Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions
Rethinking Construction
CHAPTER 4
Enabling Improvement
Technology as a Tool
- The Task Force does not consider that technology on
its own can provide the answer to the need for greater
efficiency and quality in construction. There have been
celebrated examples of new technology being used to
reinforce outdated and wasteful processes - and it does
not work. The advice offered to construction by leading
manufacturing industries is to approach change by first
sorting out the culture, then defining and improving
processes and finally applying technology as a tool to
support these cultural and process improvements.
- Members of the Task Force have seen the effectiveness
of this approach for themselves on European housing sites
that are using innovative forms of building, together
with a high degree of prefabrication, pre-assembly and
standardisation. What surprised us was that, when asked
for the source of efficiency savings on site, the
constructors and developers tended not to attribute them
to the technology of construction but to pre-planning
with suppliers and component manufacturers to minimise
the time actually spent on site.
- One area in which we know new technology to be a very
useful tool is in the design of buildings and their
components, and in the exchange of design information
throughout the construction team. There are enormous
benefits to be gained, in terms of eliminating waste and
rework for example, from using modern CAD technology to
prototype buildings and by rapidly exchanging information
on design changes. Redesign should take place on
computer, not on the construction site.
Better Regulation
- We accept that a framework of regulatory controls in
construction and development is entirely necessary, and
indeed can help to produce efficiency and quality. But,
in our view the interpretation and application of
regulations is inconsistent across the country, making it
more difficult to implement a construction project
speedily and efficiently. Significant costs and delays
are often incurred in the design and planning of projects
by the variability of enforcement of regulations, and by
duplication of processes between agencies.
- We invite central and local Government to look
carefully at ways of achieving better regulation.In
particular, we feel that there is scope for regulatory
regimes such as building control to be more output
driven, so that constructors and their clients are able
to deliver to performance standards rather than detailed
prescriptions. We are also of the view that making the
processes of the land use planning system more
predictable would help improve the efficiency of
construction, particularly housebuilding. We look to Lord
Rogers' task force on urban regeneration to consider this
issue.
Published 16 July 1998
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