Irving-based Fluor Corp. announced a partnership with IBM to use the tech giant’s Watson artificial intelligence (AI) platform to create two diagnostic systems that help manage construction megaprojects in business sectors such as energy and chemicals, and mining and metals.

Construction projects in those markets are complex and include a huge amount of data, people, and other elements that have to be tracked and analyzed to keep projects on time and budget.

“Harnessing the power of data to make meaningful insights will alter how megaprojects around the world are designed, built and maintained.”
Arvind Krishna

Fluor’s background in big data dates back five years when the global engineering company began investing in AI and predictive analytics as part of its data centric journey, Leslie Lindgren, Fluor’s vice president of information management, said in a statement.

That AI background led to Fluor’s work on predictive maintenance and construction sequencing.

“We will be using these innovations on select large and megaprojects to quickly discover trends, patterns and meaning in our structured and unstructured data that deliver competitive advantage through the digital transformation of data into critical information with significant benefits to our clients, other stakeholders and our company,” said Lindgren.

Fluor’s expertise is in the engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction (EPC) sector and along with IBM, it developed two systems—EPC Project Health Diagnostics (EPHD) and Marketing Dynamics/Spend Analytics (MD/SA)—which turn thousands of data points from capital projects into actionable insights over the lifecycle of the project.

FLUOR EMBRACES AI AS AN ENGINE OF TRANSFORMATION

These analyses are accomplished through using historical trends and patterns to predict issues such as cost increases or project delays, using complex project data to gain earlier actionable insights, and uncovering the reason for issues to help the decision-making process in areas such as estimate analysis, forecast evaluation, project risk assessment, and critical path analysis.

Ray Barnard, Fluor’s senior executive vice president of systems and supply chain. [Photo: Fluor]

“Harnessing the power of data to make meaningful insights will alter how megaprojects around the world are designed, built and maintained,” said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director of IBM Research, in a statement. “Together with IBM, Fluor is embracing artificial intelligence as an engine for transformation in data-driven industries that are ripe for innovation including energy and chemicals, and mining and metals construction projects.”

Being able to use big data to “ability to rapidly analyze and comprehend big data that drives decisions at any point throughout the engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction of today’s megaprojects” is imperative to Fluor’s success said Ray Barnard, Fluor’s senior executive vice president of systems and supply chain.

“We teamed with IBM to create EPHD and MD/SA, an advanced and effective set of diagnostic tools and capabilities that rapidly predict best-in-class pricing globally, project status and outcomes, and improves the quality of services and decision-making as we serve our clients around the globe,” Barnard said.