Process, Technology and People

Attending the Global Institute of Lean Construction 16th annual meeting (IGLC16) in Manchester on July 15th to 18th, the most interesting topic for me was a paper presented by Research Fellow Bhargav Dave of Salford University. The title of the paper was “A critical look at integrating people, process and information systems within the construction sector”. The paper was prepared by, in association with Bhargav Dave, Professor Lauri Koskela and Professor Mike Kagioglou from the School of the Built Environment at Salford University and MsC / Consulting Engineer / External Lecturer of Danish Technical University ,Sven Bertelsen.An interesting conclusion in the paper was a reference to findings of the London School of Economics and McKinsey regarding the percentage increase in total factor productivity for implementation of IT technology and management practices. Implementation of IT systems alone increased total productivity by a mere 2%, whereas the implementation of management practices contributed to an increase of 8%. Better still a combined implementation of IT technology coupled with improved processes and better people management such as performance management increased total productivity by 20%.

This brings us to a question of companies investing in new ICT in construction, but at the same time not investing in the training of their organization (=people) and implementation of new processes and better practices. The benefits remain minimal. In some cases introduction of new IT systems and spending large sums of money investing in them has resulted in decreased productivity. There should be a better understanding of the interconnection between processes, organization and technology in order to receive full benefits of advanced methods. Companies are willing to invest huge amounts of capital in new IT systems which in reality provide very little value. A closer look should be made regarding the investments and especially the ROI (return on investment). A better overall picture of construction process integration is required when IT investment decisions are made: knowing what IT systems are practicable, how they are to be used to gain full benefit and what it is used for in relation to the overall process of the company.

Building information modeling (BIM) technology has been widely implemented in recent years. BIM has the potential to revolutionize the AEC industry as it provides an advanced tool for project management, data management and information integration. However, the same pitfall exists as in implementation of other IT technology. The full benefits of BIM are not realized unless its implementation is integrated with business process reengineering, compatible project management processes such as lean construction and Last Planner System (LPS), quantity information management (QIM) and training of people and organizations. BIM has tremendous potential, but this potential can be wasted if it is considered that the technology on its own will provide the answers.