Adopting Lean Practices in the Architectural/Engineering Industry

David Haynes, AIA, LEED AP, Director of Consulting at Ideate, Inc. has spoken at numerous conferences about technology and business issues that affect the AECO (Architects, Engineers, Contractors, and Owners) industry. Recently, David spoke at Autodesk University and Revit Technology Conference about adopting Lean Business Practices in the A/E (Architects/Engineers) community.

In the most recent AECbytes issue, David’s article addresses bringing the best practices learned in other industries (manufacturing) to A/E design workflow practices. This article is a must read for everyone in the A/E community looking to maximize profits, reduce waste, create a better design experience for customers, and increase customer retention.
 

AECbytes Viewpoint Article: Adopting Lean Practices in the Architectural/Engineering Industry

Recommended Reading: AIA 2010 Virtual Convention and Expo Overview by AECbytes

Lachmi Khemlani, founder and editor of AECbytes, did a nice rundown regarding the AIA 2010 Virtual Convention and Expo. Click here to read Lachmi's complete review.

Be sure to read all the way down to the discussion of 3D printing/software choices. There are two images of 3D models printed with Z Corporation's line of ZPrinters, including an Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 24-hour solar study - very interesting.

If you are in the Sacramento, California area, don't miss the July 1 Sacramento Revit User Group: 3D Printing for AEC. Click here for complete details and registration link.

- Craig Dodge, Director Sales, sales@ideateinc.com

Model Based Estimating to Inform Target Value Design

Saurabh Tiwari, Josh Odelson, Alan Watt, Atul Khanzode
DPR Construction

The use of Target Value Design (TVD) or Target Costing is one of the focus areas of the application of Lean Construction methods to large healthcare projects. The Lean Construction Institute defines Target Costing as a practice which incorporates cost as a factor in design to minimize waste and create value. The cardinal rule is that the Target Cost for a project should never be exceeded. In most traditional project delivery approaches, cost follows design, but on projects where the TVD approach is used, cost should dictate what gets designed to ensure that the target cost is not exceeded. As a result, rapid cost feedback to the design team is paramount in this process. One mechanism for providing this rapid cost feedback is extracting quantities from the virtual model and model-based estimates. In this article, we discuss the lessons currently being learned in applying Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools, such as model-based estimating, for TVD on a large healthcare project in Northern California.

Project Background
Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley (SMCCV) is a $320 million, six-story, 130-patient bed replacement hospital in Castro Valley, CA, for Sutter Health. Sutter Health adopted Lean Project Delivery for all its projects in early 2003 and has been promoting the use of the Integrated Form of Agreement (IFOA) as the contract method for project delivery. The IFOA approach is similar to the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) framework promoted by the AIA. DPR Construction is the general contractor and one of 11 members of this IFOA/IPD team for the SMCCV project. DPR was selected as the builder and part of the IPD team for this project having successfully completed a variety of Sutter Health projects, including the Camino Medical Office Building in Mountain View, CA. The Camino Mountain View project has served as an early, and very successful, example of the implementation of Lean Construction methods and the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for healthcare projects.

excerpt reprinted by permission of www.aecbytes.com. For the complete article click
http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2009/ModelBasedEstimating.html