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Tight margins, evolving regulations and workforces spread across multiple sites can make it difficult for transformations to take root, at least without securing alignment across all teams.
Many modern construction firms struggle to comfortably adopt positive change, with McKinsey finding less than 1% of construction revenue currently feeds back into research and development.
If transformation in construction is so important, why is this the case?
It all comes down to preparation and support; ensuring everyone involved in a change has the skills and knowledge to make it happen. When this is the case, great changes can stick.
We'll show you this idea in action below by exploring a few recent transformations in the construction sector.
Transformation in the construction sector covers the introduction of new ideas, practices and technologies to existing processes, typically to help improve efficiency, achieve sustainability and address challenges.
In the modern age, transformation in the construction sector usually involves the use of digital technologies and big data, alongside a healthy amount of employee feedback, insights and ideas.
Employees are best-positioned to identify areas of improvement and suggest realistic fixes, while digital tools provide data driven insights that can help to turn those suggestions into new, actionable practices.
While the basic framework of innovation in building operations may seem straightforward, the often-complicated nature of construction projects can introduce some unique challenges, including:
Lack of digital skills: Advancing digitalisation across all industries means many impactful changes rely on digital skill development. At present, the construction industry has the lowest levels of Essential Digital Skills, with only 35% of employees able to perform necessary tasks comfortably.
Tools like Sideways 6 help businesses in the built environment overcome these challenges, offering not only a platform for frontline employees to share and collaborate on ideas, but also a digital solution that leaders can use to successfully guide people through changes.
From smaller aspects like digital skill development and the introduction of new technologies, to the full-scale management of practical and digital transformations, businesses in the built environment use idea management tools to improve ROI and boost efficiencies, often resulting in significant financial savings.
Take the international infrastructure group Balfour Beatty, for example, who’ve to date saved 53,800 hours and £3.2 million in costs using employee ideas submitted through Sideways 6.
When employees are guided through transformation in construction by committed and adaptable leaders, impactful time, cost and resource-saving changes can be implemented successfully.
It's this mindset that's spurred on many impressive developments across the industry in recent times, some interesting examples of which are covered below.
Energy costs are among the largest expenses on many construction projects, with the sector as a whole responsible for 3% of the UK's total energy usage. Energy waste can also be an issue for businesses in the built environment, with the sector accounting for 37% of carbon emissions, the most of any industry.
Transformation in construction in recent years has set out to address this, seeing firms explore alternative and sustainable energy sources. Alongside more well-known renewable energies like solar, wind and hydrogen, some businesses use their own construction demolition and excavation waste to produce clean energy, helping to boost energy efficiency via the creation of circular energy systems.
The use of AI in construction and the built environment has been big news recently, with nearly 32% of UK-based businesses said to have integrated such tools into critical projects in some capacity.
Artificial intelligence-assisted digital processes and solutions can be used to improve operations and boost ROI across many aspects of construction, from smart information modelling and project planning, to engineering and safety management. The ability for AI technology to process large amounts of data and draw conclusions in real-time acts to enhance services through automation and predictive analytics.
Digital transformation in the construction industry has not only enhanced virtual workflows, with digital solutions like 3D printing platforms helping modern firms to blend the worlds of practical and digital construction leading to the creation of virtual reality assets that can be turned into real world materials.
Digital technologies enable businesses to design construction products and refine processes inside a controlled virtual environment, seeing designers test aspects like building performance and workflow efficiencies before any physical resources are used. In practice, raw materials like concrete can be fully formed and set via an automated process that can help to reduce waste and improve energy efficiency.
Some of the same principles that guide 3D printing workflows also play a big role in the development of digital twins; entirely digital replicas of physical entities that engineering teams use to test and refine buildings and infrastructure.
Through the analysis of digital twins, designers can test and develop ways to improve efficiency and reduce risks to help maximise the potential value of a building through its life.
Digital twins enhance operations already performed through Building Information Modelling (BIM) tools by adding more information to augmented reality representations of physical infrastructure. This allows for data-driven decision making to support more sustainable, cost-efficient practices, driven by frontline feedback harnessed via idea management tools.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has been central to several modern transformations in the construction industry, playing an important role in the collection and intelligent use of big data. Sensors installed around construction sites, on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and inside buildings collect high-quality data related to key safety and efficiency metrics to help workers optimise critical processes.
Within a central data management system, insights related to sound, pressure, temperature, occupancy and many other stimuli can be collected, analysed through artificial intelligence and used to inform core processes. This helps professionals achieve goals across wide-ranging practices, from efforts to reduce carbon emissions and perfect building performance to the full-scale optimisation of modern smart cities.
Whether a firm is exploring one of the above transformative construction services, or acting to develop their own novel practical or digital transformation, best practices for successful adoption will remain similar.
When looking to foster transformation in construction, consider the following key factors.
Sustainable transformations rely on open communication across all levels of an organisation. Tools and policies must be implemented to support engaging knowledge and idea sharing. When transformations are guided through a technology like Sideways 6, connections between frontline workers and decision makers can be established, providing an open channel for real-time collaboration between all parties.
A lot can change between the formation of plans and their implementation. Successful transformations often rely on a team's ability to hear and act on new information efficiently, with idea management tools providing an ideal platform for everyone involved in change to share actionable insights of great value.
In a recent episode of The Idea Exchange, ‘How businesses can react faster to change’, management experts offer guidance on maintaining agility in high-stakes industries, outlining the benefits of proactive change management in getting ahead of issues later down the road.
Parameters must be set to measure the progress of proposed transformations. Adopting a data-driven approach to change management, where insights from frontline employees can be supported by high-quality information, helps teams set and adjust achievable goals to best manage the delivery of change.
Transformation comes from the frontline, with those performing key tasks daily often being best-positioned to generate ideas. Firms like Balfour Beatty leverage Sideways 6 to build on these ideas, leading to savings of 53,800 hours and £3.2 million in costs to date.
Learn how to improve cost and resource efficiency across your own construction projects today with a free personalised demo of our product.
