• Posted: March 2, 2020
• Construction Technology, Eric Nixon, Gibson Electric, Josh Bone, Maron Electric, National Electrical Contractors’ Association’s (NECA), Steve Mulligan

It’s undeniable that the unionized electrical industry in Chicago and across the country is changing rapidly. New tools and technologies are shaping the industry and allowing union contractors and electricians to get jobs done more quickly and safely as a result. Despite the rapid advances in technology, however, only recently has the potential of technology to help contractors and electricians perform their jobs at a higher level become apparent.

“Too often, the industry does not look at technology as an essential tool like a screwdriver or wire cutter,” said Josh Bone, National Electrical Contractors’ Association’s (NECA) Director of Industry Innovation. “When it’s done right, it should absolutely be considered a tool.”

Bone recently addressed the Electrical Contractors’ Association’s (ECA) Young Professionals group at a two-day seminar outside Chicago. Over the course of two days, nearly 50 industry professionals from Powering Chicago’s union contractors gathered to discuss the latest industry trends that are enabling greater productivity on the job site.

NECA hired Bone in October 2019 to oversee the implementation of new technological trends like 3D photo mapping of job sites, the digitization of daily reports, and the deployment of tablets on construction sites that communicate in real-time with project managers off-site.

“These tools are evolving, and the cost of implementation is going down,” Bone explained. “This is the big push right now.”

In Cook County, Powering Chicago contractors are widely embracing technology to digitize offices and increase productivity. Gibson Electric, based in Downers Grove, has been operating a virtual construction department for more than a decade. In the last few years, however, improved technology has allowed for significant advancements. Gibson looks to standardize these efforts across all projects no matter the scope complexity or job requirements.

“We feel that BIM and VCD investments are no longer just driven by customer requirements, but rather embody our competitive advantage,” described Steve Mulligan, President, and CEO of Gibson Electric. “We’ve been able to pull in a great team of our most talented people to get their hands on each project we’re working on to leverage our capabilities across the company.”

Gibson is currently working on several intricate data center jobs in metro Chicago, providing the firm with a unique opportunity to continue to deploy cutting-edge technology. In the past, Gibson has equipped field employees with 360-degree cameras for data capture, tablets and mobile plan tables for review, and augmented reality tools to allow field installers a virtual 3-dimensional look at the project being built. These efforts allow foremen to see the coordinated virtual construction project before a stick of pipe is installed. 

“From total station layout to 4D equipment sequence, on-screen takeoff to AI voice command project document searching, we are always looking for creative ways to deliver the best customer solutions in the most cost-effective and efficient manner,” Mulligan explains.

Gibson continues to seek out and test innovative tech to improve project execution, workflow, and customer satisfaction.

At Powering Chicago’s Maron Electric, President and CEO Eric Nixon admitted that his company isn’t always the first to jump at the latest technology fad and typically waits to see whether a tool is worth exploring.

“There’s a lot out there to consider,” Nixon explained. “If you look at our national NECA trade show from 20 years ago it was mostly equipment and tools and now look at the percentage of software that’s on display.”

Maron Electric is able to increase its productivity in the office and out in the field by training employees to understand various forms of estimating software that eliminates the need for paper drawings, as well as allowing instant communication between multiple staff members and devices.

“You have to look at the industry from estimating to installation,” Nixon said. “With estimating, instead of paper drawings with circles and squares that you had to draw in, there’s certain software that will hunt for certain designations and account for them, color them for you, and then double-check them. You can take that data and transfer it to your estimating program instead of having to enter it into the software by hand.”

At ECA’s Young Professionals conference, Bone described the challenge many electrical contractors face in categorizing their job site photos. In an effort to fix this, NECA has partnered with a company called SmartVid.io that will do much of the work for the contractor. SmartVid.io’s system allows for the use of location-based services to determine where in the field an electrician is located. From there, it can tag the location and specific job that’s being worked on. Additionally – and perhaps most helpful – is the built-in algorithm that will learn from the picture to help project managers tag photos for easier search later on.

Though the industry has lagged in tech innovation in the past, Bone, Nixon, and Mulligan all expressed confidence that the rate of adoption is quickening and that technological tools will help the industry provide a better end product for customers, while also increasing productivity in the office and in the field.

“If we build the base well and develop a sound model, our belief is that we can leverage technology in a number of different ways,” Mulligan said. “The challenge forever has been that as an industry we were just meeting what was acceptable for the owner, and our goal is to really be creative and develop content we can leverage in a number of different ways.

“I hope that this new setup allows us to deliver an absolutely reliable end product to our customer,” Mulligan said. “If we aren’t recreating the wheel every time we’re doing one of these jobs if we establish really sound standards in how we go about building a model and constructing the model, and we remove some of the decisions down the road to change the plan, we can be sure that when we build something it’ll be accurate to what we have presented.”

Cost savings increased productivity and total accuracy are just some of the benefits Powering Chicago’s members reap from increased use of technology; benefits that enable better construction in Chicago on every job site.