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Up until recently the AEC industry has seemed like a separate world with its own arcane rules and issues. Knowledge in both design and construction was passed on through various apprenticeship programs and mentoring relationships. Entry into the closed circle was a ritual that took many years. Things began to change when information became readily available through the media: books and television. Homeowners everywhere became interested in improving their houses and got involved with the building process through home improvement centers which sprouted in most neighborhoods. What we do is no longer mysterious. The global village is here.
Experiments with ideas are in progress in all sectors of the economy. Business process reengineering is not really a bad thing. In the developed countries we are seeing layoffs, restructuring and reengineering. In the less developed countries we are seeing improvements in delivery of food and clothing, standard of living and health care. These structural changes are mostly being accomplished without the traditional negative aspects of change: starvation, genocide and war. All over the world everybody is becoming interconnected, first through radio and television, next via telephone and finally the Internet. As interconnectivity increases humanity becomes a powerful parallel computing source of innovation.
Impacts on project delivery outside AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) include new business concepts, automation in other industries, business process reengineering in other sectors of the economy, outsourcing, supply chain management, and the coming global economy. The big question for designers and contractors is getting a handle on just what we will be selling in the future marketplace. Will it be expertise, knowledge, project management, creativity, transaction processing, brokering of services of others or perhaps managing liability and financial risk? We've always been focused on roles and responsibilities within the AEC industry, but in the future many of the traditional work activities will disappear through automation and others will be performed by people presently outside the AEC industry all together.
Owners want more predictable outcome in the realm of schedule, quality and cost, smoother delivery, better buildings, more value and more tailored solutions to specific needs. Today's world is full of choices. Project delivery will continue to come in many choices, colors, flavors and combinations. To support the many choices and options demanded by the marketplace we could use a standard for the common fabric under project delivery. The intellectual community is already on the Internet. As the business community moves onto the Internet the potential for digital anarchy is a serious concern for the future. Business solutions must be built on non-proprietary standards with applications that can communicate and inter-operate. Cooperation among competitors in this respect will allow all to prosper.
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