Connecting Ownership — Breaking down Data Silos in Construction
Unwrapping Things
Data. It has always existed, mostly on paper. But controlling data now means controlling much more than just scribbles on a page. As other sectors every UK contractor is reliant upon invest more heavily in data, AI and modelling software(s), construction is falling behind.
Transport & shipping, mining, logistics and manufacturing have all kept pace with technological progress. Positives include greatly improved productivity, security, transparency and working conditions.
The members who comprise these industries developed independent solutions with very little intervention, assistance or guidance from any formal establishments, however. This lack of input from official bodies and public forums allowed for negatives including financial manipulation and aggressive competition dominated by an ever-shrinking number of international companies.
With construction though, widespread resistance to most technology has seen the digital means developed before the demand for it. And that would allow the construction industry to do things a little differently.
How? By breaking down the problems…
“In a world of more data, the companies with more data-literate people are the ones that are going to win.” — Miro Kazakoff, MIT Sloan
Problem 1: Formal and Informal Institutions
Institutions exist in formal and informal capacities. Formal institutions include government and local authorities. Informal institutions are (often unwritten) norms, customs or traditions that shape thought and behaviour.
The Construction industry is an example of an established but informal institution, with rules enforced and reinforced by the culture within individual companies and subsequently shared externally through interpersonal relationships, on a project-by-project basis. This happens for the most part slowly and as a result, once accepted, it is hard to alter perceived truths (even when they are wrong).
Formal and informal rules and norms can be complementary, competing or overlapping. Whether they are relatively strong/weak or inclusive/discriminatory is likely to depend on context, but informal ones are often considered detrimental to development outcomes.
Problem 2: The Silo Mentality
Data Silos are the repositories of information where some of a company’s data may be held. They create two major issues, both of which should be very familiar to anyone working in the construction industry:
1. Talent, knowledge and experience are not used to best effect when processes are siloed because no one has all the information.
2. Silo mentalities result in badly coordinated projects.
Pre-construction this includes errors and omissions due to poor planning and discrepancies in documentation. During construction, errors lead to timing clashes, increased tension between subcontractors, pricing errors and significant rework costs.
These problems lead to the silo mentality cause/effect — with larger companies slower to adopt meaningful cultural change and thereby increasing resistance down the chain.
As a result, many Construction business owners have taken a reactive rather than proactive stance when it comes to data. But the nature of “construction” raises significant environmental, social and economic concerns — so if we are to meet the global demand for rapid urbanisation, construction will need ways to limit waste, minimise errors and optimise processes.
Problem 3: Behaviour defined by design
Most construction projects are increasingly reliant on multiple companies. It is a fragmented and disconnected approach, with the only certainty on-site being the vastly differing levels of documentation each company will complete.
Currently, the main contractor stores all company data in various, often isolated, data repositories (or data silos).
But they also have information submitted by subcontractors. And as separate entities, the subcontractors also have their own data silos. To complicate things further, they also have their own subcontractors — architects may use external artists; scaffolders might hire a haulage firm…
It’s not difficult to see how, without a plan implemented before a shovel is lifted, a project could quickly unravel. Furthermore, any future work will lack potentially important information (as the details are held in another company’s silo).
It isn’t nefarious in many cases, especially at the SME end of the industry. Minimising exposure by outsourcing jobs and equipment can make a difference when entering bids. Admitting you are doing so could lose you some, so unless anyone asks — why tell?
Furthermore, changes to site safety and legal statutes have seen increasing levels of qualification and accreditation. Although this is largely positive, a workplace of specialised contractors with only a limited understanding of other roles, unless addressed and managed, discourages cooperation and facilitates potentially toxic workplace behaviour.
In order to give everyone involved the best chance to succeed, open communication and a centralised and integrated platform could provide a standardised process to assist cross-company collaboration from preconstruction to handover.
Problem 4: The Construction Project Lifecycle
Although the most important part of any project is always the physical construction, the lifecycle of almost any project consists mainly of post-construction management and maintenance. But the subcontracted nature is reinforcing the traditional process of: “start project — build project — next project” as well as being inefficient and increasingly financially unfeasible. Media stories and government statistics confirm on a monthly basis just how many contractors or businesses have collapsed due to spiralling costs and poor planning.
In order to improve systems and processes over time to ensure scheduling, quality and cost constraints, information needs to be collected before and during the process. An estimated 25% could be saved in project costs alone by more efficiently capturing and integrating data, in addition to greatly assisting long-term maintenance and repair.
Building lifecycle management is not a new concept, but environmental and legal reforms (e.g. cladding) over the last 20 years have highlighted the deep disparity between documentation supplied for facility management.
Better documentation means better maintenance. Furthermore, collecting and sharing lifecycle data allows for more informed choices in the future and unconnected facility managers can observe results and feed the information back to the planning stage of subsequent projects.
Problem 5: “Expensive” doesn’t mean “Best”
In the modern business world, data-driven technology (DDT), applied correctly, will almost certainly improve overall performance — however a fundamental lack of understanding of what and how DDTs work has led to the general consensus there is some kind of singular, fire & forget solution.
In reality, like the “construction industry”, DDT comprises many different solutions to a number of problems. Principally, they revolving around alternative approaches to established methods. The championing of very useful but technologically intimidating (and cost-busting) solutions like BIM — although increasingly applicable to many — alienated arguably most construction professionals. With no information, educational support or visible cheaper alternatives, the “informal truth” within construction formed that there isn’t a suitable or scaleable solution.
And this is where formal institutions come back in.
A “data culture” is vital to facilitate technological adoption and understand the processes and iterations necessary to optimise frameworks and behaviours. This doesn’t mean government forms and complicated processes, it means providing industry-specific digital central learning hubs, assisted online access, how-to guides and incentives for digital transformation.
But how do you begin to create an ecosystem without the data culture mentality necessary to effectively collect and sort information? By using familiar products (e.g. mobile phones, tablets, Microsoft Teams) communication and cooperation on projects can be improved. By applying proactive coordination methods, incentivising engagement and following consistent documentation practices, a cultural shift can be encouraged.
To Wrap Things Up
Construction professionals have traditionally resisted technology and the collection of data for a range of reasons. Knowing why allows us to change perceptions in the present to maximise uptake and successful application in the future.
And attitudes are changing.
According to a recent survey of senior-level construction professionals, finding the right data strategy to improve decision-making and productivity is now a key area of future investment. The top three cited benefits of capturing, integrating and standardising data were better visibility (26%), an improved employee experience (23%) and enhanced security (28%).
Therefore, despite falling behind on digital adoption, the ubiquity of technology throughout society now means most industry professionals are comfortable with the idea at all levels and support change.
They just need some help to make it work.
Tom@TG
Visit TradeGraft — your one-stop, construction recruitment & training, shop.
