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Digital construction and innovation

VolkerHighways is focused on being a sustainable, integrated highway services provider, enabled by the latest technology and data-driven decision making. Through our digital construction and innovation programme, Tomorrow Now, we seek to find solutions to challenges and make improvements on our projects, bringing the Tomorrow into the Now. New solutions are piloted to prove their benefit, and are then implemented into the business, as appropriate.

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Through focusing on processes, tools and people, we are able to achieve lasting continuous improvement and embed technological change across our business, which ultimately measures real operational benefits. We are fulfilling our aspiration to be ‘powered by data, driven by people.’

Digital Toolbox

Our Digital Toolbox brings key digital solutions with known benefits together into one place, enabling innovations to be shared and managed across VolkerWessels UK. It is used alongside our digital challenge process, through which we review projects, and the needs of our teams and identify which technology should be adopted to add value to a project.

Enhancing digital capabilities across the business

On many of our street lighting and telecoms projects, we are replacing paper forms with digital capabilities. This allows our on-site workforce to efficiently collect ‘live’ information, feeding it directly back to the team in the depot. Digital forms use controlled workflows to automate some traditionally time-consuming processes. The data collected is visualised on platforms such as Microsoft PowerBi reports, contributing to clear progress reviews and key decision making.

We use a low-code application development strategy, which requires limited coding experience, to enable us to build applications and processes. By using low-code applications such as Microsoft’s PowerApps, we are able to train employees, with no coding experience, to build their own apps quickly, thereby improving business processes and efficiencies. On our street lighting and highways term maintenance contracts, we use the VolkerHighways Stock App to manage stock levels and movements in and out of our depots more accurately. We are also in the final development stage of our Control Centre Management App, which will assist our central control centre team in managing information and actions, following an emergency callout.

 

Asset management

We work with our clients to maximise the full potential of their local roads, by applying digital solutions and innovative ‘digital road’ technology. This includes using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to collect, maintain and update highway asset databases. We also use AI to carry out digital highway safety inspections as well as road condition assessments, analysis and reporting. Find out more about our asset management service here.

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