Construct IT Autumn 2009 Meeting

in conjunction with London South Bank University
 
Summary (2 of 3)
Next, Bill Price (Systems and Technology Director, Costain) gave a contractor's perspective of IT delivering value. Bill began by claiming that from his experience he has found IT to be the problem and not the solution. He then stated that the challenges for IT managers are to co-ordinate and work in partnership with the business in order to deliver high quality IT services. In addition, this has to be achieved while adopting a more business and customer oriented approach to delivering services, cost optimisation, and added value. From this challenge Bill raised how do we work in partnership and deliver relevant services at the right price? In showing how Costain aligns the Corporate and Business Systems Group strategy, deliver the services, and innovate, Bill emphasised that good communication at all levels is vital. Within Costain a flyer is circulated to help staff understand the organisation's values, vision, mission and objectives together with continually improving and innovating. He discussed the Corporate strategy which has moved from one of regional to sectoral which is based around repeat business (facilitating continuous improvement), long term relationships, life cycle services and solutions, well being of workforce priority, and innovation, flexibility and entrepreneurial flair to give customers more for less. Next, Bill discussed the Business Systems Group strategy which is to implement best practice and deliver systems that support the best practice. Bill explained that the strategies are developed and integrated with the corporate and sector strategies through Business Systems Steering Group meetings, which are held every other month and includes the CEO/FD/Divisional MD's/Chief Engineer. He highlighted that these regular meetings enable them to be agile and take advantage of changes in the marketplace. 3 years rolling strategies are developed through PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, Environmental) and SWOT methods of analysis. Bill then discussed the corporate systems which in terms of the web-based include network, hosted iCosNet (web portal, best practice management system, collaboration system, and knowledge management system), email, and ERP, while systems include programme management, CAD/3D/BIM/Visualisation, client Interface systems, HR, sector focused knowledge management, Communities of Practice, and Forums/Wikis/Blogs. He also emphasised that 'day one' project mobilisation is key and highly valued by the business to ensure a joined up process while comms is still an issue. Costain is also currently addressing security for Joint Ventures as they are becoming much more involved in them. Bill then discussed that this is all being delivered through the ITIL service delivery process. There are 3 phases to service design/transition and operation: 1. Service Catalogue is one of the most important documents for the business because it defines their offering to the business for the CE to buy-in; 2. Service Transition provides a rigorous approach to change management, configuration and testing which has resulted in a much more reliable network and 3. Service Operation is used for information for external sources and is the first line of support. These 3 phases are wrapped around with service reporting and measurement. Bill then reflected on the current global recession of unemployment and the impact of the downturn of customers wanting more for less, which has forced them to revaluate how they were delivering services. In response Costain ran a scenario on IT overhead to reduce the IT budget by 10% which he stated was not immediately achievable and staff costs have to be targeted. However, he stated that Costain has not had to implement it as the service catalogue provides the best way of working with the business. Furthermore, Costain's order book is up by 25%. Bill also highlighted that a fundamental shift is that the business want to consume IT and not finance IT departments. He went on to discuss that Costain are concentred on delivering value and in response have outsourced 1st line support and the leasing of PCs along with the adoption of Riverbed, Bespoke client interfaces, Enterprise Vault, and CRM. They are looking towards a hosting review and adopting VOIP, ISO 27001, and BIM. However, their business case is still short term of approximately 12 months return on investment. Bill also discussed that Costain are becoming more involved in the life cycle of the project and bringing together the major stakeholders in order to deliver value. Innovation within Costain is being driven by the Group Innovation and Knowledge Manager with top down buy-in through the capturing and dissemination of employee and supply chain ideas and cross-fertilisation. Bill also emphasised that safety is a number one priority and to help the strategy they are implementing new systems for competencies, e.g. RFID Smart cards to ensure trained and competent workers are performing work. Bill concluded by highlighting there are critical challenges but also opportunities that our society is facing which must be urgently addressed such as infrastructure being at breaking point, reducing household waste by 50% by 2020 and CO2 emissions by 2050, serious power shortages by 2017. He emphasised that businesses must provide solutions and IT can provide a helping hand.
 
Before lunch Colin Usher and Paul Coates (John McCall Architects - JMA) presented the adoption of BIM and Lean design within John McCall architectural practice through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership which is part-funded by the Government and is a Technology Strategy Board programme to enable innovation in business. Colin began by outlining that John McCall Architects is a small practice of 26 employees that work in the housing market of social housing in the areas of regeneration, housing associations, and sustainable housing design. He discussed that since the early days of computers and the start of CAD JMA adopted BS7550 management processes. However, more recently they identified an opportunity for major efficiency gains and the KTP is enabling an external academic institute to examine their business towards achieving these efficiency gains. In terms of achieving the efficiency gains, Colin discussed that they are taking a quality focus along with trying to adopt a Lean agenda to avoid the seven wastages of overprocessing, rework, overproduction, conveyancing, waiting, inventory, and motion. In trying to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur, JMA are examining the processes of how their business is operating from an external perspective. Next, Paul followed by discussing the key areas identified for improvement which include improving review procedures, email management, data management, changing hardcopy to electronic, production methodology (i.e. BIM), and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). To improve their review procedures JMA have adopted A3 sheets in-line with the Toyota method for the submission of proposals, i.e. understanding the current situation, identifying problems and goals, analysing, establishing future needs and recommendations. By formalising the checking process of the design and technical review Paul reported on the improvements that have been realised with design wisdom being allowed to be shared, potential problems being identified early, a record of findings being kept, and forming the basis for feedback and continual improvement. In terms of email management, he stated that JMA recognise that 90% of communication on a project occurs through email and therefore they are focused on integrating emails within the project rather than them existing separately. As a result, such improvements as the filing of emails having become intuitive, finding emails becomes easier through search engines, total project including emails are easier to archive, and the removal of duplicate emails have been achieved. Paul then discussed how JMA view data management as a 'data soup' where data can be viewed from different angles along with being stored in different places. JMA have identified two important areas of data - projects which is the most valuable and marketing that is also important. Paul described that JMA are rationalising this data through a database solution which has resulted in the maintaining of critical project information following archive, finding specific information and multiple results meeting a particular criteria becoming easier, and the potential automation of company documentation. They are also focused on moving towards the electronic documentation to reduce time in transit and paper storage space, simultaneous issuing, and the creation of a secure electronic backup. Next, it was discussed how JMA are proceeding with the adoption of BIM. Paul discussed how JMA have approached this by analysing different systems from both internal and external system benefits. BIM system tests (working from sketches and measured drawings, and presentation and rendering) were undertaken with various vendors and problems were identified that JMA believe the vendors would not have brought to their attention. Furthermore, trials of the systems were undertaken on a live project - Millachip Phase 3 - for product visualisation, consistency of information, 3D details investigation, extraction of schedules, and investigation of structure. Paul finally stated that JMA are also currently looking at Integrated Project Delivery with other consultants. Colin summarised that JMA has and aims to achieve a better product through design review, better integration of emails, quick interrogation of project information through the use of a database solution, a leaner production process through the use of BIM, safer and more efficient storage of documents by moving to electronic documentation, and discussions with external parties to find more efficient methods of operation, i.e. IPD. In concluding, he emphasised that all stakeholders need to be thinking about the lean construction movement while JMA are hoping that they will emerge from the recession in a strong position with effective processes, workflows, etc.
 
Following lunch Carl Abbott (University of Salford) and Dr Bilge Erdogan (Heriot-Watt University) discussed a study on futures of construction IT. Carl began by introducing the concept of futures thinking and previous attempts of predicting the future. It was emphasised that previous predictions have turned out to be incorrect and predicting the future is a difficult and impossible task. Therefore, Carl poised the question of whether one should stopping looking towards the future or alternatively, being more proactive. He highlighted that the science of predictions focuses just on projections of the present, while for a more proactive approach it is important to involve a wider-range of viewpoints to avoid a normal projection approach, thereby being more adaptable to prepare for the future rather than just predicting it. Carl introduced Shell's Scenario Planning approach that enabled them to prepare for the oil crisis in the 1970s by focusing on different areas through various scenarios and that this is the approach that was adopted for their work on futures of construction IT. Bilge then discussed the strategic study towards how the construction industry may look in 20 years time (2030) and how we can prepare for it. She began by outlining the origins of scenario planning from Plato (4th C BC), through Thomas Moore visionaries (1516), Molina futuribilia (1500s) and strategic planning tools in the military to research efforts in USA and France following World War II, i.e. 'thinking about the unthinkable' in terms of the approach in the USA and 'prospective thinking' in France. Bilge then discussed the work that emerged from the future generation of construction IT vision planning workshop held on 26th January, 2009 which brought together a multidisciplinary of individuals and adopted the STEEP (Society, Technology, Economic, Environment, Political) analysis to avoid a technological biased. She described that the workshop focused on recent incidents such as global warming, terrorism, economic downturn, oil price, Dubai situation, technology, etc. in relation to their potential impact on shaping the future and effecting construction. Bilge discussed that the forces of change in relation to the STEEP analysis were then identified along with the issues and trends arising from these driving forces of change from the Meta (global), Macro (construction industry), and Micro (IT in construction) levels. Bildge then presented four scenarios that were developed from these 1. Cuddly Dictatorship where the government intervenes but has human interest, 2. Business As Usual (trajectory of today) which is market driven with fragmented environment and resource management, 3. Long March with an interventionist economy and fragmented environment and resource management, and 4. Lean & Mean which is market driven with integrated environment and resource management. From these scenarios a desirable construction IT vision for 2030 was developed based on the perspectives of people process, technology and places. Bilge presented the desirable vision... "... the construction industry is supported by tools and technologies which are fully compatible, developed using open standard software and that put people at the centre of focus, thus enabling creativity, creating integrated business processes that are consistent and compatible; and facilitating less geographically dependent ways of working". Furthermore, she discussed that policies and actions have been identified for strategic planning (roadmap) to manage change and foster innovation, enhance communication and collaboration, improve education and process, achieve interoperable, integrated, holistic and user centred IT, and address sustainability. Bildge concluded that a strategic roadmap is to be developed based on the policies and actions identified. ... more>