The Construction Technology Handbook. Hugh Seaton
meet frequently and talk about how their parts of the process could be improved – usually this part included several adjacent steps. And finally, tons of data was collected on how the process overall was going so opportunities that improve at that level could be seen and decisions made.
Over the course of the second half of the twentieth century, Lean thinking took Japan from a burned out, poverty‐stricken country to one of the leading economies in the world.
Keep in mind, the Lean manufacturing folks never stopped worrying about ROI for their machines. And you'd better believe that no one worried one bit less about safety or the always‐present possibility that something unexpected will go wrong. What they did do was expand the tools they knew how to use well, and create some new ones, especially around data.
The Lean Construction example helps us in two ways:
First, it is a great example of how changing mindset changed what managers and workers thought of as most valuable. And when that happened, new processes, new opportunities for improvement came about. In fact, Lean swept around the world and changed what everyone thinks is valuable in manufacturing.
Imagine what is happening in construction now – we are slowly adopting a digital mindset, and it is unlocking new ways of looking at everything. Specific solutions and technologies will come and go; what matters is how you, the construction professional, are able to view these technologies and make them work for you. In the case of Lean Manufacturing, over seven decades of technology have changed everything about what happens in a factory, but the core ideas and methods are the same as they were in the 1950s.
How you think about the world affects what you are able to do; what you value drives what you choose to do.
Secondly, Lean illustrates an important concept – some of the most important tools you use are in your own mind. In the case of Lean, those tools included using data and statistics, but also the habit of asking folks on the floor what was going on, instead of being quite so top‐down, command and control. Those same tools are used in Lean Construction, as we'll discuss later.
Mindset is a powerful thing. We are creating a digital mindset that will usher in a new era of construction.
Construction's New Era
Sometimes we can lose sight of the amazing power of construction. Yes it's a huge industry, yes it employs a huge number of people. But so is retail, so is real estate. Construction isn't just big, it is foundational, and it matters that we continually improve.
Unlike any other sector of human activity, construction makes possible our most basic needs, and our highest aspirations. Construction tames nature, creating the safety and predictability that makes everything else possible. Construction also thrusts our buildings into the clouds, creating spectacles that inspire us to believe nothing is impossible.
Society needs construction, and in a world remade by the 2020 pandemic, we are going to need new things from construction, and construction is going to need new things from technology.
Construction is going to change, probably faster in the next five years than in the past fifty. Of course, it has been evolving and changing all along, but those changes have been slow and not evenly distributed across the industry. For example, the role of architects has changed from that of “master builder” to designer, leaving general contractors to take on risks that maybe they didn't originally want. The information gap that architects left has changed how RFIs1 happen, how change orders happen, and so on.
Similarly, the traditional design‐bid‐build, while alive and well for many projects, is under pressure around the world, as Design‐Build and Integrated Project Delivery approaches are explored. But most of these changes didn't reach to how the building is built. Prior to about 2010, the massive digital transformation that has swept through every industry from banking to farming barely touched construction.
In the last decade, though, things have started to go digital in the field. According to James Benham of JBKnowledge: “It's all driven by consumerization of technology. Workers who have iPhones and apps and can facetime their daughter three states away expect at least that level of technology on the jobsite. When they couldn't find it from tech firms, they started making their own.”
That's a part of the mindset shift we're talking about. The change in expectation, the change in sense of digital competence that allowed superintendents and tradesmen who were not necessarily technologists by training to feel like they were good enough to create their own solutions. They felt that way because they use digital technology all day long outside of construction, so it seemed obvious that they should use it on the job. But that consumerization mindset is just that, from the realm of the consumer.
To really make the difference we have seen in other industries, digital transformation requires that the mindset shift from that of construction professionals dabbling on their iPhones, to digital construction professionals working in software and other technologies from the ground up. We need to cultivate the skill of understanding what kind of problem we are trying to solve, and using the right tool, whether intuitive or digital or a combination, to solve the problem and put the work in place.
The Change Is Coming
Technology is here to stay, and it will become more and more a part of the construction process. As we discussed earlier, specific products may or may not make it, but digital transformation is here and will reach into every aspect of the building process.
The driver of change is what's going on in the world outside of construction. This book was written right during the biggest pandemic in 100 years, and while we won't talk about Covid‐19 very much, this crisis has added fuel to existing arguments that the status quo needs a rethink.
Let's look at four external drivers of change: demographics, climate change, owner pressure, and the 2020 pandemic aftermath.
Change Driver #1: Demographics
In the coming years, Baby Boomers are going to continue to leave the industry because they retire, can't physically do the work, or for other reasons. Boomers are the largest generation in history, except for their kids, the millennials – it is a lot of people. Boomers are typically considered anyone born between 1946 and 1965, Gen X is 1966 to 1985, and Millennials are between 1986 and 2005.
Gen X as a group is a few million smaller than either Millennials or Boomers, which means that Millennials are going to be in decision‐making roles much earlier in their careers than would naturally be the case. And the thing about Millennials is that they are not just “tech‐savvy” – having grown up with the internet and smartphones, Millennials are intolerant of tech‐averse workplaces. For companies looking to grow, or just replace leaving Boomers, remaining pre‐digital will have a serious cost in terms of ability to attract and keep young talent.
Demographics are like a slow moving wave that people usually ignore, though they can easily see it coming. And just like a big ocean wave, demographics are inevitable. This demographic wave of technology‐demanding Millennials is going to have huge impacts on the construction industry, and not just on the technology adoption front. As an example, Millennials buy homes at a much lower rate than Gen X or Boomers, and we're already seeing that fact change the shape of suburbs and cities, a change that will only accelerate as Boomers retire.
The key takeaway is that, whether it's because they demand it, innovate it, or are in a position to make the decision to purchase it, more and more technology will be used on the jobsite and across the construction value chain because of Millennials.
But demographics have another impact across the world – a radical change in the parts of the world that have enough working age people, and those that have too few. In the past 200 years, every national population has gone through a period of boom, then slow decline as the establishment of basic healthcare and sanitation causes an imbalance between dropping