Construction won’t fix productivity just by trying harder. It will fix it by building differently

Construction has never lacked ambition. What it lacks is great and improved productivity. You see it in programmes that drift, costs that lurch, and teams forced to re-solve the same problems on every job as if the last 35 years taught us nothing.

In my experience, there are very few levers that genuinely shift that equation. Industrialisation is one of them, but not as a label for “more modules made off site”.

It is the repeatable work of building better systems: greater standardisation, the development of platform solutions, smart interface controls, and better methods and procurement routes that improve each time you use them. However, it will only deliver when the industry is equitable enough to sustain it, with risk sitting with the party best able to manage it and reward shared in line with performance.

Spikes in energy and material prices continually ripple through programmes, and mitigations (value engineering, resequencing, late substitutions) often surface as problems elsewhere in the chain. That is why the shift from standard components to standard systems matters.

When platform solutions are designed from the outset for pre‑assembly, with interfaces that are engineered, tested and refined, industrialisation becomes a productivity engine

When platform solutions are designed from the outset for pre‑assembly, with interfaces that are engineered, tested and refined, industrialisation becomes a productivity engine, not an off‑site tactic deployed late when the programme is already under pressure.

Industrialisation means systems, not just offsite manufacturing

People often hear “industrialised construction” and picture a factory, or a catalogue of standard products. Those outputs matter, but the step change starts with process: designing for pre‑manufacture and assembly from day one, standardising system interfaces, and procuring in ways that create certainty and enable learning.

Repeatability creates predictability, and predictability is what unlocks resilient projects and the confidence to invest. But that investment is conditional. It depends on a commercial environment that does not punish the supply chain for doing the right thing.

The learning curve is real, and it is where industrialisation earns its keep. I first saw pre-assembly’s impact at scale in the late 1990s, working with BAA’s “world-class project process”. We learnt, sometimes the hard way, that performance improves quickly when you take variability out of the environment and give teams permission to iterate.

We saw cost savings of 11% on the first set of assembled modules moved to site, and a further 17% on the next iteration as the team learned

In 2002, while delivering 6km of corridor works at Heathrow and Gatwick, we proved something that still holds true: with a collaborative supply chain and a controlled assembly environment, results compound. We saw cost savings of 11% on the first set of assembled modules moved to site, and a further 17% on the next iteration as the team learned and optimised. If you travel through the airport today, they still look great.

The same lesson carried forward. On the Shard, pre‑assembly and repeatable installation sequences protected the programme. Finishing major elements ahead of schedule only happened because we copied what worked elsewhere and resisted the temptation to reinvent the approach for the sake of it. Industrialisation is simply the discipline of building on proven methods, project after project, until they become reliable enough to bet on.

Real-world results: measuring productivity improvements

In the coming months, Mace Construct will be sharing insights grounded in our own productivity data across a huge portfolio of projects. Being open about the highs and lows of productivity is also critical to establishing benchmarks for the entire sector.

If we are serious about improvement, we have to be serious about measurement. A practical lens is gross value added per worker hour. On standard schemes without industrialised systems, you might see productivity around £60-£70 of value per worker hour. Where we have industrialised, we achieved roughly £130.

More recently, as platform solutions have iterated, we have seen figures closer to £150. And this is not just internal efficiency. Deliver a major package nine months early and the commercial upside is immediate; on one London project this enabled around £12m of additional revenue for the client by bringing occupation forward.

Once work becomes repeatable, technology stops being novel and starts being useful.

In tunnels and other logistics‑constrained environments, robot‑enabled installation approaches can compress time on site, improve safety and reduce disruption

Industrialisation creates the conditions for digital tools to matter. When work is repeated, automation becomes an effective part of the process. In tunnels and other logistics‑constrained environments, robot‑enabled installation approaches can compress time on site, improve safety and reduce disruption.

AI can push this further by improving sequencing and constraint management, and by tightening quality assurance through better data capture and feedback loops. The point is not “tech in construction” as a headline; it is better outcomes.

What’s needed to scale industrialisation across UK construction

What would it take to scale this beyond pilot projects and well-intentioned speeches? We have momentum. The Construction Leadership Council, the Construction Productivity Taskforce and organisations such as Industrialised Construction have helped to create a shared language and stronger procurement foundations for platform delivery.

What matters is a pipeline that signals platform demand, with programmes defined in ways that enable repeatability

But pipeline on its own is not enough. What matters is a pipeline that signals platform demand, with programmes defined in ways that enable repeatability, stable capacity planning and continuous improvement, so suppliers can invest with confidence rather than gamble on the next tender.

We also need to be honest about skills. Tens of thousands enter construction every year, yet too many struggle to find sustained, high-quality work. Our “skills shortage” is not caused by a lack of new entrants who want careers in construction; it is an absorption problem, driven by a lack of confidence to invest. Industrialised delivery can help by creating better-paid roles, safer environments and clearer career pathways. By providing exciting jobs in the digital and automated world that people can build a future in, the labour question becomes far less fragile.

Fair commercial models: the foundation for industry transformation

And then there is the commercial model, too often the quiet saboteur of progress. We cannot industrialise an inequitable industry. If platform solutions are priced as if they are traditional one‑off builds, the business case is distorted from the start. If the client’s downside is pushed wholesale down the supply chain, investment will not come and capability will not scale.

A fair risk assignment framework is the foundation that makes repeatable systems viable. Set outcomes and constraints at the right level, measure performance transparently, and let supply chains compete on how best to industrialise and innovate, with reward that matches improved results. On repeat programmes, the delta between version one, two and three is exactly where productivity compounds.

Industrialisation will not solve every challenge in construction. But it is our clearest route to sustained productivity improvement

Industrialisation will not solve every challenge in construction. But it is our clearest route to sustained productivity improvement because it turns one‑off projects into improving systems that carry learning forward each time they are used.

The catch is simple: investment only flows in a fairer industry, where risk sits with the party best able to manage it and reward follows better outcomes.

We must align around repeatable platforms and processes, modern commercial models, and fair risk assignment, so that we can build what the country needs faster, better and with a workforce that can thrive.

Mark Reynolds is executive chair at Mace Construct and co-chair at the Construction Leadership Council