Amazon engages its vendors through a web interface it calls Vendor Central. Parties invited to become vendors register on the platform and their relationship with Amazon is managed on it. Why does Amazon operate in this way? Because it is the most cost-efficient way of doing business. All commerce ...

Advances in information technology over the past 30 years have created a foundation for improved manufacturing productivity that is often dubbed the Second Industrial Revolution. In the first revolution electricity was the underlying technology. But it was the application of this technology to a ...

There is a lot written about technology and the role it will play in improving the productivity of the construction process. But how will technology improve the efficiency of the construction product supply chain? This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to this topic and it draws from our ...

"Modular construction's time may have finally come." This is how McKinsey & Company summarized the findings of its June 2019 report Modular construction: From projects to products, a follow-up to its 2017 report about reinventing construction to produce $1.6 trillion of productivity ...

In our newsletter published this week, the article that received the most attention was titled 'Why Precast Should Pay Attention'. This was our title applied to an article that we circulated about a Cleveland, OH contractor's decision to offer integrated construction services. It obviously struck a ...

In its 2017 report entitled Reinventing Construction: A Route to Higher Productivity, the McKinsey Global Institute revealed that the construction industry lags all other major industries in productivity. In fact, the construction industry experienced a productivity decline of almost 1.5% per year ...

The globe faces three major problems that impede the construction of adequate infrastructure over the next 20 years: $94 trillion of investment is needed. The construction industry is not presently equipped to address the need. Government budgets are constricting investment and maintenance funding. ...

We have heard (separately) from two precast manufacturers that it costs $25,000 to conduct an inventory count. If there is one process that immediately justifies automated data collection, this is it. While the cost naturally depends on the size of the yard... they both have yards of about 40 ...

There is a lot of talk about "smart" things, infrastructure included. But what does that really mean? We have recently released a new web report entitled The Promise of Smart Infrastructure. In it we answer this question and present the opportunity that smart infrastructure provides for addressing ...