Author: Peggy Smedley
National Nanotechnology Day was October 9, and the 2024 NIOSH Nanotechnology Health and Safety Summit was last week. Nanotechnology offers a lot of opportunities for several industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, energy, automotive, and a few others. But let’s not put the cart before the horse. And as much as we all want to start celebrating, we still need to climb some tall mountains that are more than creating a few hurdles now. Following the development of the National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2000, the United States has been investing in nanotechnology, with the total proposed investment reaching $2.2 billion in…
We have come a long way with safety. If you journey back to the year 1960 and walked a construction jobsite, you would see very different work conditions than you see today. Hard hats were not mandatory yet and PPE (personal protective equipment) wasn’t the common three-letter jobsite acronym that it is today. Workers would be hanging from the top of buildings, with little gear to protect them. We have certainly come a long way, right? Yes and no. The reality is every year, one in 100 construction workers still get hurt bad enough to need time off work. We…
Construction is an industry that is best served when individuals learn from a mentor. Here’s what is really happening behind the scenes. In a blog I wrote over at Constructech, I noted two things can be true at the same time: a shortage of construction workers and so much ridiculous infrastructure that needs to be built. If I had a nickel, okay a $1, for every time I talked about this worker shortage issue in the last decade, I would bet we could have enough money to seriously assemble some cool people to mentor middle managers and help skill tomorrow’s…
The digital twin offers big opportunities for the construction industry, and it will change how contractors construct cities, buildings, homes, and infrastructure for many years to come. To help, the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) has released a report, Digital Twins in Construction and the Built Environment. The objective is to provide practical implementation strategies, while addressing the challenges of moving to an increasingly digital built environment. It digs into predictive maintenance, examples such as digital twin-enabled health monitoring of construction workers, and it also explores how BIM (building information modeling) can be integrated with digital twins for enhanced…
The manufacturing industry is facing a labor shortage—which is expected to have a significant impact on productivity and output for more than 39% of organizations throughout the next five years, according to research by Visual Components. This has been a big concern for many manufacturers for many years. In fact, The Manufacturing Institute suggests 78% of companies have even heightened concerns about this trend, with 75% struggling to fill roles. This is just not fodder for my column every week. What can be done? A lot. First and foremost, this should be a concern for every manufacturing executive in every…
In last week’s blog, I walked through many of the important questions we need to be asking before we make a big technology investment: who, what, when, and why? Once we address those, a bigger question becomes more prominent: the how? That’s right! Now we are critical juncture of asking how do we implement this technology? What key steps do we take? Answering this question is a bit more complicated but is critical to a successful technology implementation. Let’s assume you already know you are going to implement a piece of technology. You recognize there is a need inside your…
There are big opportunities with generative AI (artificial intelligence). It has the potential to increase efficiencies and innovate in all industries unlike anything we have ever seen before. We keep saying and now we are even hearing it. It also has the potential to bring big risks: data leaks, deep fakes, and so much more that businesses need to be aware of. Another thing businesses need to be aware of: legislation related to AI is coming and, in some states, it is already here. Let’s consider a few examples today. The ELVIS ACT In January of this year, Tennessee Governor…
Who? What? When? Why? These are all important questions to ask when making big software decisions in a construction firm. As construction companies move forward with new technologies, these four questions and many others will be key before making a big investment. Let’s walk through the power these “Ws” today. Who Should Invest in Technology? This is a fundamental question all construction companies should be considering today. Who should be investing in technology? This question has multiple layers. The most obvious question is what companies should be investing in technology. The most obvious answer is all companies because the reality…
As with any technological advancement, quantum computers create both an opportunity and a threat. The danger is a real one that businesses need to prepare for because quantum could mean traditional encryption methods are ineffective, giving nefarious cybercriminals an easy way to expose sensitive data. But let’s back up for a minute. At its core, quantum computing uses quantum bits or qubits, which can store more information than traditional computers, and can be helpful in industries such as automotive, healthcare, consumer electronics, just to name a few. Here’s the risk: While quantum computers have yet to outsmart today’s encryption, it…
Perhaps one of the biggest questions of this century is how we encourage young people to consider careers in industries such as construction, manufacturing, and more. Certainly, the answer is myriad. We can’t simply take one approach to this conundrum. The reality is we need to come at the worker shortage in construction from multiple angles, which is something I have discussed here on this blog, but a new survey has some interesting insights about how to attract the younger generation of construction workers to the industry. DEWALT and WorldSkills Intl., conducted a survey of young trade professionals across 69…