CONSTRUCTION 4.0
will look very different – but will automation provide some important answers to the productivity puzzle ? “ You ’ d hope so ,” says Gough . “ For us , automation is one aspect of the bigger technological change that we ’ re on the cusp of , Industry 4.0 – but it ’ s a big part of it . In terms of productivity , delivering things faster , better and more efficiently we and many others in the industry have a very significant aspiration around improvements in that area .”
Weak productivity growth is clearly an area of concern , so is it fair to say that the industry ’ s slower approach to adopting technology is a fundamental reason for this productivity gap ,
“ At Mace , innovation is everybody ’ s responsibility and what we ’ ve seen are people having had experiences within their home or social life enriched by technology and wanting to replicate that at work ”
Matt Gough , Director of Innovation and Bids for the Mace Group especially when compared to the rapid growth of other areas such as manufacturing ? “ Historically , yes , the stats would suggest that we haven ’ t innovated or improved so we haven ’ t experienced the same productivity gains as some other industries over the last 20 or 30 years ,” adds Gough . “ But I don ’ t think that will be the case looking to the future . The industry is beginning to digitise rapidly . Venture capitalist investment in construction has been increasing at an astonishing pace . For example , we ’ ve gone from $ 100mn a year in investments between 2011-2014 to nearly $ 400mn in 2015 , and that ’ s going up again in 2017 . Plus , this year we ’ ve got our first introduction unicorn , which is tech speak for a billion-dollar technology startup . Looking at this amount of investment coming into the industry , and the scale of adoption within construction , it feels like the time is now .”
What exactly has changed recently to enable this shift towards automation if the actual output per worker has remained flat for a number of years ? “ I think companies like us want better performance . We want to be more efficient and more productive . Clients
20 January 2018