Construction technology can address errors that have held the industry back, says Cliff Smith, executive director of the Get It Right Initiative
The nature of construction has changed wholesale within the last decade. Today, it’s commonplace to see new construction technology in use from the development of the project brief right through to the handover of the completed asset and beyond.
Where paperwork and clipboards were once the norm, sophisticated management platforms are now available at the click of a button. Robotics and machine learning are no longer considered fanciful but present real opportunities to improve how we design and deliver projects.
“Improvement” comes in many forms, and for us at the Get It Right Initiative, the chance to tackle the pervasive problem of error in our industry is our first priority.
The industry loses £21bn annually due to errors
We estimate that the industry loses £21bn a year through errors that occur throughout the lifecycle of a project. This includes costs associated with repeating design work, wasting materials and, of course, having to hire-in expertise to complete tasks twice (or more).
This financial cost is also only part of the problem when it comes to fixing errors. Investors, developers and their supply chains are increasingly focused on emissions and waste – both of which increase with the need to repeat work. The same challenge is seen when it comes to building safety, where quality and error control are increasingly in the spotlight.
The technology opportunity
The good news is that construction technology is here to help, but it can be hard to know where to start. We’ve worked with the C-Tech Club to look into this challenge in a new report on the use of technology to reduce errors in design and construction.
The rationale behind our research was to focus on those tools that have the greatest potential to reduce error on site, and we have found that often it is the fundamentals that matter most.
The top 10 technologies we have highlighted include checking technology, communication tools and document management systems – all of which ensure that teams work in a joined-up way, preventing errors from creeping in.
From there a wealth of more sophisticated applications can be bolted on – from workflow engines and visualisation software, right through to internet of things sensors to monitoring movement and temperature.
Embedding behaviours to avoid error
We should take encouragement from these steps forward in construction technology. However, these tools won’t fix the problem of error reduction on their own. They need to go together with a mindset shift within the construction industry.
Put simply, we still need collectively to take error more seriously; in reality, it often remains an afterthought for project teams. The sector has made great progress in areas such as health and safety reporting, putting rigorous processes in place. By comparison, methods for measuring error, and its associated costs, remain inconsistent.
The answer is to make sure that people remain at the heart of our process, even if we are giving them new tools for the job. As we train teams to use the technology, we have a golden opportunity to embed the culture required for error-free working at the same time.
This needs to not only happen on site but from the start of the project. Our wider research shows that the interface between design and delivery is one area where errors often occur. There can be a disconnect between the sophisticated design development in BIM and the practical delivery of projects on the ground.
These new tools can help bridge that gap, but they still rely on people to spot the potential issues and manage them.
As these technologies open up new opportunities to transform project performance, it’s crucial that we embed the right behaviours to exploit them fully.
Cliff Smith
Executive director
Get It Right Initiative
