Information Technology in Construction

Information Technology in Construction

Executive Summary
The construction industry as a whole, and hence individual companies, need to evolve in order to survive the information age. We are having a problem with labor shortages in this industry because the knowledge to be gained in it is losing value in today’s society. I will attempt to align this problem with a proposal for an information age construction company and specifically, I want to outline the role Information Technology in making this transition.

Introduction
The globe is in the thick of an information age. Whole societies are composed of knowledgeable citizens with the intent, hopefully, to use this knowledge to better the world. In these information economies the hot industries are those like Information Technology, eBusiness, Bioengineering, Nanotechnology, and Healthcare etc. Construction is still just plain old construction, with a few notable developments like computer software which helps estimate job cost and enhanced materials. However the industry is still largely stuck in the twentieth century.


The Problem
The Utah economy is “running on all cylinders” says Mark Knold, senior economist for the Department of Workforce Services. What could be better? But oddly enough, this has presented a problem for many employers; there’s a shortage of skilled workers. Specifically of interest herein is a heavy shortage of skilled laborers within the construction industry.
The unemployment rate in Utah, relatively speaking, is much below that of the national average. Last year the construction industry in Utah created nearly 12,000 new jobs and between 2004 and 2005 residential construction grew 31% from $3.6B to $4.7B. Utah’s job growth rate is in the top five nationwide. To compound all of this, the AGC (Associated General Contractors of America) estimates the average age of the skilled construction worker to be 47 years! For the record, a skilled worker is someone who completes a four year journey through trade school and on the job apprenticeship becoming a journeyman, someone who knows how to handle the complexities on the job.
With the skilled workforce getting older and new entrants (in large part) being unskilled or not aspiring to become skilled, the industry is headed toward chaos. Currently, the dominant style of managing people and tasks used among construction companies is called Technical-Rational. This is the style of direction/order through hierarchy, similar to a pyramid with the boss at the top, the project manager under him, followed by the foreman who directs the journeyman, and lastly the apprentices who are directed by their assigned journeyman. If this system is working correctly communication flows in one direction, from the top. However, in today’s most highly evolved companies, the ones most apt to survive, communication flows in multiple directions.
Initially, there are many steps to alleviate a labor shortage like: raise wages, improve working conditions, provide incentives like bonuses and benefits etc. Even steps like recruiting/promoting construction jobs at local high schools are all seen here as treating the symptoms, not the problem. Remember the problem is not only a shortage of skilled labor but it goes deeper. The problem lies within the culture and traditions of an entire industry. Consider piloting a sinking ship, to save it you not only start with buckets of water and the leak itself but you might even think to build a better vessel, one more able to sail the roughest foreseeable sees.
In this light, reason suggests making the nature of construction more appealing, something that I, a member of the knowledge society, would want to learn and practice, the true step forward. This means taking the industry and evolving it to suit today’s society and economical environment, a world hot with technology, innovation, and above all change.
There exists a need within the industry to realize that construction is no longer exempt from the rapid changes of the world in general and other industries specifically. Continual innovation both in the utilization/development of technology and social systems (management of human resources) within individual companies is the next logical step toward an appealing company and, industry. Some simple examples of updating are the elimination of paper trails by using email, plans in electronic form, CAD (Computer Aided Drafting), electronic time cards and check deposits, etc.
While I will admit that there will always be a need for unskilled workers, I think the amount of energy required from them can and should be lessened in construction. A sweeping effort is needed to change the old ways of construction and, through the creative process, new ways to look at this great industry will manifest themselves through the pursuit of continual innovation.

The Creative Solution: iForm
To start, imagine a box containing pieces of a scaled down model house ready for an unskilled but eager workforce to assemble and overall, to imagine the construction process together as a team. They could do this in two ways: electronically or physically. In the electronic form the “box” would be sent via email to the team learning how to put the real structures together. Here they would immerse themselves into a fairly simple 3D program designed to train them in seeing the quickest ways to build these structures.
The actual building process should be simple with few hindrances. The “Lego” should always fit and function properly due to thorough design. Help from IT in engineering, marketing, manufacturing, delivery etc. will be indispensable in this process. With all of this help and foresight from IT the amount of ambiguity traditionally involved in construction should be drastically reduced. It should be rare to have an extra or missing Lego or, one that is damaged, too big, small, or colored wrong.
iForm is a theoretical company which innovates this idea of a house or building and gathers the resources to make it a reality. iForm’s mission is to design, engineer, produce the parts (like Lego parts), and market a line of houses and/or simple commercial structures like carwashes and storage buildings, that can be assembled quickly. iForm may be an all-encompassing company comprised of all the necessary departments like engineering or, subcontract the various disciplines out to independent companies which specialize in only those areas.
On the job site, the real structure will actually be delivered to the site in boxes or units where the workers are waiting. With the foundation poured the previous week “box 1” is delivered containing the house parts in calculated increments and labeled something like “Day 1, Nov. 13, 2012.” The unskilled workers will have a wireless communication system guiding them and unifying their efforts. This “Central Communication System” would act as an enabler of information flow between the team members allowing them to further coordinate their efforts and finish each phase smoothly. The costs of this system would be minimal by today’s standards and in three years the productivity gained would far outweigh the monetary costs.
This vision is long term and a solution for construction companies to pursue now and into the coming years. Up to this point local companies haven’t taken the indeed large strides to figure all this out and the reason is that the lion share of construction is performed by companies with an average of 10-15 employees or so. Through the collaboration between a number of construction firms, logistical problems could be brought to the surface. These include problems like how to run electrical and plumbing through the manufactured sections. However there is no way to provide them all here because it would require actually doing it. But, some examples would be the utilization of Information Technology for communication between the firms in order to work together as a unit. Once this step is taken the construction team could figure out –innovate - better ways to get the traditional job done quickly and efficiently and leading to a more systematized process

Summary
Information technology has changed the way we look at work. It has taken valuable knowledge and made it available to billions of people. Before the invention of the internet, cell phones etc., knowledge was gained primarily through physical proximity to another more knowledgeable person. In construction we see this process at work and in fact integral to its operation; the apprentice and the master. Today those of us who are not engaged in the wonders of the internet will become isolated from the rest, whether we’re talking individuals or companies.
Companies like iForm will not only alleviate the labor shortage by making the process of construction more efficient, they will change the definition of a skilled and unskilled construction worker. Clearly, this is a solution that gets at the root of the problem instead of improvising to delay facing adversity.