The use of data and AI to identify opportunities in construction project slow downs and restarts

The construction sector, encompassing contracting, product manufacturing and professional services, had a turnover of around £370 billion in 2016, adding £138 billion in value to the UK economy -- 9% of the total -- and exported over £8 billion of products and services.

However, the potential of the sector has been held back by productivity that is historically below than the wider economy -- an average of 21% lower, since 1975. With a pipeline of £600 billion in infrastructure projects, construction makes a critical contribution to the progress of the UK economy.

Impacts as a result of COVID-19 have resulted in a dramatic slowdown to the industry with projects either slowing down or shutting down entirely. A vast majority of these projects will soon be expected to resume to normality.

The tension of slowing down and restarting a construction project looms within the complexity of the operation, including effects of the supply chain. It is highly likely that a vast majority of projects will incur significant impacts to their final cost, schedule and benefits case.

This project will use data from across the UK's construction industry to identify areas of opportunity within projects, to enable slow downs and restarts to be done as seamlessly as possible. The project will help identify risks in proposed plans, expose them to the project team and help benchmark each project against its cohort, to gauge competitiveness or antifragility. Hypotheses will be fully tested and validated during the course of the project, to ensure that the product developed provides sustainable solutions for stakeholders and customers.