27/06/2024
If you took a worker from a 1920s construction site and transported them to a present day project, they would not be that surprised by what they saw, according to Sam O’Gorman.
"Overall, across Europe and the US, stuff is still built in a pretty manual fashion - not very different to the way it would have been built 100 years ago," says Mr Gorman, an associate partner in the property practice of consultancy firm McKinsey.
Back in 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute concluded that the construction industry could improve productivity by 50 to 60% and boost the industry's global value by $1.6tn (£1.3tn) a year.
Since then, McKinsey says, improved production processes and the use of new software and apps have improved efficiency, but not to the extent that one might have hoped.
"Construction is a bit of a digital laggard compared with many other industries. It's been slow to adopt digital in the widest sense," says Mr O'Gorman.
