International construction market survey 2016

Redefining relationships with the supply chain
Do you look for cost performance in other parts of the
supply chain? Construction is the final part of a long process
that brings together raw materials, manufacturing design,
logistics and labour. How well do you know the processes
and elements that make up your supply chain? Are there
opportunities to cut out expensive manual processes on
site in favour of automated and less costly processes in
a factory? Can you get close enough to drive change in
the manufacturing, production and logistics areas where
the biggest opportunities to improve cost performance
are often found?
Changing your relationships with suppliers can completely
transform project delivery, helping you eliminate waste and
increase efficiency. From intelligent category management
to lean construction, finding a way to better engage with
the entire supply chain is a vital step on the path to
delivering better results.
Resetting cost performance measures
Are you measuring what you should be measuring?
Redefining your cost measures to work in terms of
outcomes can provide invaluable insight. Designing
buildings based on cost per occupant instead of cost per
square metre is a good example of this sort of redefinition,
and it’s an approach that can yield useful insights.
The key is to measure. If you can’t measure, you can’t
improve, and if you measure well, you might find new
ways to improve you never thought possible.
Using data to unlock performance
Are you making the most of the vast amounts of data
available to ensure you are getting the best performance
for your projects?
This information can help facilitate design, build and
operations improvements, driving project and programme
performance and guiding future objective decision-making.
But ‘big data’ brings challenges, and needs to be managed
well to reap these benefits.
Using data to its full potential depends on being able
to understand and process the information effectively,
choosing the right tools to achieve your objectives.
An example of an industry getting it right is sport, where
integrated reporting and data captured from player activity
is helping enhance performance. Taking the lead from
motorsports, which was among the first to use telemetry,
video footage and climate data, rugby and football
have now adopted similar approaches and are seeing
improvements. Construction needs to look towards
industries like these to be smarter with big data and
unlock performance.
New construction technology can be just as much about
how things are built as it is about what gets built.
Technology can also help address issues such as skills
shortages. By adopting innovative methods you can
automate processes, which can help minimise waste
and increase productivity.
Never waste a good crisis
Often a downturn in the market provides an opportunity
for a fresh perspective. Strip out the waste and polish
the process. Plan for a better future by having the skills and
technologies available for when the market improves again.
“ While advances in technology like BIM and
modular construction can help, efficiency
improvements of the scale required will only
be achieved if the industry evolves – and
develops leaner, more collaborative ways
of working across the supply chain.”
Steve McGuckin
Global Managing Director, Real Estate
Learning from other sectors:
thinking differently at
Anglian Water
“ At Anglian Water we constantly focus on
affordability. By taking a new approach
over our last decade we have successfully
driven a 30 percent improvement in cost
performance. We achieved this by adopting
an intelligent alliancing model and
collaborating with the supply chain, while
never losing sight of cost performance and
the potential of data and technology.”
Jason Tucker
Head of Integrated Supply Chain, Anglian Water
Embracing technology
Technology and innovation offers great opportunities to
improve, even if the industry finds it challenging to adopt.
If you’re not up to date with the latest developments you
could be missing out on ways to fundamentally change
your business for the better.
Are you designing in 2D rather than 3D? What about 4D,
which adds a time element to the design process? Have
you looked at the benefits of technology like building
information modelling (BIM) can deliver by instantly
sharing measurement, quantities, designs and changes
between builders, architects and suppliers?
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