Product category:
Infrastructure and CAD Software
News Release from: Desktop Engineering | Subject: Integrated IT
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 26 July 2006
Construction IT rethink after report
A report by Sir John Egan prompted change in the UK as well as at Gehry Architects where integrated IT has paid dividends.
When Sir John Egan presented to the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in July 1998, his report "Rethinking Construction", the result of a DTI initiative to review the quality and efficiency in the UK construction industry, he started a revolution in attitude and motivation for change Too often the performance of the industry was unreliable; projects run neither to time nor budget and too much effort and resource was invested in making good defects, premature repair and replacement and in litigation
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 26 Jul 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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The central message of "Rethinking Construction" was that through the application of best practices, the industry and its clients can collectively act to improve their performance.
Targets Sir John suggested included annual improvements of 10% in capital cost and construction time, and 20% reduction in defects.
One of the 5 keys drivers of change to deliver this was identified as "integrated processes and supply teams".
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This starts from the design and goes through the whole supply and construction activity.
As an example of the disparate design and supply chain, a leading contractor has seen important design information being created and recreated up to 7 seven times for any single building.
All these lead to opportunity for error.
One firm of architects in Los Angeles saw these issues a decade ago - Frank O Gehry Architects.
Gehry's took theses similar issues they saw in the US and developed design and building procedures to give them control over the whole process.
They took an idea accepted in industries such as automotive and aerospace, wherein a single 3 dimensional model is created electronically in a computer software program to form the core definition of their building.
This is then controlled and distributed to all involved in the supply chain, allowing subcontractors to fully understand the architects design intent, to then design and supply their contribution.
On site, in construction, parts delivered from this fragmented supply chain were then delivered, designed correctly and fitted with parts from other contractors.
Using such methods, in a similar fragmented supply chain, the automotive industry has been able to reduce the development cycle for a new car from 8 years down to as low a 2 years.
Gehry's found through developing the similar approach they delivered all their buildings on time, in budget and with savings of up to 30% in error correction.
The core software solution they chose to deliver this 3D Master Model Process was Catia, developed by Dassault Systemes and marketed by IBM.
Landmark buildings designed and built using this process are the Guggenheim in Bilbao, perhaps one of the most well known buildings of recent years and latterly the new concert hall in Los Angeles for the LA Philharmonic - the Disney Concert Hall.
Gehry's have now refined and proven their techniques and have now taken the bold step to go out and offer this technology and knowledge to other architects and construction companies.
However, in order to address this world wide market they saw the need to develop partnerships in the main markets of the industry.
One such key market, with an open attitude and desire for change is the UK.
In London there are some world leading architects, together with adventurous and sophisticated construction and contractors.
Around this time CenitDesktop a leading business partner for IBM, marketing Catia in predominantly automotive an aerospace suppliers was making early market research into the sector.
CenitDesktop saw immediately the benefits of creating a single digital building model to the architectural and construction markets from its knowledge of working in the auto/aero market.
Through an introduction by Dassault, Gehry's and CenitDesktop have signed a marketing partnership to jointly develop the UK - Gehry's providing the design and build process knowledge and CenitDesktop the Catia software, IT infrastructure and local support.
Commenting on this agreement Geoff Haines, Managing Director of CenitDesktop said "Given the need within the AEC market to improve their design and build process I can see real opportunity for us to take this sector and move it to a new level of collaboration and efficiency.
Gehry's have proved this and it's a knock out combination!" Jim Glymph, CEO of Gehry's agrees "We've done this integrated design build process for many years and can vouch it works and delivers value.
CenitDesktop's enthusiasm in taking this forward jointly in the UK has given us a great step forward to get our fellow architects and contractors to consider how and what they do to improve design build activity". Request a free brochure from Desktop Engineering ...
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