1993 Project Proposal Introduction - Varkie C. Thomas, Ph.D., P.E.
(Varkie Thomas has a Post-graduate Diploma (with distinction) and a Ph.D. in Industrial Management from Strathclyde University, Glasgow, United Kingdom).

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 pre-defined production planning & control models 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. This can be done by editing and customizing a master process flow model

In 1992 the Society for Computer Integrated Building Sciences (SCIBS) was established to create such management models for different types of buildings. Officers included:

SCIBS was superseded by the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) that was established with similar objectives. Building industry integration by IAI would be achieved using Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). IAI and IFC ceased operation recently.

1. PROJECT SUMMARY

      The 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 best use 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 the Architectural - Engineering (A-E) design phase and then track the A-E design system through the remaining phases of the building life-cycle. This work at large A-E design firms is the responsibility of Project Managers and Technical Coordinators.

      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, object-oriented approach to the building sciences. Deliverable products include:
      (1) Documentation of the A-E systems component of the communication and coordination life-cycle process model for different types and sizes of building projects;
      (2) Models 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) Educational materials for courses and graduate degree programs in Architectural- Engineering Design Integration, Management, Production and Cost Control.

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 book's cover which showed him holding a pencil in front of his face. The following was Dr. Friedman's 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. The eraser 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 are precisely 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.

      Building production is not standardized and documented process. The process, along with project plans and schedules, are determined independently for each project, during the project, revised continuously during the project and they are reinvented for future projects. Unlike manufacturing, there is no pre-determined, precise, process model 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.

      Consider the design and construction of the 3.5 billion-dollar, 12 million square foot Canary Wharf building project in London, United Kingdom. This project involved hundreds of professionals and several organizations from around the world. 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 puzzle together through an undefined and unrecorded automatic chain reaction begins with architectural engineering design firms and goes down several professions and organizations in manufacturing and construction until the project is completed.

      The technology of communication and coordination of information took a big leap forward in the 1990's 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 software "black 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.

      Information about this science is only accessible to professionals on the project and the AEC firms that employ them. They cannot presently 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.) are being developed by research institutions and academia which can be applied to the building life-cycle process. The AEC industry has to collaborate with research so that new ideas can applied, tested and evaluated on actual building projects.

Automated Building Systems Integration (Examples)

Every type of program should be designed with standard formats and saved in databases for the critical input and output variables so that other related programs can link to it.

For example in the case of energy programs, the intermediate results between Loads, Systems, Plants & Economics modules are saved in intermediate temporary files for use by the next module. Hourly results of all the FORTRAN variables from each module are available for print out by the program. The BDL input data is read into FORTRAN variables and so also are the output report variables. All this data should be organized, formatted and saved in externally accessible files that can read by other programs.

A ductwork design programs that can be linked to independent and alternative equipment selection programs

Integrating Mechanical and Electrical Design Programs

Varkie C. Thomas, Ph.D., P.E.
(Varkie Thomas obtained a Post-graduate Diploma (with distinction) and a Ph.D. in Industrial Management from Strathclyde University, Glasgow, United Kingdom.)