Construction's a Mess...

Let’s face it, construction’s a mess.

Really?  What?

Well, let’s look at some of the problems. First, return on investment, or ROI. The cost of construction currently exceeds market value. Ignoring the government and non-profit sectors (same thing… price is no object), contractor margins are razor-thin. Said another way, construction really doesn’t “work” from an ROI standpoint. It’s not financially attractive – either for clients, or contractors. And that’s a big problem.

Here’s another one. Workforce. As in, it’s “going away”. The old guys, who really knew what they were doing, are retiring. The new guys – wait, there aren’t any new guys! The younger generation, for the most part, doesn't seem to be interested in getting up at 5:00 am, to start work at 6 or 7, to do one of Mike Rowe’s ‘Dirty Jobs'. So talent is rare, and what’s happening, at least with the smaller contractors, is that they are hiring whomever they can find. In South Florida, this generally means someone that doesn’t speak much English. And larger contractors, hiring young college graduates, thrust these generally smart kids into positions that require on-the-ground knowledge - knowledge they just don’t have.

Then there’s the problem of what I call technology aversion. Construction is an interesting business. Fundamentally, it depends on people who know how to craft physical things with their hands. I call this these people kinetic workers because they carry out the ‘kinetic’, or physical aspect of construction. But there’s also a mental, or knowledge work aspect. Reduced to a very basic level, the adage “measure twice, cut once” captures these two aspects in one thought. The “measure twice” aspect is the knowledge work part, and the “cut once” aspect is the kinetic work part.

Stick with me on this. “Measure twice, cut once” is most effective and efficient as a business process when one person is doing both. But when it takes a team, say to carry out a larger scope of work, things get more complicated. Communication requirements increase dramatically - between kinetic workers, between knowledge workers, and between knowledge and kinetic workers. And communication doesn't just mean people talking to each other. It includes all the data that needs to be shared – including plans, permits, and submittals. And so, I submit this: that the complexity of this requirement, that is, facilitating communication in design and construction, is often vastly underestimated (perhaps most of all by the smaller contractors and design teams).

Circling back, one of the great promises of technology is its ability to facilitate communication by reducing errors and increasing collaboration. Regrettably, though, much of our industry seems averse to technology, especially when compared to other industries. That's what I call technology aversion.

And so here are three problems to think about: ROI, workforce, and technology aversion. In our next post, we’ll begin looking at possible solutions…