The root of project dispute is usually a lack of common understanding about the why, the what, and the how related to a project.

This was made possible by the fact that the COVID-19 crisis has brought the industry together.The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) and the officials in The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) worked closely to forge a much better link between government and industry.

We’ve seen the CLC successfully deal with things like keeping construction sites open and the launch of the talent retention scheme.All of this has given industry a new, unified voice in government; an important step for a sector which hasn’t necessarily been widely listened to in the past..This type of unification has clearly demonstrated the benefits industry engagement provides, showcasing to the government how the construction sector can support recovery.

In addition, industry players themselves have seen the benefit of coming together, not just in terms of a recovery from the immediate downturn, but also through an understanding of how transforming construction into a more productive and sustainable sector in the future can be supported and accelerated.We’re no longer talking about simply needing more people on site to build things more cheaply.

The focus now is about how we construct our assets and how we operate.. We have important questions to answer: how do we drive greater levels of manufacturing (DfMA) and more productive growth into the sector?

How do we use data in a way that supports not just better construction projects, but also better operational assets?This could be a manufacturing step in a factory, or security check in an airport.

We call these pieces of the value chain Chips, and strung together they form our process.. Chips provide physicality.They allow engineers to design and simultaneously generate data.

This data can then be used by other departments.For example, finance can use it to determine Cost of Goods, amongst other things.