“While sectors such as retail and manufacturing have reinvented themselves, construction seems stuck in a time warp,” states a 2018 report by McKinsey & Co. that echos the voice of the whole industry over the last few decades. “Construction lags significantly behind other sectors in its use of digital tools and is slow to adopt new materials, methods, and technology,” continues the pre-COVID report. In fact, global labor-productivity growth in construction has averaged just 1% per year over the past 20-years, compared with 3.6% in the manufacturing sector and an average of 2.8% across the entire world economy. In certain markets, including the UK and Germany, construction productivity has actually declined compared to the 1990s, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data. Like all industries, construction has been shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic and is now being forced to adapt in order to operate in a heightened health and safety environment focused […]