“No other construction professional has helped me shape my mental models about construction more than Todd Zabelle. Our sparring sessions over more than the last three decades have allowed me to see the shortcomings of the concepts that shape the management of our projects. They have made me seek better theories that enable project teams to produce high-performing building projects that make them proud and that improve our lives. They have made me a better researcher and teacher of construction. I encourage you to engage with Todd in the eleven sparring sessions the chapters in this book offer to change your mental models so that when it counts you will manage your projects with truly sound production concepts.

We have quickly gotten accustomed to seamless and transparent experiences when booking a trip, when banking online, or when getting from point A to point B. These experiences would not be possible without all elements of production being fully digital and connected. In the construction industry, we can only dream of such a simultaneous increase in customer value and efficiency of delivering this higher value. In fact, this will remain a dream unless we start to build our approach to managing projects on sound production management concepts that connect all elements of production and leverage the detailed production data that is now available from all kinds of sensing devices. Whether you are an owner, designer, or builder, Built to Fail equips you with the knowledge necessary for giving your construction project customers the kind of transparent and seamlessly integrated experience you have come to expect from your other service providers.”

MARTIN FISCHER, PH.D.
Kumagai professor of engineering, Professor of civil and environmental engineering, Stanford University;
Director, Center for Integrated Facility Engineering; Senior fellow, Precourt Institute for Energy


“It is news to no thoughtful person that the construction industry is broken. The challenge is understanding why it doesn’t work so it can be fixed. Todd Zabelle’s new book, Built to Fail, meets that challenge, but be prepared to shed some paradigms. Here are but two examples of Todd’s advice: ‘Get rid of baseline schedules’ and ‘Design is never complete.’”

GLENN BALLARD, PH.D.
Director, Project productions systems laboratory, University of California Berkeley


“Built to Fail is a must-read for anyone investing in digital infrastructure and green energy projects in the future. It is critical information for anyone who wants to survive as a relevant investment option and combat the massive problems plaguing the industry. In Built to Fail , Todd Zabelle lays out a scientific and data-backed approach to deliver projects more efficiently and effectively. These methods are proven to reduce cost, use of cash, time, and risk while improving control of time to market. For owners or anyone in the industry, ignorance is no longer an acceptable excuse, or a luxury you can afford.”

HUNTER NEWBY
Entrepreneur and investor;
Founder, Newby Ventures


“DON’T READ Built to Fail if you are satisfied with how the construction industry is performing. If you are dissatisfied, but are looking to solve the problem by ‘collaborating better’ in doing work in the same old way, don’t read this book. However, if you are interested in learning a proven methodology that focuses on rethinking how construction work gets designed and made, then spend the time to read this book.

For over 25 years, I have witnessed and participated with Todd Zabelle in his efforts to bring operations science to the forefront of planning and executing construction projects. Todd is not an ivory tower theorist; rather a hands- dirty practitioner who has learned his craft by applying operations science to real projects and real work. He also has an unvarnished style that is upfront and refreshing. Todd’s efforts and learning are well documented in this book. He presents a strong case for the industry to embrace project production management as the foundation of rethinking product and process design to improve cost, schedule, quality, and owner-value outcomes.

When you finish the book you may conclude that the remedy is ‘simple’―getting back to basics. While it may be simple, as part of teams that have been working to implement these ideas over the past twenty years, I can assure you that it is not easy. Having the playbook that Todd provides in the book will certainly make it easier for you to chart your path and begin implementing these ideas. And Todd’s candor and sense of humor will keep you smiling along the way. Thanks, Todd, for providing the industry with the benefit of your hard-earned wisdom!”

WILL LICHTIG
Chief of staff, Executive vice president, The Boldt Company

The construction industry is broken, bloated, and stuck in the past. But there is a way to fix it.

The construction industry is as big as it is important. Without construction, our society would cease to be. We would have no ports, roads, or bridges. No communications networks, power grids, or water systems. No hospitals. No schools. No homes.

But we can barely get anything built. Capital works projects are routinely finished late and over budget. Everyone acknowledges the problem, but no one seems to have the vision, or the will, to fix it.

The problem is industry relies too much on outmoded approaches to management and production that arose in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The preoccupation with Taylorist scientific management, project management’s current focus on planning, and administration interfere with the critical work of designing and building, giving way to the bloated, bureaucratic boondoggles that have marred the industry’s reputation.

The solution is an innovative, forward-thinking approach to construction that leverages operations science and utilizes revolutionary advances in digital technology to cut through the red tape and deliver on time and on budget. As Built to Fail shows, this is not mere theory; these ideas are being successfully implemented, providing facility owners and construction professionals who adopt them a competitive advantage and meeting the needs of citizens who depend on those projects to work, live, and thrive. But change is slow, and the people calling the shots―backed by the teeming ranks of administrators, planners, project managers, and others―are unable, or unwilling, to carve a new path forward. As a result, everyone suffers.

It is time to move construction into the twenty-first century. This book is a manifesto for why and a blueprint for how―a call to overcome the status quo and remake an industry on which civilization itself depends.