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847.391.1040; [email protected]
SENIOR EDITOR | John Caulfield
732.257.6319; jcaulfi [email protected]
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Plotnick, Adam Sullivan, C.C. Sullivan
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Director of the Architectural Practice, Gensler
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Kim Slagel
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Building Design+Construction
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For advertising contacts,see page 56.VOLUME 60, NO.BUILDING DESIGN
CONSTRUCTIONT
he complete fi ndings from our
inaugural Giants 300 Technol-
ogy and Innovation Study are
now published and available
for download at BDCnetwork.
com/2019TechSurvey. This
12-question survey was emailed
to all 486 fi rms that participated in
BD+C’s 2019 Giants 300 Report; 130
fi rms completed the tech survey, for a
participation rate of 26.7%.
The objective of the study was to gain a
deeper understanding of the state of AEC
technology adoption and innovation initia-
tives at the nation’s largest architecture,
engineering, and construction fi rms. Thereare dozens of takeaways from this study,
including which tech tools are being used
most frequently, and which tools offer the
best ROI (see our recap on page 40).
One takeaway that stood out for me
was the astonishingly high adoption rate
of offsite construction among the general
contractors and construction management
fi rms. Of the 35 GCs and CMs that par-
ticipated in the survey, 25 fi rms (71.4%)
indicated that they use offsite/prefab
construction on projects, and, incredibly,
nearly half (45.7%, or 16 fi rms) use offsite
construction on “all” or “many” projects.
Of the 10 fi rms that currently are notimplementing offsite construction on
projects, three fi rms are pilot-testing
offsite processes and four are consider-
ing the approach for future application.
That leaves just three fi rms (8.5%) that
indicated they have zero interest in offsite
construction—which means we’re looking
at an adoption rate of more than 90%
among the nation’s largest GCs and CMs.
When asked to pinpoint the single most
signifi cant AEC technology innovation
their fi rm has initiated in the past year
with positive results, DPR Construction’s
National Director of Innovation, Kaushal
Diwan, cited the use of multitrade/multi-
scope prefabrication through its strategic
partnership with Phoenix-based prefab
provider Digital Building Components:
“The ability to take more complex work
offsite while other work proceeds, then
bring ready-to-install elements to the
site is a signifi cant advance in the use
of prefabrication. With the existing labor
shortage and desire to still have speed-
to-market, we think we’re only beginning
to see the possibilities.”
Speed, quality, advanced coordination,
and schedule gains are commonly cited
as benefi ts of offsite construction. But
what about hard-dollar ROI?
“Our current metrics savings show
that prefabricating with Digital Building
Components offsite saves 10–20% on
overall cost,” said Diwan. “It can save
time by improving installation effi ciency
by 20–30%, and it increases quality by
reducing rework to less than 1%.”
The caveat, added Diwan, is that these
results “are only possible through deep
adoption and integration with virtual design
and construction and robotics technology,
which Digital Building Components uses.”CONTRACTOR GIANTS ARE ALL IN
ON OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION
Speed, quality, advanced
coordination, and schedule gains
are commonly cited as benefi ts
of offsite construction.
But what about hard-dollar ROI?
| EDITORIAL |By David Barista, Editorial Director
6 |BUILDING DESIGN+CONSTRUCTION | October 2019