Contractors must adapt as tech disruptors move in

Contractors need to adapt to become more like the innovative disruptors in other sectors if they want to avoid extinction, director and global head of systems at Bryden Wood Jaimie Johnston has warned.

“If you look at what the contractor of the future would look like, they would be good at data, good at supply chain procurement, and good at logistics – they would be Amazon. I am not saying we will see Amazon entering construction but we know some of these major firms are watching construction with interest.

“If the big incumbents don’t get their act together, someone else is going to,” Johnston told an audience at the Digital Construction Summit, organised by Construction Manager and BIM+.

Speaking in a different session, George Stevenson, managing director, ActivePlan said: The challenge that we have got is that the way the industry works at the moment is that we have got a huge amount of capability during the design phase of the process up to about Stage 4 where many things are digital and then we drop into more of an analogue world where the installers are actually using standard technology and that is creating a data gap. Someone has to come and fill that gap, so we very regularly have FM organisations coming along to commission surveys of business that have just been completed, which is mad. They are never going to get the quality of information that they should be because you can’t see things that are closed down. What we need to do is have that digital model running right the way through the process."

Meanwhile Sam Stacey, challenge director at Transforming Construction (part of UK Research and Innovation), highlighted the career opportunities for young people that change would bring with it. He said: “We need to bring a manufacturing approach to construction as well as changing the mindset from this obsession with the capital cost to thinking about the user benefits of what we are creating.

“Construction is going to go through an exciting phase in the next few years. It is the last great unreformed industry. There are so many exciting jobs to be had.”

UKRI is poised to launch a competition for another £36m of funding for research and innovation projects in the construction sector, having already invested around £20m on projects researching areas like artificial intelligence, automation and 3D printing.