A Building is the by-product of the drawing process!
Have you ever observed a back-to-frontness of the AEC industry that made you re-evaluate your thinking on processes? The following statement is logical enough:
Any building-creation process has the building as the end product.
Throughout the process numerous drawings/reports/specifications are produced. Logically, these should be considered to be by-products.
Apart from the physical manifestations of the drawings/reports/specifications there are also ‘truckloads’ of digital data used and reused or discarded and recreated throughout the process.
Beyond the unique purpose of addressing different technical tasks these pieces of information have one quality that is common to most:
They are fragile, delicate. Liable to perish, subject to destruction and quick decay or spoilage.
Normally industries that use/rely on highly perishable goods have sophisticated systems in place to account for risks, both by prevention and insurance.
Not so the AEC. Here, perishable data is often neglected and treated with contempt;
Why? Is this due to ignorance or arrogance?
Or is it because in this process, the main products ARE the drawings/reports/specifications and both the Building (gasp!) and the mass of information related to the projects are just by-products.
In this case incidental products derived from the process of creating the drawings/specs/reports, the building may be marketable but the information is considered waste.
This observable (and quantifiable) phenomenon is totally in conflict with almost any other area of our life.