RAICOS, the AI for the construction industry

RAICOS is AI for construction: the AI behind WEMAITES, a learning system for construction logistics, demand forecasting and construction scheduling. RAICOS processes the location and status data of every trip while it runs, and everything else it receives. From all this data, RAICOS calculates for every role in the network the data that role needs, learns from it and puts decision-ready proposals in front of the people responsible in each role. The person clicks.

Show, don't report

People are visual beings. You can hand a client, a bank or a trade a hundred-page analysis report on financial data and material deliveries. Or you can show them the status of their projects as a picture and let them pull up every detail in writing as well.

Who then grasps faster, more precisely and more deeply where their projects stand?

That is why we do what we do, and why we do it the way we do: a complete live picture of the entire value chain of a construction project, with a dedicated view for every role and with forecasts drawn from the data of all roles. Visualisation first, the full depth of data on demand.

Forecasts along the supply chain

RAICOS analyses supply chains, material availability, construction machinery and trades, and judges whether a project is feasible, when, how and at what price. In detail:

  • Construction sequence: Which trade is next, and is its material ready in time?
  • Resources: Are machinery and equipment available on the date?
  • Costs: Which material price applies today, which in six months?
  • Financing: Does the project financing hold if dates and prices shift?
  • Building stock: What is built into a building, and what is it worth?

Global supply chains in view

  • Geopolitics: RAICOS predicts production and supply bottlenecks caused by geopolitical events.
  • Shipment tracking: In future, shipment data from freight forwarders, sea freight and rail freight will flow in too, so it is visible where the goods are.

Forecast confidence

For every forecast, RAICOS calculates its probability from everything it knows:

  • Does the preceding trade have all its materials?
  • Is the whole crew on site, or is someone off sick or on leave?
  • Is the architect planning changes?
  • Can the manufacturer supply the material, and when will the wholesaler have it?

Trade coordination and just-in-time delivery

Everything aligns with the trades: only when the trades mesh smoothly and no time gaps open up at their interfaces does a project keep its schedule and budget. RAICOS tells businesses in advance

  • when which material will be available,
  • which wholesaler to source it from,
  • when they need to be on which site.

They plan staff and vehicle fleet accordingly. WEMAITES delivers just in time to the site, because few businesses keep their own warehouse, and takes over administrative tasks.

An example

On Thursday, the site runs out of cable. RAICOS detects the shortfall on Tuesday and gives the electrician a decision-ready proposal: order from the wholesaler, delivery on Wednesday. He clicks. At the same moment, client and bank see that the date holds, and so does the financing.

From trip to decision-ready proposal

  1. The trip creates the data point.
  2. The data point creates the live picture.
  3. The live picture creates the forecast.
  4. The forecast creates the decision-ready proposal.
  5. The person clicks.

No step can be skipped. Every role gets its own view of the live picture: the trade sees when it can get on site, the bank sees its projects and receives financial analyses. A person always makes the decision.

What the name says

RAICOS stands for Real-time Artificial Intelligence Cognitive Operations System.

  • Real-time: for us, this means while the trip is running, not milliseconds. Every trip reports its status and location. If an emergency trip changes the day's plan, route planning recalculates the arrival windows, and the businesses affected receive the new window.
  • Cognitive Artificial Intelligence: RAICOS is a learning AI. From every trip it learns real driving times, dwell times at each stop and the ordering pattern of each business; that is where the forecast comes from. In future, RAICOS will also read construction drawings, tenders and bills of quantities and derive which trade needs which material, how much and when.
  • Operations System: RAICOS brings together what runs in separate systems today: bookings, route planning, MAITE, wholesaler and business, and later every role in the network. An open system, not an isolated solution.

RAICOS and WEMAITES

RAICOS calculates, WEMAITES shows.

  • WEMAITES: the product. It covers everything the roles see and use: vehicles, staff, app, booking, invoicing and the live dashboard.
  • WEMAITES Live 5.1: the current release of the software, the live dashboard with every role in the network, whose data RAICOS calculates.
  • MAITE: the person who drives for WEMAITES. From mate and AI, in that order: the person comes first, the AI at their side.