Has the construction industry improved in last 25 years?

Within the last 25 years, productivity in the manufacturing industry has improved by 10% on average annually in China and Japan; while the construction industry has only improved by 0.02% in China and slightly deceased in Japan. The question to be asked is why the construction industry has been so slow in productivity improvement. In this paper, I argue that the manufacturing industry possesses three critical successful factors (CSFs) that the construction industry lacks. I further argue that by adopting the construction virtual prototyping (CVP) technology, the construction industry can be equipped with the CSFs and make the same level of productivity and efficiency gain in the future. CVP is the use of integrated product, process and resource models of construction projects to support construction planning in a virtual environment. This paper describes an integrated framework and process for efficient application of CVP to support project teams on construction planning. It includes specific examples of models and objectives as well as detailed suggestions on how to implement CVP in practice.