How the Construction Industry does differ from manufacturing?

This paper addresses the “know why ” we build by looking first at the systemic nature, and complexity, that informs the construction industry‟s current paradigm. An objective of this paper is to present how the construction industry‟s reigning paradigm is driven by an obfuscating manufacturing-industrial-engineering mindset. Under the NAICS (North American Industry Classification System of the US Census Bureau), the construction industry is listed in the service sector of the economy under section 23 and is broken down into many categories, such as Buildings (236) and Heavy and Civil (237). Construction is considered a „basic industry‟, like manufacturing, mining, fishing and farming. This industrial classification system implies a scientific-industrial-manufacturing-managing paradigm that is expected to overarch all industries. Latham (1994) and Egan (1998, 2002) have, over the past ten years, challenged the industry to improve its efficiency as well as the quality of its output. Failure by the industry to achieve these efficiencies points to a lack of understanding of the systemic nature of the industry. This paper using the state of the art research on the nature of the industry describes the intrinsic difference between the manufacturing and construction industries and lays the ground for a better understanding of the systemic nature of the industry