Faster, cheaper and higher-quality roadworks

Digitalization is making strong advances in infrastructure construction. Pioneers can benefit from the ease of worksite monitoring it brings as well as time and cost savings.

Traditional infra construction has involved printing plans on paper and transporting them long distances around the worksite. This leads to inefficiency and errors. The increasing prevalence of mobile devices, improved communication connections and GPS control systems in work machinery now enable the adoption of digital models. Digital cloud services enable faster construction, more efficient use of resources and less errors and waiting at sites.

“With digital plans, everyone knows what they need to do and have access to the latest updated plans. At the core of it all is an information model where the designs are made as 3D models,” says Teemu Kivimäki, CEO of Infrakit.

In Finland, the digitalization of infra construction is at an advanced level, at least among certain players. Destia is currently the most digitalized company, even on a global scale. Digitalization has allowed the company to decrease project turnaround time by a third. The City of Espoo also uses a digital information model for a variety of purposes. However, Kivimäki considers it problematic that municipal decision-makers often seek solutions from abroad rather than turning to the world-class expertise found in Finland.

“The Infrakit cloud service is an independent and neutral platform that supports all devices. The use of Infrakit makes the project transparent, and processes can be systematically improved. The service provides instant visibility into what’s going on at the worksite and how efficiently. The cloud service can also be shared with others,” continues Kivimäki.

Infrakit operates through a map view that shows all the work machinery at the worksite, project-related plans, and how the work is progressing. The view is real-time. Kivimäki notes that, in the old way of working, plans and the actual as-built status were often only approximate. By using detailed 3D models, it can instantly be seen if there are deviations at the construction site. This makes for higher quality.

Work is more efficient when all machines are in operation at once

Road construction is always complex and involves a great many different elements. If one work phase lags behind, it has an exponential effect on the following phases. Using a digital model reduces complexity, as users have a clearer view of the whole and everyone has access to the same plans. Project speed is also increased when machinery can be operated more efficiently. Most of the work is done with machines, yet it is common at worksites for only one machine out of five to be in operation at any one time, while the others wait.

“Using Infrakit, four out of five work machines can be operational at once. The efficiency of the machines is increased by 30 to 40 percent on average,” says Kivimäki.

Road projects are usually tax-funded and cause disturbances to traffic. Hence, reducing project turnaround time and decreasing costs also benefits the local residents. Costs are further cut by reduced material consumption. When the work is done right the first time without needing to tear down previously built sections, less material is used.

“The cost savings brought by digitalization compared to previous working methods is about 20 percent. Of this, the use of Infrakit accounts for some 5–10 percent,” Kivimäki remarks.

Infrakit

– Founded in 2010 as a University of Oulu spin-off project.

– Undergoing strong growth, with doubled revenue in 2018.

– Subsidiaries in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands.

– Employs 25 people, about half of them in Finland.

“With digital plans, everyone knows what they need to do.”

Photo by Aleksi Palmqvist

Teemu Kivimäki hopes that municipal decision-makers would see the benefits of digitalization in infrastructure construction and take advantage of the expertise to be found in Finland.

Author Suvi Huttunen, translation from Finnish by Delingua.

(Read this article in Finnish – the link to the original Finnish text is here.)

New Infrakit Truck Application

Mobile phones and the whole industry around them is moving at an incredible pace. A year in mobile world is a lifetime in ours if you look at the innovations and new technologies that are constantly changing. Here at Infrakit we know that we must keep up with the change in order to provide our customers with best possible experience.

With this in mind, we’ve developed a new version of our trucks application. The new version increases reliability, efficiency and decreases power consumption. New trucks application was built from the ground up with better architecture and with the latest Android development technologies. We’ve kept the same functionality and provided users with similar interface so the transition from old to the new version will be as seamless as possible. We have future plans to make new features and the new architecture allows us to make these changes faster and improve reliability even more! One more reason for building the new application is that it will work even better on newer devices and on newer versions of Android OS.

We want to improve our application even more, so if you’re interested in being one of the first users to try out our new and improved application, we wholeheartedly invite you to join us in this journey!

For more details and how to download the new truck application, please contact your local Infrakit provider.

Finally at Bauma!

We as Infrakit are excited to have been able to accept a slot at Bauma 2019! It is the first time we will have our own stand (No 419) in hall A2.

It was on very late notice that we’ve got an offer and I have no idea how the program manager has done this, but we are thankful that we have the opportunity to present our great Open BIM Cloud for infra construction industry. In only less than 4 weeks Bauma 2019 will open its gates! Feel free to pay us a visit.

Our stand will get about this look and is 23sqm:

Very often infra projects are lacking easily accessible information at the right time and the right place. Infrakit gives companies and project owners the possibility to reach the needed information any time any place. When we talk about BIM, the I in BIM is extremely important to avoid mistakes and redo of work at high costs. When construction site workers and equipment have all the necessary information available when needed unnecessary costs will be avoided and time schedules can be made as planned. So, no penalties there.

Last but not least: Infrakit is working with partners like Trimble, Leica, Topcon, Moba/Novatron and others! So, we are brand independent, which means you can have all your information in one application! No longer searching for information, which saves you again a lot of time!

Come and visit us at our booth in hall A2.419!

Sandviks’s SanRemo and Infrakit introduce connectivity

“We responded to requests from customers and took a major step towards increasingly digitalized, transparent and more productive worksite systems for infrastructure construction”, says Tuomo Pirinen, Application Expertise Manager with Surface Drilling and Exploration Division at Sandvik Mining and Roch Technology. “The new solution creates a link between our OEM fleet management and 3rd party mixed-fleet cloud systems, to systems that companies already use, to reduce unnecessary complexity. Sandvik is excited to be the first equipment OEM to offer this interoperability with Infrakit Cloud.”

The new solution creates a flow of communciation between Sandvik drillling equipment, the SanRemo information management system and Infrakit Cloud. Thanks to this new solution, data only needs to be uploaded once from the rig, after which is is automatically shared into the Infrakit. A major benefit is also the ability to share the project data with all parties: design engineers, drill planners, drill operators, production managers, client’s supervisors, etc. Everyone can also easily access the information they need on-site, eliminating the use of USB drives and issues with multiple file versions. All the necessary data is available in the cloud, everywhere and at all times. The cloud storage also serves as a permanent archive for any future use.

”Infrakit is happy to add Sandvik drill rigs to the list of machines that communicate directly with the Infrakit cloud. To best serve construction companies, our target is to include all construction machinery, tools and personnel in the site data flow and this is one more step towards that goal,” says CEO Teemu Kivimäki, Infrakit/DCS Finland Oy.

Read Sandvik’s press release from here

Infrakit expands in Europe and opens new offices in Paris and Stockholm

Photo by Martin Björk

The subsidiaries have been established to promote local sales and enable good customer service and support. In addition to existing Finnish, Norwegian and Dutch offices, there are now offices in Paris and Stockholm.
The Paris office address is 30 Rue Godot de Mauroy, 75009 Paris, France. Sebastien Cailliau has been appointed Country Manager for France. He worked before at Infrakit as a Customer Success Manager in Helsinki office.

“Finland has led in recent years the model-based infra construction, and I am proud to be able to take this Finnish know-how to France. The Infrakit cloud service helps French companies and users to digitalize their work-site and benefit from this new technology and working method”, Sebastian Cailliau commented.

In Sweden, Infrakit has been around for a few years and has been used by, for example, Svevia AB in a project in Tyresö municipality. Peter Westerman has been appointed Country Manager for Sweden: ”Now we have our own organization in Stockholm, with my main responsibilities in support and sales. It is a new role for me after many years of working with surveying technology and machine control, a great and inspiring challenge. Also happy to be part of a team with colleagues in Scandinavia and different countries in the world. ”
Infrakit Sweden is located in Karlbergsvägen 13 11327 Stockholm.

More information:
Sebastien Cailliau, General Manager France, tel. 07 67 51 42 45, sebastien.cailliau@infrakit.com
Peter Westerman, General Manager Sweden, tel. +46 70 5822 633 peter.westerman@infrakit.com
Pasi Joensuu, Sales Vice President (English), tel. +358 44 768 4424, pasi.joensuu@infrakit.com