A Conversation with Surbana Jurong's Eugene Seah
“My lecturer in Poly would say, ‘In order to be a good estimator, your understanding of construction technology must be very good. You must be able to see, like Keanu Reeves, the ones and zeroes in the Matrix all in green.’”
This is how Eugene Seah at Surbana Jurong––Managing Director for Smart City Solutions, Senior Director (Special Projects), and Director, Threesixty Contract Advisory––described the attitude needed to navigate today’s construction projects, which have been getting more complex. More complex building projects accomplish more––in terms of sustainability, utility, and efficiency––but also demand more in terms of safety, logistics, and costs.
This complexity can get all the more straining with post-COVID lifestyles and regulations and can yield hidden risks and costs that bubble up to derail timelines and budget estimates. Walking the tightrope act between cost, quality, and time to still overcome such construction complexity is what Eugene does as one of Singapore’s most experienced Quantity Surveyors (QS), and a uniquely third-generation QS at that.
Geometrid Insights sat down with Eugene for a wide-ranging conversation to understand how to peer into the Matrix: what the ones and zeroes are, how one can view them, and how one can make them work to their advantage.
According to Eugene, Quantity Surveyors are ultimately “one-third accountant, one-third lawyer, and one-third construction manager” and this is the first clue to the sprawling cast of data structures that a construction project generates for scrutiny and analysis: contractual information, construction methodologies adopted, feasibility analyses, budget and cost management information, design consultant drawings, tender specifications, and so on.
There is an overfull, often intimidating, cornucopia of construction project data and it’s easy to either get lost or, arguably worse, get hold of a tenuous data point and go down a rabbit hole that yields no valuable insight into the problem at hand. All the while, new information is being produced in real-time and a QS or estimator now has a pile of data debt to service.
Just like the Matrix.
The key, per Eugene, is to focus on information that will keep “the client king” and solve problems in a collaborative way that “doesn’t ignore the human element” by taking data as the final word or for granted. With a Common Data Environment (CDE) such as Surbana Jurong’s 24K platform, QSs can embed themselves in project teams to gather information and study connections between various stakeholders: from developers to architects and subcontractors to suppliers. This is more easily accomplished if QSs are present from the very beginning stages of the project.
When dropped into a project halfway, Eugene described the fact-finding process as one that can be very slow but enhanced based on what kind of information a QS zeroes in on. Data can be found from contracts, meeting minutes, drawings and designs, certifications (from architects or other consultants), site visits, payment analysis, and understanding issues and disagreements between contractual stakeholders. Having a good CDE that is able to hold this information––and supply chain and tracking software to generate it–is crucial.
Analytics saves money, time, and lives. This sort of capability is open to firms that can harness their construction project data more efficiently
Something Eugene does atop this is to focus on human factors as well that aren’t as easily quantifiable: what the relationship between parties is like, the level of toxicity in such relationships, and the tone of communications and collaboration across the project. Such information is ascertained more by art than science, and involves recognising that “one size doesn’t fit all; my approach and thought process with the architect will differ from with the site engineer.”
Having figured out what the ones and zeroes are and how to uncover them, it’s vital to make that data work for you. “Analytics is becoming very important in construction. I recall visiting Takenaka in Japan and witnessing their computational analysis come up with 10,000 ways of building a project and then they chose the five most effective.” Analytics saves money, time, and lives. This sort of capability is open to firms that can harness their construction project data more efficiently–something that requires better internal processes and more powerful progress tracking tools.
Having these makes a difference. Eugene mentioned what set apart good firms from the bad from the perspective of data mining for QS purposes and problem-solving in general: “CDE, good meeting minutes, documentation, dossiers, and high-level risk management meetings.” Poor data management, conversely, stems from “incomplete drawings, discrepancies between certifications and drawings, and usability issues from inappropriate design.”
But more than just firms making data work for them, so can construction professionals and QSs. “Traditionally, QS was all about costing the building, cost management, and assisting in contract administration. But now new roles have evolved, such as value management, engineering, BIM execution plans and so on. QSs are being brought it at earlier stages of the project.” Value management is worked on with QSs, architects, and engineers and centres on using building economics to arrive at optimal use of resources with minimal budget overruns or subpar value for the project.
To offer these new and value-additive services and aid clients on their construction journey better, Eugene believes QSs need to be more mentally malleable and flexible. They must possess the ability to “think in interdisciplinary terms and incorporate lessons from many different fields to come up with creative solutions for clients.” This must go hand in hand with keeping people at the heart of things and not putting all eggs in the data-driven basket. “It’s important to improve the human resource aspect as well and not just leave it to QSs to fix.”
Construction data management and analytics can appear to be a Matrix for those not well-versed in it, but its benefits are apparent to anyone. Learn more about how Geometrid can help you make your data work for you in a simple and accessible way.