We talk a lot around here about construction being an inefficient industry. Whereas other industries have shown increasing productivity over time, construction has remained flat or even declined. There is no shortage of depressing graphs showing this:
As a carpenter one of the most bizarre things I see in the US is stair building. The process seems to be :
1. Have a framer cut and glue components using a circular saw (!!!!)
2. Have a finish carpenter cap all those components with nicer materials and more glue
3. Have a painter finish on site.
In other places, like Canada where I am, every single house gets a housed stringer. This is made by a robot or a stair trencher pattern router. Every part is perfect and you use less material ( no need to use framing and finish). The stair is often fully or partially assembled off-site and can also have components pre-finished in a paint booth. Finally, it's carried into the house and a few screws hold it in place.
It seems obvious to anyone who's put a stair in that the US process means weeks of work (consider the paint process) on-site while a factory made stair means hours on-site.
Covid has increased variability, as demand for some goods unexpectedly rises or drops, so warehouses empty faster or slower than expected, and as ports are briefly closed when an outbreak of covid cases occur.
A very stimulating model/perspective. I'm thinking about how it applies in a consulting practice... same issues around set-up, queues, processing times, buffers and so on.
Loved the article, Brian. Thanks! I understood your conclusions were the following, did I read that correctly? 0) Buffers can help absorb random variability (?), and 1) Focusing on less types of products may help firms reduce variability (?). Thanks! Ricardo.
A 2018 study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests the quoted construction productivity numbers are too pessimistic.
"This article introduces new measures of productivity growth for four industries in construction: single-family residential construction; multifamily residential construction; highways, roads, and bridges construction; and industrial construction. Although previous studies found that productivity is stagnant or declining in the overall construction sector, we find that productivity growth is positive and relatively strong in three of the four industries. The present evidence is more reliable because the output price deflators are more accurate in the four industries considered. This article explains in detail how the new measures were prepared and briefly describes ongoing research that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is conducting to determine what further measures of productivity growth in construction are feasible."
Interesting writeup. I still think construction "efficiency" or lack thereof is more due to the unskilled labor (not as in no skills, but as in they're constantly building different things so cannot accumulate experience building any one or few things) plus the stage inefficiencies of the work. The latter is due not just to the setup costs but the process itself: permits, funding, availability of work crews, availability of materials, weather, etc etc.
I read in a book about built structures about a new kind of construction of a multistory building in the heart of London, that was essentially built in a factory, and assembled on site, like a giant Lego project. Is this the future of construction? Is this only possible for buildings that can be broken down to modular structures?
The other point of consideration that should be baked in is building for effects from Climate change incorporated into the design and production.
Feel like this article just came to a stop by restating the problem. What do you think the way forward is actually for construction?
As a carpenter one of the most bizarre things I see in the US is stair building. The process seems to be :
1. Have a framer cut and glue components using a circular saw (!!!!)
2. Have a finish carpenter cap all those components with nicer materials and more glue
3. Have a painter finish on site.
In other places, like Canada where I am, every single house gets a housed stringer. This is made by a robot or a stair trencher pattern router. Every part is perfect and you use less material ( no need to use framing and finish). The stair is often fully or partially assembled off-site and can also have components pre-finished in a paint booth. Finally, it's carried into the house and a few screws hold it in place.
It seems obvious to anyone who's put a stair in that the US process means weeks of work (consider the paint process) on-site while a factory made stair means hours on-site.
This point about variability causing problems seems to me to help explain a lot of what is going on at ports, in today's supply-chain news:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/business/supply-chain-crisis-savannah-port.html
Covid has increased variability, as demand for some goods unexpectedly rises or drops, so warehouses empty faster or slower than expected, and as ports are briefly closed when an outbreak of covid cases occur.
What about the Chinese construction! So many videos we watch of 10-floor buildings in a week or so...
A very stimulating model/perspective. I'm thinking about how it applies in a consulting practice... same issues around set-up, queues, processing times, buffers and so on.
Loved the article, Brian. Thanks! I understood your conclusions were the following, did I read that correctly? 0) Buffers can help absorb random variability (?), and 1) Focusing on less types of products may help firms reduce variability (?). Thanks! Ricardo.
A 2018 study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests the quoted construction productivity numbers are too pessimistic.
"This article introduces new measures of productivity growth for four industries in construction: single-family residential construction; multifamily residential construction; highways, roads, and bridges construction; and industrial construction. Although previous studies found that productivity is stagnant or declining in the overall construction sector, we find that productivity growth is positive and relatively strong in three of the four industries. The present evidence is more reliable because the output price deflators are more accurate in the four industries considered. This article explains in detail how the new measures were prepared and briefly describes ongoing research that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is conducting to determine what further measures of productivity growth in construction are feasible."
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/article/measuring-productivity-growth-in-construction.htm
Brian I was so fascinated by your article I had to prove it for myself. In doing so I got some deeper insight (as expected) and also some interest mitigation strategies (not so expected!). Would love to hear your comment: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/efficiency-production-pinch-slack-heath-raftery
https://fee.org/resources/i-pencil/
Interesting writeup. I still think construction "efficiency" or lack thereof is more due to the unskilled labor (not as in no skills, but as in they're constantly building different things so cannot accumulate experience building any one or few things) plus the stage inefficiencies of the work. The latter is due not just to the setup costs but the process itself: permits, funding, availability of work crews, availability of materials, weather, etc etc.
I read in a book about built structures about a new kind of construction of a multistory building in the heart of London, that was essentially built in a factory, and assembled on site, like a giant Lego project. Is this the future of construction? Is this only possible for buildings that can be broken down to modular structures?
The other point of consideration that should be baked in is building for effects from Climate change incorporated into the design and production.
Fantastic stuff Brian - curious how you think the productivity numbers change as more of the build moves into the factory setting