How Roblox can help digitize the construction industry with Lotta Wibeck, Skanska
Can games like Roblox help drive digitization forward in the construction industry?
We spoke to Lotta Wibeck, Digitalization Program Lead at Skanska, about digitizing in a traditional industry, what challenges Skanska are working on right now and how gaming can help bring digital natives into construction.
All that and much more on "a roaring podcast.". This is a summary blog of the episodes key takeaways.
Digitizing in a traditional industry
Construction is generally seen as a very traditional industry, where digital adoption and innovation isn't as prominent as it could be. As an example, a lot of repetitive processes are still manual, such as filling out paper forms on construction sites or having people capturing data and putting it into multiple apps or systems.
– Obviously we need to make significant changes, and not just in small steps. Says Lotta Wibeck, Digitalization Program Lead at Skanska.
Lotta Wibeck, Digitalization Program Lead at Skanska
– We are currently working on a lot of different things, where becoming paperless is one of them. This will enable our sites and operations to focus on their core tasks and mission, and spend less time in administration. It will also improve data quality, as we can avoid misspellings, faulty entries and so on.
– A huge problem today as well is that as a lot of people who join construction are learning old digital ways, programs and tools. That makes us unattractive as employers. Lotta continues.
– I think everything needs to change. We can't keep doing the same things we've been doing for hundreds of years, wether it's academics, construction, materials or tech or whatever. That's the fair thing I would say in the industry, that everything needs to change and we can come together and do it as one.
Gaming + Construction = A match made in heaven?
Games that include building, creating and demolishing are all the rage right now. Roblox for example, which is an online game platform, has more than 43 million daily active users, most of whom are children.
Is there any way that the construction industry could try to capitalize on that in terms of digital native talent recruitment?
– I think we can do a lot in this area. Lotta says.
– Kids today are naturally digital, it's in their backbone, in their spine. Of course we should try to make use of this opportunity, perhaps by introducing things like construction sustainability already in school or games.
– I try to influence the digital side of construction in different ways in my job. One of them is a two year masters program for construction, focused on the digital side of things.
a roaring podcast.
Check out more episodes of a roaring podcast, with insights and tips on how to digitize and automate your time-consuming business processes.
