Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

den OTTER, Ad F.; PRINS, MATTHIJS

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021212

In this paper, the possibilities for implementing modern Internetbased ICT tools for the management of architectural design teams are explored. The theory of Davenport on information ecology, Schn's approach to design thinking and design team behaviour, and decision process management and information technology theories are combined in a proposal for the design of projectbased digital design teams. It is argued that the implementation of the socalled Project Web Site PWS Technology may lead to significant improvement of architectural design team performance. The structure of the PWS within this specific context is described as well as implications for the working procedures and the management of building design teams.

MACMILLAN, SEBASTIAN; STEELE, JOHN; KIRBY, PAUL; SPENCE, ROBIN; AUSTIN, SIMON

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021213

This paper reports the outcome of a 2year research project that set out to provide a process map of the concept stage of building projects. From a literature review, comparison of current process maps, and through interviews and case study analyses, a tentative new framework for the concept stage was developed and tested. It comprises 12 activities in five phases. The framework formed the basis of a graphical method used to plot the activities of design teams in a series of workshops. This graphical method illustrates design iteration in a way which we believe has not been undertaken before, and the patterns it reveals are intuitively understood by design team members themselves, helping them reflect on their own design process. We have also constructed a prototype internetbased decision support tool for the concept stage of design. This is intended to be inherently flexible and supportive of nonlinear routes through concept design, while also offering a structured approach, design tools to broaden the solution space or evaluate competing options, team management advice, and the recording of decision making. Initial testing of this tool showed it to be wellreceived, although it was criticized for focusing too much on the gates between activities and too little on the issues and decisions within each activity.

HEINTZ, JOHN L.

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021214

Network planning is not often used in architectural design projects, partly because no actor has a realistic overview of the entire project. Despite having a relatively good idea of what their own work will involve, designers often have an inadequate understanding of what their collaborators do. Collaborative Design Planning Networks CDPN permit designers from different firms to build a project model in which the plans of each participant are integrated with those of the others. Actors submit partial plans describing what they intend to do. These partial plans are represented in networks composed of tasks and infotems. By representing not only tasks but also their inputs and outputs, it becomes possible to link the partial projects of the collaborating actors and construct a global project plan. The involvement of every actor in the construction of the plan ensures both that the plan more accurately reflects the project and provides a greater degree of commitment to the plan by the individual actors.

DE WILDE, PIETER; AUGENBROE, GODFRIED; VAN DER VOORDEN, MARINUS

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021215

This paper discusses how project management styles and methods impact on energy conscious design decisions by building design teams. Within the broad field of energy conscious design the emphasis of this paper is on the selection of energy saving technologies in appropriately configured building components. The premise of the research is that these selections are not well rationalized. Choices of energy saving features in current practice are discussed against the background of available computational tools and the way these tools are used or not to enhance the decisionmaking process. Through empirical data gathering based on case studies, improved project management techniques that enable a more timely and rational selection of energy saving technologies will be identified. A followup research project that implements the findings in an operational design system is briefly presented to sketch the practical implications of the reported research.

TUZMEN, AYCA

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021216

This paper presents a research study conducted for evaluating the effectiveness of a conceptual model of a distributed process management environment in the establishment of a collaborative building design. At the highest level, the conceptual model of the distributed process management environment have the following features a enables description of a plan of a design process, b enables enactment of a process according to its plan, and c enables control and management of the enactment of a design process. The paper also presents the findings of a verification and validation V & V study conducted for evaluating the fit between the needs and expectations of collaborating design groups and the solution provided by the conceptual model of the distributed process management environment.

MOKHTAR, AHMED H.M.

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021217

The presence of incompatibility errors in design information is a major problem for the construction industry. An analysis of the generation and documentation process of this information reveals that propagation of design changes constitutes a main source for incompatibilities. The large amount of design data that is generated within the typically multidisciplinary design environment makes coordinating this information a very challenging task. Adding to the challenge is the fact that the involved design disciplines are, in most cases, spatially separated. This paper presents a developed architecture for an information model that aims to use the Internet technology to overcome this problem. The approach to develop the model is not to automate the currently used coordination techniques, rather to reengineer these techniques using the unique capabilities of computers and the Internet over those of humans. The model contains as well a component that enables the generation of customizable and multimedia construction documents. Such type of documents present many advantages over paperbased documents and may ultimately replace them.

LOCKLEY, STEPHEN R.; WATSON, RICHARD; SHAABAN, SAMEH

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021218

This paper examines how the adoption of ecommerce will influence the processes of dissemination, communication and management of information in the AEC industry. We argue that ecommerce will render redundant the business models that currently support these processes, and propose templates for the business models of the future. Effective information flow is fundamental to the process of realizing a construction project and within this project information pool, manufacturers' product information forms a core component. It provides designers with technical information to support decision making during design, the data necessary to communicate specification requirements to contractors and finally a means by which contractors can source the materials required to construct the project. We examine the current business model and motivations for each actor in this sector before going on to discuss the areas where ecommerce can most effectively be adopted. We propose a three generation model for ebusiness and conclude by describing the changes to the underlying business models that we believe are necessary to support effective ecommerce in the future.

JOHNSON, ROBERT; CLAYTON, MARK; XIA, GE; WOO, JEONGHAN; SONG, YUNSIK

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021219

In this paper we discuss the impact of ecommerce on the design and construction industry, with specific reference to how information technology will affect competition and competitive advantage in the industry. This paper continues the exploration of a concept that we have been working on for several years, namely that information technology is evolving from a tool that incrementally improves backoffice productivity to an essential component of strategic positioning that may alter the basic economics, organizational structure and operational practices of facility management organizations and their interactions with service providers architects, engineers and constructors Johnson & Clayton, Automation in Construction, 8, 1998, 3. We first review industry trends and then develop a generalized model for thinking about strategy and ecommerce based on our previous research as well as the wellknown framework developed by Michael Porter. Next we apply this framework to the discussion of several case studies and draw preliminary conclusions about the viability of the model for future research.

AUSTIN, SIMON A.; BALDWIN, ANDREW N.; STEELE, JOHN L.

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021220

The construction industry is acutely aware of the need to improve the integration, planning and control of its design and production processes. A number of projects undertaken within Loughborough, Salford and Cambridge Universities, in collaboration with a number of construction industry organizations, are addressing this issue by investigating, and developing tools to assist, the design and construction process. Emerging from these projects is the common need for IT systems and support that will facilitate the capture, storage and retrieval of project knowledge. It is only by relating these compatible IT applications to a common and recognizable project process framework that construction industry organizations will be able to make optimum use of the available technological developments. This paper describes the development of techniques and strategies to support the integrated planning and control of design through the collaboration of the main designers, suppliers and contractor working on complex building projects, and discusses the relevance of clustering these in relation to the phases and activities of a generic model of design and construction.

AUGENBROE, GODFRIED; VERHEIJ, HANS; SCHWARZMLLER, GERHARD

2002 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/eb021221

Web hosted project spaces offer dedicated collaboration and information sharing functions to dispersed members of design, engineering and manufacturing teams. During the recent dot.com boom these socalled eProject services became increasingly popular in the AEC Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry. This industry has started to refer to these products as project web sites. Their basic service component is a web enabled information space for building teams offered through an Application Service Provider ASP business model, and accessible via an Extranet requiring only a standard web browser. An expanding set of web hosted applications is meanwhile included in most products, e.g. for messaging and calendaring, data and document management, design reviews and project management. This paper shows how the functionality of project web sites can be enriched by adding advanced task coordination features. Such features are especially relevant for design management. In particular, the paper deals with the need to support the formation and coordination of spontaneous shortlived subteams in the course of a project. A crucial element of these selfappointed teams is the need to establish rapid agreement on a shared coordination template for the execution of the task at hand. It will be demonstrated how task templates for that purpose can be defined and managed. The chosen solution serves as a task sensitive filter to the overwhelming amount of documents stored typically on a project web site. The approach will be demonstrated on a daily exercise in academic environments the abstract and paper review process in the preparation of a conference.