Australian Construction Quality And Safety Hampered By Continued Digital Shortage: Report

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today released a new construction industry report which reveals a continued digital shortage is hampering the sector’s quality and safety protocols, with a lack of clarity and audit trail for decision-making processes alongside difficulty in capturing ‘as built’ information identified as the top construction quality and safety issues in Australia.

Launched during National Safe Work Month, the Construction Quality & Safety Report 2023 was developed in partnership with the University of Melbourne. It combines findings from qualitative interviews with construction industry and government leaders, and a survey of 75 Australian industry and government experts.

According to the report, 51.9 per cent of Australian respondents are dealing with a lack of clarity and audit trails for decision-making processes, while 50 per cent struggle to capture ‘as built’ information. Difficulty in accessing data (42.3 per cent), difficulty in managing and maintaining data (40.4 per cent) and a lack of due diligence process (36.5 per cent) are among other predominant issues.

Commenting on the report, Sumit Oberoi, Industry Strategy Manager at Autodesk Construction, “Since early 2015, the conversation about construction quality and safety has centred on compliance and enforcement. However, the apparent shortcomings detected in Sydney’s Opal Tower and Melbourne’s Docklands Lacrosse Towers highlighted the need to better capture information and audit trails.

“Although clear progress has been made to digitalise construction from design to delivery and operation, there remain concerns about the lack of common approaches across projects to ensure health and safety for on-site construction workers and mitigate faults in builds. This is despite several Australian jurisdictions sharpening their construction quality and safety regimes.”

When asked about challenges in construction quality and safety management, 63.8 per cent of respondents identified lack of information management across stakeholders, with lack of data capture ability (57.4 per cent) and difficulty in logging and verifying site feedback (55.4 per cent) rounding out the top three.

In fact, the report shows a staggering 60 per cent of respondents rely on manual takeoff during work in progress and defects inspections as methods for verifying ‘as installed’ conditions, with 11 per cent expressing they have no measures in place. Only five per cent leverage automated detection of difference between 3D laser scans and building information management (BIM), 11 per cent use 3D laser scan and visual comparisons with BIM models, and 13 per cent have regular 360-degree photogrammetry or Lidar scans.

Adding to the report, author Dominik Holzer, Associate Professor in Digital Architectural Design at the University of Melbourne, said, “Technology primes construction companies for risk prevention and establishing safety barriers. Augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), 4D planning and BIM, alongside other digital tools help determine the potential for risk at a site, and can automate the detection of potential issues throughout the build process. A number of contractors and TAFEs are also finding value in leveraging VR to simulate scenarios to train workers – particularly apprentices – for hazard identification. These are crucial methods to mitigate strains and sprains right through to serious injuries, and ensure supervisors are aware of potential cases of negligence at sites.”

While 61 per cent of survey respondents agree technology plays an essential or very important role in helping quality and safety, the remaining 39 per cent regard it as somewhat important (23 per cent), of little relevance (12 per cent) or having no role (four per cent).

The vast majority of respondents (71 per cent) believe technology helps reduce quality and safety issues, whereas 23 per cent hold a neutral stance, and six per cent feel it does so rarely.

“The ability for project teams to capture and process construction quality and safety information, and ensure that data is accessible by all stakeholders, is pivotal,” said Oberoi. “Singapore’s about-to-be-launched CORENET X submission framework and the currently developed Victorian Government eComply system are promising mechanisms to push the digitalisation of compliance-related processes, but Australia’s construction industry needs to expedite a more integrated way to pre-check projects against codes, and create consistent knowledge transfer across projects. This is where technology delivers value – it tackles the complex dynamics and information flows that not only drive productivity, but govern the quality and safety of Australia’s built environment.”

The report also found:

• Only 14 per cent of respondents feel their workflows are well aligned; 45 per cent said mostly aligned, with eight per cent neutral, 21 per cent occasionally aligned, and 12 per cent not aligned.
• Only 14 per cent of respondents use a digital notification system for quality assurance, quality control and safety; 37 per cent use one most of the time, whereas 25 per cent are neutral, 18 per cent use it rarely, and six per cent do not leverage one at all.

Industry Comment

Luke Belfield, Victorian State Engineer, Office of Projects Victoria: “There can be greater efficiency of safety and design reviews, especially if we are thinking about the use of 3D models that could enhance the transparency of the issues that someone may face during construction, or operation, or during public engagement with those projects. Even just having a 3D model is a huge benefit, for instance when you prepare a fly-through for visualisation. Virtual or augmented reality also plays a key part when you face construction issues on site.”

Jerome Harris, General Manager Quality at John Holland Group (JHG) and Chairman, Construction Quality Australia: “The process for Construction Quality Assurance and Quality Control is essentially the same everywhere – and yet different companies have different Inspection Test Plans and checklist formats on every single project.”

Quinton Whitehead, Manager – Business Improvement, Group Procurement Leader, A.G Coombs: “Quality and safety management systems that provide a single point of truth for data exchange will provide the biggest impact. Systems that go beyond the silos of individual organizations and offer us platforms that designers, head contractors, subcontractors, builders, and downstream facility managers can all access to interact on the same information and data.”

Quinton Whitehead, Manager – Business Improvement, Group Procurement Leader, A.G Coombs: “Previously, the way to track progress was to travel to the site and walk around to do inspections. Through digital information, there are now more ways and means for either the project manager, the client, engineers, and site personnel to track issues and progress via 360-degree cameras and other digital technology on site.”

Richard Choy, CEO, NATSPEC: “Technology is part of the continuous improvement cycle on a building site, not just speed, but also productivity. Technology has the potential opportunity for key products and components to be traced appropriately for appropriate conformance and compliance issues.”

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