Plugging into innovation

Gerhard Hope.

An MEP contractor is making headlines in the industry as one of the first in the region to apply BIM to a large-scale project.

I use the word ‘headlines’ reservedly, because you will not be reading about this company’s leadership in innovation anytime soon. It declined the opportunity for a case study because – and this is a direct quote – “its competitors will follow, and it will lose its competitive edge”.

So, it prefers to operate in secrecy and not inform its clients about how it is embracing the latest trend in cost-efficiency and value addition? How about the next MEP contractor who bumps into BIM, decides it is a good thing … and makes a big splash about it? That initial contractor, who was first to apply BIM, will be last in terms of the marketing potential it squandered.

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Sadly, such conservatism is not unknown in the construction industry. It is bizarre that alongside such achievements as the tallest building and a veritable slew of other world-firsts, many regional practices and mindsets are still hidebound by tradition. We all know how rapidly technology advances; surely outlooks should be adapted accordingly?

Recently I spoke to a company that is introducing a pre-manufactured wiring solution into the region. Basically this is a fully ‘pluggable’ system from the DB right down to the final connection.

All fittings required are off-the-shelf, from sockets to switches, light fittings and even FCUs.Pre-wired conduit, available in either PVC or metal, is made to specific lengths to facilitate the socket-to-DB connections. Once on-site, all that is needed is for the DB and final points to be installed … and then simply plugged together. Voila!

Now every electrical contractor knows how many man hours, sheer physical effort and materials are expended on the relatively straightforward, but vital, process of terminating DBs.

As a result you would expect any MEP contractor to jump through hoops at the chance of availing himself of the opportunity of an average 20% cost-saving and 70% reduction in the installation schedule.

Of course not. The company’s business manager told me: “Literally, I have had a guy stand up, slam his hand down on the table, and say, I have been here 25 years, and have done things the same way all that time. It has always worked, so why change? Your system will never work.”

Not only are the benefits of this pre-manufactured wiring solution proven, they are also rather obvious – unless you have accumulated enough experience to cloud your common sense.

“Then you are faced with a situation of telling this guy, without actually saying it, that I know better than you …”

The gentleman’s antipathy was based on two common misconceptions: that labour is an insignificant project expense because it is so cheap in the region, and that a pre-manufactured, modular system can in no way compete with ‘best price’ (that is, rock bottom) raw materials assembled by said low-cost labour.

Now we all know that the global financial crisis is bringing about a new business paradigm in the region’s construction industry. Contractors are realising that inefficiencies glossed over in the past – such as labour over-supply and material wastage – can weigh significantly on the bottom line.

Fortunately, it is quite easy to deal with the gentleman who has been doing things ‘his way’ for the past couple of decades, for psychology has advanced as much as business practice in the interim.

“You make it seem like he came up with the idea himself. You get him to speak to his peers who have used the system, so they can tell him about its innate benefits, so he can then tell you, in turn: 'I have a brilliant idea …'”

It is vitally important for the MEP industry, and construction as a whole, to not only adopt the latest technology, but also to encourage its long-term practitioners (we do not wish to antagonise them by using the potentially pejorative ‘old-timers’) to think creatively.

And to make a big noise about it when they get things right, so others can learn as well, and thereby raise the benchmark for all.

Gerhard Hope is editor of MEP Middle East.