This article is brought to you by ALICE Technologies
Construction project delays are both frustrating and costly - but they’re also incredibly common. So common, in fact, that GCs no longer ask if a project will veer off-schedule or off-budget, they ask by how much?
The bigger the project, the harder the fall.
Large-scale construction and infrastructure projects involve complex scheduling, with many interdependent tasks and moving parts. The larger and more complex the project, the higher the risk of construction delays and mishaps.
In fact, a project that exceeds its timeline or budget is more common than a project that achieves it. When a recent study by McKinsey looked at the construction of assets across all categories, they determined that large projects (regardless of class) typically take 20% longer to complete than originally estimated - and often run as much as 80% over budget.
As you can imagine, this holds significant financial implications for GCs and developers. Returns on large construction projects, in particular, can be unpredictable - and often quite low for the time and effort invested.
Savvy GCs do their best to factor in common challenges before they arise, in order to mitigate the impact of construction delays on their bottom line. The most common culprits they anticipate are these:
Faulty scheduling.
The most common (and most impactful) pitfall for large-scale construction is an unrealistic timeline. When scheduling is misaligned or constricted from the start, delays will snowball throughout the entire timeline to completion - throwing your project completely off track. In the past, project scheduling relied mostly on manual insight and calculations, which could take months of collaborative effort to complete, or adjust - but today’s GC’s can leverage more advanced digital tools to dynamically tune their construction schedules.
Budget failures.
While an accurate bid goes a long way towards maintaining a budget, a wise man once said “an estimate is only valid at the moment it is written”. The time elapsed between project conception and final completion poses a huge challenge when it comes to maintaining a budget. And while individual factors (such as rising material costs) may be impossible to predict, maintaining timely and accurate digital records can help GCs catch creeping costs before they skyrocket out of control - and adjust or amend their plan of action, accordingly.
Design challenges.
From improperly placed elements to poor material choices, some design failures are virtually undetectable until midway through construction - at which point, they become glaringly obvious. While a skilled GC may catch many potential mishaps during the preconstruction phase, the ability to adjust on the fly to what isn’t working can make or break a project.
Labor shortages.
The post-recession decline saw skilled workers leaving construction for other industries. Since then, the number of new laborers entering the construction sector has continued to fall, steadily dropping throughout recent years, as young workers shift their attention to digital trades. Worker shortages mean every crew must be scheduled precisely, in order to maintain optimal flow towards completion - which is why intelligent GCs leverage cutting-edge technology to analyze and maximize crew utilization.
Bottlenecks.
Whether it’s a stalled financial approval, site challenge, or delay in permitting, there comes a moment in the lifespan of every construction project in which a bottleneck occurs. Whatever the cause, a wrench is thrown into the works, and everything seems to come to a hard stop. When a single point of failure brings work to a standstill, waiting it out means losing precious time and resources. Historically, a bottleneck scenario might derail an entire project for weeks, or even months - but recent technological advances (such as the use of AI-driven tools) can help GCs address this type of challenge, revealing unconventional workarounds, methods, and routes of progress which enable even a stalled project to move forward.
Catastrophe or Crisis.
Natural disasters, inclement weather, and other unforeseen circumstances (such as those caused by recent government shutdowns, or the global pandemic) can cause massive disruptions to construction scheduling and completion. On large-scale projects with extended construction times, exposure to environmental delays triggered by climate change have drastically increased. Projects located in developing countries may also be vulnerable to risks posed by economic or political instability. Whatever the cause, when extenuating circumstances occur, the ability to adjust on a moment’s notice is crucial to limiting negative impact on constructability.
Supply chain failure.
Material and equipment shortages can create major roadblocks to project completion. If a manufacturer or supplier fails to deliver as expected, or (worst-case scenario) stops producing an essential component, tracking down alternate resources can pose quite a challenge. Even when alternative options are readily available, the reconfiguration required to adjust to changes in timing and cost can be massively time-consuming - and expensive. Today’s more advanced GCs are leveraging digital tools that can assist in this type of scenario, tuning assumptions about what inputs will be available so that construction continues as quickly as possible.
Every construction project is unique in nature, introducing its own unique set of uncertainties and hurdles. In a world where experts consider time and cost overruns to be a “feature” of construction, the ability to anticipate issues and address them efficiently when they arise is essential.
That’s why we built ALICE Technologies - an AI-driven solution that helps GCs successfully overcome all of the challenges described above. While many digital tools can be helpful in addressing separate aspects of scheduling or constructability, ALICE is the only solution capable of analyzing changes dynamically, as they occur - assessing thousands of potential options to propose the ideal scenario for your situation. Our goal is to help GCs and developers jump the hurdles that stand in the way of project completion - and get back to building a better future.
