5 - VCT - Building Production Using Industrial Management Methods.121115000

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Articles, Views, Opinions Building Production Efficiency Varkie C. Thomas, Ph.D., P.E.

College of Architecture 1 Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago

Building Production Efficiency Using Industrial Management Methods1994 Project Proposal - by Varkie C. Thomas, Ph.D., P.E.

INTRODUCTION

Industrial Engineering Management is a branch of engineering management dealing with the

optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development,

improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money,

knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis and synthesis, together with

the principles and methods of engineering design to specify, predict, and evaluate the results

to be obtained from such systems or processes.

In the manufacturing industry the cost of products decreases with time, despite inflation. It

starts with the design of the product. In contrast, the cost of designing and constructing a

building increase each year. The proposal looks at industrial engineering management methods

that can be applied to building design and construction. It requires a single pre-defined

management model of integrated processes of tasks, financing, information, equipment,

materials for design and construction. The model has to be defined at the beginning of each

building project.

In 1992 the Society for Computer Integrated Building Sciences (SCIBS) was established to create

such management models for different types of buildings. Officers included:

President David Childs, President, Skidmore, Owings & MerrillVice-President John F. Hennessy III, Chairman/CEO, Syska & Hennessy

Treasurer Donald L. Wickens, President/CEO, Benham Group

Support Donald E. Ross, Managing Partner, Jaros, Baum & Bolles

Joe Buskuhl, President, HKS Architects

Louis Shaffer, Director, CERL, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

David Hudson, Vice-President, RTKL & Assoc.

Reginald Boudinot, Vice-President, Booz-Allen & Hamilton

Michael Griebel, Vice-President, Henningson, Durham & Richardson

Craig Martin, Vice-President, CRSS Inc.

Kenneth Herold, Corporate Director, Hellmuth, Obata & KassabaumMark Bailey, Manager Building Technologies, USDOE

Earle Kennett, Vice-President, NIBS (NIST)

Steve Selkowitz, Head of Building Technologies, LBNL

Gideon Shavit, Director, Advanced Systems at Honeywell

Tom Mikulina, Vice-President, Trane Company

Jim Hope, Technical Director, ITT Fluid Handling Division

Dennis Miller, Manager, Johnson Controls Research

SCIBS (based on defining data exchange standards) closed down in 1994 because of a new


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organization called International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) came up with a solution for

building industry process integration called Industry Foundation Classes (IFC).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_Foundation_Classes

2. VISION AND RATIONALE

During an interview on CSPAN TV, Dr. Milton Friedman, the Nobel Laureate in

Economics at the University of Chicago was asked to explain his new books cover which

showed him holding a pencil in front of him. The following was Dr. Friedmans explanation

(slightly modified):

The lead for the pencil was mined in South America. The lead industry organizations

and operations on the South American continent were involved in the production and cost of

the pencil. The wood for the pencil came from the timber industry in North America. Theeraser for the pencil came from the rubber industry in the Asian continent. The metal that

holds the eraser and pencil together came from the African continent. The pencil was

manufactured in Europe and distributed to all parts of the world. The cost of each pencil is 5

cents. How is this possible?

In the manufacturing industry automobiles come off the assembly line and are

delivered to customers all over the world at about $15,000 per unit with preset (such as 95%)

product reliability. Individuals working on the manufacturing process can be changed but the

process is fixed and does not change. Transportation, communication, industrial engineering,

automation, robotics, and quality control engineering and management models that areprecisely defined and recorded (on paper so that it can be studied and continuously improved)

enable this to happen.

In the case of large and complex buildings there does exist some sort of standardized

procedural models of segments of the total building process that are recorded in the heads of

professionally specialized senior project engineers and managers and improved continuously

within their heads through their experience on projects. These fragmented procedural models

and information systems cannot be read, studied and improved by research teams. The pieces

are brought together and coordinated uniquely for each building project through a continuous

process of coordination meetings. Pieces of the total process change when individuals on the

project team change.

Coordination meetings within each A-E design discipline (Architectural, Civil, Structural,

Mechanical (HVAC, Plumbing & Fire Protection), Electrical (Power & Lighting) and between A-E

design disciplines occur weekly during the base building design of large projects. A PBS TV

program entitled Skyscraper attempted to describe the building A-E design development

process. It taped some of the project coordination meetings at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

(SOM). It showed how decisions (that appear to be made informally and instantly) at these

meetings start a chain reaction of manufacturing, shipping and other processes around the

world since the cost of waiting for all design plans to be completed is high ("fast track"


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construction is now common).

Building design production is not standardized and documented process. The process

(along with project plans and schedules) is determined independently for each project, during

the project, revised continuously during the project and they are reinvented for future

projects. Unlike manufacturing there are no pre-determined, precise, "canned" methods to

produce buildings as whole and in volume. The buildings need not be identical but they have

to be of the same type as say high-rise offices. In the manufacturing business, say automobiles,

different makes, models & sizes of automobiles can come of the same plant assembly lines.

This is possible because the process (including adjustments for different models) is well

documented

Consider the 3.5 billion-dollar, 12 million square foot Canary Wharf building project in

London, United Kingdom. Conceptual master plans began at SOM-Chicago in the mid 1980s.This project, involving thousands of professionals and hundreds of organizations from around

the world, was completed in the mid 1990s. Each professional and organization knew their

own specialized role through experience, and how they would interact and work with other

professionals and organizations within their own sphere of related activities only.

This informal, non-standardized and largely unrecorded coordination and

communication working infrastructure for developing large and complex buildings evolved over

several decades and was made increasingly reliable and efficient in the US. This was the

technology that enabled the US to dominate the design and construction of large and complex

buildings until the 1990's. The technology to put the whole building life-cycle jigsaw puzzletogether through an undefined and unrecorded automatic chain reaction begins with the

architectural design firm and goes down several professions and organizations until the project

is completed.

The technology of communication and coordination of information took a big leap

forward in the 1990s with the advances in automation (computer hardware, software and

telecommunication) technologies. It is now possible for architects and engineers scattered

around the country (or around the world) to work on the same project simultaneously as if

they were next to each other using the same computer hardware.

Segmented engineering processes (computation and design) are becoming softwareblack boxes with an input and an output and they are continuously increasing in scope and

power. Understanding, defining and standardizing the building development process,

automating the process and applying industrial engineering techniques to improve the process,

will bring the efficiency and reliability of the construction industry closer to that of the

manufacturing industry.

The long-term objective of this project is to study the building development process as

a whole with an emphasis on how pieces of architectural-engineering information come

together through professional and organizational interaction at coordination meetings .


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Information about this science is only accessible to professionals on the project and the AEC

firms that employ them. They cannot justify the cost of making a dedicated effort to record,

study and improve the total process. Research/academic institutions must work with building

project teams in documenting, studying and improving the process.

The application of the automation technologies (artificial intelligence, expert systems,

etc.) that are being developed by research groups must be applied to the building process. It

has to be tested and evaluated on actual building projects.

1. PROJECT SUMMARY

This project will study the life-cycle of large and complex buildings. The long term

objective is to re-structure the building development and operation processes and the

fragmented organizational structure of the building project team, in order to make the bestuse of new and constantly changing supporting technologies in automation and

telecommunications.

The project will treat buildings as manufactured product a unit using industrial

engineering methods when determining the ideal organizational structures, development

processes and management responsibilities required to produce the units efficiently. This

project will recognize the building life-cycle process as an integrated macro science.

Because of the scope, size and complexity of such a venture, this project will emphasize

mechanical and related electrical (M-E) design systems as integrated and interactivecomponents of the Architectural - Engineering (A-E) design phase and then track the M-E

design system through the remaining phases of the building life-cycle.

The scope of this project will include a study of

(1) the creation, structure, management, coordination and communication of

information during the building life-cycle;

(2) inter-professional and inter-organizational responsibilities and interaction during the

development and operation of different types of buildings;

(3) the integrity of the original building model created by the A-E design team through

the remaining phases of the life-cycle process which include equipment (selection and

installation), construction and operation;(4) information feedback from operation (facilities engineering, facilities management

and building automation systems) to the A-E design team;

(5) the application of industrial engineering, quality control and cost control methods

used in manufacturing (volume batch production) to the design and construction of buildings;

(6) the application of innovative automated design and construction methods being

developed currently.

The main products resulting from this research will be educational materials that use

case studies of building projects that present a holistic, inter-professional, inter-disciplinary,


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object-oriented approach to the building sciences. Deliverable products will consist of:

(1) documentation of the M-E systems component of the communication and

coordination life-cycle process model for different types and sizes of building projects;

(2) educational materials for universities that show M-E design as integrated system

and as part of an interdisciplinary and interactive process of A-E design - the way it occurs in

practice.

3. PROJECT JUSTIFICATION

Problem: The Building Industry - Organizational Structure and Professional Specialization

Today's well-established technical and business organizational structure in the building

industry is based on a long history of development and operation without computers.

Architectural-Engineering (A-E) software development continues to cater to this old structureand tend to imitate the manual, pre-computer building processes. Automation is being

tailored to fit a building communication process and an organizational structure that evolved

over centuries and was designed for the non-automated production of buildings.

With today's computer hardware, software, and telecommunication technology, it is

possible to develop a specialized program module that can operate as an integral component

of a larger building development and operating system. This requires standardization of the of

the information exchange interfaces.

Professional specialization, organizational responsibilities, and project developmentprocedures must adapt to these continuous technological changes. Object oriented software

applications that cross traditional professional barriers and organizational responsibilities are

generally considered the most efficient solutions for developing information based building

systems.

To produce the building unit efficiently, the building must be treated as a product unit

first and the ideal organizational structure, professional specialization and development

processes must be determined.

Problem: Communication and Coordination in the Building Industry

The basis for developing efficiently integrated and automated building systems within a

fragmented building industry, is the science of inter-professional and inter-organizational

communication and project coordination. Presently, the communication system for developing

and operating buildings varies not only with locations, types of buildings and economic factors,

but also with the background experiences of the specialized professionals on the project team.

The senior level technical staff of the various types of specialized firms working on large

and complex buildings spend a significant amount of their time at project coordination


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meetings where most of the information exchange and integration processes occur today.

There are no formalized procedures or guidelines for these meetings or for information

recording and retention. Most errors, cost overruns, and liability claims can be attributed to

failures in communication and coordination.

Organizing and classifying building products and systems from an object oriented

perspective and defining data exchange interfaces for automated systems serving the industry,

have to start by recording and studying existing communication and coordination procedures,

and then change to more efficient methods through research, educational programs and

literature. However the existing communication and coordination procedures have never been

officially defined or documented by the building industry.

Information on completed building projects is not available to research centers

although it now exists on computer disks and tapes. Access to information on live andcompleted building projects is difficult except for the active participants on the project. Client

confidentiality and liability fears also restrict access to project information. Industry cannot

justify the time and expense of studying and documenting this science.

Although individuals from the various professions communicate with each other and

coordinate their efforts in developing a building, the professional societies and institutes that

they belong to are fragmented by disciplines, and these groups rarely meet or communicate

with each other. Research centers and academics tend to be isolated from the actual building

process.

Theoretical solutions developed by research centers without the participation and

support of industry, tend to ignore today's organizational structures, professional

specializations and project development procedures that evolved over decades. Such

solutions cannot be implemented within a fragmented building industry.

Technical decisions related to completed building projects can be found in

(1) the drawings and specifications issued by A-E design firms,

(2) shop drawings issued by product vendors,

(3) construction plans of contractors, and

(4) performance output from building automation and control systems.

The sequence and inter-professional interaction that produces these decisions have not

been studied or documented. The present industry procedure is to transfer drawings,

specifications and other documents into storage archives at the completion of a project. This

information is eventually destroyed or lost. A mechanism to provide this information to

research centers must be developed.

Architectural, engineering, and construction theory and methods can be taught and

learned because they have been documented. The communication, coordination and decision


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making processes involving several types of professionals and organizations that produces a

building, have to be learned on the project from more experienced professionals within

fragmented and specialized project segments. This science represents the glue that holds the

building process together and makes the building project happen.

This knowledge presently resides in the form of experience (and the nature of this

experience varies with each individual) in the minds of several types of professionals working in

different types of specialized firms serving the building industry. In the case of large and

complex buildings, several types of professions working in several different types of

organizations are assembled together to form the project team. The project team, including

product suppliers, are rarely repeated from one building project to another.

The science of communication and coordination within a fragmented building industry is

presently re-invented for each building project and continuously modified during the project.

Opportunity: Communication and Coordination Models for the Building Industry

This project will contribute to the development of a master plan and specifications for

a global electronic information communication and sharing network modelfor the building

industry. Such an information model to promote inter-operable software applications for the

building industry is presently being developed by the Industry Alliance for Interoperability (IAI).

This project will work with IAI and other organizations and research efforts dedicated to

integrating and automating the total building life-cycle process. It will provide some of thebackground information needed for developing data exchange standards and guidelines

required by an information model for the building industry.

An information model for the building industry must

(1) be developed with the support of industry using consensus procedures in order to

ensure that it will be accepted and implemented by industry,

(2) identify the locations of building project development and operating processes and

phases within the total building system, and

(3) encourage and facilitate the direct exchange of information between specialized,

independent and proprietary software systems serving the various professions and segments

of the industry.

The proposed research project involves participation by the commercial segment of the

building industry in developing the science of inter-professional and inter-organizational

information communication and building project coordination that use state-of-the art

automation and telecommunication technologies.

Research material necessary to study the science of information flow through the

building life-cycle process is imbedded within the building industry but not explicitly defined or

accessible. It is also fragmented and scattered throughout the industry.


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The project will collaborate with several nationally recognized research centers in

developing this science. The scope of developing a national and international building life-cycle

information model requires several organizations. The number of alternative solutions can be

numerous.

The development of this science will enable the U.S. building industry (particularly A-E

design firms that are labor intensive) to be competitive in the international market where labor

costs are considerably less.

Opportunity: Building Design and Construction as an Industrial Engineering Process

The rationale for proposing the application of industrial engineering (IE), quality control

and cost control methods used in the mass production (manufacture) of a product, to thebuilding and construction industries is based on

(1) the use of predefined life-cycle communication and coordination process models

(information highway maps) of different types of buildings,

(2) the use of nationally standardized building information databases accessible through

computer networks,

(3) the realignment of organizational structures and professional responsibilities to

make the optimum use of standardized communication and information systems and

networks, and

(4) building life-cycle costing to measure the reliability and efficiency of the building

process.

A comparison of cost trends in the building industry and the manufacturing industry

indicates a growing gap between them. In the manufacturing industry, product costs decrease

with time, while their reliability and technical quality tend to improve during the same period.

In the building industry, the cost of a building as a unit product increases with time and, as its

technical complexity increases, so also do the number of liability claims.

Another dissimilarity between the two industries is that the group that develops and

markets a manufactured product tends to be different from the group that uses the product.

In the building industry, the developer and owner of commercial, industrial, institutional and

health care buildings can be the same. The term life-cycle cost is associated mainly withbuildings. This would suggest that the natural momentum would be to drive down the cost of

buildings using new technology, and to increase their reliability. This has not been the case.

The question then is can the building industry become as efficient and reliable as the

manufacturing industry, even though non-residential buildings are not mass produced ? Given

today's (and the ongoing progress in) automation and telecommunication technologies,

industrial engineering sciences can be applied to building design and construction that will

produce efficiencies comparable to that of the manufacturing industry, without compromising

the uniqueness of each building.


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The solution is to redefine the organizational structure of the building industry to make

the optimum use of automation and telecommunication technology, and to define and

automate the flow and exchange of information during the building life-cycle.

The economies of mass production, and quality control methods associated with

industrial engineering, can be applied by a building project team to produce unique building

units.

Opportunity: Recognizing the Building Life-Cycle Process as a Macro Science

A holistic and professionally integrated approach to the building life-cycle process is

presently not a science that is officially recognized by the building industry and it is not taught

at educational institutions. One possible explanation for the present status is that there is nosingle professional group that serves the building industry as a whole.

The building science has been broken up into several pieces based on manual

procedures of the past, and distributed among several types of professional societies and

institutes. This science can be formalized, documented and taught, and the communication

processes can be automated in the future. The barriers to achieving an automated and

integrated building life-cycle procedures are administrative and political, and not technological.

Developing a meaningful and acceptable national and international (most large building

projects today involve multi-national project teams) information system for the buildingindustry requires a technical effort and commitment from the building industry as a whole. A

fragmented building industry has to be persuaded through external incentives to change

organizational structures and procedures that were established over a long period of time and

adapt to new technologies.

The transition process must begin with educational institutions and educational

literature. The emphasis of this project will therefore be on documentation and education to

improve and maintain the efficiency of the building life-cycle process.

Recognition, development and application of this science will produce efficiencies and

costs that come closer to the manufacturing industry. This project will initiate and recognize ascience that will be on-going.

Opportunity: Industry Participation in Developing the Project

This project is significant because industry will participate in developing a science that is

imbedded in industry but not explicitly defined or accessible. The science is also fragmented

and scattered throughout the industry. This science can be recorded, studied and improved.

Industry will benefit from this project through efficiently coordinated and integrated building

development procedures, lower first and life-cycle costs, and fewer errors and liability claims.


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Academia will benefit from educational materials that are based on actual building

projects and state of the art technology with mechanisms for updating the educational

materials with the ongoing progress in industry and research centers. This project will

establish a partnership between industry and academia to develop this science.

This project will improve the efficiency, reliability and predictability of the building life-

cycle process.

4. SCOPE

The task of developing a global information model for the building industry is extremely

large and complex. The scope of this project is therefore limited to defining and documentingthe life-cycle information flow process of mechanical and related electrical (M-E) systems for

buildings with an emphasis on M-E design as an integral interactive process within the

architectural-engineering (A-E) design process.

The project does not involve software development directly but it will provide the

model for developing an integrated, interactive and inter-disciplinary automated system for

the building life-cycle process. The project will emphasize industry problems and

requirements, and industry acceptance and implementation of the results.

The scope of M-E systems includes Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning, Refrigeration(HVACR), Plumbing, Fire Protection, Automatic Controls, Energy, Lighting, and Electrical Power.

In the case of large and complex buildings (commercial, industrial, institutional, and health

care), the first cost of M-E systems component can be more than a third of the total building

cost, and the 25-year life cycle cost of mechanical systems can exceed two thirds of the total

cost.

A recent study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF No. CES 8719788, 1991)

indicated that mechanical systems (and electrical - electronic systems associated with of

mechanical systems) were the leading cause of performance failures that had to be resolved

through litigation.

The M-E information system will be developed with the support of other professional

groups (architects, structural engineers, facilities managers, etc.), who will be responsible for

initiating and implementing parallel and complementary components of the complete building

information system.

The information flow study will consider the seamless transfer of information from the

building design process to the order-entry, transportation and numerical control systems of

product suppliers, the construction management programs of contractors, and the facilities

engineering programs of building automation/controls companies.


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Initial versions of the system will be based on existing professional and organizational

boundaries in the industry. Later versions of the information system will propose the most

efficient solutions from an automation and communication perspective, that are independent

of professional and organizational barriers set in the past.

The project will study "building systems integration and automation" work by industry,

universities and research centers It will work with such groups in evaluating their ideas and

solutions, and incorporate them into the building information system. It will collaborate with

the Industry Alliance for Interoperability and with groups working on "ISO/PDES/STEP"

standards, including the Computer Integrated Construction Group at the National Institute of

Standards & Technology (NIST), US Department of Commerce. It will collaborate with the

COMBINE (Computer Models for the Building Industry in Europe) group which is a consortium

of research centers and industry in Europe working towards similar objectives as this proposedproject.

It will investigate the application of the "Integrated Product and Process Development

(IPPD)" technology developed at the Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers (CERL/USACE), to the building life-cycle information process. It will

incorporate into the M-E system "Energy Design Tool for the Initial, Schematic Phases of

Building Design", "Building Design Advisor", and "Power DOE" systems developed at Lawrence

Berkeley Laboratory (LBL).

5. OBJECTIVES

Organization

Describe present organizational alignments (varies for different types and sizes of

projects) and professional and organizational responsibilities for creating, managing and

modifying project information.

Describe inter-professional (inter- disciplinary) and inter-organizational communication

and project coordination processes that occur during the development of buildings. This is

accomplished today mainly through meetings, exchange of drawings and other manual

procedures.Identify the major building products (generally accepted in the industry as stand-alone

components) and systems with their attributes. Describe the relationships and dependencies

between the products and systems.

Communication

Develop building information flow process models that maintain the integrity of the

original design model created by the architectural-engineering (A-E) design team , through the

remaining phases (manufacturing, construction and operation) of the building life-cycle


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process, instead of redeveloping the model at each phase.

Develop procedures for transferring information from operation / facilities engineering

processes (building automation systems) back to the architectural-engineering design team, so

as to continuously and automatically improve the efficiency of the building life-cycle process.

The information flow process in the building industry presently has no feed back from the

operating phase back to the design phase.

Demonstrate the flow of information through the integrated building life-cycle model

using case studies (a variety of building projects modified to eliminate repetition and detail).

The case studies would try and follow the inter-disciplinary sequential steps used in designing,

developing and operating large building projects.

Investigate the legal aspects of communication and information transferassociated withinternational projects using multi-national project teams and the legal aspects of direct

electronic information transfer.

Work with national and international research centers in developing specifications for

an electronic information communication system (highway map) for the building industry.

Process

Develop an integrated inter-professional (inter-disciplinary) object and systems oriented

approach to the building life-cycle process (design, construction and operation of buildings).

Describe the theory and calculation procedures of M-E systems design using the

organizational logic of computer programs and as part of an integrated and interactive building

life-cycle model.

Develop preliminary design and criteria based design procedures (when detailed

information about a proposed building is not available) by developing and using nationally

maintained historical databases of completed building projects, and information libraries for

codes, standards and design rules for different types of buildings under different conditions

such as locations, budget constraints and economic situations.

Investigate the application of manufacturing (industrial / production engineering)

technology to building design and construction by using organizational structures designed for

the production of buildings as a complete unit, and by using predefined information

communication flow/exchange models and networks for different types and sizes of buildings

in different locations.

Education

Develop educational materials that present a holistic, inter-professional and inter-


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disciplinary object-oriented project approach to the building sciences instead of the separate

and independent topic presentation formats used within each specialized professional group.

Develop educational materials that teach architectural and engineering students (and

also junior architects and engineers in practice) how to interact with each other and work as a

team - the way it occurs in practice.

Develop educational textbooks that teach the architectural engineering sciences based

on the previous two objectives.

6. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND PRODUCTS

Recognizing the science of communication, coordination and integration during the

building life-cycle process must begin at educational institutions. Isolating this science to

emphasize its importance is necessary. However the science is imbedded and scattered

throughout the AEC industry.

The process has to be studied on "live" and "completed" building projects at AEC firms

and documented by academic institutions. AEC firms that will be actively involved with this

project with design and product information include Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, IBM Corp.,

Sweets Electronic Publishing (McGraw-Hill), ITT Bell & Gossett and Trane. AEC industry

participation will be expanded during the course of the project.

Educational materials will be developed that present a holistic, inter-professional /

disciplinary and inter-organizational approach to the building sciences. The educational

literature will identify, classify and organize building products and systems as integral

components of an architectural-engineering design model, and then track the components

through the manufacturing, construction and operating phases.

The emphasis will be on the creation, structure, flow, and communication of

information and professional and organizational responsibilities for the information. The

publications will initially draw on the technical literature of the supporting AEC firms that are

part of the primary project development team..

7. EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

The project will develop educational materials that cover some of the following topics

(shown below) that would constitute a Masters Degree Program in Building Services

Engineering (M-E systems). The topics would be integrated through project case studies that

apply theory to practice.


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A. Loads, Systems, Equipment Analysis B. Energy & Life-Cycle Cost Analysis

C. Plumbing / Water & Waste Treatment D. Fire Protection and Life Safety, Codes

E. Air Handling & Distribution Systems F. Liquid & Gas Distribution Systems

G. Building Automation Systems, Controls H. Noise & Vibration Control

I. Electrical Power Distribution Systems J. Telecommunication & Security Systems

K. Building Transportation Systems L. Illumination (Lighting) Engineering

M. Construction and Commissioning N. Facilities Engineering & Management

O. Project & Construction Management P. Building Finance & Engineering

Economics

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8. PRELIMINARY LIST OF AREAS FOR STUDY AND DOCUMENTATION

1. Information types, sources, structures, networks and access. One category will

consist of information from the handbooks of professional societies and institutes, and from

building design, construction and operation codes, standards and guidelines. A second

category will consist of proprietary performance data of products by manufacturers of various

types of equipment and systems. A third category will consist of historical information on

completed building projects. The objective here is to agree on structure (and not on

reproducing the data) so that the information can be accessed on information (highway)

networks by proprietary modular software systems.

2. The integrated approach to mechanical and electrical systems design. This segmentwill be organized on the basis of similar processes. It will follow the interactive sequence of

designing buildings and it will parallel the logic of computer software. Since engineering theory

is already described and explained in the literature of professional associations, institutes and

societies, the purpose of this segment is to identify and organize the "engineering theory

modules (subroutines or functions)" so that they can be incorporated into the building life-

cycle information flow/exchange model.

3. The architectural-engineering (A-E) design process. This segment will follow the

sequence of developing buildings at A-E design firms. Besides final design that generates


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construction documents, this project will develop a method for preliminary and criteria-based

design and cost estimating using information libraries when detailed information about the

project is still not available. The validity of preliminary design and costs will increase with the

expansion of the libraries.

4. Professional and organizational structure of the building project team. This will

include the results of a study of present structures (varies considerably) and optimum

structures for different types of buildings and conditions that will utilize automation and

telecommunication technologies efficiently. It will include the results of the legal aspects of

direct electronic information transfer using multi-national project teams on large international

building projects. The information exchange procedures used by a fragmented building project

team will be documented. This will include the flow of information from A-E design through

construction and operation.

5. Project execution plans for developing different types and sizes of buildings.

Presently this industry comes up with a new plan for each new building and these plans

depend on the background and experience of the project managers involved. Master plans

similar to master specifications will improve the efficiency of the building process and reduce

communication errors and liability claims.

6. Case studies. The case studies will include office buildings, hotels, shopping malls,

and hospitals. The design phase will be emphasized. They will demonstrate the application of

the information databases, design theory and calculations, A-E interactive design processes,

professional responsibilities and project execution plans described above.

9. RESEARCH : INTEGRATION OF BUILDING DESIGN WITH THE BUILDING LIFE-CYCLE

Architectural- Engineering (A-E) Design Integration

The A-E design segment is the originating source of the information developed for a

building project that is ultimately distributed to the other industry segments of the building

life-cycle. A-E design quality can reduce the life-cycle cost of the building with lower first cost

and efficient building operation. Increasing the design component of the total project cost can

decrease the building life-cycle cost. Inter-professional communication and projectcoordination during the A-E design phase is, therefore, a critical component of the total

building life-cycle system and it will be emphasized during the initial phases of this research

project.

The objectives for developing A-E design systems today are usually intended to satisfy

the needs of A-E design firms in serving their clients. They do not look beyond design so that

information databases from design can be automatically transmitted to and used by the

manufacturing, construction and operation segments of the building life-cycle. Presently this

information transfer tends to be manual through construction bid documents, and the building


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model is redeveloped at each of the subsequent phases.

Design - Construction Integration

The information flow process must maintain the continuity of the architectural-

engineering design process through the construction phase. The "design-construct" process

would be more efficient and reliable if construction planning, cost estimating and

management were integral parts of the design process. Design computer programs can be

extended to produce construction plans, schedules and cost estimates.

Design-Equipment/Product Selection Integration

In order to make A-E design systems and procedures effective, they have to be

interfaced and integrated with product catalogs and product selection programs of severalalternative manufacturers of the same product type. In the case of M-E products, the issue of

using test data instead of the performance data published in catalogs (interpolated and

extrapolated from test data) must also be considered. Test data is generally considered

proprietary information by some product manufacturers, and a mechanism for accessing this

information without compromising its confidentiality has to be developed.

The use of proprietary product test information in developing automated building

design systems poses some special problems for this interface segment of the life-cycle. For

any given product category there are multiple manufacturers of that type of product. There

also exists variations of the product type that can provide the same end results in terms ofoverall building performance. Design programs have to select from the catalogs of alternative

manufacturers for the same type of equipment or be able to interact with the equipment

selection programs of alternative manufacturers. This has to be accomplished through data

exchange standards.

Design-Equipment/Product Supplier Integration

Construction drawings generated by automated systems in the design office are

presently issued to the contractor and product/supplier sub-contractors on paper. The

contractor then uses a digitizer or scanner to convert the "paper" drawings back to "electronic"

drawings from which shop drawings are developed. Computerized shop drawings are nextreturned to the design office on paper for their review and approval. The approved paper shop

drawings are scanned back into the computer and are used by numerical control machines to

manufacture the equipment. For example, the use of plasma cutters to manufacture

ductwork.

Although most products are mass produced in manufacturing plants based on

estimated demand (some are custom ordered for a building project), an equipment such as a

pump receives an official identity when the design engineer specifies it for a building, and the

contractor purchases and installs it. The facilities engineer is responsible for maintaining the


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equipment.

A well defined design model can be directly integrated or interfaced with the order

entry, numerical control systems (production plans), and transportation models of product

suppliers. The process model must produce a smoother transition from design to product

installation, and it must track a product item from the time it is specified by the design

engineer, until it is scrapped or replaced by the facilities engineer.

Design - Controls/Operation Integration

This information exchange interface has not received much attention in the building

industry. The mechanical-electrical design engineer influences the operations phase of the

building life-cycle by specifying the controls systems and the sequence of operations for the

building project. A building automation/controls model is a detailed mechanical-electricalengineering design model in operation. This project will investigate the possibility of

maintaining the integrity and continuity of the flow of information from design through

operation.

Information flow from the building design team to the building operations or facilities

management team is presently a one-way process. Computerized building management and

control systems generate day to day information about the equipment and systems developed

by the design team. This information should be transferred back to the design team so that it

can be used to improve future designs. Since there is a considerable amount of information

generated by building management systems, this information must be statistically analyzed,screened, condensed and converted into a standard format before it is returned to the design

systems.

10. RESEARCH : ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND INFORMATION COMMUNICATION

Organizational Realignment and Professional Responsibilities

The last decade produced computer imitations of manual procedures. The next decade

should produce a re-definition of the industry structure and a re-programming of the building

processes that will result in more efficient use of the computer. This project will studyprofessional and organizational structures and alignments that makes the best use of

automation and telecommunication technologies. There are two features inherent to on-going

computer systems development that will produce changes in the organizational alignment of

the building industry and also on the process of developing and operating a building.

The first is the continuous expansion of the scope of existing software applications

(black boxes) and the continuous increase in the number of new applications to replace manual

procedures that never used the computer before. The second is the cumulative effect of

software development on the industry. New architects and engineers entering the AEC


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industry work from the current technological status of AEC software.

It is not necessary to have an in depth knowledge of the internal technical details of the

software. Because of the "black box" and "cumulative knowledge and experience" features of

computer software development, the organizational alignment of the building industry and the

roles of building professionals in the industry must change continuously in the future.

Educational systems must constantly adapt to these changes.

Information Coordination, Communication and Modification

Timely and effective communication between the various professionals working within

the several independent organizations that make up the building project team will increase the

efficiency of the building process, prevent costly errors and reduce the cost of the project.

Responding to, and acting on communicated information is still the responsibility of theindividuals on the building project team, and there are no standardized master plans for

communication and reaction, that are used on building projects today.

This project will investigate the communication and response processes in the building

industry by incorporating both manual and automated procedures into the building life-cycle

information flow model. The emphasis will be on reaction (ensuring that there is a response),

manual and automated, to communicated information. The building life-cycle model must be

dynamic so that a specialized module will automatically reanalyze and readjust to the changes

and new information that it receives from other modules and report its own reaction to the

other modules in the project system that are affected. The modules assembled together tomake up the project system must function like a single living organism.

11. RESEARCH : METHODOLOGIES AND PROCEDURES

The following topics for study and development are provided in this proposal as

examples only. These topics are extracted from the plans developed at Skidmore, Owings &

Merrill (SOM) in 1990 to expand the M-E systems of the IBM Architecture & Engineering Series.

These topics will be reviewed and redeveloped by the project team (AEC firms and

universities) during the first three months of the project.

Preliminary Design using Historical Databases

This project will study preliminary design using historical databases, and recommend

structures for a historical database system for mechanical equipment and systems used in

buildings. Although the validity of historical information applies to the time period when it was

developed, it can still play a very important role in preliminary design, preliminary cost

estimating, and for checking and evaluating current design. The structure of historical data

banks have to be pre-defined, so that information can be entered into the data bank when a

building project is completed, and so that it can be retrieved and used in analyzing and


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developing new buildings.

The objective of a "historical database" is to capture the knowledge and experience of

experts (experienced architects/engineers) and to save this information for future use. A-E

design applications derived from historical information would be able to assist the less

experienced architects and engineers in decision making during the preliminary conceptual

stages of a project when information required for absolute decisions is not available.

Criteria Based Schematic Design using Architectural-Engineering Information Libraries

This project will investigate and recommend structures for M-E design databases

consisting of design criteria, design rules, codes and standards. These databases together with

historical databases can be used to design and estimate the cost of M-E systems based on

criteria information before detailed architectural drawings and specifications are available.

In order to achieve inter-disciplinary building systems integration, the emphasis will first

be on the objects such as the building, its elements and its equipment, and then by project

phases and professional specialization. The information required to design A-E systems will be

organized into reference libraries and project libraries.

Reference library information is for the use of all projects. Reference libraries include

historical information, engineering data, codes and standards, design rules and procedures,

equipment performance data, graphic symbols of engineering elements, graphic database of

standard details, master specifications, cost data.

Project library information is specific to the project (includes dimensional data) and it

can be developed by customizing reference library information. Project libraries include

application system input, engineering reports, construction drawings, equipment performance

schedules, project specifications, cost estimates.

Organizing M-E Design on the Basis of Similar Processes

The boundaries of an integrated design system include architectural, structural,

electrical and other design disciplines besides mechanical. Mechanical systems are closely

associated with electrical systems, since they require (electrical) power and (electronic)controls in order to operate. The mechanical-electrical (M-E) design system will be organized

on the basis of similar objects and processes, instead of dividing them by professions (HVAC,

Plumbing, Fire Protection, Controls, Electrical Power, Lighting, etc.) established in the past. The

processes include:

(a) an "information system" (integrated across the design disciplines) containing design

data from handbooks, catalogs and other reference sources

(b) a "design criteria system" that includes performance requirements and design codes and

standards for different types of buildings, spaces and systems


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(c) an "evaluation system" to analyze the building environment to maintain the required

conditions

(d) an "equipment system" to treat the building environment and to maintain the required

conditions

(e) a "distribution system" to move energy and matter in various forms from a generating

source to the equipment systems, and to return and extract used, unused, and waste products

for recycling and disposal

(f) an "operating system" (building management and controls) to make the total dynamic M-

E system work

(g) a "communication system" (drawings, schedules, specifications) to transmit the design

information to product vendors, contractors and facilities engineers.

Energy Efficiency in Building Design

Since the emphasis is on mechanical-electrical products and systems, this project will

consider energy efficient building design, when developing the design component of the

information flow model. It will consider the application of

(a) the major building energy analysis programs in design,

(b) the major M-E software design systems,

(c) M-E product selection software systems in design,

(d) building control software systems in design, and

(e) and constraints set by design systems such as fire and life-safety. Decisions made by all

the A-E design disciplines (architectural, facilities planning, structural, mechanical, electrical)

affect the energy efficiency.

Design-Construction as a Manufacturing (Industrial Engineering) Process

All large and complex buildings are developed today as unique products. In the future, the

computer will be able to generate several alternative designs for a building project based on

publicly available information databases, client criteria and constraints, and rules for designing

different types of buildings.

Using a well defined information highway system (and despite the fragmented

organizational structure of the building industry today) computer-based mass production

assembly line techniques used in manufacturing today can be applied to building design andconstruction in the future, without affecting the aesthetic uniqueness of each building. This

project will evaluate the use of industrial engineering, quality control and cost control methods

in developing the building systems.

12. CURRENT RELATED RESEARCH WORK (Preliminary List)

This project will collaborate with other research groups that are involved in developing

advanced automation technologies that can be used to improve the efficiency of the


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information process model. Documenting the work of these centers and incorporating the

work into the educational products will be one of the major tasks of this project. The

following is a preliminary list of related work currently being done at research centers.

Industry Alliance for Interoperability (IAI)

The IAI is incorporated as a non-profit organization with open membership internationally. Its

objective is to enable interoperability between computer software serving the architectural,

engineering, construction and facilities management (AEC-FM) industry. The IAI comprises

leading companies who are committed to working together to define an information model for

the AEC-FM industry which will establish a basis for interoperable software applications

between disciplines throughout the building life-cycle.

The goal of IAI is to promote a new global data exchange standards for information sharing.The IAI is working closely with the "STEP" international community so that work being done by

"STEP" AEC committees (and the Building Construction Core Model project specifically) is

coordinated and shared to ensure synergy of information definition. Autodesk as the leading

AEC CAD vendor (AutoCAD) is a founding member of the IAI and has committed to

implementing the IAI information model via Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The IAI

information model will be published for use throughout the industry and will therefore be

available to this project. The scope of this project will require the IAI information model to be

expanded to include greater levels of application specific detail for M-E systems

Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (CERL), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

This work is being performed by the Concurrent Engineering Team at the US Army

Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (CERL). It involves the application of

"Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD)" techniques to the design and

construction of facilities.

The test bed scenario was developed to investigate (a) how the new Information Processing

(IP) techniques require changes in the current process of facility delivery, and (b) how IP can be

used to model the process as well as the product. The test bed uses a virtual teaming

architecture centered upon an object-oriented representation provided by the Agent

Collaboration (ACE) and Design++.

The information exchange between these two systems is accomplished using an approach

called the Virtual Workspace Language (VWL) which incorporates Knowledge Interchange

Format (KIF) and Knowledge Query Manipulation Language (KQML). Product libraries have

been developed to provide a shared representation in which all participants can create objects

and communicate information.

These libraries contain both product information and process information to allow

coordination and management of complex projects. Agents which used this shared


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representation to exchange product and process information have been developed for project

management, architectural-engineering design, construction, and operation and maintenance.

Lawrence-Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), University of California-Berkeley

"Power DOE" is a new building energy simulation program that is being jointly developed by

the Electric Power Research Institute and the US Department of Energy (DOE). It is based on

the DOE-2 program which has been the premier standard in the building industry for over 15

years in analyzing the performance and economics of new and existing buildings, and their

equipment and systems.

DOE-2 has been incorporated as a program module into the IBM A&ES system. PowerDOE

has a graphical user interface running under Microsoft Windows. The "Environmental Design

Assistant (EDA)" program linked to PowerDOE can assist the user in making energy relateddesign decisions. PowerDOE has an open architecture to encourage third party development

of specialized performance analysis modules that can be attached to the core program.

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is currently working on developing "An Energy Design Tool for

the Initial, Schematic Phases of Building Design". This project is being funded by the California

Institute for Energy Efficiency (CIEE) and the US Department of Energy (DOE). The project

involves developing a Case Studies Database (CSD) that will serve as the equivalent of an

electronic magazine for buildings.

CSD will be designed to accommodate a large number of building data collected by

Southern California Edison (SCE). The project will develop a Schematic Design Tool (SDT) thatwill allow building designers to address building parameters such as shape, orientation and

number of floors, with feedback on energy performance.

Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE), Stanford University

The work at CIFE includes the development of a broad range of technologies (based on

Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, etc.) that can be (and have been) applied to the building

sciences. A specific current project at CIFE that has a direct bearing on this project is "The

Integration of CAD and Energy Analysis Software for Building Design".

This is a collaborative effort with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) and is part of LBL's"PowerDOE" and "Energy Design Tool for the Initial, Schematic Phases of Building Design"

projects. The CIFE project will explore means by which a building design represented in a

typical CAD system (AutoCAD has been selected as the initial CAD modeler) can be integrated

with LBL's "PowerDOE" and "Environmental Design Assistant" software to obtain building

simulation and advice regarding improvement of the building's energy and cost performance.

Computer Models for the Building Industry in Europe (COMBINE)

The COMBINE (Computer Models for the Building Industry in Europe) group in Europe


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headed by Professor Godfried Augenbroe of the Delft University of Technology in the

Netherlands includes the Building Research Establishment in the United Kingdom, Centre

Scientifique et Technique du Batiment in France, Fraunhofer Institut fur Bauphysik in Germany,

and other national building research centers and major universities in the EEC nations of

Europe.

This group is actively involved with the ISO/STEP program in defining a general product data

model that is specifically tailored for buildings. COMBINE-1 project built a prototype of such a

model, using industry standards defined in the pre-release documents, and demonstrated that

it could be used to link building design programs together by interfacing six of them to the

model.

COMBINE-2 project is aimed at using the technology developed in the first project to

produce a working set of integrated tools based around a product model, that can be installedand field tested in several engineering and architectural consultancies.

Automated Procedures for Engineering Consultants (APEC) : CABDS Project

CABDS (Computer-Aided-Building-Design-System) is an endeavor of the APEC/Industry

Partnership, a non profit organization. CABDS permits HVAC design and analysis programs and

manufacturers equipment selection programs to exchange data with each other and with CAD

systems. The data exchange is made via a relational database (until objects become more

mature) using standard tables / fields that are established by engineers and manufacturers

representing various areas of applications.

As applications and their related tables / fields are developed, the schema for maintaining the

relationship between tables is developed. There is currently available a CABDS User's Version

for networks and a CABDS User's Version for stand alone computers that allow users to control

the applications for exchanging data and for building and maintaining the database. A

Software Development Tool Kit permits software developers to write new or modify existing

programs to be CABDS compatible.

Computer Integrated Construction Group, National Institute of Standards & Technology

Pacific Northwest Laboratory / Battelle Laboratories, Energy Sciences Division

Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, Carnegie-Mellon University

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at MIT : IESL and CCRE

13. PROJECT SCHEDULE

Year Administration Research/Study Activity Products


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1 Contract agreements.

Communication plans.

Evaluation methods.

Project management.

Financial

management.

Progress & cost

reports.

Authorization,

copyright

reproduction and non-

disclosure

agreements.

Establish research project team

commitments in work-hours, money and

other resources. Develop 1-year and 5-year

project execution plans showing time-line,

project team responsibilities and deliverable

products.

Develop and document information

sources, and information categories. Define,

classify and organize products, objects,

systems, attributes, database structures and

formats.

Project Plan.

Mechanical-

Electrical

Information System

Progress Report.

2 Financial

management.

Progress & cost

reports.

Mechanical-Electrical (M-E) systems

design theory and process. The

documentation will be suitable for

Architectural-Engineering (A-E) courses at

universities.

The presentation will emphasize the use

of design software, M-E products, integrated

M-E systems and the sequence of A-E design

as it occurs in practice..

M-E Design

Handbooks

Application of

Proprietary M-E

Software to Design

Progress Report.

3 Financial

management.Progress & cost

reports.

Organizational structures of project

teams for different types of buildings.Professional and organizational

responsibilities.

Inter-professional and inter-

organizational communication. Information

transfer/exchange from design through

operation. Legal issues

Project planning and coordination for

different types of buildings. Project financing

and building economics.

Project Planning

and ManagementHandbooks

Progress Report.

4 Financial

management.

Progress & cost

reports.

Case studies showing the design,

construction and operation of different types

of buildings. Design will be emphasized.

Building types will include offices,

schools, hotels, retail and health care.

Handbook of

Building Case

Studies

Progress Report.

5 Financial

management.

Progress & cost

reports.

Review, revise and update the work of

the first 4 years. Additional technical input

will be provided by the AEC project team.

Updated

Publications

Final Report.


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