The current labor shortage is just one reason why automation, if approached in the right way, could have a positive effect on the construction industry.
While the word “automation” may conjure images of robots taking over jobs, the reality is much more nuanced. In construction, for instance, automation is less likely to diminish employment opportunities than it is to increase productivity. Indeed, automation — alongside the global need for new and updated infrastructure and better and more affordable housing — can help shape the direction of the industry. The key will be anticipating and preparing for the shift, in part by developing new skills in the current and future workforce.
Big picture: What does automation mean for construction?
In years past, productivity in construction increased slowly at best.1 In the United States, for instance, from 1947 to 2010, productivity in construction barely changed at all. Meanwhile, productivity increased by more than a factor of eight in manufacturing and by more than a factor of 16 in agriculture2 — both industries that have embraced automation. So, one major benefit of automation in construction is the potential for quite a large uptick in productivity.
There are three primary opportunities for automation in construction. The first is automation of what is considered traditional physical tasks on-site — for instance, robots laying bricks and machines paving roads. The second opportunity comes from the automation of modular construction — or rather production — in factories, including 3-D printing of components such as facades. And the third centers on digitization and the subsequent automation of design, planning, and management procedures, as well as the vast efficiencies those can create on-site. For example, building information modeling — which essentially brings together the designs of planners and general contractors to identify issues before they move to the site — makes the planning process more efficient. But more importantly, it makes the on-site execution more efficient, allowing project teams to eliminate mistakes and better coordinate the workforce.
What impact will automation have on work for builders?
A substantial shift to modular construction off-site could have a significant impact on the construction workforce, but the transition will take decades. Producing individual components, or modules, in factories lends itself to much more machine use than what can be done on-site. Some companies, such as Katerra, are already building such modules. A lot of the construction in these factories is still done manually, but over time, as scale increases, the process will become more automated. We estimate that about 15 to 20 percent of new building construction will be modular in the United States and Europe by 2030. So, while it’s an increasing share and a big market, it’s a slow process, and a lot of activities will remain on-site and relatively unpredictable for some time to come.
For those activities that do remain on-site, it’s unlikely that a company will fire a carpenter and bring in the latest robot to do everything the carpenter did. Rather, machines will take over individual activities within a role. What that means is workers will need to learn to work side by side — or in a hybrid role — with machines. For example, even the average construction worker will be expected to use a tablet to access building plans or operate a drone in place of doing a physical site walkthrough.
Will there be enough work in the future?
While there are substantial automation opportunities across industries, employment in construction will probably suffer less than in industries where activities are more repetitive, such as manufacturing. The easiest tasks to automate are repetitive, physical activities in predictable environments — but construction’s environment is usually unpredictable, except when modular-construction techniques are used. The unpredictability is twofold: not only do pieces move around but each construction site and project is tailored to specific customer demands, architectural designs, and geographical and site requirements.
We expect the overall number of jobs in construction to grow rather than shrink, with up to 200 million additional jobs by 2030 if countries fill global infrastructure gaps and boost affordable housing supply.3 Automating more of the construction process could also help deliver.
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Credits to: McKinsey & Company
Date of Publication: 2022
Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/the-impact-and-opportunities-of-automation-in-construction
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