What can digital tools deliver and what is their role in the design and delivery of MMC? Chris Spiceley, Client Accounts Director at Modulous, outlines the role they have to play.
The multitude of digital tools emerging in the offsite space is reflective of the breadth and depth of this sprawling, frustrating and fascinating industry. As with any industry-wide initiative, acronyms come thick and fast – what level of BIM maturity do you have? What is your corporate CDE policy? How are you embracing DfMA? What level of PMV can you achieve?
Most importantly, though, the passing of the Building Safety Bill places of a duty of care on every party involved to evidence how, and when, key decisions are made. Digital tools can augment processes but must be tested and validated before adoption. Otherwise, how can you evidence that you used the best possible options at your disposal? For example:
- How did you capture key decisions made in optioneering/pre-planning that had implications throughout the lifecycle of the asset?
- What monitoring system are you using to proactively ascertain that firestopping has been conducted correctly and, post-closing up, can you evidence this?
- How are you ensuring that your beautifully created, co-ordinated BIM model is utilised by suppliers/ manufacturers?
The above is rooted in ensuring compliance but has the added benefits of removing duplication and confusion, and so aiding productivity and profitability. The key is to measure your performance and then engage with digital tool providers, to challenge them to improve your outputs. This evidence-based approach will enable entities to understand if approaches like MMC and modular are the appropriate solution.
At Modulous, we are assisting customers in making the right decisions as early as possible in the process. We then realise value creation at all stages thereafter by increasing the velocity (of design, manufacture, assembly and deployment as well as working capital) without losing the certainty (of how decisions were made and the performance of the asset you ultimately create).
The above is what can be achieved now, but we also get asked a lot about the future. I wanted to give an insight into a very zeitgeist tool, Large Language Models (LLM) like OpenAI's ChatGPT. There is much speculation as to how these tools will change the landscape, with opinion ranging from minimally to extreme. So, what better than asking the tool itself?
The prompt I posted was: "How will OpenAI transform the UK AEC industry – will you supplant jobs, or do you assist in creating efficiencies at every stage, increasing productivity and profitability?"
- ChatGPT's answer (received in 9 seconds) was: "Here are some ways OpenAI can transform the UK AEC industry."
- By automating repetitive tasks, OpenAI can free up human resources, allowing professionals to focus on more complex and creative aspects of their work
- OpenAI can assist in analysing large amounts of data, improving decision-making and reducing errors
- OpenAI can enhance the accuracy and speed of project scheduling, procurement, and supply chain management
- OpenAI can aid in the optimisation of building designs, leading to greater energy efficiency and sustainability
- OpenAI can assist in the management of construction projects by providing real-time monitoring and analysis of progress, budget, and safety.
In conclusion, OpenAI is more likely to assist in creating efficiencies at every stage of the construction process, leading to increased productivity and profitability, rather than to supplant jobs. It is a collaborative tool to make the construction process more efficient, sustainable, and cost effective.
Now, there is a degree of leading the witness here, but why would you not use an additional 'resource' to empower and augment your most valuable and scarce resource, your time and knowledge? By understanding the weaknesses in your processes, plus your frustrations – and those of your customers and supply chains, you can prompt and then continually refine tools like ChatGPT to assist you in addressing them.
New doesn't necessarily mean better, and not every digital tool will prove its worth, but being open to trialling those that enhance data-driven decision making seems to me to be a no brainer.
For more information visit: www.modulous.com
Images: 01. Chris Spiceley, Client Accounts Director, Modulous
