The Construction Productivity Paradox

Construction is at the bottom of the pack despite being one of the world’s largest sectors in the world-economy.

Construction Productivity Paradox.

The construction industry is one of the world’s largest sectors and employs over 180 million people. However over the past century construction have fallen short in improving productivity, especially when compared to other sectors.

Why is this the case? My top 3 reasons are expressed below:

1. Experience over Creativity. The construction industry places a high premium on experience and in many ways disregards creativity. This leads to cultures where doing something the same way is valued greater than doing something different or new that may be more efficient.
2. Management – Labor Gap. There is a painful gap between management and the labor force. This gap is all-encompassing in communication, technology use, collaboration, documentation etc. This all-encompassing gap drives down productivity.
3. Feast & Famine Cycles. The construction industry is notorious for feast and famine cycles where business is booming or completely bare. During the boom, companies do not need to be efficient as the opportunities are so great to make money. During times of recession, inefficient companies die and the only large inefficient corporations with deep pockets survive and the few companies achieve efficient processes.

There is tremendous opportunity to improve the collaboration efforts promoting productivity via collaboration software that is specifically geared towards the construction sector.

There are tremendous opportunities to provide technology and build cultures that can dramatically improve productivity and money making opportunities in the construction industry. I am constantly working on software solutions geared towards improving creativity, collaboration, and a continuous improvement culture in the construction sector.

Construction Productivity Paradox