OS2 is Operating System 2, which is the first true wholesale change for North American top tier construction users and construction management regarding bidding & securing those bids along with operations.
CURT (Construction Users Roundtable) and CII (Construction Industry Institute) have formed Prairie Dog.
Prairie Dog’s mission is to implement OS2 for all construction related activities for everyday use ASAP. This new operating system is being beta tested now on construction sites to work the kinks out. Given when and where OS2 started, ASAP is apropos – it is NOW!
Biden cannot help the BT once OS2 is up and running. A great pro-labor NLRB will also not help the trades. Massive amounts of long overdue infrastructure will not only not help the trades, but it will also actually work against the trades because it will prime the pump of deal flows to get to maximum effectiveness of OS2 ASAP!
The new OS2 system eliminates the entire current structure of how construction jobs are bid and constructed today. ELIMINATES, another apropos term for this impending transition. OS2 is NOT to be confused with something like Lean IPD, which attempts to fix the existing framework of junk that construction management uses now. That is akin to putting a turbo engine in a Pinto – it still is a Pinto! Plan the work and work the plan pyramid style of construction management (left side of picture above) has never worked, although management has gotten away with it until now.
So, what has changed? Construction is ripe for disruptors to swoop in and revamp the entire industry. Also, the markets hate the returns, or lack thereof, of construction companies. When Snapchat has a valuation of 3x that of Fluor Construction, the largest construction firm in the world – that is a big deal!
OS2 uses a “flat,” “thin” or “blockchain” format for bidding & operations (see the right side of the picture above). ALL those operations will be done in approximately 2 – 3 DAYS! The old pyramid style (left side of picture) takes approximately 3 to 14 months minimum and a huge number of meetings to complete. You may want to take note of the huge difference between today’s transactional costs of approximately 40% and those in the near future with blockchain via OS2 at approximately 4%. Rank & File workers will be confronted with the effects of OS2 soon, learning the fuller meaning of modularization and even miniaturization – plug & play to the max! As a result, R&F will see dramatic reductions in hours to do a job or work an outage, etc.
One of the many goals of OS2, per Prairie Dog, is the reduction of more than half of ALL field labor and the hours needed for that work. And for the bulk of work not eliminated by OS2, most will be done with semi-skilled labor.
So, those posts about skill shortages and the need for more trade schools with catchy phrases like “high performance trades” will diminish to next to nothing according to the stated goals for what OS2 can deliver. Value on Display has ignored the reality of OS2. VOD has been a loser from day 1 and in the upcoming environment of OS2 it will exacerbate this losing proposition. Think about it – who do you sell to with a 2 – 3-day blockchain platform?
As for the senior international leaders – they know about this and the pending reality of its impact on the viability of BT unions, particularly with regard to the impact on hours and pensions.
Included in the current $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill is multiemployer pension “relief” in the form of grants (bailouts) from the Treasury Department. With the implementation of OS2 and the sheer reduction in hours going forward, this will place even solid pension plans in underfunded status soon. And treasury grants will last only as long as the D’s have control of all 3 chambers of government. Real leaders who understand this bailout is a short-term “fix”, and also are coming up to speed about what OS2 means to the trades, know that pensions can move to a cash balance pension plan – as in now! This is not a flippant comment – it is reality!
It is highly unlikely that management will be a party to a defined benefit going forward on jobs in the era of OS2!
Are our senior leaders really this clueless on the direction created by OS2 when we are facing a modern-day Titanic?
Labor Rising has been instructing on this inevitable development for nearly 12 years, which is why our curriculum focuses on going after the wallet of the top tier construction users & managers and dealing ourselves in. From day 1, Labor Rising has instructed to go after clients, credit, and social footprint (perception) of construction’s senior decision makers. Top senior BT leaders have fought this Labor Rising strategy and likely will be the generation of BT leaders who go down without a fight – a sideshow to the history of labor in the Building Trades. With the help of super smart people, Labor Rising has been working to dig behind the scenes of specifically how deep OS2 will deliver. Right now, it looks awfully bad. Think of that 1,000-bed hospital in China build in approx. 10 days type of construction delivery.
By comparison, every other modern sector of known commerce in North America is using OS3 & OS4!
This is a primer. We continue to conduct in-depth research and specifics of our findings will follow soon with real world solutions. In the meantime, here is some homework for true leaders: Look up Prairie Dog and learn what exactly it is doing and who Data Gumbo Corporation is.
“if you see a good fight, get in it – hope it isn’t too late!”
Danny L Caliendo
Organizer
Labor Rising
