This says that the building industry supply chain is appallingly poor typified by "islands of electronic information" where the only communication between the islands is by paper.  What we mean by this is the process generally starts in an electronic format, e.g. a CAD design and an MS Word specification, but the builder mostly gets the information they need by reading it off paper then enters it into their costing system.  The builder also gives paper to their suppliers, like frame and truss plants, who enter the information into their systems.  This manual recreation of the original plan is time consuming and introduces plenty of opportunities for human error to occur.

The later the change in a project, the higher the cost.  The largely hidden impact, beyond the sheer waste from mistakes, is the ability for the designer and owner to impact on the design of their building.  By reducing the cycle time of the analyse, design, and verify process it is possible to understand the impact of design changes on cost and utility before becoming too committed to a particular path.  This is demonstrated in the "MacLeamy Curve" created by Patrick MacLeamy, CEO, Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum

1 Cost Analysis of Inadequate Interoperability in the U.S. Capital Facilities Industry

Michael P. Gallaher, Alan C. O'Connor, John L. Dettbarn, Jr., and Linda T. Gilday