Why technology hasn’t changed construction

According to Sam O’Gorman, if you took a worker from a 1920s construction site and brought him to the site of a current project, he wouldn’t be so surprised by what he saw.

“Generally speaking, in Europe and the United States, facilities are still built in a fairly manual manner – not much different from the way they were built 100 years ago,” says Gorman, an associate partner in the real estate practice of consulting firm McKinsey.

Back in 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute stated that the construction industry could increase productivity by 50-60% and increase its global value by $1.6 trillion (£1.3 trillion) per year.

Since then, McKinsey says, improved manufacturing processes and the use of new software and applications have improved efficiency, but not as much as might have been expected.

“Construction is a bit of a laggard in the development of digital technologies compared to many other industries. The adoption of digital technology in the broadest sense is slow, says O’Gorman.

In recent years, several technologies have been touted as having the potential to change the industry. One of them is 3D printing, which involves extruding concrete or other materials to build the walls of a house.

The University of Maine has been working on one such project, developing the world’s largest 3D printer.

Using a mixture of wood fibers and plant resin, the printer created a 600-square-foot (55 m2) house.

“The first prototype house, BioHome3D, performed very well over two winters in Maine, and we are now focused on printing a housing estate consisting of nine such houses,” says Dr. Habib Dagher, executive director of Advanced Structures at the University of Maine and the Composites Center.

However, 3D house printing remains more of a demonstration project than a practical proposition. 3D printed houses tend to be expensive, have extremely thick walls, and are difficult to build on anything other than open, flat ground.

While there have been many lauded 3D printed construction projects, the number of homes actually built this way remains small.

O’Gorman and Dr. Dagher say another technique, modular construction, could increase building efficiency.

It involves producing parts of a building in a factory, transporting them to the site and lifting them into place.

“I am convinced that this is the future, the quality of construction is much better. Lots of little mistakes happen on construction sites,” says Dr. Dagher.

“The more you can do in the factory, the better. The quality control is definitely much better, as is the quality of the finish.”

However, this technology has not caught on either, says Neil Jefferson, managing director of the British House Builders Federation.

“The problem with housing production is that you reserve materials at the factory for construction, and the materials come in and you have to stick to the plan,” he says.

“But currently in this country, because of the government’s approach to planning policy, projects are plagued by delays. And it just doesn’t work, a more flexible approach is needed.”

Developers need some assurance that they will be able to sell their homes quickly once completed, and they often need to change plans as the project continues as the market changes. This is not a major problem for local authority or housing association projects, but may be a problem for private developers.

One company looking to bypass some of these problems is Bristol-based Automated Architecture (AUAR), which plans to license micro-factories to build timber homes using robots.

These micro-factories will be buildings up to six stories high, assembled from standard parts either in the factory itself or on-site.

The idea is that larger construction companies can license a micro-factory for an initial cost of around £250,000 and a fixed monthly fee.

“AUAR partners don’t have to invest millions in building large factories like modular construction companies do, but can immediately offer their customers innovative, high-quality, low-energy homes at market prices,” says Mollie Claypool, co-founder and CEO.

According to her, automation provides developers with higher margins, shortens construction time and reduces risk and waste. According to her, labor costs per project can be 20% to 60% lower compared to traditional construction methods.

He says the company already has four customers lined up and aims to increase that number to 140 by 2030, building more than 30,000 energy-efficient homes a year.

While the home construction industry has not undergone as major a transformation as other industries, many smaller, less visible parts of the process are being digitized.

“The design element is getting the most attention and news – it’s quite analog and hasn’t changed much. If you look at the rest of the web, it’s actually digitizing quite well,” says O’Gorman.

“People are using digital tools to identify land, they are using artificial intelligence to predict future values ​​using a whole range of different indicators. The design process has become fully digital over the last 10 years.”

And it’s these kinds of behind-the-scenes improvements that will likely make the most improvement in the home building process, says Karolina Torttila, director of artificial intelligence at industrial technology company Trimble.

Work that was once recorded in papers and filing cabinets has now been digitized. So, quantity surveying, health and safety procedures, commissioning and handover work, and carbon management can all be done using apps and computer software.

However, more can be done.

“A big challenge is the high fragmentation of the construction industry, which makes it difficult to implement uniform technological achievements,” says Ms. Torttila.

A general contractor manages multiple subcontractors – mechanical, electrical, plumbing, finishing, earthworks and more. Each team is influenced by other teams’ plans and how they are implemented, and mistakes made in the field often have a dramatic impact on costs down the road.

However, technology can help alleviate these problems. On a large construction project, creating a 3D model of the building or any components that anyone can share can help detect any discrepancies before they become bigger problems, Ms. Torttila says.

“Such actionable data not only encourages communication between construction and back-office operations teams, but also aids in forecasting, planning and purchasing decisions,” he says.

“This helps make the process smoother – even if the industry remains fragmented.”