The holly grail of “Collaboration in Construction”

There is no doubt there is a revolution happening in construction industry during the last 5 years.

This revolution is not happening on 3D printing, amazing new materials or innovative design (as many viral videos have you believe) but on the field of project and construction management which is probably where all the problems start.

Smart and entrepreneurial people from all over the world are trying to solve the biggest problem in the industry and create solutions that will disrupt how construction projects are built today with the help of technology.

Construction industry is probably one of the slowest in adopting new technologies and that wouldnt be a problem if the industry was actually productive and efficient.

But reality is much different.

Every study that has been made would easily tell you that the waste produced by the construction industry is a huge number that in any other industry would have been catastrophic or unthinkable.

Construction industry is probably the only industry that still hasn’t found a way to use modern technology in order to be more productive and efficient. (CAD, Excel spreadsheets of fancy planning software really doesn’t count as innovative as they have been around for more than 4 decades).

Yes, CAD has changed a lot on how drawings are produced and how projects are designed. But this comparison applies to how we used to draw in the 60’s and how we are producing the drawings today.

But on the field (on site), nothing has actually changed. The engineer and the foreman haven’t seen any real change in their day to day tasks on the field.

The drawing is still a drawing, the shovel is still a shovel, the theodolite is still (more or less…) a theodolite.

Putting aside the massive changes on Health and Safety culture that is indeed a very welcomed mindset shift, not much is actually different today than in the 60’s or 70’s. if you think about it.

As a matter of fact, the biggest revolution for a foreman, a supervisor, a Site Engineer or a Site/Construction Manager the last 20 years is probably…the mobile phone!

Why?

Because it “solved” (or made easier) the most complicated problem in this industry: communication.

People on the field need to know three things:

• who is doing what on site
• what needs to be done next and till when
• where the problems are and how they will be fixed

Communication in such a fragmented industry (Clients, Contractors, Designers, Consultants, Site Teams, Subcontractors etc) is indeed a massive obstacle.

But communication is even challenging in companies or industries that have a fixed location, same teams for years and even don’t have to deal with lots of different suppliers and contractors.

In my honest opinion, if communication and up-to-date reporting on a construction project is solved then a million other things would be easier and faster.

There is no doubt that Construction industry is the single most wasteful industry in the world in terms of actual waste. But after years on the field, I honestly believe there is a lot of “waste” in the processes and the tools that today’s construction companies are using.

There are so many inefficiencies and unnecessary steps in modern construction companies that the word “lean” is either used as marketing jargon to impress Clients or it is simply a word to describe the opposite of what they actually do.

Software runs and will be running our societies and lives for many centuries to come and it’s only a matter of time till the transformation of the construction industry in a fully digital environment will be reality for most companies.

The ones that would deny to “jump on the wagon” will inevitably left behind and simply disappear.