whatever challenges and goals are identified, your team works together to overcome and achieve them
You’ve given a good chunk of your life to the construction industry. You live and breathe the sweat, dirt, and sawdust; you push through the blazing heat and the frigid cold days; and you work each day despite the uncertain future of the field you love.
A March 2017 Whitepaper from The World Economic Forum (WEF) dives deep into the six major challenges facing the construction industry today. They are: Project delivery, lifecycle performance, sustainability, affordability, efficiency, and flexibility. This article will break down what we think are the top 5 challenges and will help you understand ways you and your business can overcome them.
Project Delivery
The challenge here is balancing budgets, timelines, and safety while successfully delivering on the expected outcome of the construction project. WEF writes, “More than 90% of megaprojects are above budget or behind schedule, leading to pressure from project owners.”
The first thing you should do here is set a clear vision right from the start. This means that everyone involved is aware of how the completed project will affect the lives of others. WEF explains that a vision does not focus on the finances or profits, but instead it elicits emotional responses. If you know the impact the project will make, it will help you stay on time and within budget.
It’s not enough to just set the vision. You have to make sure all parties you are working with are aligned to it and aligned to each other. This means that whatever challenges and goals are identified, your team works together to overcome and achieve them.
Finally, be adaptable. Knowing that projects may not always go as planned will help you to keep your cool when faced with a challenge. Reevaluate the situation, make a plan to get back on track, and keep going to the end.
Sustainability
One of the biggest challenges facing the construction industry right now is reducing waste and producing more eco-friendly structures. In fact, WEF reports, “In 2005, 39% of total North American CO2 emissions were attributed to buildings.”
WEF continued to say that 30% of the emissions from those buildings are from embodied energy used in the construction.
Though this may not be feasible today, it’s important to look into technology that will help you lower overall embodied energy. Finding and using more sustainable and eco-friendly materials goes a long way, too.
Affordability
The Affordability challenge can mean many different things, but to us it’s the cost of doing business. What projects will give you the most bang for your buck? How do you deal with the rising costs of construction materials?
Though their definition of Affordability is different than ours, the WEF’s solution makes sense across the board: a Construction Basis of Design (CBOD). A CBOD ”drives down construction costs [by identifying] required construction strategies, tactics, techniques, and tools to be incorporated into the process.”
You should also stay in the know about the material costs – when to buy and what’s driving the increases. Check out our article on this to learn more. [NOTE: Link to the material costs article when publishing]
Efficiency
WEF calls this “disaster relief” but we like the term efficiency because while disasters are the problem, being an efficient builder is the key to the solution.
Weather-driven catastrophes are inevitable which means that built structures will likely be destroyed in the aftermath. The challenge here is to create more efficient buildings in the future that can, as WEF explains, “withstand disruption, absorb disturbance, act effectively in a crisis and recover quickly afterwards.”
If you work in areas where weather-related disasters are common, it’s key to look to the future of innovation. Are there materials, tools, concepts that you can start to implement that will help combat those natural disasters?
Flexibility
Flexibility is a hard thing in any profession, mainly because as people, communities, and environments change, your work has to adapt to it. In the construction industry, the environment you create is based largely around the people who live there. The challenge is understanding what they require and building to suit them.
So how do you meet their needs? WEF writes, “The development of construction materials and the growing use of natural and renewable materials [will] have a direct and positive effect on health and well-being, both physical and spiritual.”
Try to be flexible and gain a better understanding of the communities you work in so you know exactly what type of materials and infrastructures they’ll love.
For a deeper dive into all of these challenges, take a look at the World Economic Forum whitepaper!
