“The construction industry in 2025” was the title of the presentation by Dr. Michael Leicht, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of Xella Group, who explored the key digital issues and trends that will materially influence the construction sector in the coming years. “Digitization is a mega trend that will lead to fundamental changes in the construction industry,” said Dr. Leicht. The expert believes that digital planning will be the industry standard in 2025. E-commerce will lead to greater transparency about prices, quality and delivery times, while building robotics and new materials will change the way in which products and buildings are made. These trends will shape the construction industry of the future and it is indispensable to be prepared for them. “The construction sector is now facing the kind of transformation which the media and textiles industries have already gone through,” Dr. Leicht explained.

After this look into the future, young enterprises such as Almondia from Berlin, HoloBuilder and Alice Technologies from the USA as well as BIMobject from Sweden illustrated how they respond to these trends and which innovations help them use new digital technologies to implement traditional construction planning and execution processes more efficiently, quickly and inexpensively.

The future is already reality. What are the practical implications of digitization? Andreas Radischewski, Digital Building Solutions and Transformation Manager (BIM) at Xella International, presented completed building projects to show how the cooperation between the different companies involved in a construction project can be optimized by means of digital planning taking individual requirements into account. Xella’s Digital Service opens up advantages for the customer in terms of financial and planning certainty as well as deadline reliability. A 3D building model serves as the basis, which is fed with geometric and material-specific information by all project players throughout the planning process and thus enables optimized planning. The data obtained this way is directly applied to the production process so that customized materials can be produced for the project at hand. The offering is complemented by detailed planning of the logistic chain from the factory to the construction site. The system enables precise control of the planning data and, consequently, exact cost and deadline management at all times.

After the lectures and presentations, the participants discussed the current state of digitization in the construction industry, the preconditions that need to be fulfilled to digitize the industry and what it may look like in 2025. As a leading manufacturer of insulation and building materials, Xella committed itself to consistent digitization several years ago. This is reflected not only in the company’s strategy but also in specific solutions the company offers already today.
 
Contact
Xella International GmbH
Claudia Kellert
Düsseldorfer Landstraße 395
D-47259 Duisburg
Phone: +49 (0)203 60880-5500
claudia.kellert@xella.com 

Xella Deutschland
Olaf Kruse
Düsseldorfer Landstraße 395
D-47259 Duisburg
Phone: +49 (0)203 60880-7560
olaf.kruse@xella.com 

URSA Deutschland
Corinna Meisel
Fuggerstraße 1d
D-04158 Leipzig
Phone: +49 (0)341 5211164
corinna.meisel@ursa.com
 
About Xella
Xella Group is one of the leading, internationally operating solution providers of building materials and insulation materials, with sales of 1.4 billion Euros and more than 7,000 employees.
Xella is the parent company of renowned brands such as Ytong, Silka, Hebel, Multipor or Ursa and is one of the pioneers in digitally supported building processes.
Xella is headquartered in Duisburg (Germany), with 91 plants in 20 countries and sales organizations in more than 30 countries. In many of its market segments Xella holds a leading position.

Xella’s products are sustainable both in manufacturing and use. Therefore, they make an important contribution to the construction of long-lasting, energy-efficient, and high-quality buildings, and thus to environmental protection and the conservation of resources. Further information on Xella Group can be found on the internet at: www.xella.com