construction magazine Engineering News Record (ENR) publishes a list of the top 250 international construction firms. In 2018, 36 U.S. companies made that list, or just under 15 percent of the total. Eight U.S. companies were listed in the top 10 international firms.
Today anyone working in the construction industry should anticipate a future involving an international experience. The world is getting smaller, and the demand for infrastructure and building programs for roads, dams, power plants, water and sewer facilities, mass transit, and even housing in emerging and third-world countries is immense. Individuals pursuing careers in construction management who are interested in the international market will undoubtedly have the opportunity to track that venture.
Sustainability
Today, a much greater emphasis is being placed on the environment and the relationship between our buildings and the communities in which they are constructed. In recent years, a voluntary, market-driven building-rating system called the Leadership on Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), has been making its way into segments of the construction industry. This program, which evaluates environmental performance from a “whole building” perspective over a building's life cycle, is becoming so popular that many states are requiring LEED certification of its public buildings. The LEED Green Building Rating System is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED provides building owners and operators with the tools they need to have an immediate and measureable impact on their buildings’ performance.
Green building and green building technologies are being applied to every sector of the industry, and construction practitioners are playing a vital role in carrying out and implementing sustainable goals and objectives on projects.
Not only are buildings being certified LEED but so are the individuals who design and construct them. Today it is quite common to see the initials “LEED AP” (for LEED Accredited Professional) printed on a business card after the name of a construction manager. As a matter of fact, there are many construction management students who have already achieved their LEED AP designation by the time they graduate. This is a testament to the dedication and commitment that has been expressed by the construction community toward building sustainable communities. It is clear evidence that sustainability is not some passing fancy—rather, it's an accepted and standard way of doing business in the construction industry today. You will learn much more about Sustainability and the Built Environment in Chapter 16.
Efficiency
Historically the design and construction industry has had the notorious reputation of being one of the most wasteful and inefficient industries in the United States. However, in 1993 a group of contractors started to apply lean principles, typically associated with manufacturing, to the construction industry. Basically, lean principles, originally derived from the management philosophy known as the Toyota Production System (TPS), are centered on creating more value with less work. In other words, it's the elimination of waste in all forms—wasted materials, wasted time, wasted movement, wasted manpower, and so on. Today, the Lean Construction Institute (LCI) has developed a number of processes and procedures specifically focused on the construction industry that support the lean philosophy. One such technique is called the Last Planner System, which focuses on stabilizing workflows in the construction process, thereby adding reliability to the schedule.
lean principles
Stemming from the Toyota Production System, principles that focus on creating more value for customers with less work and the elimination of waste. These principles are now being applied to the construction industry.
With such innovations, along with the ever-increasing use of advanced technologies such as BIM making their way into construction firms, it is indeed a very exciting time to be in construction. (To find out more about the last planner approach, go to www.leanconstruction.org/lastplanner.htm.)
Diversity
There is no doubt that the construction industry in the United States is still a white- and male-dominated industry. However, the demand for construction managers is so significant that the only way the need can be met is by opening the doors to attract the best and the brightest to join in the effort to take on the building challenges around the world. And just as in other traditionally male industries, the face of construction is changing. As a professor of construction management, I have a chance to talk with recruiters from every sector of the industry and from all over the country. There is a conscious effort being made to bring diversity to the forefront of the profession, and tremendous opportunities for women and minorities in the construction industry exist today.
Collaboration
The Web is no longer a passive place where people idly surf, read, listen, or watch without engaging. Today, the Web is also a business tool that allows us to network together, participate in dialogue, and collaborate. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are just a few of the networks people are using regularly to interact socially and professionally.
Although the construction industry, in general, has been slow to take advantage of many digital innovations, several peer-to-peer messaging and meeting platforms are growing in popularity and use by the next generation of construction professionals. Examples include: GroupMe, WeTxt, GoToMeeting, and Zoom. These collaboration and communication platforms allow team members to easily reply to hundreds of contacts at once, or organize team communications into groups to quickly send project updates and jobsite broadcasts. The challenge of scheduling meetings has been mostly eliminated by using any number of online meeting services to connect and discuss projects while sharing files and images right on our computer screens. And these examples don't even represent those designed specifically for construction. I'll discuss those in more detail in Chapter 15.
Making a Difference
The contributions of the construction industry relative to the changing needs and demands of our society are becoming more apparent. Construction management holds the promise to help close the gap between design and end user satisfaction by offering team leadership, project feasibility reviews, constructability analysis, value engineering, and life-cycle cost evaluation.
There are not many professions where you can look around and actually see the difference that you are making in the world. In construction, the results of your work are right there for the whole universe to see. This became very apparent to me just as I was about to leave the construction industry and return to the university to complete a master's degree and doctorate.
In 1995, I left Virginia, where I had had my design and construction business for 10 years. On my last Sunday there, a woman from my church whom I did not know came up to me. She took my hand and, with tears in her eyes, thanked me for the wonderful contribution that I had made to the community. Her husband had worked for me as a subcontractor before his passing, and she spoke of how proud he'd been to be working on some of my buildings. Well, I too began to get teary-eyed, and when I left church, I rode around that town and looked at the many homes, restaurants, and office buildings
