On a regular basis, we highlight content posted on other blogs that we feel would benefit our readers. This week's blog highlights include:
10 Construction Industry Trends to Watch in 2017
Editor Emily Peiffer recaps 10 trends to watch in this week's ConstructionDive lead article. These include topics recently covered here in ConstructionPro Week:
- The Internet of Things (IoT)
- Continued growth of offsite prefabrication and modular construction
- Increased use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
- Expansion of project delivery methods that embrace collaboration
- Ongoing concerns over labor shortages
The other five trends discussed in the blog include:
- Industry uncertainty under Trump
- What actually may happen with infrastructure spending
- Rising materials and labor costs
- Changing the sustainability movement to deal with the bottom line instead of climate change
- Increased scrutiny and prosecution of safety and fraud incidents
Check out Ms. Peiffer's thought-provoking prognostication here.
Descriptive Job Roles Drive Better Project Performance
A recent post by Julia Mohler at the e-Builder website this past fall discusses the topic of Descriptive Job Roles in the context of improving project performance. Ms. Mohler cites statistics that 79% of top performing owners use clearly defined job roles for their teams vs. 50% for lower performing owners. Whether you're an owner or contractor, descriptive job roles should be employed on individual hiring as well as for project teams. Descriptive roles help weed out unqualified candidates as well as help develop clearly defined roles for project teams. Inclusion of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) needed for each role is key to the successful development of role descriptions. Check out the complete blog post here.
Optimizing Tall Building Systems
Russell Gilchrist of Gensler presents an interesting take on the optimization of systems for tall buildings. Of the 108 completed supertall and three megatall buildings in the world, potentially all of them have an undersized heating system and an oversized cooling system, according to Gilchrist. Much of this is due to the difference in air temperature and pressure at higher elevations. Other factors include a phenomenon known as the "stack effect" in which air moves through the building via elevator shafts. Gilchrist also proposes the use of drones to measure actual conditions at different elevations, rather than rely on data from nearby airports. Gilchrist's article can be accessed at the Building Design + Construction blog here.
