The world is growing
Construction will play a disproportionate role in securing the world’s future. By 2100 the United Nations (UN) forecast world population will peak at 11.2bn people. To support that we need to build a further 2bn homes in the next 80 years - as well as the transport, utility, commercial networks to support them. Around 68% of people will live in urban areas by 2050. For perspective, with some maths, we can say that to meet this demand we need to churn out 363 London size cities (2021 3.74m homes in London) by 2100 - that’s a ‘London’ every 3 months.
But Construction is facing it’s own crisis
Construction faces it’s own population problem - we don’t have enough people entering our industry to replace those leaving - in the UK we need to recruit tens of thousands of people into construction per year to meet demand.
In the US that number is 300,000 to 600,000 to meet their $550 billion new infrastructure investment over the next decade. (source: McKinsey - Bridging the labor mismatch in US construction)
In short we don’t and won’t have the skilled resources available to meet upcoming demand. How do we both attract new talent and reduce our reliance on skilled resources to meet the challenge?
Then there’s the ‘Productivity Puzzle’
Construction remains a poor performer - across the UK industry we rank as the lowest in terms of output per hour. To meet the looming challenge we need to up our game in a huge way. How can we increase productivity in construction to meet the increasing demands?
In “The next normal in construction: How disruption is reshaping the world’s largest ecosystem” from McKinsey they report “Construction is the biggest industry in the world, and yet, even outside of crises, it is not performing well. The ecosystem represents 13 percent of global GDP, but construction has seen a meagre productivity growth of 1 percent annually for the past two decades.
Don’t forget the Carbon issue (who can?)
While we need to build, the act of building itself causes issues. Together building and construction contributes 39% of all carbon emissions in the world - 28% of which is in use and 11% is in the ‘upfront’ building activities. The UK is committed to Net Zero by 2050 - with the demand on building and infrastructure only growing in that time how can we meet both targets?
Challenge = Opportunity
Change
At this point it should be clear to you that construction has foundational transformation to go through in order to be capable of solving impending global problems. No one solution will fix the industry to meet these demands - large scale change is required which will see the industry reinvented in the coming years.
Learning at Scale
We need to find a way to learn at an unprecedented scale. The ability to understand what works, what does not, and where to target innovation is critical to moving forward. Not only do we need to accelerate the pace of innovation but we need to identify and embed innovation and good practice as ‘business as usual’ much faster.
Implementing industry feedback loops will help define the issues which need to be tackled. We must find ways to learn from our inefficiencies and shortfalls to drive construction forward.
For too long the industry has been a laggard. The only way to find the areas to target is to move to a data driven industry. Further, we need to transform the industry to ensure that data can flow quickly with minimal manual input (see Value Driven, below).
Standardise Delivery
We live in a world of prototypes. Each project we reinvent what we did last time, often starting from the beginning and only informally implementing lessons learned. The industry has to move from a prototype mindset to a product mindset. Whereby, we can rely on data from each point of delivery and use it to improve the product for next time, not starting over again.
Standardisation can be achieved at five levels:
Components
Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), including Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA), and Platforms - sometimes referred under the umbrella “Industrialised Construction” - are fundamental to delivering consistent quality at scale with a multi or semi-skilled site workforce.
With Platforms we design from a ‘kit of parts’ of components - think Lego or Ikea in a much bigger scale - from the supply chain which ensures consistency and quality of final construction but gains from cost, environmental and efficiency improvements in the manufacturing industry. The beauty is that the standardisation is at the component level and means that infrastructure and buildings are still wide open in terms of imagination, customisation and innovation. Further, because of the standardisation Platforms also open the door to robotics and automation. Bryden Wood are leaders in developing this concept.
Design
By standardising at component level we can standardise design practice. As much of design can be determined by a set of ‘rules’ (think standards and specifications) we can reduce the requirement for design only to be done by designers. Designing from a ‘kit of parts’ and utilising rules for how they must fit together we can push design down the chain to the owners and end-users of the building - ensuring they get what they want.
Take the Seismic School App developed by Bryden Wood - this is modelled in the interface of Minecraft but has the building ‘rules’ of school building built in. This allows anyone, including 9-year olds, to design a school in minutes which is compliant. Specialist Designers are then able to carry out detail, bespoke, and complex work and to coordinate the design ready for procurement and delivery.
Other innovations such as Generative Design can also be used alongside to further increase velocity of design. This uses algorithms to assess vast amount of design data and assesses against set requirements such as carbon, cost, time, performance, to reach an optimal solution.
Delivery
The ‘project in a box’ is something which is often talked about but rarely executed. Having a standard project setup, execution, processes, and procedures are some of the best ways to ensure we can deliver safely, quickly, and to the correct standard.
Standardisation of components and design make this an easier step. Multi-skilled operatives can assemble the ‘kit of parts’ as simply as Meccano or Lego. Bespoke practices, with the need for skilled resource, will still exist but it will be the exception rather than the norm.
Data
This is where the Feedback Loops discussed earlier come in. We must record data in a way that is meaningful, standard across all projects, classified, and accessible. Setting data standards and processes means that we can interrogate that data to give us insight into performance so that we can make data-driven decisions and learn to improve the process next time.
Strategically placed data points will record performance in critical areas at a huge scale which can then be processed digitally to give us insights to make decisions. Shifting the industry from intuitive decision making, based on traditional thinking, to data driven decisions based on reality.
Procurement
The procurement process is often long and laborious and payment of accounts is a manual process. By assembling from standard components this will make the procurement process much more like shopping on Amazon. Models created in design can automatically place a demand on the supply chain, using Smart Contracts we can automate the procurement process based on our needs and then automate payment once specific gateways are achieved.
Partnering with key suppliers is another - more accessible way - of achieving greater speed in procurement, moving away from the competitive model to a collaborative model formed by agreement. BAM have recently made a move in the right direction with the agreement with Polypipe for sole supply of drainage products.
Value Driven
The last piece of the puzzle is ensuring value is added in everything we do. In a world building for 11.5bn people we can not afford wasted effort or resources.
Asset
At the top level we must ensure that the asset we are building is the right choice given the circumstances and constraints. Do we need a bridge - or a ferry? Do we need a train line, a hyperloop, or improved road network? Using data we can make these decisions much better than relying on intuition or biases. This is why we need to find ways such as IoT to collect data on the way our built environment is used.
Process
Every time we ‘touch’ a part of a process we must be adding value. Each time we handle a component or material, each time we send an email, or engage with a digital system - the very act of doing so must be more valuable than the resource doing the ‘touching’ for that length of time. At its core this is “Lean”
We will become experts at process engineering - reviewing each process which culminates in the construction of a building and reducing the ‘touch points’ to only those which provide positive value. Where any processes do not add positive value we will plan them out or automate them. This is a complete mindset change in that the rigour will be implemented well before arriving on site.
Multi-skilled and Digitally Literate workforce
Aligned with value driven processes we must also make sure that our people also provide positive value. In a world of a skills crisis we must remove the reliance on skilled resource (think plumber, joiner, excavator driver) and move to a world of semi-skilled multi-skilled resource. We do this by making the operations as simple as possible by design and training the workforce to carry out multiple tasks across the range of site operations.
Add value at every touch point - more value than the ‘touching’ resource.
Further, in 2018 the CITB have released the UNLOCKING CONSTRUCTION’S DIGITAL FUTURE: A skills plan for industry recommending digital competency scales and spectrums for the industry – that outline how workers can be supported and trained to develop the required mindsets and understanding.
The Role of Digital Construction and Information Management
Where are we now? We’re trying to get Digital Construction (DC) techniques and Building Information Management (BIM) as part of our everyday working. And we’re struggling - not with the technology or process but with the culture of a very traditional industry.
DC and BIM are not the end goals - but they are critical stepping stones to be built upon to be able to deliver construction at an industrial scale.
Thinking about the topics discussed in ‘Challenge = Opportunity’ BIM and DC help us to:
Follow a process for the development, structure and standardisation of information and data
Enable design by component
Plan using visual tools from the design model, ‘Build it before we build it’ to check that the design and processes are value driven
Provide visual reference to people without the technical skills to read construction drawings such as owners and end-users
Standardise and categorize at multiple levels
Conclusion
The technical solutions are partially in place but must tackle the cultural push back on innovation in construction, including the implementation of BIM and DC.
We need to become better communicators - emphasising the risks at large on our projects and the overall positive value of being an innovator and early adopter in the construction space to address those risks.
Without these simple steps in BIM and DC it will be impossible to move on to the next level of complexity.
This change is inevitable, driven by need, with or without legacy construction players. If these players don’t evolve eventually large tech companies (think Amazon and Google) and new disruptors will see the opportunity, step in, and take over.
By embracing a new way of working now a legacy construction company will not only reap the rewards of transformation in terms of efficiency and profitability, but they will set themselves as the go to solution to a global problem.
I would love to continue the conversation on this. Is the industry ready to change? What are the barriers to change? Give me your thoughts below or send me a message on LinkedIn:
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