IDD: How Digitalization Change Construction Industry

The Singaporean government introduced Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD) in 2018. The IDD is to ensure that companies in the construction industry know how to transition to digital tools. Tasks like submitting documents, communicating information, and calculating cost estimation can all be digitized.

However, the IDD is still a relatively new system of construction. While the shift towards digitalizing is inevitable, many uncertain factors persists. This blog is to inspect the IDD on how it may affect the construction industry in Singapore.

Benefits of Adapting IDD

Adapting the IDD offers many benefits to companies that are willing to take this approach. Construction digitalization leads to optimization of manpower. Automation decreases repetitive and redundant tasks as well.

Furthermore, digitization also standardizes data and information. This is especially crucial for construction companies. Construction itself is an industry that produces numerous documents and data in the work process.

The IDD offers many other benefits to construction firms. To name a few:

Effective Communication

One of the IDD’s applications asks for Digital Request for Information. The IDD gives companies a way to effective project management. This helps companies organize a fluent and efficient workflow. This promotes communication and collaboration within a team, preventing risks of mistakes.

For a project to be IDD, a necessary component is the usage of a Common Data Environment (CDE). The Building and Construction Authority identifies CDE as “a centralized digital platform used for the collection, management & dissemination of project-related information.“

CDE enables companies to update information to every member in the fastest way possible. The existence of a single source of truth also clears risks of misinformation. When tracking project progress, allocating resource, and disseminating, CDE is a game-changer.

Data Interoperability

The IDD Requirements from the Singaporean government suggests that companies should pay “special attention…to data interoperability…of the selected digital technologies.”

Data interoperability is an extremely important aspect for stakeholders of any business. Data interoperability refers to the accuracy of data after transference or translation to other systems. Acquiring high data interoperability is extremely difficult as different businesses may use different systems if not already adopting IDD. Under different systems, data integration can get complicated.

Adopting IDD makes interacting with other businesses extremely efficient. Digital means of management provide a solution to obstacles that lower the interoperability of a project. CDEs unify format to maintain high interoperability, and organize data sources when it gets overwhelming.

Significant Increase of Efficiency

CDEs come with one critical characteristic. Data storage, workflow management, performance analysis, or other functions that come with a CDE all come with standardization.

Standardizing information is the quickest way to reduce redundant tasks that waste time. Similar to interoperability, proper standardization reduces effort and time wasted on integration. Additionally, standardization creates a format for employees to work in. This significantly reduces the amount of mistakes and incoordination from unfamiliarity.

Measuring Success

The Project Information Model (PIM) includes various functionalities that assists construction firms as a whole. Other than Building Information Modeling (BIM), one of the most helpful tools for contractors are the management data indicators.

The indicators track different aspects of a construction project, one being the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Safety indicators, including Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) and Accident Severity Rate (ASR), are for measuring safety. Safety is also the Singaporean government’s most valued aspect of construction.

Productivity indicators such as Number of Manpower by Project measures how effectively the firm utilizes its manpower resources.

Time indicators help firms understand how much time each step takes for them to reduce unnecessary wastes of time. Some examples may include Time Taken to Resolve of Request for Information (RFI) or Time Taken to Approve Submissions.

Such indicators help visualize performance for construction teams. This lets firms identify a problem easily, and make informed decisions when working on construction projects.

Impact of IDD

For the Singaporean government, companies adopting IDD resolves many of the current problems in the Singaporean construction industry.

As mentioned, the IDD increases the efficiency each team member work at. This addresses Singapore’s labor shortage to an extent. As the demand for workers decreases because of smoother workflow, the industry will not suffer as much from the shortage.

The IDD also relieves budget problems from supply chains for construction teams. Shortage and increased demand in raw material for construction have made the raw material prices skyrocket in recent years.

Taking the IDD approach provides a more effective mean to resource management through the use of CDE. This further optimizes material usage, not only saving budget but also making construction more sustainable.

Limitations of IDD

Like any other systems, the IDD has its own limitations.

The IDD, because of its unique nature, requires certain roles to be present in a project. The majority of construction companies haven't adapt to digitalizing construction yet. Because of this, companies need roles like digital leads, digital specialists, and assistance digital specialists.

To be specific, the roles mentioned are the ones the BCA explicitly named as the roles the employer should "clearly specify." The BCA also demands requirements to be present for people to take on those roles.

Asking companies to recruit more manpower specifically for this task is not a great incentive to promote the IDD. However, the requirements are necessary, as digitalization demands professional knowledge.

With that being said, this poses a great difficulty for firms without excessive resources to adopt the IDD.

Conclusion

IDD, as an approach aimed to digitalize the construction industry, offers various benefits that elevates the industry. As a relatively new approach, the IDD has its own limitations and spaces for improvement. However, it is certain that the industry will shift more towards digitalization, as it creates optimized work conditions like nothing before.