There’s a level of resistance to change and new approaches in the construction industry that I’ve not seen anywhere else. But to be honest, I’m not sure that its an entirely bad thing.
I see innovation discussed at length and organisations like the BRE promote innovation wherever possible. Their Innovation park is a great showcase future building design and materials and initiatives like the BRE Innovation Den, which aims to put innovators in-touch with investors can only be a good thing. Yet working every day in the Industry, I see very little of this innovation trickling down onto the average construction site or office. The ‘new’ ideas i do see have either taken years to become mainstream or have mostly been copied off other Industries.
Two examples of this are BIM and Lean. BIM has been around since the 1980′s and what we’re doing with BIM today could probably be handled by the 1980′s software quite easily on most projects without any need for the latest software packages (a few 3D drawings of certain elements of a building in most cases). 20 years behind the capability of our software and nobody is overly concerned.
Similarly, Lean construction doesn’t count as industry innovation in my book as its been copied straight from the Japanese car manufacturers (again – they were using it in the 80′s). Where are the innovations that construction is passing back to the manufacturing, finance, and telecoms industries for that matter?
I watched a fascinating video on you tube the other day about li-fi (wi-fi in a light bulb basically) and I’m told that the light bulb manufacturers are well on with making it a commercial viable reality. Is the construction industry engaging in the debate? The potential impact on building design, layout, and IT infrastructure? I don’t know – but I’d hazard a guess that most have never even heard of the technology.
But is this over caution a bad thing? In defence of the construction industry we should commend ourselves on the fact that we don’t suffer fools gladly. Innovative solutions by their very definition are relatively untested and so whenever new ideas and buzz words come around we’re naturally cautious. Li-fi may fall down because of security concerns, new materials may be environmentally friendly but deteriorate quicker than traditional materials etc etc.
Other industries spend much more on management consultants and information technology solutions than we do but when we read in the news about failed IT mega projects like the NHS National Programme for IT which wasted £12bn, I can’t help think that a little caution is a good thing.
So its about balance ultimately, and we shouldn’t berate ourselves for being cautious because with innovation comes intrinsic risk. However at the same time it’s a risk we should look to manage rather than mitigate altogether because when done right, innovation brings benefits to all. This managed approach should be in the form of pilot studies, or engagement with specific clients who want to promote innovation and also understand the risks, or more pro-active engagement by companies with organisations like the BRE and Constructing Excellence rather than paying lip-service.
I feel that being just a little more adventurous would do us and our clients the world of good. I leave the final word to creative thinker Roger Von Oechwho offers a quote which nicely summarises the challenge we face:
“It’s easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date.”
