Project Development Process – Industry-wide Practices

The nature and structure of the construction industry is also a factor in the consideration of construction automation through the project design.  Designer education and training, industry standards, rapid advancements in technologies, and the traditional roles of project team members in the industry all affect the interest and ability of designers to design for construction automation.  Provided below are examples of barriers within the construction industry that limit effective consideration of construction automation in the design phase as well as recommended practices for its consideration.

Taking a look outside of construction, other work industries have made changes that promote automation.  (Lessons from Other Industries)

Common Limiting Barriers

The following are examples of barriers that commonly limit the consideration of construction automation throughout the construction industry.

• Frequent changes and advances in the technologies

Technological advancement and improved equipment design occur rapidly and many users cannot keep up with the changes.  These changes often exceed the capability of the industry to process, implement, and utilize the changes.  The result is that many industry design processes exclude consideration of automated technologies altogether.

• A lack of industry-wide standard design elements

Standardized design elements lead to greater utilization of automated technologies as mentioned previously.  When there is a lack of standard design elements common among similar projects, project variability limits the applicability of the equipment.  Without standard design elements, automated technologies either must match the complexity and variability of a project, or the constructor must match a project with its automated technology.  Many smaller companies simply do not undertake enough projects to make technology utilization a success.

• The traditional roles and responsibilities of the designer

Traditionally, designers have not been responsible for the means and methods that constructors use to build projects.  As a result, a designer’s ability to influence implementation of construction methods has gone unused, and designers commonly do not recognize the level of impact their design practices have on construction automation.  Owner expectations of designer responsibility have traditionally not shown that the owners understand the influences designers can have on overall project cost.  Hence, designers have not established genuine interest in pursuing means and methods considerations such as automation implementation.

• Resistance to change from the commonly used design practices

The saying “Current practices have worked for so long, why change them?” is a good representation of how change is often regarded.  Within a design field there exist standards and norms of practice that can have detrimental impacts on implementation of automation.  This aspect of the design industry also leads to limited opportunities for change and, when change occurs, it is the result of changing design standards, which tends to be a very long process.  Combining the unwillingness of designers to change with the extensive and long process for changing design standards, and considering the current pace of automated technology change, research suggests that changes are unlikely to occur without influence from outside the design community.

Recommended Practices

With respect to the construction industry as a whole, it is recommended that the capabilities and benefits of automated construction technologies be marketed to designers and owners.  It is expected that this effort would be primarily undertaken by the technology manufacturers with assistance from constructors.  Many designers and owners simply do not have enough exposure to automated technologies and, as a result, they often lack an understanding and acknowledgement of the benefits associated with implementation of automated technologies.  Such marketing efforts would expose designers and owners to the capabilities and benefits of construction automation.

Successful implementation of automated technologies in the industry requires development and implementation “champions”.  It is recommended that designers become Implementation Champions.  Designers can identify areas of automation and technology needs, and assure that designs include standard elements and clearances to encourage the use of automation.  The involvement of designers as Implementation Champions can be illustrated using the model for the technology implementation cycle developed by the CII Update Construction Technology Needs Assessment Research Team.  The model indicates the relationship between the Technology Users, Development Champion, Technology Solution Providers, and Implementation Champion (see figure below).  By modifying the physical aspects of a design and implementing certain design processes to facilitate the use of automated construction technologies, designers act as Implementation Champions.  These efforts are enabled through such activities as constructability reviews, pre-project planning, and partnering.  The efforts of the designer are enabled through marketing by the Technology Providers, review of the website content, and continued education and training in the area of construction automation.

 

(Click on the figure to enlarge)