Leveraging Technology for Collaboration
The Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Plan of Work is part of the Hensel Phelps Way, the combination of People, Processes, Partnership, and Technology in real-time collaboration. We plan, build, and manage every aspect of our projects to enhance our standard of care and processes. We collaborate with our project teams, including our owners, to identify opportunities to create efficiencies within our workflow and communications. We do this by leveraging technology to ensure our project teams have access to real-time data, allowing all decisions to be made with the best information possible.
Leading the Way in Innovation
Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS)
Small Unmanned Aerial Systems are becoming a common tool on Hensel Phelps projects. By integrating this technology into our daily processes we are able to provide our project teams accurate real time data onsite. This same data allows our Superintendents to verify excavations quantities, track progress, enhance safe material handling, site access, and maximize our logistics plans. Our Safety Managers are able to perform safety inspections with this same technology helping to make our sites even safer. Once constructed, we are able to capture as-built conditions and even detect heat loss from the building envelops with the infrared cameras mounted on the small Unmanned Aerial Systems.
Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR)
Hensel Phelps through the use of Augmented and Virtual Reality has allowed project teams to visualize the design overlaid on existing features in its final intended location on site, which allows for a more immersive viewing environment. Using Mixed Reality in conjunction with Head Mounted Displays, the user can experience a hands-free visualization of the model, which in turn expands the capabilities of workers on site. Project team members including our owners are able to visualize everything from Operating Rooms to Data Centers allowing us to get to Design completion much faster than we have in the past. Once on site we have been able to reduce rework tremendously by validating install ensuring that all systems are installed in the correct locations the first time!
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Deep Learning
Hensel Phelps is in the midst of working with key partners to develop ways to leverage Artificial Intelligence in the Construction Space. The recognition that the amount data is growing on every project and our ability as the human to process and analysis this data is extremely limited and inefficient, we are looking to leverage Machine and Deep Learning to help us better understand this data and in real time. With the ability to have the machine recognize the uniqueness within millions of different data points automatically it will give our project team members the best information possible to make critical decisions.
