As Southeast Asia undergoes a construction boom, poised to reach a staggering $3.1 trillion in regional infrastructure by 2030, the industry faces a unique set of challenges.
In this landscape, we speak with Jeff Larrick, Senior Director for Construction, APAC and Japan at Autodesk, to understand the critical dynamics shaping the region’s construction sector. He also delves into the impact of an aging workforce on major economies like Singapore and introduces innovative digital solutions reshaping the future of construction, and more.
How is the aging workforce impacting the construction industry in Southeast Asian economies like Singapore, and what specific challenges does this pose for the delivery of infrastructure projects?
The construction industry relies heavily on the knowledge and skills of its workers, as well as the ability to meet physically-intensive demands. As older workers retire, the industry riskslosing valuable expertise, exacerbating an ongoing skills gap. This can affect the ability of industry players to remain compliant with safety and quality standards, impeding the successful delivery of projects.
This is especially vital with construction activities across Southeast Asia (SEA) set to intensify, with regional infrastructure projected to grow to US$ 3.1 trillion by 2030. The impact of these manpower constraints has been observed in major SEA economies such as Singapore, where the construction sector emerged as the second largest contributor to workplace safety incidents in 1H 2023, with 80 cases according to the country’s Ministry of Manpower.
You’ve highlighted the potential of digital solutions to address workforce challenges. Can you provide examples of how common data environments and cloud-based project management software can boost productivity in construction projects?
Technology-enabled workflows such as common data environments (CDEs) and interconnected construction processes operate with an emphasis on collaboration, empowering industry players with the means to overcome resource limitations. The inability to improve productivity can place pressure on labourand financial performance, which can collectively increase construction costs and, in some cases, also lead to costly project delays.
An essential component of interconnected data and workflows is the use of standardised project management software. However, many companies continue to use legacy applications that are built on traditional, non-cloud communication platforms. This creates challenges integrating workflows, requiring data to be manually transferred between applications – a highly manual and time-consuming process. Standardised communication is a fundamental part of construction management, facilitating productivity by reducing the time otherwise spent searching for information, as well as by granting teams project-wide visibility into ongoing workflows to aid decision-making.
In addition to productivity, CDEs and cloud-based project management tools also give rise to connected workflows that empower construction teams with heightened awareness of project risks with timely information based on real-time reported incidents. This is a proven method to reduce risks and support better hazard identification on construction projects.
The Autodesk Construction Cloud report emphasizes the role of technology in creating a gender and talent diverse workforce in the construction industry. Could you elaborate on how connected workflows and digital-first approaches contribute to shedding misperceptions and attracting younger, more tech-savvy talents?
Misperceptions about the construction industry often remain rooted in historically manual-intensive workflows. This could discourage prospective talents from pursuing a career in construction, raising risks associated with an aging workforce and the ongoing talent drain.
Adoption of the right technologies can optimise project outcomes as well as reshape the image of the construction industry to one on the leading-edge of innovation. Technology creates new ways of working, giving rise to new tech-focused roles and workflows that could serve as a catalyst to attract younger, typically more tech-savvy, talents with the skill sets necessary for effective digital transformation.
The opportunity to learn and work with leading-edge innovation could also help attract female talent to a traditionally male-dominated industry. A gender diverse workforce has proven to be a primary driver of more unique perspectives and ideas – essential pillars of innovative, productive, and resilient enterprises. Private sector collaboration with educational institutions or professional associations such as Women in Techcan serve as platforms to cultivate awareness of construction technologies and career opportunities among female jobseekers, nurturing the next-generation of industry talent.
Lastly, the adoption and use of technologies such as connected workflows, reaffirms a business’ commitment to the safety of their employees. This can in turn, attract prospective talent, boost employee morale, lead to greater productivity and innovation, and even attract loyal customers thanks to lower safety incidences.
Safety is a crucial aspect of construction, and your report mentions that connected workflows enhance safety outcomes. Can you share specific instances where real-time reporting and timely dissemination of safety information have positively impacted construction projects?
The departure of skilled talent in the wake of the pandemic, paired with high turnover rates, often means that industry players need to constantly educate workers who may not be familiar or well-trained in local safety and quality standards.
Technologies such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) – a digital representation of a building – or Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have proven useful in managing safety hazards and risks on site. A real world example is Singapore-based Straits Construction, which used BIM models to identify openings larger than a certain size that could pose safety risks to workers. This information was included in checklists for safety officers, ensuring those areas were covered in their patrols of the work-site.
Given your expertise in the Asia Pacific and Japan regions, what talent trends are you observing in the construction industry, particularly in Singapore and Southeast Asia? How is technology influencing these trends?
SEA’s construction industry continues to face significant hurdles, with talent shortages being a key challenge. Contributing factors include a construction skill-drain due to the departure of experienced foreign labourers in the wake of pandemic-related travel restriction, as well as an aging workforce. These issues have served to exacerbate the industry’s ongoing productivity challenges, often characterised by inefficiencies, delays, and cost overruns. According to an Autodesk study conducted among industry players in Singapore and Australia, 48% of respondents highlighted a lack of workers with suitable skills as a primary concern, with 44% also experiencing challenges related to staff turnover.
To address manpower constraints, industry players are investing in new technologies that enable them to keep pace with demand by enhancing productivity of the existing workforce. Technologies such as CDEs and cloud-based project management software have the potential to enhance competitiveness by optimising safety, quality and productivity outcomes, as well as attracting more diverse talent. Companies that remain at the forefront of digitalisation are also better positioned to attract young talents keen to work with technology and innovation.
Could you explain what a “digital-first approach” to construction entails, and what are the key advantages of adopting such an approach? How do these technologies complement and augment the capabilities of the human workforce rather than replacing it?
The construction sector is inherently complex, requiring industry players to meet hundreds if not thousands of stringent design requirements and regulatory standards. This can be an overwhelming task for human teams, but less so for teams augmented by technology.
Construction technologies can be implemented across various phases of a project, from design, document management, to the actual act of construction. Digital twinning for example, a digital simulation of real-world scenarios and outcomes for projects, is essential for firms to understand how a project might perform in areas such as occupant behavior, space utilisation, or energy consumption.
Realising the full potential of digital twins requires integration of systems, data, and workflows between various organisationsworking on the project. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) can undertake the complex and time-consuming task of integrating these data sets. This data can then be used to create simulations of design concepts and scenarios based on real-world conditions, informing decisions that help future proof building design and purpose.
Another use case for technology lies in life cycle assessments, which measures a building’s forecasted environmental impact across its lifespan. This is traditionally a highly labour-intensivetask due to the high volume of data collection and analysis involved. As technologies such as AI and automation get better at interpreting engineering insights against data from the real world, these capabilities will provide valuable feedback to support more sustainable outcomes.
The report touches on barriers to digital adoption in the construction industry. Can you elaborate on these barriers and provide insights into how construction firms can effectively work with their existing workforce to integrate modern technologies?
Realising the potential of technologies in the construction and engineering industry will require overcoming several barriers to adoption and successful implementation of the technology. According to an Autodesk study involving respondents from Singapore, Australia, and Japan, industry players face barriers to adopting digital technology.
The most common barrier cited within the study on adopting digital technology was a lack of digital skills in the workforce. This concern was the greatest in Singapore, with 55% of respondents reporting a skills gap. To address this need, construction industry players may look to train or reskill existing staff, hire new talent, outsource tasks, or partner with organisations like institutes of higher learning to build an understanding of industry practices among young talents.
Adopting construction technologies does not simply involve implementation of the solution into workflows, but often requires changes to the way the business is organised. Using a combination of technologies can lead to rethinking how design and construction takes place. Another common barrier to digital adoption was found to be uncertainty among industry players on whether their workforce possessed the sufficient skills and capabilities required to effectively leverage the new technology. Industry players can lower this barrier by maintaining an awareness of technologies and digital trends in the broader construction landscape, informing gaps that need to be closed.
With the increasing importance of the digital economy in the region, how do you foresee the construction industry evolving over the next decade, and what role will technology play in shaping its trajectory?
Amid SEA’s rapid growth, digital transformation of the construction industry represents a stepping stone to the future of urbanisation in the region. Digitalisation can occur at various phases of a project, beginning with the software-based design stage, continuing with aspects both off-site and on-site, and ending by sharing collected data on the systems and energy use of finished buildings—all captured in cloud-based living models. This gives rise to data-backed insights that can not only be useful to optimise building design, construction processes, as well as longer term city planning.
Construction also holds potential to accelerate sustainability agendas across the region. Through digitalisation, authorities will be able to step up the greening of buildings and thoroughly examine building energy performance. For instance, Singapore’s Green Building Masterplan sees its Building and Construction Authority’s Green Buildings Innovation Cluster (GBIC) programme using innovative technologies to improve building energy efficiency.
Your experience includes managing relationships with strategic construction customers. How have these customers responded to the adoption of digital solutions, and what lessons can other construction firms learn from successful implementations?
Strategic implementation of technology into construction workflows have led to many of our customers reaping productivity gains. For instance, Dat Xanh E&C, a member of one of Vietnam’s longstanding real estate and construction companies, Dat Xanh Group, were able to leverage CDEs and connected workflows that enabled team members to deliver high-pressure projects with greater efficiency. Essential documents such as project design drawings and construction plans, as well as equipment specifications, were shared and approved much faster, allowing employees to focus time and resources on more valuable tasks.
However, implementing new technologies at an enterprise level is not always straightforward, requiring large- scale sweeping change and extensive product training. For the best results, industry players looking to embark on digital transformation initiatives should partner with technology providers capable of tailoring solutions specifically to the organisation’s needs, as well provide ongoing advice and support in the digitalisationprocess.
