The inevitability of change
In the sphere of demolition and construction, change is the only constant.
There was, I am sure, a board meeting at the Hymac headquarters in the 1980s during which the company’s directors congratulated themselves on another year of success and looked ahead to more of the same. By 1993, Hymac had gone the way of the dodo.
There was likely a time when manufacturers of motor scrapers could see no end in sight to their global domination of the muckshifting space. Aside from a recent semi-resurgence, scrapers are now about as current as flared trousers and glam rock.
In much the same way, I am sure that diesel engine manufacturers the world over were projecting production and profits that stretched to the horizon and beyond. The sun hasn’t yet set on diesel engine manufacture and supply; but it’s certainly setting. We are in the dusk of diesel.
All of which goes to prove that the passage of time has a nasty habit of making preconceptions look foolish.
Before we go on, let me tell you a very quick story.
In 2007, I was invited back to be the guest editor of Plant Managers Journal, the magazine I had left in 1990. It was supposed to be a one-off issue, but I ended up staying for six months.
During that time, the publishers asked how I might improve their magazine. I told them they needed to publish online and embrace video. In their infinite wisdom, they decided that the Internet was a flash in the pan and that online video would never catch on. The Internet subsequently changed the course of popular culture, and online video is now a multi-billion-dollar business and, for many, a primary source of information and entertainment.
I’d love to tell them “I told you so.” But the magazine, and the people who made it happen, are all long gone.
Ours is an industry built upon shifting sands. It doesn’t seem that long ago that all the major civil engineering firms had their own massive plant fleets and employed hundreds of men to operate their machines. It doesn’t seem that long ago when familiar names like Akerman, Ruston Bucyrus, Hymac, Drott, and Priestman were part of everyday conversation, rather than nostalgic memories of a time gone by.
We work in an industry in which change is the only constant. That change is not always welcome. Despite the sector’s dynamism, it remains fundamentally conservative in nature. But like it or not, and in the words of Sam Cooke, “A change is gonna come.” To suggest otherwise is merely to tempt fate.
We can all sit here and insist that rumours of diesel’s demise are greatly exaggerated and that it will remain our primary fuel source for years to come. That might be right. But its days are numbered. Let me put it like this: if I were buying shares right now, I’d be backing those in the electrification space, not the diesel engine industry.
Similarly, we can each insist that remotely controlled and autonomous equipment are the stuff of science fiction; that they will never replicate the creativity and “feel” of a human operator. All of that may be true. But there are forces far greater than human “feel” at play here. Robotics revolutionised the manufacturing industry, making it safer, more productive, and significantly more profitable. That revolution will be replicated in demolition and construction. To deny it is to play King Canute, ordering the waves to retreat.
Before you dismiss this article, think about the changes we’ve seen in less than the span of a career. When I first set foot on a demolition site, most firms had a crawler crane and a wrecking ball; not as museum curiosities, but as key parts of their equipment arsenal.
There was a time when no self-respecting house builder or plant hirer would be without a backhoe loader. Backhoes are still around. But with each passing year, they become more and more like the Britpop of the plant world; churning out their greatest hits and surviving on former glories.
Change is inevitable. You can dig your heels in as hard as you like. But it’s going to happen.
As Sam Cooke sang so beautifully:
“A change is gonna come. Oh yes, it will.”