With construction productivity remaining stagnant over the last 25 years, the cost of the lost opportunity is estimated to stand at US$1.6 trillion per year.
Many industries have transformed themselves and improved sector productivity over recent years, particularly in relation to the increased digitization of processes and consumer intelligence. Although construction constitutes a major sector for the global economy, with an estimated market value of US$10 trillion and employing 7% of the global labor force*, the question remains as to whether efficiency is, in fact, eluding the industry. This is a critically important question for our industry, and one that is often overlooked, but can be put down to, for the most part, the perceived cyclical nature of construction (going from boom to bust).
What does this mean?
Productivity has remained stagnant over the last 25 years, with research estimating that 98% of megaprojects are over budget by 30% and 77% overrunning their schedule by 40%*. A 2017 report by the McKinsey Global Institute found that if construction productivity were to match that of the total economy, it would bring an added value of US$1.6 trillion to the industry each year, which would add about 2% to the global economy. In other words, the cost of the lost opportunity that arises from the low productivity associated with the construction industry amounts to a considerable US$1.6 trillion annually.
Why?
As mentioned above, due to the cyclical nature of construction, key stakeholders and contractors are fearful of making large capital investments in machinery or production lines given the constant fear of the ‘next recession’. Other factors that can have a bearing on productivity include; inadequate planning that accounts for the short, medium and long term, ineffective communication between project team members and inconsistencies in reporting (and the interpretation of reporting), poor organization and project governance, and insufficient risk management.
Another significant cause of low productivity is the lack of consolidation across the industry. With the bespoke nature of construction projects across different sectors, it is difficult for contractors to scale to a size that can facilitate the levels of productivity growth needed to achieve a par with other industries. The USA, for example, has 730,000 registered building contractors, with an average of ten workers. The statistics in Europe are worse still, with 3.3 million registered contractors and an average workforce of four people.
Lastly, the skills gap is undoubtedly having a profoundly negative effect on the industry. Construction is labor-intensive, and so a shortage in skilled professionals drives up the cost of projects (via higher pay rates) and can cause disruption to the project schedule.
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