Technology Won’t Help Construction’s and Facilities Management’s Legacy of WASTE simply because technology simply automates existing processes. ERP, CMMS, IWMS, even BIM have all FAILED to produce measurable improvement with respect to the ability to consistently deliver QUALITY repair, renovation, maintenance, or new builds ON TIME and ON BUDGET. Thiis is a fact that few software vendors want you to know.
There’s no shortage of technology marketed to “help” AEC companies and real property, however, the void of leadership and accountability and the will to move beyond archaic, failed processes is overwhelming. It’s time to map decision-making, and performance to value!
Organizations select software as a solution for one reason, it’s easy. You pay for it and it gets delivered. However, millions of dollars later, the result…. no significant improvement… rarely get documented and the next newest tech is purchased… the cycle continues perpetually.
I have been involved in technology my entire life… from robotics, weapons systems, voice/facial recognition, AI, and software. I have founded multiple companies and even have US patents attributed to me. Despite this, I can say that the benefit of technology lies in automating robust processes and ensuring their consistent and hopefully lower cost deployment.
That said, not a single public sector real property owner organization has deployed a robust process system wide that efficiently integrates internal and external planning, procurement, and project delivery teams with a common data environment. If they did, they could save 30%-40%+ over current cost for facilities repair, renovation, maintenance, and new builds, serving their organizational mission and their communities in concert with their mission requirements.
Not Rocket Science
The most disturbing aspect is that any organization can optimize economic and environmental physical infrastructure management with the adoption of existing robust, programmatic processes. The only barrier is the will to do so.
The AECOO sector (architecture, engineering, construction, owner, operator/operations) is clearly in need of disruption, however the catalyst will not be technology. A focus upon pragmatic and practical processes applied to each and every project or workorder is the only way to leverage the knowledge and resources of internal and external teams. The master builders of years gone by knew this, as did Henry Ford, and others.
All participants must adjust to new ways of working. The hardest aspect is recognizing the need to do so. Leadership’s role is to encourage, support, and yes, mandate internal and external teams to upend traditional practices and fully collaborate in a transparent manner on an early and ongoing basis.
Optimizing workflows requires adoption of robust programmatic processes including integrated project delivery and LEAN job order contracting. Each and every project and workorder, while unique, follows the same workflow within these and similar environments. Both mandate collaboration and a common data environment (inclusive of locally researched granular unit price cost databases organized via industry standard data architectures) within a performance-based long-term multiparty agreement and associated operations manual/execution guide that focuses upon best value, mutually beneficial outcomes.
Prepare For the Disruption
What really needs to change?
- Decision-making
- Strategy
- People and Process
- Information
- Value
Understanding and defining robust workflows and standard operating procedures is the first step. Digitalization is secondary.