METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK TO IMPROVE PPP PROJECTS

The Public–Private Partnership (PPP) plays a significant role in the construction industry. It is of special importance because of its weight in the global economy and the lack of funding for major projects. The PPP concept, as a procurement strategy, is successful only if the major stakeholders, namely the public sector, private consortium, and end–users are all satisfied with project outcomes. There have been reported cases of problems associated with the initial stages of the PPP process in terms of bidding costs and anticipated costs of construction and operation. The banks’ attention is currently centered on the promotors’ financial stability rather than on project quality. The key issue is to improve the efficiency for the whole building lifecycle. In this context, BIMM philosophy (not just Building Information Modeling but also Information Management) may be a powerful tool. In other words, is there room to put this concept in practice without jeopardizing service quality, innovation and efficiency? The answer to this question is explored in this paper. The use of Technical Sheets for PPP procurement like policy models may enhance systematic and integrated management of the whole building process. This technical framework allows one to collect project data, grouped into three areas: design, construction, and operation. In so doing, a Public Agency may assess project quality

ANDIL experience for building process optimization through an efficient data management / L’esperienza di ANDIL per l’ottimizzazione del processo edilizio attraverso una gestione efficiente delle informazioni

A building process optimization needs a systemic approach in order to correctly manage its complexity. Despite many important contributions have been provided in the last few years, both from a procedural point of view and from a normative one, building process management is often fragmented. This may cause repercussions on building quality and inefficiency in cost and time management. That is why, the research project INNOVance has developed an unambiguous classification system for every object and informative attribute for construction, creating a unique database to smartly store and share information. This through a proper definition of the content of data sheets which can be collected and easily shared together with their complementary attributes by different stakeholders. Unambiguous language and standardized information, in and of themselves, increase building process efficiency. If we then consider that data exchange is possible through the exploitation of a user friendly web portal and some interoperable web services, efficiency and economic savings in the entire construction chain could be extremely relevant. The present paper describes the results achieved during the last year of the research project, in terms of information standardization and data collection

A collaborative contracting framework supported by BIM and Lean

The construction industry has been criticised as being inefficient and fragmented. In response to the continuous dissatisfaction of many client organisations, recent decades have seen the emergence of a spectrum of contracts that embrace different degrees of collaboration promoting the development of integrated approaches to contracts and relationships. In parallel, two other independent significant developments arose to challenge the silo mentality within the industry; Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Lean management. This research explored the integration of these three initiatives with the purpose of incentivising clients to step into a new era of collaboration in construction supported by digital lean processes and advanced technologies

Integrated processes for the evaluation and optimization of building performances

An efficient way to reduce the consumption of materials and energy in buildings is represented by an improvement of building processes. A regulated information management is essential to avoid delays, cost overrun, errors and lack of performances during the whole building life-cycle. Thus, the adoption of an integrated design process is becoming of great importance; BIM, considered as building information modelling and management, could be a way to perform such integrated processes. A central repository for project data and information could be advantageous if knowledge is exchanged between different stakeholders (e.g. through IFC or gbXML). Moreover, BIM supports building performance analyses and evaluations, allowing, for instance, simulation of energy performance, computation of environmental impacts and estimation of costs. In this way, it is possible to compare several options and choose the optimal ones. The importance of the link between BIM and sustainable buildings is underlined by the state of the art, such as the Green Overlay to the RIBA Outline Plan of Work, the series 10 of COBIM related to energy analysis, and the BIM Guide for energy performance developed by GSA. An Italian case study for the improvement of the building process is Innovance, a research project with the aim of developing a national database for the construction sector. In order to improve the collection, storing, management and sharing of data, an unambiguous classification system and standardized technical sheets have been developed and a web portal has been designed to ensure the interaction among stakeholders

An overview of BIM uptake in Asian developing countries

BIM is increasingly in demand within the construction industry internationally in recent years. The application of the technology reconciles several problems within the project teams such as delays, rework, miscommunication, and other related to inefficiencies that affect project success. While it is actively employed by the majority of the developed countries, however, BIM is not as advanced in most developing countries. Therefore, this paper reviews BIM uptake in some of the Asian developing countries and examines the extent to which it is implemented in these regions. Prevalent challenges were considered with recommendations towards addressing the issues of low level of BIM adoption that distinguishes the developing from the developed countries. This paper will provide some insights of how BIM is evolving within those countries considering the drivers and barriers in adopting the technology and how this is likely to change in the near future

Building process optimization through an efficient data management

A building process optimization needs a systemic approach in order to correctly manage its complexity. Despite many important contributions have been provided in the last few years, both from a procedural point of view and from a normative one, building process management is often fragmented. This may cause repercussions on building quality and inefficiency in cost and time management. That is why, the research project INNOVance has developed an unambiguous classification system for every object and informative attribute for construction, creating a unique database to smartly store and share information. This through a proper definition of the content of data sheets which can be collected and easily shared together with their complementary attributes by different stakeholders. Unambiguous language and standardized information, in and of themselves, increase building process efficiency. If we then consider that data exchange is possible through the exploitation of a user friendly web portal and some interoperable web services, efficiency and economic savings in the entire construction chain could be extremely relevant. The present paper describes the results achieved during the last year of the research project, in terms of information standardization and data collection