Delivery via construction hubs and linking lorries with traffic management systems: the construction industry is working hard on innovative logistics concepts, but it is not enough yet. Contractors, subcontractors and suppliers will have to operate even smarter with the help of ICT solutions to find answers to all the challenges. Walther Ploos van Amstel, lecturer in city logistics at Hogeschool van Amsterdam, talks about the city logistics challenges during ICT & Logistiek on 7 and 8 November 2018. "The construction site is not always the most efficient location to build."
The construction sector faces major logistics challenges. Bouwend Nederland expects as much as eighty percent of all construction activities to take place in cities by 2040. Today, the figure is only fifty per cent. Building in the city means postage stamp-sized building sites. Space to stock building materials is lacking. What's more: often even space to unload building materials is lacking. When it comes to high-rise buildings, another bottleneck is added: the limited capacity of cranes and/or lifts to deposit building materials on the right floor. Good planning and coordination with suppliers is crucial to making a construction project a success.
Walther Ploos van Amstel mentions another problem: construction traffic in the city. Already, 35 per cent of trucks in the city are filled with construction materials. All those trucks emitCO2, increase the concentration of fine dust in the air, cause noise pollution and increase unsafety. "Construction traffic needs to be smarter, cleaner and safer," argues the lector of city logistics at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. "But also on the construction site itself, logistics must be organised differently. Due to the shortage of skilled workers, the construction sector must become twenty to thirty per cent more productive. This can be done by making skilled workers walk less and, for example, employing 'runners' to get all the stuff ready."
Good planning component missing
So the construction industry needs to look for new logistics concepts. Some construction companies already use construction hubs on the outskirts of cities: suppliers bring their building materials there, after which they are bundled and delivered to the construction site on demand. Another solution is to move construction activities upstream. Think of complete facade parts assembled outside the city and lifted into place at the construction site in one go. To this end, construction companies, subcontractors and suppliers already collaborate digitally on a large scale in the Building Information Model (BIM). In BIM, all components and parts of a project are aligned, which ensures that all those facade parts actually fit.
According to Ploos van Amstel, what BIM lacks is a good planning component. "Perhaps there is good cooperation per construction project, but not yet between construction projects. Now a supplier might have to deliver to one construction site in the morning and another in the afternoon. A planning component allows suppliers to see where else they need to deliver in a city like Rotterdam, so they can coordinate those deliveries."
Linking with traffic management systems
Digitalisation is also important for managing construction traffic. Telematics makes it possible to track the position of trucks and calculate the expected time of arrival. The data generated by traffic management systems show which routes are preferred at what part of the day. Linking telematics with traffic management systems can improve traffic flow in the city centre. Think of traffic lights that jump to green as soon as a truck carrying construction materials approaches. "Municipalities are increasingly imposing conditions on construction logistics. Some cities make time slots available for construction projects whose logistics are well organised."
The construction industry has a lot to learn from abroad, according to research on construction logistics in five European cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Vienna, Brussels and Amsterdam. "In Vienna, the local government mandates that all contractors in a particular district organise their logistics together. In Stockholm, all building materials for a particular neighbourhood are compulsorily supplied via a construction hub," knows Ploos van Amstel. "In the Netherlands, half of the construction traffic takes place on behalf of municipalities. More and more municipalities are setting requirements for its organisation in tender processes."
Don't forget: social innovation
Ploos van Amstel is impressed by the talents delivered by construction training courses in the Netherlands. In almost all training courses, the logistics component has been greatly increased in recent years. "Everyone goes up-to-date into the working field. It just takes a long time for all the logistics knowledge to seep into the entire organisation," the Amsterdam lecturer argues. "All too often, good logistics concepts are thought up in advance, of which little comes of in practice. Then there is a contractor on the construction project who still likes it better when suppliers deliver their stuff directly instead of via a construction hub. We must not forget social innovation."
When asked what the construction sector should do next in concrete terms, Ploos van Amstel gives several answers. "First of all, they need to sit down with each other, form alliances and start working together. Next, they need to think together about the sequence of activities, think about the prefabrication of facade parts. The construction site is not always the most efficient location to build. Then it is a matter of planning all activities well, preferably of all construction projects in the city together. ICT solutions play an important role here, but as mentioned, we should not forget social innovation either. Sit down with the professionals and ask how their work can be made more attractive."
ICT & Logistiek will take place on 7 and 8 November at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. Registration for ICT & Logistiek can be done via the website.
