Sumner Street secures ‘Demonstrator Project’ funding from UKRI – a positive example of government-led collaboration

We then review the data, organise, consolidate and present it back to the client, to check our understanding and its validity and accuracy.. Then we identify and agree a number of potential scenarios with the client, which describe a hypothetical future – for example, a change in market direction – from a number of different perspectives; commercial, operational etc.

Testing out some different business models on live construction projects would be risky, she says, but also a magnificent opportunity.. Bryden Wood has previously discussed the fact that the issues currently holding back the construction industry aren’t the technical aspects, but rather the cultural issues, insurances, warranties etc.In essence, we need someone to take the brakes off, overcoming the friction and constraints.

COVID-19 facilitated that to a certain extent, with companies forced to transition to digital very quickly and managing to do so successfully.However, while every other sector has experienced disruption to their business model creating major changes, construction is very risk averse and the implications are long-term.To get a digital thing slightly wrong has, in a sense, a transience that doesn’t matter.

However, there are bigger implications for not building a building correctly..In terms of where the construction industry is heading in the near future, Professor Glass says that in addition to prioritising our climate change issues, she’d like to see an end to the use of Return on Capital Employed for all of the major contractors.

If this unsustainable situation were to change, so that we instead faced a scenario whereby Tier 1 contractors were being judged on Return on Investment, it would likely mean that these key players had disrupted their businesses, understood where change was necessary, were investing, doing more R&D, and creating net zero businesses.

In other words, the change the industry is looking for will happen with Tier 1.We question everything, and take nothing for granted, in line with our Design to Value approach.. Design to Value is well understood and applied in the manufacturing industries.

It leads to objective analysis of every aspect of a process, every element of resource requirement, energy consumption, knowledge, and cost.It leads to testing of the value parameters each of these elements is being measured against.

It is rigorous, logical and data-driven.Its application in construction is transformational..