While many professionals acknowledge the latency of the E&C industry to adopt new technologies, both demand and the requirement to use our resources more sustainably has forced many industry stakeholders to rethink their approach. In this issue, Austrian-formwork specialist, Doka, explains how its investment in R&D and providing a ‘whole project cycle’ is paying dividend.
The world’s urban population is increasing by 200,000 people per day; that is according to ‘Shaping the Future of Construction’, a report published by the World Economic Forum in May 2016 and while many sectors have been able to efficiently keep pace with demand, the engineering and construction sector has struggled. Representing approximately 6% of global GDP (and growing), ‘the E&C sector is currently the largest consumer of raw materials including 50% of global steel production and more than 3 billion tonnes of raw materials.’
According to the same report, the WEF cited eight topical areas which need to be addressed, specifically technology, materials and tools, processes and operations, strategy and business model innovation, people, organisation and culture, industry collaboration, joint industry marketing, regulation and policies and public procurement. Over the past thirty years, Doka has been focusing on how to support and implement these changes, both through its corporate philosophy of understanding the market and secondly through the development its R&D facilities from its headquarters in Amstetten, Austria.
Arguably, one of the most important disruptors across most markets in recent years has been digitalisation. Defined by Gartner as, “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities”, one of Doka’s most popular products is Concremote; a proprietary technology that remotely measures the compressive strength and age quality parameters of concrete, providing an alternative to early age laboratory and field-cured test specimens. Accredited by international quality assurance agencies including ASTM, DIN, British Standard, Eurocode and most recently the Dubai Central Laboratory Department, Concremote’s benefits cover quality, safety and economy while helping to reduce the environmental impact made by cement. According to in-house research, Concremote can provide a 40% increase in business value by reducing time and cost by 47% and 32% respectively, while increasing quality by 55%.
Speaking on behalf of the company, Doka Middle East and Africa Director Peter Vogel, said; “For us, innovation has always been at the heart of our corporate ethos. Having established our fully dedicated R&D department from our headquarters in Austria in 1990, we’ve been able to work and develop multiple products and systems that push the application of technology in the E&C sector and make the industry a safer and more efficient place to work. As such, Doka’s performance and market share has steadily increased since our arrival in the Gulf region over twenty years ago, and 2017 is on track to be another record breaking year.”
To read Doka’s full article, click here and turn to page 48 of Construction Leaders magazine, June 2017 issue.
