While other industries productivity have made substantial gains over the past 40 years, labor productivity in construction has actually declined. A brief summary of reasons for this, as suggested by Paul Teicholz of Stanford University in Viewpoint section of AECbytes , include:

u Design - Bid - Build process separates construction from design and increases changes and conflicts.

u While IT usage has increased, the inability of various systems to ‘talk’ to each other has not improved collaboration efforts.

u The building industry has numerous small ‘players’, as opposed to an industry made up of a few large companies which push adoption of new technology.

u There is low investment in R&D in the construction industry.

u Construction workers receive relatively low wages, which discourages use of labor saving equipment and processes.

Teicholz suggests better standards and interoperability, increased use of Design Build, more R & D support from government, and better training as possible ways to resolve this problem.

See www.aecbytes.com/viewpoint/issue_4.htm for many more details, conclusions, and the entire article.

 

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