The impact of the skilled construction labor shortage has had a sustained and harmful effect on the construction industry since the worldwide recession (2007 - 2011), when approximately 2 million construction workers were made unemployed around the world. This represented a higher drop in global unemployment than for any other industry.
Since the recession, the construction industry has never been able to recover from the loss of skilled labor and has been characterized by a struggle to fulfill the many construction jobs that are becoming more readily available.
Although many construction firms around the world are approaching the challenge of skilled labor shortage head-on, their methods simply aren’t working.
Global Trend
The impact of labour shortage is a global trend. This industry problem has been strongly highlighted by the recent Farmer Review of the UK Construction Labour Model1: Modernise or Die report.
This report has stressed that recent high levels of cost inflation, driven by a shortage of workers, have stalled numerous UK housing schemes as they have become too expensive to build, and this is the case in many other global markets.
Farmer said:
“The construction industry is in dire need of change. With digital technology advancements pushing ahead in almost every other industry and with the construction labour pool coming under serious pressure, the time has come for action.”
“Unless we find some way of promoting innovation in construction and making the work less labor intensive and more attractive to new entrants, there’s a very real danger of the construction sector going into an inexorable decline over the next few years.”
Popular tactics such as reaching out to the younger generations, and investing in training programs have simply failed to attract skilled workers to the construction industry at a rate that is sufficient to correct the deficit of labor.
For construction firms who are struggling to be able to staff their projects with enough qualified workers, we have the answer:
The FRAMECAD System is a design-led process, that shifts the skill of the construction process upstream, with emphasis on the design phase. Intelligent FRAMECAD software streamlines engineering, designing and detailing processes.
The FRAMECAD Structure software specifically enables the automation of engineering calculations and status reports, speeding up the specification process, ensuring the accuracy of output and reducing the need for skilled labor on-site. All this adds up to a faster, better quality construction process.
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Lighter, simpler, faster
Design-led construction software eliminates the need for a high number of skilled workers on site, by making the assembly of your buildings a quick and simple-to-follow set of processes
Manufactured components are lightweight, which translates to reduced on-site risk, and less human resource required to lift building elements into place.
By deploying accurate design-led software, construction firms find that there is highly reduced on-site mistakes. Low-cost, unskilled workers can be rapidly trained to put the building together efficiently and accurately.
That differs greatly from the traditional building site, where builders are called upon to solve multiple challenges during the construction process; resulting in time delays and escalating costs.
Precision of design
Pre-fabricated frames, machine-produced to an accurate high standard, assure ease of construction.
Each truss, joist and joint produced by the FRAMECAD System, is uniquely labelled, meaning unskilled workers can confidently and rapidly put together the building at pace, even when they have relatively little experience working with CFS systems.
In summary, the power of the FRAMECAD system lies in taking a design-led approach, and shifting the skill of the construction process upstream, with emphasis on the design phase.
Intelligent FRAMECAD software streamlines engineering, designing and detailing processes, providing extremely accurate design. The automation of engineering calculations and status reports enabled by the FRAMECAD Structure software results in speeding up the specification process, changing the quality of output and reducing the need for skilled labor on-site.
If your construction company is looking for a faster, better quality construction process for every project, check out this video which provides a complete overview of the FRAMECAD System, including insights into how reducing your reliance on skilled-labor can mean a competitive advantage for you.
References:
“The Impact of a Skilled Labor Shortage in Construction”, eSUB.com