by WARREN FREY, journalofcommerce.com, 02.14.2011

A leading industry thinker wants to bootstrap construction into a new era using timeless principles.

Consultant, speaker and engineer Ted Garrison introduced Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA) members to “Construction 3.0”, a special keynote session, at the VRCA AGM held at the Delta Burnaby Hotel on January 25th, 2011.

“Construction 3.0 is a series of principles, and most of the principles are things we’ve already seen, but when you combine all these principles together, it creates a more dynamic and powerful force, and changes the way we think about construction,” Garrison said.

The full title of Garrison’s presentation was ‘How Construction 3.0 Can Turn around an Industry in Turmoil’.

The main tenets of Construction 3.0 are effective leadership, strategic perspective, increased focus on value, increased innovation, increased collaboration, effective risk management, leaner and more efficient operations, better use of technology, and measurement.

Leadership is the most important quality to drive innovation, he said, but it’s the responsibility of the builder to take the lead rather than cede it to owners who don’t necessarily understand the process.

“Initial conditions define the project and give you your end result, so if you aren’t getting the right end result, change the initial conditions,” he said.

To do so properly requires experience and the ability to anticipate.

However, the average owner has neither experience nor the ability to anticipate problems, so it’s the fault of the industry to allow these problems to happen,” Garrison added.

Successful methods get used over and over, Garrison said, but because those methods become an accepted process, a lack of flexibility soon forms and a culture is created around the process.

“Inevitably that process needs to be changed to confront a new challenge, but now it’s not just a system problem, it’s a cultural problem, and that’s much more difficult to change,” Garrison said.

The key to changing the construction industry is to shift focus from the lowest bid to adding value, Garrison said, but in order to add value the industry must change its processes and practices. The primary reason to hire a sub contractor is their expertise and ability to innovate, not because they’re cheaper, he said, and termed the low bid process as “the blind leading the blind.”

Architects and owners don’t understand lead times, costs, and budgets on a given project, but they’re the ones making decisions, he added.

“Those that can’t see can’t change, and they can’t apply concepts so they hide behind technical jargon and complexity,” Garrison said.

The rules will change once people see the benefit of that change, Garrison said.

Given the currently precarious state of the world economy, Garrison also advocates the construction industry reduce costs by 20 to 30 per cent, because clients can’t afford to pay more.

While keeping costs down can be difficult, Garrison insisted that the ‘lean’ process will help make the industry more efficient.

“The lean process encourages collaboration, communication and mutual respect, and is all about adding value by eliminating waste,” he said.

Garrison also emphasized the importance of adapting to new technologies in order to compete in an increasingly open and competitive market.

He stressed that builders can be much more efficient if they use available software, especially Building Information Modeling applications.

“But technology is never the answer to a problem. What you do is design a solution, and then use the right software to implement that solution,” he said.