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Understandable, but not wise. In this article, we describe - and refute - the 5 most common reasons not to digitize.
Ad van Gils trains owners and construction professionals daily in the use of digital measuring equipment. Rob Homan is owner and dimensions manager at SME construction company Stamsnijder-Homan and invested in two total stations with which he now digitally measures and plots every construction site and project. Below you can read Ad's most common doubts when it comes to digitization, why Rob put them aside and how he did it.
Lean profit margins and growing prefab construction leave no room for even the smallest mistakes. This makes digitization not a luxury but a necessity. Rob: "Whether you have to plot points over five meters, fifty or ten kilometers; it remains just as accurate. Even with oblique or round lines, which you see more and more in housing construction. With a construction frame that's impossible to do, with the total station it's easy. Moreover, we now build much faster and more accurately, necessary to compete."
The sizing company works digitally; that's fast and accurate. After which, your people on the construction site continue the project in the traditional way. Who is responsible when things don't fit? Van Gils: "I train carpenters and dimensional engineers how to introduce fixed checkpoints and record all the steps. That way you can prove exactly what you did. Moreover, with the equipment you can quickly verify the drawings first. If the building site and drawings don't match, the architect has to go back to the drawing board. And have you avoid high failure costs", Van Gils said.
Tightness prevails across the board: experienced personnel, profit margins, delivery times. Digitization is precisely a solution to all these challenges. Digital measuring and plotting reduces failure costs and man-hours, and it increases construction speed, all drastic. Homan explains without exaggeration, "Setting out the earthwork traditionally with a construction frame took us two men and a day. Now I just take the Robotic and an hour later I drive off. Then the earthwork is in."
Learning to do with computer what you used to do with hands and eyes is not easy. Ad van Gils: "That's why we always come by to give training to users and owners of new equipment. Half a day; then most have figured it out. " Homan confirms, "At the first job with the total station, an older carpenter still wanted to put a construction frame around it. But during Friday afternoon drinks he came up to me: 'You must never sell that total sation again. It works thunderously handy.'"
Both Homan and Van Gils can be very brief about this: nonsense. Topcon's equipment is very affordable for SMEs. Homan says of his total stations: "We deserve money with. It takes one, two years to recoup the investment, but this equipment is well worth it. The convenience and speed are unparalleled."
Want to know more or are you curious about how to take the first step in digitizing your construction business? Then download the white paper on the special Topcon theme page:
