Bold changes needed in industry: Redas chief

DUE to rapid urbanisation, the built environment industry is being stretched in many ways and this calls for bold changes in the way it functions. It needs to keep up with the bottom-up demands of urbanites: good quality and liveable buildings and spaces, safe neighbourhoods, affordable housing and efficient public services and facilities, says Mr Chia Ngiang Hong, president of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (Redas).

As cities grow and evolve, these aspirations are getting more diverse and loftier, further adding to the challenges. At the same time, firms need to navigate the quagmire of regulatory demands.

"These include building codes, sustainability regulations, manpower restrictions, and tight deadlines. While they are essential for governments to coordinate developments, regulations often vary between different jurisdictions, adding more red tape.

"Meanwhile, the industry itself is getting more competitive, as more construction companies from developing countries are expanding aggressively and jostling for contracts," says Mr Chia.

In this climate of pervasive disruptions, both internal and external, firms must ride the wave of change, lest they be overridden. Technology enables this as with integrated digital delivery (IDD), companies can now digitalise and integrate various stages of building, including design, fabrication, construction and asset delivery and management.

"Coupled with advances in construction methodology and technology, including prefabricated construction and assembly, virtual reality, drone technology, data analytics and predictive maintenance, the built environment industry is achieving unprecedented levels of productivity.

"However, digital building design and technology adoption require investment and skilled manpower. Industry stakeholders will also need to respond to the challenges through planning, ingenuity, investing in R&D, and collaborating with value chain partners."

He says the construction industry is known for being the least productive sector almost globally, as many companies have relied on cheap labour and the industry has been lacking in transformation.

"While some big players have already tapped on disruptive technology to evolve their organisation, more has to be done to get the rest of the industry up to speed.

"The changes required can be broadly categorised into technology adoption, training and upskilling, and collaboration between industry stakeholders and government. These are not mutually exclusive and concerted efforts are essential."

The sector needs to adopt high impact productive technologies both in order to improve productivity, and to reduce reliance on manpower. The problem is the different priorities in different countries, with some choosing to utilise their abundant labour force rather than adopt digital technologies.

The use of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD), Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA), among others would allow companies to build virtually before building for real.

Such technology enables architects, engineers and contractors to work together seamlessly, and allows them to anticipate issues and fix problems before construction.

"In order for technology adoption to succeed, we need to develop the relevant talent and upskill the workforce of the industry. The adoption of technology is capital intensive. The initial investment is large, and the upkeep may be difficult to manage during periods of sluggish economic growth.

"To address this risk, the entire value chain has to work hand in glove to provide necessary funding and to share technological expertise. Lastly, Government would also need to catalyse this process with appropriate financial and other incentives.

"There is urgency for Singapore to push our built environment industry ahead, especially for the firms that compete regionally or globally. For this to happen, the above four conditions have to be met by a supportive network of industry players, government agencies, research institutes and institutes of higher learning."

He says digitalisation will help to integrate the whole work flow process better. It will greatly improve collaboration as information can be shared with all the partners involved in the project real time through an integrated platform with ICT. Since the information is up-to-date, it can provide a "single source" at any one time, so that everyone is using the information correctly and simultaneously to do their work.

Since the design information is already digitalised, this information can also be used for the fabrication of precast work in an off-site location and later shipped to the site to be "assembled".

At the downstream process, subcontractors or specialist contractors can make use of the same information via drone, Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, defect management, to do the installation, inspection, and even sales and marketing, says Mr Chia. This will ensure that the "as designed virtual model" and the actual construction is the same.

Lastly, the same information can be used for better "smart facility management" so that preventive and even predictive maintenance is possible in the future to provide a better living and recreational lifestyle.

Turning to innovations done by Singapore's built environment industry in recent years, the Redas chief says that since 2010, with BCA encouraging the built environment industry to adopt BIM, the industry has been gradually moving from 2D drawings to 3D modelling. The e-submission capabilities have speeded up the approval process.

BCA later introduced Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) in 2015 which encouraged better collaboration among the value chain partners. This innovative approach has opened up better clash detections, managing rework and reduction of waste.

"Last year, BCA introduced more advanced construction methods and technologies like DfMA and IDD which will bring us closer to fulfilling our ITM transformation for the built environment industry."