Can the Construction Industry Be Disrupted?

Construction is often maligned as the industry that technology left behind. Industry observers routinely deride the lack of technological sophistication in the construction industry, and have pigeon-holed it as old-fashioned and lagging behind more forward-looking and purposeful industries such as manufacturing. But that view ignores where the industry has advanced — specifically, in information management systems that have created significant gains. Moreover, it fails to take into account why automation and robotics don’t work on jobsites, which is that they’re often a poor fit for the dynamic environments that bear little resemblance to factory floors. Understanding why some tech takes root and why some doesn’t, however, is essential to making smart investments in new tools and systems.