Construction is a Manufacturing Process - Part 1

Image courtesy of Guerdon Modular Buildings

In the manufacturing sector, “process selection” per Jacobs and Chase, authors of Operations and Supply Chain Management, refers to the “strategic decision of selecting which kind of production processes to use to produce a product or provide a service.”  The process is generally selected based on production volume which is a function of customization.  If you produce high margin, low volume product, manual assembly may be a good fit.  If you produce low margin, high volume product, a continuous assembly line is probably best.

Manufacturing process can be placed on a spectrum in order of production volume and customization:

1. Continuous Process.  Highest yield, typically a commodity.

   1. Ex. Petroleum refinery, chemical processing, etc.

2. Assembly line.  Work processes are arranged according to the progressive steps which the product is made.

   1. Ex.  High volume items where specialized process cannot be justified.

3. Manufacturing cell.  Dedicated area where products that are similar in processing requirements are produced.

   1. Ex.  Metal fabrication, computer chip manufacturing, small assembly work.

4. Workcenter/Job Shop.  Similar equipment and functions are grouped together.

   1. Ex. Small part quantity toy where stamping, sewing, and painting are performed separate from assembly.

5. Project.  Lowest yield, mostly all custom product.   Manufacturing equipment is moved to the product rather than vice versa.

   1. Ex. Home, plant, building, bridge construction; movie shooting lots

When was the last time you thought of a construction project as a manufacturing process?  Probably never.  Why do we think that is the case?  And is it not right to think that way (why does it matter)?

Courtesy of GettyImages

I’ve been thinking a lot about these questions over the past year as I’ve floated in and out of multiple construction projects.  As a consulting engineer I perform project work.  We are hired for a defined task or tasks, we execute on that task, and we then move on.  And when I’m a team member of these projects, I’m party to the confusion, headaches, and wastefulness that so often accompanies construction.  So as a value-oriented individual, I can’t help but notice as a manufacturing process, we’re so far removed from typical manufacturing culture including all of the efficiencies they offer.

Think about what a “project” manufacturing process might qualify as – a standalone, custom/unique assembly of high quantities of components in a complex sequence – which is basically a building or facility.  If our “product” is a house or lab or office, the process to “assemble” (build) is no different than the process to “assemble” (produce) an automobile or can of soup or a gallon of gasoline.

I believe it, and so do some forward-thinking individuals at the Lean Construction Institute, but construction has been dogged by hardened behaviors resistant to change.  Anyone from the lowest level laborer to the project executive can point to areas of gross wastefulness in construction.  When we think about construction like Ford thinks about SUVs, Pepsi about soda, or Johnson & Johnson thinks about shampoo, you start to realize why WE SHOULD think this way (and why it matters)! Per LCI, “Construction labor efficiency and productivity has decreased, while all other non-farming labor efficiency has doubled or more since the 1960s. Currently, 70% of projects are over budget and delivered late. The industry still sees about 800 deaths and thousands of injuries per year. The industry is broken.”

Is Weather Becoming More Extreme? Let's look at the data...

There’s been a lot of talk on various media outlets about “extreme” weather events, their ferocity and frequency, and how this is the “new normal”. And of course these days you can’t talk about weather without also talking about climate change. Regardless of whether you’re a believer or skeptic, I wanted to see what the data has to say regarding extreme weather: on average, is our (national) weather becoming more extreme, less, or about the same as it was?

Fortunately, our government has a comprehensive website detailing extreme weather events dating back to 1910. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) publishes all sorts of great data on weather events via the National Center for Environmental Information (formerly the National Climatic Data Center).

Courtesy of the NOAA

In the graph above, the data compiled for each year (red columns) is “based on an aggregate set of conventional climate extreme indicators which include monthly maximum and minimum temperature, daily precipitation, monthly Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), and landfalling tropical storm and hurricane wind velocity.” Additional background information on their methodology and data can be found here.

If we follow the 9-pt binomial filter (a recognized statistical smoothing technique), it’s apparent that extreme weather events have increased steadily since 1970 and have peaked in the last 10 years. We also notice that extreme weather events between 1910 and 1970 gradually decreased 5-8% points. For this post we’re not examining the root cause, only resultant data, so how or why the events trend downward then shoot up is for another time. In any case, there is a clear spike in events starting in the mid-1990s.

So why does this matter? Increasing extreme weather events matter for various reasons, the most obvious of which is the cost to rebuild/reconstruct, a majority of which is paid by taxpayers and via insurance premiums (the greater the risk, the more we all pay). Other consequences are the loss of economic activity when priorities are shifted to reconstruction, the costs to reinforce existing infrastructure in preparation for future events, and an increase in uncertainty for strategic planners who rely on steady data to manage risk.

Oh, and if you were curious how much these extreme events were costing us, the NOAA was kind enough to graph that as well. 2011, 2017, and 2016 were the most expensive years ever recorded, with 2018 already exceeding the fourth largest with three months left to go…

Courtesy of NOAA