News Detail

Improving Constructability

1/3/2022

The Second Law of Thermodynamics holds that there is a tendency for any isolated natural system to degenerate into increasing disorder, or entropy. This physical law is thought to apply throughout the universe and is not subject to human intervention. A similar phenomenon seems to occur with human life in general. It tends toward complexity unless we continually confront it. Have you ever postponed something, thinking that “next year things will be simpler, and I’ll have more free time”? When next year comes, your to-do list has grown and your life has become more complicated. Instead of having more free time, you have less! The good news is that if we DO continually confront complexity, we can do battle with entropy and bring more order to our lives and organizations.

This principle holds true in the concrete industry. Buildings and other structures are growing steadily more elaborate and more complicated. For some structures, this complexity is unavoidable: it’s due to the inherent nature of the architectural design, or to site constraints or other factors. For other structures, however, the added complication is unnecessary. Many things play a role in causing it—the growth in codes and standards, insufficient coordination among team members, and steadily increasing analytical power that allows unnecessary complication to creep in, to name a few. Nevertheless, it’s important that designers, builders, and other stakeholders in the design and construction process recognize and confront this trend. It is at least partly responsible for the stagnated construction productivity our industry has experienced over the last several decades.

I’ve written about the construction productivity challenge in my past President’s Memos. I’ve also discussed how ACI is embarking on a new initiative to confront it. A task group I chaired in 2020 developed many recommendations regarding how ACI could leverage its resources to improve construction productivity, with a focus on concrete construction. And the first place we’re targeting our effort is on improving the constructability of structural design.

Simply put, constructability involves incorporating construction knowledge into the design process to improve construction productivity. When architects and engineers acquire a working knowledge of construction and then collaborate with the contractor and subcontractors during design, magic happens. Construction schedules shorten and costs drop, with no compromise in quality. In fact, quality arguably increases when designs are simplified and made more constructable. Complicated and intricate designs are more difficult to build and hence increase the likelihood of construction errors. Conversely, designs that are simplified and made more constructable, by coordinating their systems, layout, and detailing with the contractor, are less likely to result in construction mistakes. Simplicity is golden.

To assist structural designers in learning the ins and outs of constructability, ACI now has on its agenda the goal of offering a certificate training program on this very topic. This new program will include training modules that will provide designers with a working knowledge of formwork, reinforcing bar detailing, specifying concrete, differences in the way designs should be approached as a function of project delivery type, and many more subjects. Guiding the content in the preparation of each of these new educational sessions will be the objective of improving the constructability of structural design and, in the process, the collaboration between designers and builders. This will automatically result in improved construction productivity and bring us closer to our long-term objective of realizing the full productivity potential of modern construction systems on as many projects as possible.

It’s too soon to say exactly when this new certificate program will be rolled out. It’s in development now with very good people working on it and will become available later this year. When it does, I encourage you to consider it if you’re involved in structural design in any way. You’ll emerge from the training with a working knowledge of construction and a better understanding of contractors’ needs. It will improve your daily design decisions and, in the process, move construction productivity in a positive direction.

It’s easy to make things difficult. It’s difficult to make them easy. But the effort is worth it because simplicity is golden. And in a nutshell, that’s the essence of constructability—making designs as simple and straightforward as possible, consistent with meeting other design objectives.

Cary S. Kopczynski

ACI President