GEO Business & DCW Bulletin: Aptix delivers an integrated future for construction

Senior Product Manager for Topcon Aptix, Andy Evans, delivered a session on connecting people, processes, and technology at Digital Construction Week 2023. Here's a summary of everything Andy explored during the session.  

The great integration 

Construction projects have an almost unlimited number of moving parts, including people, processes, data, software, and equipment – and they each have a crucial role to play in the process. Most are fluent with technology in their own role, and all are united in the end goal of completing the project; however, this is where integration between these different parts usually ends, and our projects suffer for it.

When the different stages of the process and their data remain in their individual silos, the lack of connected data makes it difficult to pool expertise or advice, or create opportunity for contractors working on later stages to flag changes that will affect their work. The result of this lack of integration is the potential for errors to be compounded, as the next stage of the project is completed by a different contractor or team who may be unaware that anything is amiss; multiplying the time and money needed to correct something that could’ve been spotted much earlier.

Building information modelling (BIM) is going some way to addressing this problem, and those using digital twins are seeing that proactively and openly sharing data comes with financial rewards. However, the technology is yet to be expanded to the point where all the stakeholders on a project can take advantage of it, manage multiple projects at the same time, or transfer the benefits of a connected project for use on other projects. Likewise, it doesn’t allow active monitoring of onsite operations to ensure that what’s planned is what’s built.

Integration must be priority for the construction community as it pushes on with digitalisation, because the benefits of getting it right will be significant. BIM is just the starting point for an integrated industry that will see us build digital twins of entire cities with all the data required to complete a project and share it with all the relevant stakeholders when they need it. More importantly, we’ll be able to establish an accepted and consistent way of working with digital technology, put in place proper processes and establish a universal best practice like those that we rely on offline.

Introducing Aptix  

This ‘construction metaverse’ is a vision for the future, but Aptix is how Topcon is working to integrate different parts of the construction process today.

The Integration Platform brings together third-party applications and data throughout the construction process, including machine control and telematics, to give construction professionals a detailed and comprehensive view of everything happening on site and the complete picture of the overall design. It creates a valuable, real-time link between the office and the site, pulling data from working machines and providing operators with exactly what they need to complete their task, all from one intuitive interface.

Aptix can also help construction professionals feeling the squeeze in a difficult market by allowing them to do more with less and get the best out of their resources. Bringing everything together into one place, Aptix makes it easier for decision-makers to connect the dots; chase inefficiencies; and measure the management of design and schedules with productivity as the priority.

Like a finished building, the construction industry is a massive entity built on countless smaller parts, all of which must fit together perfectly. This makes integration a foundational requirement, one which becomes more difficult to achieve the more datapoints we gather and the more advanced our technology becomes. Aptix is designed to make sense of it all and bring everyone onto the same page.

For more information on Aptix, click here.