In the 1990s the construction sector was still languishing in the
dark ages of IT compared to other industry sectors, but then Web
portals were found to be the ideal focal point for large
projects.
Construction has the lowest IT penetration of all industry sectors.
But the scope for Web portals to provide convenient and effective
focal points for large projects involving multiple participants
means that it is fast catching up.
It is the world's largest vertical market, generating revenues of
£2tn annually (£600bn in Europe), but it is highly fragmented, with
the top 10 European contractors having just 8.4% of the market and
the top 60 only 17.7%, according to the construction e-marketplace
eu-supplycom. This contrasts starkly with sectors such as IT,
automobiles, pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals, which are
dominated by a handful of major players.
The deployment of IT has been slowed largely by this fragmented
nature in which major construction companies have to liaise with
many participants within multiple projects at any given time. The
principal successes have been in control and scheduling within
projects, but even here, progress has been hindered by the
difficulties in dealing with the number of suppliers and partners,
many of which have little capability for electronic sharing of
information or workflow participation.
Although some low-tech firms, such as those providing basic labour,
have little to contribute to electronic supply chains, the full
benefits of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce can only be
achieved by having most participants online.
In a sector where competition has cut margins to 1.5% to 2%,
construction companies have woken up to the potential to improve on
these by shaving operating costs through supply chain automation,
explains Naomi Thomas, managing director of eu-supply.com. But as
Thomas points out, moving to online document sharing is the first
step and the full benefits of B2B relationships will only follow
when internal business processes have been changed to accommodate
electronic working around central project repositories. "It is
going to be difficult for some companies to change," says
Thomas.
According to Marjan Sarshah, head of the industry association
Construct IT, the biggest change construction companies need to
make is in their management of the huge number of documents they
deal with during the course of a project. For example, the
Bluewater shopping mall project in Kent took three years and 80,000
documents were exchanged.
"People keep sending different versions of computer-aided design
documents and details of legislation and they get mixed up," says
Sarshah. "Companies should move towards an electronic project
information repository shared by all stakeholders."
But to exploit a repository to the full, it is essential that all
participants adopt a 3D model for project drawings, rather than the
prevailing 2D approach, says Jim Paton, vice-president of marketing
for graphical software supplier Infrasoft. As he points out, the
manufacturing, automotive and aerospace sectors already use 3D
models and have cut the design cycle time significantly.
Similar benefits could be gained within construction projects,
because with a shared 3D model, all changes and additions to
individual components will automatically be reflected on all other
relevant components, speeding up the overall design process.
The main problem with 3D is that for a large infrastructure project
such as roads, the resulting 3D model is massive, generating
perhaps a 10Gbyte file. It is impractical to transmit this
regularly between project partners, so some way of communicating
just the parts of the model that have changed is needed.
Infrasoft has pioneered an approach called string modelling whereby
objects, such as windows, are held as strings of data representing
their spatial coordinates. These strings can then be sent in
isolation and the central model can assimilate them and regenerate
itself when changes are made. Users can then access the new
versions of individual strings.
But, to participate effectively in shared data models, construction
companies need to get their internal IT shop in order.
Given that many have a legacy of disparate incompatible systems and
data sources, a flexible approach based on a middleware or
information broker to insulate new Web-based processes from
back-end systems is often desirable. Laing Construction, for
example, has taken this line.
The new collaborative approach to IT within projects also requires
common standards for transmission and representation of documents
and drawings.
Sarshah's concerns
- Establishing internal IT infrastructure capable of supporting
external collaboration based on project portals and shared
repositories
- Introducing culture of collaboration conducive to sharing
information with partners via project portals
- Adopting IT blueprint based on common industry-wide standards
such as XML and also key sector-specific ones, in particular the
International Association for Interoperability's Industry
Foundation Classes
- Introducing 3D modelling and insist that project partners do
so
- Implementing a middleware or information broker to insulate
front-end collaborative processes from back-end applications and
databases.
Gartner: smart IT offers relief from low
margins
Of all industry sectors the construction
sector is the worst run, according to David Flint, sector analyst
at Gartner Group.
It is characterised by often unrealistically low margins caused by
over-competitive tendering, antagonistic attitudes among project
participants and numerous inefficiencies resulting from poor
co-ordination and control. Yet despite, or rather because of, these
problems, Flint is optimistic about the take-up of IT within a
sector that has traditionally lagged behind others.
"I think there is likely to be significant progress over the next
few years," says Flint. "I see increased understanding of problems
and significant efforts to get the standards right."
Such optimism is founded largely on the belief that IT is now
maturing to the point that it can provide relief from tight margins
through substantial project and operational cost savings. "The
potential gains are huge, with estimates that one-third of the
total cost of a construction job can be saved through adoption of
an integrated project model supporting collaboration across
industry standards," says Flint.
Also, electronic collaboration would enable construction companies
to become more competitive by improving quality and delivering to
shorter time scales.
The main problems to be overcome to achieve this improved
collaboration are not so much technical but relate to cultural
factors within the sector. There has to be emphasis on getting the
business relationships right. "You need to understand the business
processes, link those across the organisations that contribute,
whoever they are, and put in IT systems that support them," says
Flint.
Another problem springs from the fragmented nature of the industry
and lack of IT awareness, particularly among the smaller players.
However, it is important not to get bogged down trying to get all
the players online, and instead focus on the key partners in
design, surveying, engineering and subsequent facilities management
of the finished construction.
"There are some very low-tech businesses, such as labour-only
contractors, and it's probably not necessary for them to be
online," says Flint. On the other hand, the relationship with
sub-contractors lower down the chain needs to be managed within
online project-control systems.
The overriding IT issue, crucial for attaining the potential cost
savings, is document management, given the huge flow of structured
information within projects.
"This arises in terms of document automation, but more importantly
in understanding what the documents are all about," says Flint.
This is where common object standards are needed, so that project
participants can contribute towards an overall design without
having to grapple with low-level detail.
Setting common standards
Given the highly
collaborative nature of construction, coupled with the temporary
demise of public e-marketplaces that could serve as brokers for
document exchange, the pressing need is for common definitions of
objects such as doors, walls, road lines and also of building
services such as ventilation systems.
The International Association for Interoperability (IAI) is charged
with defining these objects and ensuring that they conform to the
work of other standards groups such as the International Standards
Organisation and promoting their use within the industry.
Brian Zelly of the IAI says, "We are developing object standards
called Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) for objects in
construction used by software manufacturers and, provided that they
support them, it then enables information to be properly exchanged
between the various software platforms. You can then have a single
project data model which contractors, architects and surveyors can
take from and feed into."
Manufacturers can also define their own objects, provided that they
conform with the IFC class specifications. In this way, a
proprietary design for an object, such as a window unit, can be
incorporated in a project with specific details of its construction
and shape. "We are encouraging manufacturers to develop
product-specific IFCs on their Web sites," says Zelly. "These IFCs
can then be downloaded directly into a project database.
XML serves as the carrier of IFC objects, but a higher level of
detail and description is needed than can be achieved by such a
generic data description language alone.
A major advantage of a high-level object standard, apart from
easing the document management process, lies in providing a firm
foundation for three-dimensional models of construction projects.
Only with proper 3D models in which objects are represented as
solid shapes, rather than 2D representations, is it possible to
ensure that changes to one part of a drawing are always reflected
in other affected components.
The IFC standards will also help construction companies lay
foundations for ongoing maintenance of constructions, such as roads
or buildings, by providing a detailed model of the structure in a
standard format. "We are placing great emphasis on the whole
life-cycle benefits of IFCs," says Zelly.
Standards for adherence with environmental controls, such as
insulation, could be embodied as IFCs and automatically
incorporated in project designs. At the same time, the standard
model will help in future maintenance or refurbishments by
identifying all the components and features that need to be
considered.
This would apply both to buildings and larger infrastructures, such
as roads, where detailed maps of underlying services such as water
mains should reduce the risk of accidental fracture by, for
example, cable TV contractors.
What makes up the construction IT
ecosystem?
Construction companies have traditionally
been IT laggards. This has been characterised by low IT budgets and
difficult implementation conditions given the project-based focus
requiring a flexible approach conducive to rapid change and
temporary infrastructures.
However, the Internet is helping the sector catch up by making it
easier to configure temporary project-based networks around portals
that can be accessed by members of the team. These portals will
serve as focal points of collaboration between the various
companies in the project, such as architects, surveyors, structural
engineers and construction companies.
For this to work, however, there has to be agreed standards for the
detailed representation and manipulation of drawings and documents.
For this reason, the work of standards bodies such as the
International Association for Interoperability is vital. With
growing access by project partners to each company's internal
network, security, particularly user access control, is becoming an
increasingly important aspect of the ecosystem.
Standards will have to support 3D representations of objects
Enterprise resource planning packages are used, but there is a lack
of construction sector-specific modules. For this reason there is
more financial and report writing software than in other
sectors.
There is also a lack of customer relationship management systems,
partly because there are few consumer customers and the emphasis is
more on collaboration between partners. Naturally, the sector is
advanced in its use of project management software to orchestrate
workflow and co-ordinate processes within projects.
Top five issues
1. Common standards - not just for documents, but also for
objects within them, such as windows and doors
2. Emphasis in standards development should be on
whole life cycle of a building or infrastructure, not just its
construction
3. Fragmented nature of construction sector makes
standardisation process harder
4. 3D models - needed for consistent change
management
5. Consistent project data model - so all
participants can tap into it.
Morrisons Construction case study >>Laing Construction case study >>