Fast and secure project recovery
COVID-19 has disrupted our daily lives but construction and real estate have had the opportunity to reopen quickly. Companies are getting their production back on track to avoid costly delays and are redoubling their efforts to submit files to secure future projects and combat uncertainty.
In this unprecedented environment, collaboration in construction is vital. The sector is demonstrating an incredible ability to reinvent its work processes in a very short space of time. More than ever, cost control is key to keeping ongoing activities on track and avoiding 10-20% of unexpected expenses. Costing work packages and activities should include all the assumptions that have been made, where the estimate came from, who provided the information, and at what level of confidence. This essential information will allow the tight budget to be allocated correctly over the life of the project
Savvy organisations are already taking steps to integrate digital building models into estimating, scheduling and costing, including the generation of bills of quantities and the derivation of productivity rates and labour costs. This process is set to be widely used, but maturity levels vary.
Why covid-19 accelerates the adoption of digital building models
Uncertainty is becoming the norm and scenarios can change rapidly. It is crucial to be responsive to changes to reveal bottlenecks at an early stage. The process of extracting measurements and quantities from a set of drawings is time-consuming and error-prone: a typical estimate for a €10 million construction project takes 2-3 weeks and 5-10% of quantities fall through the cracks.
In contrast, estimating costs from a digital building model takes 2 to 3 days, even if not all elements of the building are modelled. This provides the opportunity to explore different scenarios, immediately reflecting the impact of a design change on the programme and budget
With project managers now encouraged to work earlier and more iteratively than in a traditional process, the adoption of cost control using digital building models is expected to grow steadily over the next 12-18 months. To achieve this, it is important to implement the right workflow.
Three pillars for effective cost estimation using digital building models
The crucial aspects for increasing the effectiveness of cost control by an order of magnitude are the following.
Transparent collaboration – Budgets, construction specifications, progress reports or construction models are prepared and held by different people, at different stages of the project, and using different tools. This information is scattered in PDFs, spreadsheets and other native files that operate in silos. Data becomes static and out of date the moment it is added to a file. Cost control must accommodate frequent changes due to re-scoping, unforeseen events or unclear pricing methods. When the digital building model is revised, the back and forth between extracting quantities, adding costs, commenting and reporting must be done without leaving the common data environment
Robust – With the perfect digital building model, a full quantity take-off would take almost no time. But it’s like unicorns, they don’t exist. Building models are never perfect or complete. In fact, 40-80% of the costs can be derived directly from the building model. The remaining material quantities must be found in the drawings and written documents. Why? Simply because it is not worth modelling every component. That’s why the system must be able to handle a subtle mix of automation and manual work without interrupting the workflow.
Robust – With the perfect digital building model, a full quantity take-off would take almost no time. But it’s like unicorns, they don’t exist. Building models are never perfect or complete. In fact, 40-80% of the costs can be derived directly from the building model. The remaining material quantities must be found in the drawings and written documents. Why? Simply because it is not worth modelling every component. That’s why the system must be able to handle a subtle mix of automation and manual work without interrupting the workflow.
Where is cost control and construction technology going in the future?
The most attractive promise for the future of construction technology is artificial intelligence. Imagine being able to determine any cost on the fly or being informed by instant feedback of any deviation of your project from benchmarks. The challenge is daunting as it involves 3D engineering, natural language processing and deep learning, to name but a few, all in a heterogeneous environment. But the future is bright, and it’s coming soon.