Innovation

The construction industry

Construction Innovation: A Revolution: UK Prospective

Prof. Nash DawoodCentre for Construction Innovation

Research

University of Teesside

London

Lecture Content•What is innovation?•A brief introduction to the UK industry.•Construction industry traditional business processes.•Problems with the traditional processes.•Process re-engineering and application of IT.•UK Government Initiatives •Finally: The Teesside contribution.

Innovation

•Bring in novelties.•Finding faster and cheaper ways of doing the

same thing.•Doing something differently or use entirely

different materials.

The UK Construction Industry

• Around £60 Billion/year turnover.• Employ 1.4 Million People.• Highly influenced by the general economy (Boom and

Bust), weather, etc and therefore quite risky business.

• Very difficult work condition• Significant impact on the environment

The UK Construction Industry

• Public Perception is often:• One of Lazy, shovel-learning, • Cheating Cowboys who bodge, rather than build.• In reality, the vast of construction activities is

carried out by professional to the highest standard.

Traditional Construction processes

TenderClient

Architect and professional advisors Contractor seek bid

Prep. of design and tender document

Appraise of Tender

Construct works Place orderInterim payment

Final payment

What are the Problems•Adversarial and Fragmented processes.•Very little time spent on design development.•Minimum communications and interactions

between the construction team.•High out-turn compared to initial cost.•Poor site construction planning.

UK Proposed Annual Targets

10%20% 10% 20%ReduceReduce IncreaseIncrease

Predictability

Productivity

Profit & TurnoverCapital

Construction time

Defects

Accident

Source: M4I

The Construction Revolution

• Modernisation.• Client Satisfaction.• Team work.• Innovative processes, products and tools.• Whole life cycle approach.

The Innovation

•Processes re-engineering and bench-marking (using Lean Thinking Philosophy)

• Information Technology as enabling tools for processes improvements.

•Products developments. •Safer and well planned construction sites•More environmentally friendly sites

Integ

rated

Co

nstru

ction

Team

Stan

dard

prod

ucts an

d

comp

onen

ts

Processes re-engineering

Design and Product Development

Costing

Teaming with the supply chain

Implementation (site activities)Maintenance

Inform

ation In

frastructu

reP

rodu

ct Mod

el

Ap

plic

atio

n S

oftw

are

Comparisons of traditional and proposed processes

Range of options

TimeRange of options

Time

Conventional Processing

Parallel processing

Client-Arch-Stru.-Env.-Others

Advantages new processes: satisfying clients needs

• What are their needs?–Projects delivered, –More reliably,–To higher quality,–Fully meeting their functional requirements,–Engagement - through enhanced, understanding,– Influence - through meaningful interaction.

Advantages of new processes: Time Compresion

•Replace Sequential Processing by Interactive Concurrent Processing.

•Enable application of principles of concurrent engineering.

•Improve planning of construction site procedures.

Reduce time from “order” to “delivery”Reduce time from “order” to “delivery”

UK Government Research Initiatives

• Getting industry and academia to work together (50% contribution from Industry)

• Construction as Manufacturing Process (CMP Initiative)• Partners in Innovation (PII)• Meeting Client needs through Standardisation (MCNS)• Responsive mode (100% Government)

• The Virtual Construction Site: A Strategic Construction Planning (VIRCON).

• Re-engineering Work-face information• Development of Intelligent VR systems for

facilitating Outline design• International Network on VR Applied to Construction

Process and Products (NET-VR)• Standardisation of brickwork construction

The Teesside Contribution

Research Projects can be found on the university web site:

•Http\\www.tees.ac.uk\research\•Click: environment or civil engineering

Conclusions• In order to be a world class player, the UK

construction industry needs to change. The revolution is happening.

• Process innovation is the key to any technological development.

• Development and use of standard products and processes.

Conclusions• IT revolution is here to stay and the construction

industry should capitalize on its benefits• Teesside is playing a major role in advancing the

construction revolution and contributing to the wealth creation in the UK.

This concludes the presentation

Thanks YOU