How well is your project performing compared with similar projects? Are the trades as productive as they could be? A new, free benchmarking service from Buildots may have the answers.

The Intelligence Lab will publish: standardised metrics that replace subjective estimates with rigorous data; insights that reveal hidden patterns and early-warning indicators; and global benchmarks categorised by sector, region and trade.

It draws on aggregated, anonymised and “historical construction data from hundreds of projects worldwide, spanning hundreds of millions of square feet of built space”, Amir Berman, vice-president of industry transformation at Buildots, told CM Digital.

Berman noted: “Historical data is what lets us see the full shape of a project, not just a snapshot. Looking across hundreds of completed projects, we can see how production rates rise and fall through a project’s lifetime, where the predictable slowdowns are, and how early signals connect to problems that surface much later.

“That’s where risk patterns come from. You can only recognise them once you’ve watched many projects play out from start to finish. The more project lifetimes we have behind the numbers, the clearer those patterns become, and because the pool keeps growing as new projects come online, the insights only get stronger over time.”

Berman is one of four involved in the lab. Also involved are: former BAM UK head of digital construction David Milnes; former Osborne group chief executive Andy Steele; and Dima Zabezhinsky, industry transformation manager at Buildots.

The lab will publish research regularly. Academics, analysts and construction professionals are invited to submit hypotheses, share onsite observations, and request data-driven answers to specific questions.

Early insights

Buildots has published some initial findings from the lab. Perhaps the most intriguing is the analysis of schedule adherence by project type. Healthcare leads with an average adherence of 65%, data centres follow at around 57%, while commercial and industrial projects sit in the low-to-mid 40% range, and education comes in lowest at under 39%.

The lab also reveals a major cause of delays in data centre construction: there is a 20%-50% gap between planned weekly MEP output and what is actually delivered.

Across all projects, the best MEP teams work three times faster than the average, “indicating enormous untapped capacity in schedule-critical work”, according to Buildots.

And the final 20% of an activity takes 27% of its duration. “A consistent ‘long tail’ effect means late-stage stalls are structural, not incidental,” Buildots said.

Buildots co-founder and CEO Roy Danon said: “The construction industry has always lacked a source of macro-level truth. We believe this is a core factor holding back performance and a key contributor to stagnating productivity. After all, organisations lack data to answer even relatively simple questions relating to output, trade productivity, scheduling, etc.

“The Buildots Intelligence Lab exists to change that. We’re making insights and benchmarks freely available, because we believe this information will have transformative benefits for the entire industry.”