“With Rodin we forged a strategic partnership with sawmill Hilmer Andersson to build a new state of the art surface treatment plant,” says Jonas Fred Hell, founder and CEO of Fridh and Hell’s, Sweden.

Digital collaboration driving an industry 4.0 productivity dividend
“Our future is digital,” says Jonas. “If we get smart about digitalisation small companies like ours can work faster than big companies. I think that’s because we have our own people on the ground including long term contractors. I know how them personally and know how they work. I can trust them to do their best work. And know that we get it right the first time.

“When you have this level of trust in the office and on the building site, it’ s like we all own the project. And what’s so rewarding to our team is that our customers can see it in the final result and can sense how proud we are of our work.

This is where the investment in digitalisation becomes essential.

“Everyone expects it,” says Jonas. “The customer, in terms of how we communicate and keep them to date on the project. While at our end design, logistics, materials production and construction all have to be working in sync to reduce delivery times and achieve better carbon reduction outcomes by reducing waste.

“This is why we are investing so much in digitalisation,” says Jonas. “Short term we see this as developing our competitive advantage, while securing long term market opportunities in larger apartment, residential and community projects.”

(Excerpt from the forthcoming coming book, Constructing Swedish Sovereignty, due for release June 2022).