, um, rather than just one cloud, we have a lot of clouds and it's, uh, it's our job to, to integrate those, you know, to connect the clouds. And, uh, you know, I think back in the day when top gun launched magnet, and I think we were calling it cloud surfing, something like that, like surfing between, think of it as, uh, a web based version of AutoCAD and, uh, uh, you know, a job site, uh, field software, you know, so we're still doing the same, but it's, it's just really cloudy. There's a ton of clouds out there, you know?
Speaker 2:Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, that kind of makes me think too, you know, one of our original, uh, things that we had, that where we were trying to figure out how to integrate some of this data or bring cloud information together from different sources was we were trying to associate, um, our, our hauling, uh, productivity with fuel burn. Right. And, and those telomeres, telematics, uh, metrics are stored in a different cloud than our haul productivity. So bringing those together and kind of, and merging those together was going to be one of the first things that we initially thought of trying to, uh, integrate these clouds. And this is, you know, years ago, but, uh, certainly that's, that's, uh, just one example of a lot of different, different, uh, clouds out there and how that data can be, needs to be aggregated somewhere. Yeah. So Scott, something else I was wondering is, uh, your, your typical customers, are they coming to you for advice on which cloud services or which, uh, connect, you know, job site connectivity services to use, uh, or are, do they already have these different job, psychotic activities to you that they're using and asking you, how do we bring these together? Um, talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's probably more the latter, it's pretty much taking whatever kind of a situation they have, the different, um, telemedics things that they might have, or the different supply chain, uh, steel fabricator app program that they use. Uh, so it's definitely taking what they have today and improving it, uh, in, in a platform environment for them specifically for them. So, um, although we have my colleagues that I work with, a number of them came over with a lot of experience and, uh, brought knowledge of different tools. And we, you know, we all have our kind of favorites or preferred tools. Um, we're very much, uh, a middle ground, uh, don't really care integrator. Like we're an agnostic group that if somebody has got a mixed fleet of software and a mixed fleet of machines, um, that's the perfect challenge for us because, um, we're, we're capable of getting in there and pulling the data, uh, together. And, and, you know, when, when we pull it together, what it looks like at the end are various reports that, uh, dashboard reports or, you know, bar charts of people, performance, machine performance, supply chain performance. Uh, so we, you know, that's, what's important to us is what the result, like what the resulting visual looks like, and, uh, we'll work with whatever, whatever tools sensor machine program the client has.
Speaker 2:Sure. So you kind of customize, um, for every customer, you kind of give them a customized solution.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's, it's custom with, you know, with the people that we have. So we are, my colleagues are all pretty well experienced in different aspects of 40 planning or reality capture or, uh, you know, business dashboard work. Uh, so it's, it's tailored. Like it's a, it's a tailored approach for that client. So, you know, we know what the client ultimately wants to see improvement, and we've had enough experience to know, you know, there's a, there might be a quick and dirty way to make an integration, you know, with a flat file or something. That's not very repeatable, but if we, if we push a little bit more and we talked to both companies that are involved, we can usually pull out some digital API exchange or some digital connection, you know, to get that connected, uh, repeatable, connected integration platform.
Speaker 2:Right. And you know, that, that also reminds me of, you know, you know, back in the day, there was no that it wasn't, anybody's job to manage all this technology and all this, uh, this connectivity and all this data coming from all these different sources really. And it's kind of, um, changed the workflows, I guess. And that's, I think one of the hardest things for some, some of, um, some companies to adopt is to change their workflows right. Into retrain people on, on these new systems and how to use them and so forth. And are you guys, uh, helping in that regard as well? Are you, um, you're, you're kind of customizing this new platform for them, and then do you go through the training and helping them? Uh,
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is the, the, uh, there are a couple of guys, a couple of guys and gals on the team that are specialists in what they refer to advanced work packaging and advanced work packaging is, uh, you know, embraced by some of the largest construction groups in the world. You know, the large APCs, uh, large companies building refineries and super mega projects. So this advanced work packaging, um, really is that consulting approach. It's, it's, it's consulting about a process on how you do the job. So we, we break things down into people, process and technology, so three things, and we go in with, with the people, and we can work with the people that are on staff or supplement with a consultant from us. And then the process we need to know the management, uh, agrees and embraces the training time or the re three factoring of the process time. And then the technology is just us doing a technology assessment, you know, finding out what the client currently uses, what kind of projects they want to do next, what they need to be ready for. And, uh, you know, we, we build around that, that three there's three very important points to us people process and technology.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's great. Cause there's, there's definitely a need for that out there. I think there's a lot of people that, you know, see all these, you know, they're being have all these different technologies thrown at them and they have to kind of, they don't, they don't know really, um, how to handle it. And I think it even, it scares them a little bit. Right.
Speaker 3:So again, it could scare off week, you know, back when we first talked about the cloud, if you remember, uh, that I, I was in enough rooms, uh, making presentations back back in the day that that in itself was, was scary, you know, and we had to, we have to make it simple, you know, and that's what happened next. Right? A lot of application builders, a lot of software companies made their applications that do work in the cloud, connect to the cloud, uh, made them simpler and easier and less scary. And the adoption went up huge. So right now there's thousands of people, tens of thousands of people on construction sites using cloud-based apps. And, uh, we're hoping to hoping to connect them, to make it, make it easier for, for them in their connected, connected world, connected job site.
Speaker 2:Right. You know, our ultimate goal here at top gun is we w we want to see every machine connected, a hundred percent job site connectivity. We want to make things work. We're trying to make it cheaper. We're trying to make it easier. We're trying to make the information that sitelink provides more valuable and easier to, uh, easier to disseminate for the customer.
Speaker 3:You're, uh, you're helping customers be competitive because with, without leveraging that, I, I see a number of companies from, you know, largest construction company in the world to, uh, you know, a few trucks and a few machines and connectivity is always a benefit. So if you're, if you're going to provide that as a goal, when you're connecting their machines and information, you're going to keep them competitive and keep them in, uh, moving forward. So that's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. That's that's the bottom line is got to stay competitive. You always looking for that edge right there over your competition. All right, Scott, uh, we're, we're just about out of time for today, but, uh, I want to thank you for coming and sharing your information about DCW and all the great work that you guys are doing. Um, where would you point your customers for, uh, some additional information or resources on researching job CA job site connectivity in general? Sure. My best source that
Speaker 3:I use is LinkedIn articles. Uh, if you, if you go in and, you know, if you're on LinkedIn, look up the, our company and digital construction works, uh, look up my name, Scott Lang bun. Um, I find some pretty cool articles out there about connecting various, various parts of the construction food chain. So it's LinkedIn articles. Um, our website, you can hit digital construction, works.com. You could see what we're doing with different projects and have some, some good examples there of, of what other other companies have done in the past. Um, we're not able to go to trade shows these days, Mike, you know, no, no, uh, no Vegas trips in the near future. So I think we all got to look
Speaker 4:That's right, right. Well, I, again, Scott, I appreciate your time today. Uh, thank you very much and thank all our listeners for listening again, have a great day.