AEC – Best Value & Operational Excellence

AEC  – Best Value & Operational Excellence

 

As an Owner, Architect, Engineer, Contractor, Building User, or Oversight Group, you can strive for BEST VALUE, OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE, and TRANSPARENCY or maintain ‘status quo’, it’s your choice.

Presuming you want to improve productivity and provide the best possible return on resource expenditure, the first step is to improve your awareness, knowledge, and competency relative to physical asset life-cycle management.

Stop attempting to address problems with TECHNOLOGY, as all you will do is compound existing problems.  Focus upon improving physical asset management competencies, especially the deployment COLLABORATIVE CONSTRUCTION DELIVERY METHODS.

The single most important consideration when attempting to improve quality, delivery times, and lowering expenditures is the CONSTRUCTION DELIVERY METHOD.

It is the CONSTRUCTION DELIVERY METHOD that sets defines roles, responsibilities, levels of risk, business processes and workflows, information standards, timelines, transparency, and collaboration.

It is the CONSTRUCTION DELIVERY METHOD that sets the overall tone for renovation, repair, maintenance, or new construction projects and determines ultimate success or failure more so than any other single element.

Collaborative construction delivery methods have been implemented for decades are a proven to delivery in excess of 90% of projects on-time, on-budget, and to the satisfaction of all participants.  The most notable processes are Integrated Project Delivery, IPD, for major new construction, and Job Order Contracting, JOC for renovation, repair, and minor new construction.

Real property owners must become more knowledgeable in these areas and require collaborative construction delivery methods.   As note, technology, such as 3D BIM, will not solve the woes of the AEC and Facilities Management sectors.  The solution is change-management and improving competency.

Characteristics of LEAN Collaborative Construction Delivery Methods

  • Best Value Procurement
  • Early and Ongoing Collaboration
  • Shared Risk/Reward
  • Common Terms, Definitions, and Data Architectures
  • Financial Transparency
  • Mutual Trust and Respects
  • Focus Upon Outcomes
  • Continuous Improvement, Education, and Training
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Job Order Contracting

Asset Comptency ModelOpenJOC Detailed Process Diagram

Job order contacting relationship modeljob order contracting value-based

 

Standards for Building Economics

Subcommittee E06.81 on Building Economics

ACTIVE standards under the jurisdiction of E06.81    

E833-14 Standard Terminology of Building Economics

E917-15 Standard Practice for Measuring Life-Cycle Costs of Buildings and Building Systems

E964-15 Standard Practice for Measuring Benefit-to-Cost and Savings-to-Investment Ratios for Buildings and Building Systems

E1057-15 Standard Practice for Measuring Internal Rate of Return and Adjusted Internal Rate of Return for Investments in Buildings and Building Systems

E1074-15 Standard Practice for Measuring Net Benefits and Net Savings for Investments in Buildings and Building Systems

E1121-15 Standard Practice for Measuring Payback for Investments in Buildings and Building Systems

E1185-15 Standard Guide for Selecting Economic Methods for Evaluating Investments in Buildings and Building Systems

E1369-15 Standard Guide for Selecting Techniques for Treating Uncertainty and Risk in the Economic Evaluation of Buildings and Building Systems

E1557-09(2015) Standard Classification for Building Elements and Related Sitework—UNIFORMAT II

E1699-14 Standard Practice for Performing Value Engineering (VE)/Value Analysis (VA) of Projects, Products and Processes

E1765-16 Standard Practice for Applying Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Multiattribute Decision Analysis of Investments Related to Projects, Products, and Processes

See also WK50280 proposed revisionE1804-12 Standard Practice for Performing and Reporting Cost Analysis During the Design Phase of a Project

See also WK54596 proposed revisionE1946-12 Standard Practice for Measuring Cost Risk of Buildings and Building Systems and Other Constructed Projects

See also WK54599 proposed revisionE2013-12 Standard Practice for Constructing FAST Diagrams and Performing Function Analysis During Value Analysis Study

E2083-05(2016) Standard Classification for Building Construction Field Requirements, and Office Overhead & Profit

E2103/E2103M-13 Standard Classification for Bridge Elements—UNIFORMAT II

E2150-13 Standard Classification for Life-Cycle Environmental Work Elements—Environmental Cost Element Structure

E2166-12 Standard Practice for Organizing and Managing Building Data

See also WK54600 proposed revisionE2168-10(2016) Standard Classification for Allowance, Contingency, and Reserve Sums in Building Construction Estimating

E2204-15 Standard Guide for Summarizing the Economic Impacts of Building-Related Projects

E2506-15 Standard Guide for Developing a Cost-Effective Risk Mitigation Plan for New and Existing Constructed Facilities

E2514-15 Standard Practice for Presentation Format of Elemental Cost Estimates, Summaries, and Analyses

E2516-11 Standard Classification for Cost Estimate Classification System

E2620-15 Standard Classification for Program and Project Estimate Summaries

E2637-13 Standard Guide for Utilizing the Environmental Cost Element Structure Presented by Classification E2150

E2691-16 Standard Practice for Job Productivity Measurement

See also WK51496 proposed revisionE3035-15 Standard Classification for Facility Asset Component Tracking System (FACTS)

Showing results 1-3 of 3 matching Proposed New Standards under the jurisdiction of E06.81     E06 Home

WK35212 New Classification for Highway Transportation Elements and Related Sitework UNIFORMAT II

WK54380 Proactive Management of Project Cost

WK48130 New Classification for Sitework – UNIFORMAT II

 

http://www.jobordercontracting.org

LEAN Construction Delivery Process

Job Order Contracting - LEAN Construction Delivery

LEAN CONSTRUCTION DELIVERY

If you consider BIM to be the solution to low construction productivity, think again.

3D visualization and technology will do little to solve construction project delivery woes.

The root of the decades long decline in construction productivity and associated poor facility management practices is cultural.

Construction is like any other relatively complex manufacturing process.  It requires a focus upon best management practices, education and training, key performance indicators, and continuous improvement, in short, LEAN business process application.

Reducing end product variability, cycle-times, waste, and cost is not rocket science.  There are multiple proven LEAN construction delivery methods and life-cycle / total cost-of-ownership models available.  Owners must drive their accelerated adoption.
The most widely used and successful LEAN construction delivery methods are Integrated Project Delivery, IPD, for major new construction, and Job Order Contracting, JOC, for renovation, repair, maintenance, sustainability, and minor new construction.  When deployed and managed properly by Owners, on-time, on-budget, quality construction is the norm versus the exception.

Characteristics of LEAN Construction Delivery

  • Collaboration
  • Mutual Respect & Trust
  • Financial Transparency
  • Owner Leadership without excessive management & control
  • Shared Risk/Reward
  • Best Value Procurement
  • Common Standard Terms, Definitions, & Data Architectures (UNIFORMAT, MASTERFORMAT, OMNICLASS)
  • Continuous Education, Training, & Improvement
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) / Auditsjob order contract key performance indicators
  • Written Execution / Operations Manuals (Roles, Responsibilities, Deliverables, Workflows / Standardized Work Processes, Reporting Requirements…)

2015 optimized facility renovation and repair

standardized cost datajob order contract key performance indicators

WWW.JOBORDERCONTRACTING.ORGbim, building information management for FM

BIM / BLM Ontology – Building Information Modeling / Built-environment Life-cycle Management – 2014

Ontology was originally reserved as a philosophical exercise dealing with categorization, analysis, and inter-relationships.  Ontology is now a rapidly evolving science in response to increasing complex information systems and/or “big data”.

Specific to the built-environment life-cycle management BLM / BIM, ontology is a fundamental requirement as it’s needed to establish robust, coherent, and consistent representations of ever-changing information.  This information comes from a variety of competencies, processes, and technologies and must be aggregated and harmonized to enabling enhanced decision-support mechanisms and overall improvement in resources allocation.

“Formal ontology now spans conceptual modeling, database design, software engineering, organizational modeling, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, the life sciences, bioinformatics, geographic  information science, knowledge engineering, information retrieval, and  the semantic web.”

 

Common methods support comparable outputs!

Image

 

Sustainability of DOD Buildings – Reuse of Existing Buildings

Reusing existing buildings achieves a 15%+ higher return on investment and 20% reduction in greenhouse gases.   It is less  costly and more sustainable to reuse existing buildings.

With 345,000 buildings, with over 105,000 buildings more than 50 years old, the importance of efficient renovation, repair, and sustainability of existing buildings is paramount.

DoD Building Treatment Terms
•“Adaptive reuse & rehabilitation” are terms of art outside DoD
•The DoD term for “major rehabilitation” is “modernization”
•Modernization means: “the alteration or replacement of facilities solely to implement new or higher standards to accommodate new functions or to replace a building component that typically lasts more than 50 years.”
•This study compares the costs and GHG of modernization with new construction

Sustainment/Status Quo
•Formulated for measuring baseline energy consumption
Demolition and New Construction
•LEED Silver certifiable construction – 2009 LEED for New Construction and Major Renovations
Full Modernization with Strict Application of Historic Preservation Standards (HPS)
•Full modernization with a strict application of Historic Preservation Standards ( HPS) and other DoD facility design standards
•LEED Silver
Full Modernization with Strict Application of AT/FP
•Full rehabilitation/modernization but with strict application of Anti-terrorism/ Force Protection requirements through building hardening, seismic and other DoD facility design standards
•LEED Silver

Applicable design standards include:

  • Whole Building Design
  • UFC 1-200-01 General Building Requirements
  • UFC 4-610-01 Administrative Facilities
  • UFC 1-900-01 Selection of Methods for the Reduction, Reuse and Recycling of Demolition Waste
  • UFC 3-310-04 Seismic Design for Buildings
  • DoD Minimum Antiterrorism Force Protection Standards for Buildings
  • Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings

Findings

  • DoD’s Pre-War masonry buildings are an underutilized resource for meeting DoD GHG carbon reduction goals
  • ATFP and Progressive Collapse requirements tend to be rigidly and prescriptively applied, raising construction costs and introducing additional Scope 3 GHG emissions
  • Prior modernization treatments result in loss of original energy saving design features in Pre-War Buildings
  • Differences in GHG in alternatives resulted from the amount of new building materials introduced and transportation of demolition debris
  • Cost estimates and construction bid requests should include materials quantities in addition to costs to evaluate and validate GHG impacts.
  • Design professionals with practical experience with archaic building materials and systems are critical to the development of accurate planning level specifications
  • GHG emission tradeoffs of proposed new materials and building options should be evaluated early in the conceptual design process

Recommendations

  • Incorporate life-cycle GHG emissions analysis into DoD MILCON and SRM programs
  • Invest in formulation of carbon calculator system
  • Place more emphasis on existing buildings as viable project alternatives to meet mission requirements
  • Identify characteristic strengths and vulnerabilities by class of building
    Place more emphasis on existing buildings to meet DoD energy reduction goals
  • Avoid modernization treatments that result in loss of original energy saving design features in Pre-War Buildings

Green House Gas - Benefits of Building Re-use vs. New Construction

Efficient project delivery methods are of critical importance to the task of sustainability and life-cycle management of the built environment.   Job Order Contracting ( JOC ), and SABER are proven project delivery methods for renovation, repair, sustainability, and minor new construction.  JOC and SABER are a form of Integrated Project Delivery for existing buildings and infrastructure.

JOC and SABER provide the following advantages to building portfolio Owners:

•Fast and timely delivery of projects.
•Consolidation of procurement – lower overhead cost and procurement cost.
•Contractor and owner efficiencies in prosecution of the work.  Development of a partner relationship based on work performance.
•Virtual elimination of legal disputes, claims and mitigation of change orders.
•Standard pricing and specification utilizing a published unit price book (UPB), typcially RSMeans-based, resulting in efficient and effective estimating, design, and fixed price construction.
A bit more about JOC –
  1. “IPD Lite” for Existing Buildings.
  2. Consolidates procurement to shorten Project Timelines and reduce procurement costs.
  3. Transparency of pricing and procurement compliance through Unit Price Book.  Owner creates internal estimating (IGE)
  4. Long Term Facility Relationship increases productivity and enables reiterative process improvements.
  5. Quality and performance incentivized through IDIQ form of contract with minimal guarantee and clear maximum volume.

Traditional Project Delivery vs. Integrated Project Delivery

via.www.4Clicks.com – Premier cost estimating and efficient project delivery software and services for JOC, SABER, SATOC, IDIQ, MATOC, MACC, POCA, and BOA.  Featurings:

  • Exclusive 400,000 line item enhancement of RSMeans Cost Data
  • Automated Technical Evaluations
  • Contract, Project, Estimating, Document Management
  • Visual Estimating

TCO - Green House Gas

Legal and Policy Framework
•National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 ( Amended)
•Energy Policy Act of 2005
•Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
•Executive Order 13423: Federal Environment, Energy, and Transportation Management (2007)
•Executive Order 13514: Federal Leadership in Environment, Energy, Economic Performance (2009)

The Business Value of BIM in North America 2007 – 2012

The Emperor is still naked!

Is the trend analysis of the Business Value of BIM in North America from 2007 through 2012  reality, or are many of us walking around with rose colored glasses?

I ask you, do you really believe the following statement ” Now in 2012, 71% of architects, engineers, contractors, and owners report they have become engaged with BIM on their projects …”.    If you define BIM as the life-cycle management of the built environment supported by digital technology, I can tell you that either the survey is flawed… a lot of people don’t know what BIM is… or we have a lot of folks inflating the truth.   There is NO WAY 71% of ANY of the groups are “engaged with BIM on their projects”…period, end of story.

Playing with Statistics?   The 71% average appears to have been calculated by taking a simple average of the “adoption rate” from architects, engineers, and contractors” from three size classes of firms “small, medium, and large”.   If I am correct, this is just plan WRONG.   Most firms in the U.S. are small business, thus a weighted average must be applied.   The “adoption rate” for small firms 50%… a number I also believe to be inaccurate.

I just came back from the NIBS Conference.   This is without question, the most valuable, authoritative meeting relative to BIM in the United States.  How many people were there you might ask?   A few hundred at most.

So, what does any of this matter?   Simple really.   Until our industry stops the hype and focus on important issues relative to BIM, we will continue to be mired in inaction.   The AECOO is the most unproductive business sector and also has the lowest rate of technology adoption.  These are facts….   if one wishes to be interested in facts that is.

Here some thoughts as to where emphasis must be placed:

  1. Greater adoption and use of collaborative construction delivery methods:  IPD – Integrated Project Delivery, and JOC – Job Order Contracting.  The later is a form of IPD specifically targeting renovation, repair, sustainability, and minor new construction projects.   Let’s face it, 80% or more of all funding for the built environment will be going in renovation, repair, and sustainability.
  2. Emphasis on business process, strategy, and standardized terms, metrics, and data architecture vs. technology.   Technology is NOT the problem, is the lack of clear, robust business strategy and processes, and domain knowledge… largely on the part of Owners that is the primary obstacle to progressive change.   Owners write the checks, they are “where the buck stops”.
  3. Focus upon life-cycle costs / total cost of ownership, vs. first costs.
  4. A bit more on data standards….   OMNICLASS, UNIFORMAT, MASTERFORMAT, COie, IFC, et al… all have there roll.  Some will survive, some may not.   The point is that unless we have standardized terms, definitions, detailed reference and actual cost information (localized materials, equipment, and labors), physical and functional condition metrics, etc. etc. etc.    …  we can’t collaborate or improve productivity!
  5. Participation by all stakeholders – Owners, AE’s, Contractors, SubContractors, Building Users, Oversight Groups, Regulatory Bodies, Building Product Manufacturers, Communities, ….

ROI -BIM

 

 

 

 

2013-WSP Group
2013-WSP Group
BIG DATA = BIM
BIG DATA = BIM

NIBS – Building Innovation 2013 Conference

I am writing this from Washington, D.C. while participating in the NIBS Building Innovation 2013 Conference.   The buildingSMART alliance conference is part of this gathering under the title “Integrating BIM: Moving the Industry Forward.”

BIM education and practice requires focus upon process and associated return-on-investment.   Robust communication and adoption of standard and/or “best practice” construction planning and delivery methods specific to efficient life-cycle management of the built environment are sorely needed.

It is amazing that Integrated Project Delivery – IPD, and “IPD-lite”… the latter being Job Order Contracting and SABER which are forms of IPD specifically for renovation, repair, sustainability and minor new construction…  are not being brought to the forefront as critical aspects of BIM.    It is the construction planning and project delivery method that sets the tone of any project and ultimately dictate relationships and associated successes or failures.

Collaboration, transparency, and performance-based win-win relationships are necessary components of a BIM-based philosophy.  Yet, these and other critical aspects; including  defensible, accurate, and transparent cost estimating and standardized construction cost data architectures, are neither in  forefront of current thinking nor receiving an adequate allocation of resources.

 

Far too much emphasis continues to be place on the 3d visualization component aspect of BIM, IFC format pros and cons, and other “technology” areas.

 

Technology is NOT what is holding back BIM, it is the apparent lack of understanding of … and associated failure to adopt … facility life-cycle management processes… combined and what can only be described as a pervasive “not invented here” attitude.

Many of of our peers are reinventing the wheel over and over again at tremendous cost to all stakeholders…Owners, AEs, Contractors, Subs, Oversight Groups, Building Users, Building Product Manufacturers, …not to mention our Economy and our Environment, vs. sharing information and working toward common goals.

Cloud Computing, Construction, Engineering, Architecture and Productivity

Cloud computing is a more than catalyst for change, it is a DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY.  Cloud computing will drive significantly enhanced productivity within the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Facility Management Sectors by enabling the consistent deployment of integrated project delivery methods.   Owners, Contractors, Architects, Engineers and stakeholders of the built environment will benefit if they focus upon CHANGE MANAGEMENT and how to best leverage cloud computing.

  1. Collaboration – True cloud computing (vs. cloud-washing, or simply posting legacy application to the cloud) lets users  work concurrently on projects in real-time (milliseconds)… virtually anyone, anywhere, anytime.  Multi-language and mult-currency, etc. can easily be implemented.
  2. Security – Information is NEVER deleted.  This is potentially the best form of security available.   “Who” does “What” and “When” is always tracked and changes can be “rolled back” at any time by authorized administrators.  Furthermore, only changes are transmitted vs. full data sets and even these are encrypted.
  3. IP Protection – Despite all the “hype” to the contrary, it is YOU, the user who determines how, when, and where to publish data.   For example, you can maintain information in your private area, publish as read only to specified members within a private cloud…or publish to all members in a private cloud, or publish information to all members in public cloud and enable rights to use and modify data.
  4. Visualization –  Despite the pervasive misunderstanding of BIM and unfortunate focus upon 3D visualization, DATA visualization and the associated development and implementation of the colloborative life-cycle management of built environment are the benefits provided by BIM.  Cloud computing will accelerate data visualization and transparency among all stakeholders of physical infrastructure and promote performance-based processes.
  5. Agility – Our work and natural environments are changing at an accelerated pace.  Rapid deployment, monitoring,  and the associated modification of processes and policies is becoming increasingly important.  Cloud computing deploys process faster than any other method currently available.   There is no longer a need to rely upon internal “IT” for deployment or applications specific changes.
  6. Mobility – It is neither cost effective, nor efficient to have everyone working in offices or specified work settings.  Resources need to be tapped from multiple locations enabling use of “the best of the best”, and resources with localized resources and/or capabilities.   Cloud computing allows direct, transparent access to local resources while also communicating centralized processes and procedures.
  7. Centralization of Information – While information can be scattered among several data centers, it also can be instantly consolidated to provide global management in support of an organization’s mission as well as associated, efficient local action.
  8. Business Continuity – True, Internet access is required, however, would you rather store your information at your location and risk catastrophic failure, or have your information at multiple locations designed with redundancy, power backup, etc.?

BIG DATA and EFFICIENT CONSTRUCTION METHODS (Integrated Project Delivery, Job Order Contracting), CLOUD COMPUTING, and BIM are here to stay, are you ready?

via http://www.4Clicks.com – Premier cost estimating and efficient project delivery software for JOC, SABER, IDIQ, SATOC, MATOC, MACC, POCA, BOA, …

Roadmap
Roadmap
BIG DATA
BIG DATA

BIM Strategy and Change Management II

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is the life-cycle management of the built environment supported by digital technologies.  As such it is a process of collaboration, continuous improvement, transparency, and integration.   3D distractions aside,  achieving optimal return-on-investment (ROI) on BIM requires focus upon change management, first and foremost.  Ad-hoc business practices, traditional construction delivery methods, and legacy software must be cast aside.

BIM is managing information to improve understanding. BIM is not CAD. BIM is not 3D. BIM is not application oriented. BIM maximizes the creation of value. Up, down, and across the built environment value network. In the traditional process, you lose information as you move from phase to phase. You make decisions when information becomes available, not necessarily at the optimal time.  BIM is not a single building model or a single database. Vendors may tell you that everything has to be in a single model to be BIM. It is not true. They would be more accurate describing BIM as a series of interconnected models and databases. These models can take many forms while maintaining relationships and allowing information to be extracted and shared. The single model or single database description is one of the major confusions about BIM.(http://4sitesystems.com/iofthestorm/books/makers-of-the-environment/book-3/curriculum-built-world/categories/introductionbim-integration/)

The principles of BIM:

  • Life-cycle management: Process-centric , longer term planning  and technologies that consider total cost of ownership, support decision making with current, accurate information,  and link disparate knowledge domains and technologies.
  • Collaborative Delivery Processes:  Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) procurement and construction delivery processes that consider and combine the knowledge and capabilities of all stake holders – Owners, AEs, Contractors, Business Product Manufacturers, Oversight Groups, Service Providers, and the Community.  (i.e.  IPD, Job Order Contracting/JOC)
  • Standards and Guidelines:  Common glossary of terms, metrics, and benchmarks that enable efficient, accurate communication on an “apples to applies” basis.
  • Collaborative, Open Technologies and Tools:   Cloud-based systems architectures that enable rapid, scalable development, unlimited scalability on demand, security, real-time collaboration, and an full audit trail.

(Johnson et al. 2002) – There is an interrelationship between business goals, work processes, and the adoption of information technology. That is, changes in business goals generally require revising work processes which can be enhanced further by the introduction of information technology. But we also recognized that innovations in information technology creates possibilities for new work processes that can, in turn, alter business goals  In order to understand how information technology influences architectural practice it is important to understand all three of these interrelated elements.
Business Goals…   Work processes  ….   Information  technology
require/create               require/create                    require/create

(Via http://www.4Clicks.com – Premier cost estimating and efficient construction project delivery – JOC, SABER, IDIQ, SATOC, MATOC, MACC, BOCA, BOA.  Exclusively enhanced 400,000 RSMeans Cost Database with full descriptions and modifiers.)

Sustainability –  “to create and maintain conditions, under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations.”  – US Executive Order 13423

Ceasel – Patents Pending

BIM Framework