How Brazil’s Andrade Gutierrez aims to reap gains from 5G

Digitization is not yet widespread in the operations of Brazilian engineering and construction group Andrade Gutierrez, largely due to the lack of proper connectivity at construction sites in remote regions where it operates.

But the company, one of the largest construction groups in Brazil and with operations in several other countries in Latin America, believes that this could change with the development of the 5G ecosystem.

“We are accelerating engineering 4.0. But one of the biggest difficulties we have to actually implement the technologies is the lack of internet. Our expectation is that with 5G this could change,” André Medina (pictured), innovation manager at Andrade Gutierrez, told BNamericas.

Medina's expectations are partially explained by the obligations linked to the 5G auction, which include not only investments in new technology, but also taking the internet to places that are not yet connected.

He also hopes the technology will mature and become cheaper and faster than other licensed wireless technologies, and is betting on the high data transmission capacity and ultra low latency that 5G will bring, compared to previous technologies, to boost digitization.

“The lack of connectivity in some areas is a problem precisely because we’re implementing several digital solutions. Construction managers carry tablets to take notes, but they do it offline. Then, when they reach a place with internet, that’s when the input goes up to the cloud.”

On IoT, Andrade Gutierrez works with certain wireless technologies, such as LoRa and bluetooth low energy that run on beacons and do not depend on the internet. But according to Medina, these solutions still require a lot of antennas at the construction site. 

The company wants to dig further into IoT, adding analytics and AI layers to it, but that clashes with inadequate connectivity.

"We’re studying and open to all ways to put internet at the construction sites in a simple and pervasive way."

With 5G, which according to Medina is due to mature in 2-3- years, the company hopes to expand the use and possibilities of digital transformation. The end-goal, he says, is to connect everyone and everything to be able to make data-based decisions.

Medina said the company has looked into potential private networks for its sites, but that, for now, such implementation is too complex and expensive and would not pay off the investment.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Despite the issue of connectivity, Andrade Gutierrez has been working, at least since 2010, on innovation, especially in terms of processes.

In 2017, the group launched an open innovation program to accelerate startups with projects addressing company productivity issues. At that time, the focus was on power transmission lines, which for the first time were being built by the company.

The following year, this initiative became the Vetor AG co-innovation program, reportedly the first of its kind in the construction sector in the region.

In terms of processes, the company is working on the evolution of BIM – building information modeling, an intelligent 3D model-based process used by construction and engineering professionals – which began to be implemented at its operations in 2018 and has an area specifically dedicated to it.

Another focus has been the digital signing of contracts. Andrade Gutierrez had already been working on this before the pandemic and was able to continue processes related to its contracts during the crisis thanks to this preparation, according to Medina.

At construction sites, the company is looking to technology to improve employee productivity and raise safety standards.

The Vetor AG program, for its part, is in its fourth edition. The program is equity-free, that is, it does not involve buying a stake in companies. 

Medina said Andrade Gutierrez expects to announce in the coming weeks up to 10 startups to undergo proofs-of-concept.

As an example of projects developed from Vetor AG, Andrade Gutierrez implemented a solution from a startup called Concretemp that enables the monitoring of concrete temperature in a preventive way.

For the new edition of Vetor AG, one of the solutions that could be selected is from US startup Algibit, which developed concrete monitoring with IoT ultrasonic embedded sensors.

Andrade Gutierrez also sees opportunities with telemetry, for tracking trucks and preventive maintenance as a whole, and movement sensors, Medina said.