A Survival Strategy – How to Integrate Design Systems and Processes in a Fragmented Industry?
A Survival Strategy – How to Integrate Design Systems and Processes in a Fragmented Industry? Arto Kiviniemi Olof Granlund Oy, Finland (email:
[email protected] )
Abstract The Real Estate and Construction Cluster is highly fragmented industry where most projects are based on low-bid contracts. This leads to ad-hoc project teams where most participants focus on minimizing costs and are not interested in developing new collaboration methods or adding value to other participants. However, all project participants have to collaborate and share information. This situation creates a significant challenge to companies who want to be in the leading edge. How far ahead of your competitors you can go? How to ensure communication with the other participants if your methods and tools are more advanced? How to build systems which can be used relatively independent of the business environment, but can also benefit from the information in the other systems used by advanced partners? This keynote will present the R&D strategy Olof Granlund has successfully used since the early 1990s to develop technical tools and business processes for integrated Building Information Modelling in the building services engineering and technical facility management. Keywords: BIM, building information modelling, development, implementation, strategy
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A Survival Strategy – How to Integrate Design Systems and Processes in a Fragmented Industry?
1. Introduction of the company Olof Granlund is Finland’s leading building services consulting company. Its core business areas cover all building services engineering areas, facility management consulting, and development and sale of design and facility management software. The company has five offices in Finland and one in Moscow and employs over 350 people. The company’s R&D budget is over 10% of its turnover, which is exceptionally high rate for a consulting company in the Real Estate and Construction Cluster (RECC).
2. Granlund’s R&D strategy Granlund’s current R&D strategy has its basis in the early 1990s when the company started to investigate actively the international state of ICT and its potential and applications for integrated information management. Since 1996 the company has been actively involved in the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI, since 2006 buildingSMART). Granlund’s technology strategy is based on the utilisation of integrated Building Information Modelling (BIM) and open data standards. The focus is not only in the traditional building services design, but in the lifecycle information management from the client requirements through design and construction to use and maintenance of the buildings (Figure 1). In addition to the technology, development of service processes and business models is a crucial part of the company’s strategy. P e rfo rm a n c e e v a lu a tio n a n d re p o rtin g O p tim iz a tio n D e s ig n ta rg e ts
D e s ig n s o lu tio n s
D e s ig n
C o n s tru c tio n & C o m m is s io n in g
O p e ra tio n & M a in te n a n c e
P e rfo rm a n c e a n a ly s is B u ild in g in fo rm a tio n m o d e l (B IM ) -fro m a rc h ite c t (IF C ) o r -m o d e lin g fo r a n a ly s is
A c c u m u la tio n o f d a ta + v e rs io n in g
ELINKAARIKUSTANNUKSET,NYKYARVO 1200000 1000000
Eilnkaarikustannukset[€]
800000 600000 400000 200000 0 erustapau P s
Investon i ti
Ver tau li t a paus
Hoi to a j huotl o
Energi a
kunnossapito
LCC a n a ly s is
C o m fo rt a n a ly s is
E n e rg y a n a ly s is
V is u a l re p o rtin g
S e lf-c o m m is s io n in g • R e a l tim e p e rf o rm a n c e m o n ito rin g
T e c h n ic a l F M • M a in te n a n c e , LT P
Figure 1. Integrated Analysis and Reporting Tools for the Building Lifecycle (© Granlund 2009).
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A Survival Strategy – How to Integrate Design Systems and Processes in a Fragmented Industry?
3. Do not reinvent the wheel Although software development is now a significant part of Granlund’s activities, it is not the core business of the company. Thus the basic idea has always been to find the best available solutions on the market and build only the integration platform and missing pieces which are necessary for the company’s strategic development and business processes. Another central development principle in the company has been that the technology must be based on open international standards when ever possible. These principles have led to Granlund’s international collaboration with several universities, software companies and different associations, such as ASHRAE and buildingSMART, as well as to active participation in the national technology development.
4. Technology as a part of the business strategy When a company makes a strategic decision to invest a major effort in the technology development, the business goals must be clear, and the development must lead to a significant and lasting competitive advantage; a transformational change. If the investments are focused on automational or informational levels, the competitors can copy the solutions relatively fast on smaller costs, which can hardly justify the efforts (Figure 2). Markets Increased
TRANSFORMATIONAL
INFORMATIONAL
Functionality Increased
Productivity Increased
Long Lasting Competitive Advantage
AUTOMATIONAL
Operational Thinking
Tactical Thinking
Strategic Thinking
Figure 2. Business Effects of ICT. Source: Virtual Building Environments Project, Fox 2006 [1].
In Granlund’s case one of fundamental changes has been the transition from traditional project-based building services engineering to information lifecycle management service integrating separate tools into an efficient engineering platform. 30
A Survival Strategy – How to Integrate Design Systems and Processes in a Fragmented Industry?
5. Problems of being a forerunner RECC is a highly fragmented industry where most projects are based on low-bid contracts. This leads usually to ad-hoc project teams where most participants focus on minimizing costs and are not interested in developing new collaboration methods or adding value to other participants. However, all project participants have to collaborate and share information. This situation creates a significant challenge to companies who want to be in the leading edge. One of these challenges is that the pioneers must create the market for their new services, i.e. find customers who want to find another way of doing business or at least accept the risk of unknown, and to prove that the new services provide benefits to the client compared to the existing ones. Because of the many variables affecting project success or failure, it is difficult to measure the affect of an individual factor such as use of integrated BIM. This easily creates a wicked circle (Figure 3): It is difficult to convince the market of the benefits of new tools, if you cannot measure them, and you cannot measure the benefits without real use of the new tools. However, nobody wants to develop new tools if there is no sufficient market demand for them, and without tools you cannot start using them and get evidence of the benefits… To break this circle someone has to take the risk and start developing the tools based on his own strong vision of the future benefits. Sufficient market demand for integrated BIM
Proof Basic obstacles: of the • Difficulties in deployment; people, software, processes benefits • Not enough evidence of benefits Basic obstacles: • Individual projects, fuzzy baseline • No adequate tools to test in wide scale
Real market demand
Basic obstacles: • Not enough market demand • Domain specific software Sufficient software support for integrated BIM
Measured benefits of integrated BIM
Use and measurement of BIM tools in real projects Figure 3. The Wicked Circle. Source: Review of the Development and Implementation of IFC Compatible BIM, Kiviniemi et al. 2008 [2].
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A Survival Strategy – How to Integrate Design Systems and Processes in a Fragmented Industry?
Another significant challenge in integrated information management in a fragmented industry, such as RECC, is how to build systems which can efficiently utilise the open data interfaces but are not dependent on the availability of data, i.e. how to efficiently create the missing information which is necessary for the system. In the building services engineering this problem culminates in the architectural BIM. Building geometry is mandatory for energy and comfort simulations, but in mid 1990s architects could not deliver models. Even today the lack of usable models is the case in most projects although BIM is rapidly gaining market share. Granlund’s solution to this problem was to develop an internal modelling tool with which the engineers could rapidly create sufficient building geometry for the simulations, and to link this tool to the company’s integration platform using the same open, IFC-based data interface which was used for the architectural BIM whenever it would be available. This simple solution standardised the main process regardless of the availability of external data and the same basic solution could be applied between building services design and FM data as well as all different modules in the design system (Figure 4). Design 7. Maintenance Links to commissioning Links to FM
6. System modeling
Client Reporting
Client’s needs Updates for renovation Space data browsing, visualization by color charts • Comparisons: to targets, between versions 1. Space type requirements • Overall checking of design process Comfort Lighting System needs
Design data Simulation results
2. Geometry model
5. Thermal simulation Simulation results Geometry model Space data
by Modeling tools or Arch model 3. Validation of 3D model
4. Space groups
Geometry Spaces Windows Doors
Space types Zones
Figure 4. Integrated Building Services and FM Data Platform (© Granlund 2009).
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A Survival Strategy – How to Integrate Design Systems and Processes in a Fragmented Industry?
6. Conclusions Granlund is an excellent example of a RECC company which has built a successful, long-term technology development and business strategy which has increased its competitiveness and market share and at the same time created new market areas for the company. The total service concept is unique although many of its individual technological elements are available on the market.
References [1] Fox, S. 2006. Work Package 1.4 Public Report in Virtual Building Environments Project, VTT. [2] Kiviniemi, A., Tarandi, V., Karlshøj, J., Bell, H. & Karud, O.J. 2008. Review of the Development and Implementation of IFC Compatible BIM, ERAbuild Report.
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