Key Questions

• How are economic trends forcing construction contractors to choose between transformational change and decline?
• Why is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software a barrier to transformation in most contracting businesses?
• 未来成功的建筑业务中，人工智能（AI），物联网（IoT）和机器人技术将扮演什么实际角色？

Very few contractors—including large global firms—enjoy profit margins much beyond three percent even during times of strong economic growth.

即使是大型承包商，通常也是一个失败的项目或远离破产的市场。像纽约市Navillus这样的砖石承包商在收入下降后可以进入，然后从第11章破产中出现。通过合同通常与合同相关的通行收入的高百分比使承包商在政府付款中处于延误的风险，从Sri Lanka^[1]到美国。在英国，有speculation^[2]that a quarter of construction companies there could face insolvency by 2020, and fears over Brexit have contributed to a record number of constructioninsolvencies^[3]，例如，在2018年第1季度。

如今，经济状况，全球贸易的破坏和推进技术都表明承包商需要从根本上改变其业务以生存。已经，主要的非建设参与者包括Ikea^[4]和亚马逊^[5]are pressing into themodular construction space。我们不是在谈论从一个项目交付系统到另一个项目的变化 - 承包商需要利用技术和创新思维来提供破坏性的新服务，甚至是标准化产品。

暴风雨云

With consistent economic expansion, a construction enterprise can survive or even thrive, if not make enough profit to fund proactive growth, expand into new markets or invest in disruptive technologies that make them more competitive. But economic growth has already slowed in the EuropeanUnion^[6]，从2017年7月的2.8％到2018年7月的1.8％。世界银行有预报^[7]slowing growth in all major advanced economies including the U.S., eurozone and Japan.

由于美国和英国与欧元区的距离，这种全球放缓的一些放缓归因于重大贸易政策的变化。尽管竞争性的价格压力和波动材料成本是该行业的常数，但我们处于非凡时期，使承包商面临更大的风险。材料成本增加了7多个新利18备用官网登录percent^[8]在某些情况下应归功于美国的保护主义贸易政策和UK^[9]。Interest rates in the U.S. meanwhile, are increasing after years of expansionist trade policy, putting project capital at a premium. This increase is due in part to a tight labormarket^[10], which is another challenge contractors will have to contend with as the cost of their other inputs also creep up.

Disrupt or Be Disrupted

If the global economy were not enough of an existential threat to construction contractors, the introduction of disruptive new technologies will be the determining factor making some contractors more competitive and others less competitive not only on price, but in the degree to which they can drive value for project owners and expand into the lifecycle of the built asset for stable, recession-proof revenue streams.

好消息是，对于利用优势的承包商，这些破坏性的技术为管理团队在不确定时期内站立的平台提供了一个平台。这些技术还将使承包商能够采用更高利润的业务模式，以使其成为其区域市场或全球建筑经济的赢家。

从数字化转型工具（例如构建信息管理，人工智能（AI））到物联网（IoT）（IoT）到用于管理整个业务的敏捷后台系统（IoT），将获得充分利用技术的承包商。但是，不仅仅是技术本身能够取得成功，就像新的智能建筑执行团队可以改变建设方式一样。

But first, the industry has some catchup to do in terms of its fundamental business systems. Without making investments in core business infrastructure to connect the finance, project cost control, project management, procurement, sub contract management, human resources and risk management processes, advanced transformational technologies will not be able to transform the business significantly enough to enable a contracting business to survive and thrive.

综合ERP，Bimand资产生命周期

To be transformed by technology, contracting businesses must build their operation around a consistent, agile and complete software backbone.

大多数中型和大型建筑问题已经实施了某种形式enterprise resource planning (ERP) software。But often, they have implemented only financial and human resources modules, in part because the rest of a typical application suite is a poor fit for the business.

ERP应为业务的所有功能提供一套一致的数据集，从而使资产数据，成本和价值从开始到运营和维护到处置，从而使资产数据，成本和价值一路流通。

ERP^[11]建筑公司的权力是，它可以通过提供一组准确的管理信息来控制其业务，从而实现可预测的项目绩效并提供对其业务的强大治理。因此，管理层可以根据可信赖的信息做出明智的决定。此外，它允许连接业务的功能，从而使项目以较低的成本，高质量的质量较低，风险最低。新利18备用网址最终目标是将BIM模型中持有的数字资产数据与集成的ERP流程集成。只有在真正以建筑为中心的ERP解决方案作为转向集成数字资产生命周期解决方案的基础的基础上，才能实现此目标。在2019年，我相信我们将看到第一步的第一步，讨论如何合并和建立组合两个系统的优势：BIM和ERP。

完整的构造ERP^[12]already contains all the data necessary for BIM, including as-designed and as-built information. The most profitable contractors will, in 2019 and beyond, expand into maintenance and service contracts, extending this data set with as-maintained views. In the course of a refurbishment or refit, have there been changes to the design as it was built? That should be reflected in that BIM environment to inform spares and repairs re-ordering, preventive maintenance and, eventually, the design process for asset replacement at the end of the life cycle. BIM and even solid mastery of the asset data that underpins it, puts a contractor in a better position to deliver value-added services to customers and project owners, before and after the project is completed.

服务意味着更多的收入和利润

当承包商拥有并且可以智能地使用他们在交付给项目所有者的资产上的所有数据时，他们按照BIM的要求，可以出售维护和服务合同，成为强大的战略合作伙伴并获得。关键收入和利润率。虽然下降价格压力使新建筑的利润率保持在3％左右，但这样的服务收缩利润率可能高达14％。

但是意识到这些利润可以反过来燃料growth, the contracting business must have the systems and processes in place to manage the entire lifecycle of the asset. The maintenance, service and facilities management business model is more common, in the U.S. at least, in the mechanical trades than in building and industrial settings. It is common in many sectors in the UK. Very large global engineering, in water and wastewater for instance, have entered into operations, and maintenance contracts where they construct an asset and then actually profitably execute against that, meeting specific service level agreements (SLAs) for value delivery.

最初的施工合同和maintenance contract must be treated holistically because from a cost standpoint, one affects the other. In short, the asset must be designed to be easy and cost effective to operate and maintain. The contractor and asset owner will focus on the total asset lifecycle cost. This requires a very integrated and agile technology environment that addresses the asset lifecycle through the design-operate-maintain continuum.

年度维护和服务费将为可以成功应对这一挑战的承包商带来明显的利润。随着时间的流逝，他们可能会合同而不是用于资产交付，而是为了获得完全服务的安排，在该安排中，他们根据医院服务的患者数量或炼油厂生产的大量石油蒸馏酸盐来支付。这种革命性的方法将需要智能应用像物联网这样的变革技术，以根据成品资产的使用来推动赔偿，因为承包商成为与项目所有者的完整风险业务合作伙伴。

混合制造和建筑业务模型

Some contractors, including heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) contractors, precast construction contractors and modular home builders, have performed some work in a shop environment and then transported those completed components or modules to the construction site. IFS has seen an increase in this approach in commercial and residential construction, and I believe that most construction projects worldwide will soon involve off-site fabrication of some type.

The benefits are significant. Better use of labor will help address the shortage of skilled workers in the industry globally. Lower total cost, reduced risk of theft of tools and materials on site, and compressed project timelines are also all associated with off-site construction. Work completed in offsite, using manufacturing processes, is also not affected by inclement weather and can benefit from standard quality management and quality assurance processes common in a manufacturing setting. But processes and software used in construction and manufacturing are vastly different. Contractors who succeed will require software environments that can encompass both disciplines seamlessly.

非现场施工可能帮助推动另一个,crucial, change in the way construction takes place—standardization of parts and materials. Estimating in a construction environment typically takes place against a specification from the project owner. In design-build projects, architects or engineers are at least free to, for instance, design around the length of materials, avoiding the waste that comes when an architect’s plans require a floor that is 122 feet wide and the standard hollowcore concrete panel being used is 4 feet wide. Most larger projects also include a value engineering process. The industry has not, for cultural reasons, made significant moves towards a business model where a contractor will have standard parts and components that they may design around, lowering cost for the project owner and increasing margin for themselves. But to drive efficiencies significant enough to challenge this traditional way of doing things, contractors will need manufacturing-style software. Then they can work with owners to create unique and efficient projects that rely on standard components produced in accordance with lean principles in a manufacturing environment. Standard manufacturing ERP will not be sufficient though—a construction enterprise will still need a project-driven manufacturing solution that can also handle construction centric business processes and the time and resource constraints of site-based work.

这个标准化过程将立即消除项目中的风险，削减成本，并通过从运营和财务角度使施工更多地重复流程，使承包商更加控制自己的财务命运。他们可能越来越多地制造项目中使用的组件或子组件，代表或转售标准化的建筑系统或组件或两者的组合。新利18备用网址

Transformational Technologies

Contractors can and should explore how the headline-grabbing technologies like BIM, AI, Robotics, Drones, 3D Printing and IoT can help them change the way they do business.

Artificial intelligence (AI) will impact every sector of business, and in construction, commercially-available technologies already exist.

Construction scheduling software such as 4D scheduling with AI algorithms can solve complex problems in real time—problems much too complex for any human to handle, especially when at times individuals will act myopically based on their area rather than to the greater good of the company and its customers.

物联网还具有建筑业的变革潜力。在该项目期间，建筑设备可能很快在危险环境中或熟练的运营工程师供应不足时进行远程操作。还可以跟踪设备的位置和使用情况，以减少现场的收缩，并捕获与合同的使用时间，从而消除手动会计。RFID标签和其他物联网技术可以帮助进行材料补充，从而在现场实现制造式的即时（JIT）补充。

But the greatest potential for IoT will come after project completion, when it can monitor structural members, mechanical systems and project integrity to support high-margin warranty and service and maintenance contracts. IoT sensors can also automatically update the databases that underpin building information modeling (BIM) on the condition of the structure over its lifecycle. As the industry adopts predictive maintenance practices in the future, data from these sensors can also be run past algorithms that can predict structural or system failure, enabling a contractor to ensure the performance of an asset over its lifecycle.

Conclusion

时代不确定，但是对于技术在确定哪些建筑业务蓬勃发展以及哪些偏向哪种境地的关键作用并没有不确定性。转型技术具有潜力，但是为了充分利用它们，承包商将不得不实施企业范围内的软件基础架构，这些基础架构可以将它们连接到企业的价值和成本流量的方式。

肯尼（Kenny）是IFS建筑行业的全球行业总监，肯尼（Kenny）的主要职责是促进IFS解决方案到外部市场，并就这些行业面临的业务问题和挑战对IFS劳动力进行教育。他还是IFS产品指导委员会的关键成员，负责对IFS产品策略做出决定。肯尼（Kenny）在IFS工作了21年，并且在商业系统市场上工作了25年以上。现在，他被认为是全球基于项目的解决方案和建筑软件的顶级专家之一，并且一直参与推动IFS策略。在加入IFS之前，肯尼从事各种管理，供应链，物流和项目会计职位的行业工作。

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