Autodesk, which develops software for the construction industry, held a briefing session and explained the results of the 2024 Design and Creativity Industry Trends Survey conducted by Autodesk in the United States from the perspectives of cost, human resources, and sustainability.
The survey, now in its second year in 2024, surveyed 5,399 business leaders, futurists, and professionals across architecture, engineering, construction, and operations, design and manufacturing, and media and entertainment industries based in North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.
Rien Takahashi, Director of Construction Business Development, Asia Pacific, Autodesk Global Business Development Division
Cost management is cited as one of the most important issues globally. Compared to other industries, the construction industry is a contracting industry, profit and loss calculations are performed for each site, and there is a bidding and contracting system, so budget management and cost management are important factors that affect a company’s profit and loss. In fact, many companies are said to be adopting management accounting such as budget management and cost management.
In budget management, a budget is determined by converting business plans into accounting figures, and the budget is compared with actual results, with timely feedback provided to prevent deviation from the budget. In cost management, the costs required to manufacture a product are calculated and targets are set accordingly, and costs are improved by analyzing the causes of discrepancies between the targets and actual results. While 62.4% of non-construction companies conduct cost management, 95.9% of construction companies do so.
While cost management is considered important, there are many challenges in sharing and unifying information and making decisions in real time. Rie Takahashi, General Manager of the Construction Business Development Department, Asia Pacific Region, Global Business Development Department, cited “fragmentation of processes and data” as the biggest challenge, pointing out that “fragmentation is causing a lot of manual work and duplicate work.” Specific issues include the proliferation of construction management software, management methods based on “Excel,” and a core accounting system that is mostly manual input.
Ideally, data used in the field would be collected in one place and linked to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that handles headquarters management functions, thereby achieving process consistency, seamless integration of the latest information, and reducing manual accounting work (Figure 1).
The objectives of cost management are diverse, including cost reduction, improving the accuracy of working budgets, automating project management, etc. Takahashi explained, “Since the choice of IT tool differs depending on the objective, it is important to set specific goals.”
Regarding talent acquisition and training, 60% of respondents in the construction industry recognized this as an issue, and delays in Building Information Modeling (BIM) education are exacerbating the issue. In countries such as the UK and Singapore, the governments are taking the lead in promoting BIM education, while in the US, universities and private companies are promoting collaboration between academia and industry based on government strategies and policies. In addition, in Canada, Australia, and Finland, industry associations have strong influence and are lobbying industry, government, and academia.
Compared to these BIM-advanced countries, in Japan, BIM education is left to individual companies, so when companies introduce BIM, they need to make more initial investments and take more time than in Europe or the United States. Takahashi explained the impact that delayed education has on industry, saying, “It is difficult for companies to hire students who have received BIM education, so training costs for introducing solutions increase and it takes time to reach a level where the knowledge can be applied in practice.”
The survey results showed that sustainability initiatives are widespread compared to 2023. 96% of Japanese companies are taking action to improve sustainability, with the main initiatives they have already implemented including “the percentage of companies increasing the use of recycled materials” (28%), “reducing the amount of waste generated in manufacturing/construction work” (27%), and “applying sustainable design methods” (26%).
The carbon footprint of construction activities in an year is 40%, of which “embodied carbon” emitted during the construction and renovation of buildings and infrastructure accounts for about one-third, and “operational carbon” emitted during use accounts for about two-thirds.
Regarding carbon reduction, Takahashi said, “Decision-making at the design stage has the greatest impact on the sustainability of a building’s entire life cycle.” By starting from the design stage, carbon reduction can be achieved effectively and efficiently.
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