This year will be the year to RISE. Get ready for a rise in projects and (yet) another rise in challenges. Commercial construction across South Australia and Western Australia is on the rise with an unprecedented amount of cranes expected to pop up on the cities’ skylines. South Australia and Western Australia might be going against the trend here a little, compared to the rest of the country. So, happy days? Hopefully. But not without some challenges.
An increase in work, paired with the current economic challenges, means you will likely be dealing (or are already dealing) with some or all of these construction trends.
1. Supply chain issues and material shortage. Despite previous predictions to normalize in 2021, the pandemic-induced material shortage and supply chain issues persist. Add to this a war in Europe, which further fuels inflation and shortages. This means costs keep creeping up, affecting your margins and project delivery timelines.[1] Some states have started to push collaborative contracting models, aiming to share costs of delays, procurement risks, or even try to move material and supply conversations up the chain. [2]
2. Talent and labor shortage. A problem of both numbers and skills. Attraction of workers to the industry in general has been challenging in the past. A lack of skilled workers has been expedited further, partly driven by industry advances into integrating digital technologies and further increased through a Covid-driven gap in skilled migration.[3] This global trend heavily impacts on the ability of some contractors to meet project delivery timelines which is ultimately costly.
3. Tech adoption
The construction industry undergoes a digital transformation with “connected construction” technologies on rapid rise, aiming to bring project participants from value chain to engineering firms and contractors onto one platform.[4] Tools like the Procore construction management platform or material tracking systems such as MATRAK[5] all contribute to shaking up known processes and evolve how projects move through their various stages. This requires nimble adaption of processes and up-skilling of the current workforce.
[1] https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/energy-and-resources/articles/engineering-and-construction-industry-trends.html
[2] https://www.procore.com/jobsite/global-construction-outlook-2022/
[3] https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/energy-and-resources/articles/engineering-and-construction-industry-trends.html
[4] https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/energy-and-resources/articles/engineering-and-construction-industry-trends.html
[5] https://info.matrak.com/hubfs/Matrak_IndustryReport_StateofMaterials_2021.pdf?hsLang=en