Underpin intuition with intelligent on-site measurement

Deliver on time and within budget, and preferably as sustainable as possible. It is a challenge for projects in the infrastructure sector every time. Not surprisingly, more and more parties are turning to ARKANCE's digital Be.Smart solutions, specifically aimed at infrastructure. It provides grip and control on projects and ultimately leads to savings in costs and time. 

Research shows that 80% of projects in infrastructure are running out of time and cost, says Lieve Dedecker, Portfolio Manager Infra at ARKANCE. "You can prepare a lot, but typical of projects in infrastructure are the contingencies. There are so many influences that are out of your control, such as the weather, possible obstacles in the subsurface, etc. That is why it is important to monitor much better, especially during execution. Whereas years ago the contracting industry was reluctant to automate, in recent years we have seen a turnaround. Especially because projects are becoming increasingly complex and unforeseen circumstances can have really serious consequences. How nice it is then if you can see the effect on costs, planning and design in almost real time the moment something suddenly occurs."

Seamless data flow

As a technology partner, ARKANCE is not only fully engaged in developing appropriate tools to record cases, but also in effectively achieving a benchmark. "Ultimately, there has to be a zero reference. You need to know when things are going well, but 'ring an alarm bell' when the data is anomalous. That's what we bet on," Lieve explains. "That way you achieve a lot more efficiency on site, and you also have a lot more visibility into what's happening on site. Because if we don't know (read: measure) that, we are not able to pass on information in a smooth way. With our software and sensors, we 'track' activities on the worksite and translate that into useful information (insight) for the people in control in terms of planning, resources and budgets. In other words, we are betting on seamless data flow."

Granular data

And that seamless data flow starts with central storage of information and documents. "We integrate with the big market players in that area and are, for example, a platinum partner of Autodesk," says Lieve. "Based on their technology, we develop tools to also collect 'granular data,' which contain valuable information about the progress on a job site. We do that through apps, but also through sensors on machines, on which we unleash our smart algorithms to draw the right conclusions. Think of operational information in earth-moving activities, such as loading and unloading times, idling hours, machine waiting times, routes driven in a cycle and volumes moved by machines. Couple machine consumption and associated CO2 emissions with this, and we can make a good overview of the carbon footprint, production and costs incurred, and compare these with budgeted costs and planning."

Insight and control

Nice all this information and insights, you will think, but where do you start? "The great thing is that all the tools in our Be.Smart portfolio can also be used separately," says Lieve. She advises starting where the need is greatest. "If you want to better track the progress of a large earthmoving project, for example, you can periodically conduct drone flights with reality capture technology. With that data, we can perform volume calculations in our Be.Smart tools where we provide insight into progression. If you want more insight into your machine fleet, we provide a detailed overview of the consumption per machine via sensors and machine data, and generate reports based on that. And so you can keep building the digital ecosystem and you get more and more insight and control over what is effectively happening on site and how you can adjust and share this with the people who have to manage a project if necessary. Now these are examples of an infrastructure project, but we have these solutions just as much for vertical construction projects."

ARKANCE is mainly known on the Dutch infrastructure market for its InfraCAD solution for the structured exchange of documents in the design and engineering phase in accordance with NLCS, as well as for an all-round solution for directional drilling with Drill Control. With the Be.Smart portfolio, the digitization partner focuses precisely on making the execution phase more efficient. "You can't expect that everything can be put into one solution, especially in the infra with the different stakeholders and many complexities. So you have to do it 'federated' where you make data interchangeable so that others can build on what you have provided, without losing data," Lieve said. "That's what we're doing with our Be.Smart portfolio: building a 'federated' data model and seamless data flow. And we do that for our customers worldwide."