Vincent believes that the lack of efficient communication in the planning and execution of construction sites causes productivity losses. However, solutions are available now in the form of modern software processes, software tools and continuous improvements from enhanced collaboration and communication. The backdrop to this is the statistics that McKinsey and Co published in 2017, where the report claimed a $1.6 trillion productivity gap in the construction industry, broken down into the areas below.

Klarx identify five issues that make it difficult to work collaboratively:

• Increasing project and site complexities
  Lead to more stakeholders and more friction
• Lack of standardized processes
  Unclear responsibilities and lack of oversight
• No streamlined communication
  Confusion, inefficiency and non-compliance
• Poor project management and execution
  Paper-based plans are outdated and lead to duplication
• Contractual structures and incentives are misaligned
  Almost solely focused on cost and not excellence

The challenge within the construction industry is that every site starts as a unique project – starting from scratch. There is non-standard information across the board, and not all information is digitized. Phone calls are not logged, and many activities rely on paper and excel files being saved, often in disparate places.

Vincent’s view is that if construction companies focus solely on costs on site, the ‘excellence in execution’ cannot be achieved, but if excellence in execution is the focus, then costs will be effectively reduced.

If you focus on excellence in execution, you will reduce costs.

Vincent Koch

Here are a few tools that focus on planning, on-site resourcing and cost management.

Alasco – Construction planning software

This software helps construction companies ensure that all the costs that are generated on a construction site are found in one tool and provides insight to enable better decision-making.

Capmo – Focused on execution on the construction site

Aligns execution, shares plans from different sub-contractors, visualizes real-time processes on the construction site and promotes excellence of execution.

Klarx – Focused on rental equipment sourcing

Klarx software offers a standardized process of setting up building site facilities. It provides a platform for equipment owners and equipment users, where all actors gain the information that they need when they need it – this promotes efficiencies around rental equipment utilization.

In construction the environment is more complex because of the changing nature of each project and site. Klarx’s approach is agile software development, which means that it only develops software with its customers, so it understands what is needed in the market. The company also ensures software is provided from the cloud and is accessible from everywhere in a secure manner. Vincent believes that cross-platform open software is what will enable collaboration, and similarly with open APIs for integration. This is how constructions sites can become more productive.