667. The Race to Efficiency & Why Construction Is Behind with Brian Potter

In a world of constant, rapid digital transformation, one industry has struggled to evolve: construction. With all the gains made in efficiency and productivity, what’s holding the construction industry back? Brian Potter is a senior fellow at the Institute for Progress and author of the book, The Origins of Efficiency which charts the history of production efficiency, examining the great leaps forward with inventions like penicillin, the light bulb, and automobiles. Brian joins Greg to share his experience in the construction industry that prompted his research into productivity and why construction productivity appears flat compared with manufacturing and agriculture. They also discuss distinctions between labor productivity and overall efficiency, the central role of scale and fixed costs, why tacit knowledge makes process transfer hard across plants and countries, and political obstacles such as guilds and unions resisting automation, including AI. unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.