Building more with less

Dear Readers, What happens when there is a shortage of workers, but orders still need to be processed and construction deadlines met? The shortage of skilled workers is increasingly forcing the industry to rethink. One distinctive trend is becoming apparent: A way must be found to achieve more with less personnel.

In this issue, we present a concrete example from Brazil: While the situation on the local labor market in that country was relatively relaxed until recently, a shortage of skilled workers is now becoming apparent there as well. Anhanguera Construção Industrializada is responding to this situation by investing in automated manufacturing. Following initial modernization, significantly fewer workers were needed, while output increased by 30% at the same time. Read more about this in the article starting on page 22. At SAKO Stahl, too, the tight labor situation in the installation sector is a concern. Automated manufacturing processes are to secure capacity for demanding infrastructure projects (p. 42). But “accomplishing more with less” doesn’t start with production alone. Hormipresa shows how manual labor and coordination efforts can be reduced in the planning phase as well: The Spanish precast manufacturer is transitioning its construction to a BIM-based workflow step-by-step (p. 34).

And we can take this thought a step further: How can we build more with less? Less personnel, less manual labor, less time on the construction site, less material waste – precast concrete elements, in particular, demonstrate how efficiency and sustainability can be combined: through processes that eliminate unnecessary steps, by streamlining workflows and by making better use of available resources. Accordingly: Building more with less doesn’t mean achieving less – it means making better use of what we have.