The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) held its inaugural Productivity Leadership Summit on 28 November 2016. The summit serves as a platform to engage top industry leaders who have the influence and means to collectively drive and transform the built environment sector. It also reaffirms the government’s commitment to, and push for, productivity improvement.

Held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, the summit focused on the integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) with Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) technologies.

Over 150 participants had an insightful session as three renowned industry practitioners shared their experiences in their productivity journey and filled participants in on the latest updates on local and overseas developments.

BCA CEO Dr John Keung highlighting the importance of integrating DfMA, BIM and VDC in order to achieve greater productivity improvements; and urging the industry to forge strong partnerships to prepare for challenges ahead.

Mr Grant Kelley, CEO of City Developments Limited (CDL), recounting CDL’s experiences in achieving significant productivity milestones, including the CDL Green Gallery and the Brownstone Executive Condominium PPVC projects — among the many firsts in Singapore’s foray into DfMA.

Mr Joseph Yau, Managing Director of DPR Construction, explaining how the use of VDC would lead to even higher productivity when applied to projects adopting prefabricated methods of construction or DfMA.

Mr Khoo Poh Bin, Deputy Managing Director of DCA Architects, providing insights on how the use of BIM and VDC tools can facilitate better collaboration across the value chain, thus minimising chances of error at the construction stage.

Participants also enjoyed an engaging dialogue session with the Guest-of-Honour, Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Mr Desmond Lee. Mr Lee was joined by the three industry practitioners, BCA CEO Dr John Keung, with BCA Board Member Mr Han Fook Kwang as the moderator. The panel discussed the importance of raising productivity at the national level, and touched on common challenges faced in the adoption of DfMA, BIM, and VDC as well as solutions to overcome them. The need to build up manpower capability to support how the sector is changing the way we build was also highlighted.

Guest-of-Honour SMS Desmond Lee (third from right) leading the dialogue session. Joining SMS Lee were (from leftmost) Mr Khoo Poh Bin, Dr John Keung, Mr Grant Kelley, Mr Joseph Yau, and Mr Han Fook Kwang.