A shortage of skilled labour and a lack of young talent are by no means a new phenomenon in the construction industry. However, the situation will worsen in the coming years as the baby boomers retire. While the demand for construction services will actually increase in the future, the number of workers is falling rapidly. More work, but fewer workers: the construction industry is facing a major challenge.
Forecast to 2040: the shortage of skilled labour in figures
The Swiss Federation of Master Builders (SBV) has commissioned a study from the independent Demographics Competence Centre to shed light on the development of the shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry up to 2040.
The result: while the demand for skilled workers will increase by around 6 per cent by 2040 due to growing turnover, the number of available workers will fall significantly.
In concrete terms, this means
In 2025, there will already be a shortage of 6.6 per cent of the required skilled workers
In 2030, the gap will increase to 11.3 per cent
By 2040, there will be a shortfall of 16.6 per cent - meaning that one in six jobs will remain unfilled
A shortfall of 8 per cent is expected for construction foremen as early as 2025, rising to 14 per cent by 2030. The trend is most drastic for master builders: According to the forecast, a full 29 per cent of the required skilled workers will be missing here by 2040.
More tasks, less time: why automation is a solution
The figures speak for themselves: there is a lot of work - but not enough people to do it. And this is exactly where we want to start: Especially in times of a shortage of skilled labour, efficient and reliable resource and capacity planning is essential. However, it is precisely this planning that is currently mostly carried out by experienced specialists who are increasingly working at full capacity.
Our answer to this: AI-supported resource planning. It takes the routine part out of resource planning - freeing up time for the really important decisions and core tasks.
In this interview, our developers Akshay and Christian explain how our new AI-supported deployment plans work and what advantages they offer!
Akshay and Christian, you were at the forefront of developing our AI. Give us a little insight into the benefits it has for our customers.
Akshay: With pleasure. The main task of the AI is to automate the scheduling process - and thus significantly reduce the planning effort for our customers.
Christian: When we started the project, we realised that scheduling often takes a lot of time - even though a lot of it is routine work. So we asked ourselves: Can't this be automated? Our answer was yes! And that's exactly what we worked on.
What does this look like in Vanillaplan? Do you click on a button and then the software creates the planning automatically?
Akshay: Yes, exactly. There is an AI button and when the user clicks on it, the scheduling is carried out automatically. Various suggestions are displayed, from which the best solution can be selected. And if the result is not right, you can have the planning recalculated.
Cool! Is it possible to customise the AI's suggestion? Or is the planning then fixed?
Christian: Absolutely not, you can make changes at any time. In fact, that's the central idea behind it: No AI can deliver perfect planning. That's why the aim is to automate a large part of the planning - namely the simple allocations - so that the user can concentrate on the really interesting and complex parts.
How far into the future can AI calculate deployment planning?
Akshay: Very far! The system is designed so that it can be used for different time periods. By default, it usually plans for a week, but it can also plan for a fortnight or even a month, depending on your needs. It can therefore be used for both short-term and long-term planning.
Is there anything else you would like to add to this project?
Christian: I think it's important to emphasise that it's not about the AI simply taking over the planner's decisions and the user having to blindly accept them. It is a supporting tool that offers various options that can be selected and customised. This means that in the end, the user is still the one in control.
Are there already customers who have tested AI-supported scheduling?
Akshay: Yes, our pilot customer has tested AI-supported shift planning - and the feedback was consistently positive: existing shifts and available capacities were reliably taken into account - and in special cases it was very easy to make manual adjustments. The speed and simplicity of the planning process was particularly praised.
Another important point also came up in the feedback - namely when certain employees want to work together and are to be scheduled jointly on a construction site. Such team constellations are now also taken into account.
Thank you very much for the exciting interview!
You can find out more about our new AI-supported schedules here.
