The impact of a design management training initiative on project performance

Over recent years there has been a significant drive away from traditional procurement routes where contractors find themselves with an increasing responsibility for the control of the design - a process they have had little experience in managing. Yet this is an area of significant opportunity for those contractors who can adapt quickly and effectively to the changing construction market. However, many current processes are insufficient to manage today’s demanding and fast moving projects. The paper reflects on the deployment of a design management training initiative to improve performance in a major UK civil and building design and construction company. It investigates the impact of the training initiative, critical practices and a suite of 25 tools on design management performance across the company. It highlights benefits delivered by the initiative as well as the practices and tools crucial to successful design management. The paper also explores the range, significance and hierarchy of implementation barriers that affect the success of design management practices and reports on strategies that have been used on a case study project to overcome such barriers. The paper is likely to be of interest to those involved in design management and the development of tools and practices to help the industry improve design management performance

An IT-based approach to managing the construction brief

The present paper gives a comprehensive overview of the CoBrITe1 project. The aims and objectives of the project are described, followed by a detailed definition and characterization of the briefing process. An overview is then given of the current technology used by the CoBrITe industrial partners to support briefing. The paper also introduces five key areas that can promote effective briefing: communication, information capture, information referencing, information representation, and change management. Finally, the CoBrITe system demonstrator is presented

Key influences of innovation magnitude and mode

There is plenty of recognition of the need for more innovation in the construction sector. Increasing levels of competition, rapid technological and regulatory change, the current economic climate and environmental concern all accentuate this requirement. In response, many construction firms are seeking ways to manage innovation more actively and conscientiously in order to remain competitive. However, there is little practical guidance for construction professionals on how to make innovation flourish in their teams. Those who aspire to improve the management of innovation will need to understand how innovation happens, what are the driving forces and how can they be influenced. This paper reports on an empirical investigation that was undertaken to explore some of these questions, specifically the role of organisational climate, customers, risk and complexity on the levels of innovation in teams and the various modes of innovation that prevail - with the aim of providing practitioners with clearer guidance on where efforts should be focused. The findings suggest that there are a limited number of fundamental factors that significantly influence innovation magnitude and mode. For industry professionals it is hoped that this stimulates debate and assists in establishing a much needed foundation for improved innovation management in construction

Delivering learning and tools to improve design management in practice

Difficulties in managing the construction design process are preventing the UK construction industry from delivering projects on time, to budget and to the specified quality. The paper reports on a research project being undertaken at a major UK civil and building design and construction company to develop and deploy a training initiative capable of making significant improvements to its design management performance and deliver benefits to many project stakeholders. It describes the development, content and deployment of training material and a suite of twenty-five design management tools to drive change throughout the organisation. The paper is likely to be of interest to those involved in design management and the development of tools and practices to help the industry improve design management performance

Assessing the impact of occupant behaviour on the electricity consumption for lighting and small power in office buildings

Lighting and small power will typically account for more than half of the total electricity consumption in an office building. Significant variations in electricity used by different tenants suggest that occupants can have a significant impact on the electricity demand for these end-uses. Yet current modelling techniques fail to represent the interaction between occupant and the building environment in a realistic manner. Understanding the impact of such behaviours is crucial to improve the methodology behind current energy modelling techniques, aiming to minimise the significant gap between predicted and in-use performance of buildings. A better understanding of the impact of occupant behaviour on electricity consumption can also inform appropriate energy saving strategies focused on behavioural change. This paper reports on a study aiming to assess the intent of occupants to switch off lighting and appliances when not in use in office buildings. Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the assessment takes the form of a questionnaire and investigates three predictors to behaviour individually: 1) behavioural attitude; 2) subjective norms; 3) perceived behavioural control. The paper details the development of the assessment procedure and discusses preliminary findings from the study. The questionnaire results are compared against electricity consumption data for individual zones within a multi-tenanted office building. Initial results demonstrate a statistically significant correlation between perceived behavioural control and energy consumption for lighting and small powe

Analysis of electricity consumption for lighting and small power in office buildings

There is significant evidence to suggest that buildings do not perform as well as expected, and this is commonly referred to as the "performance gap". Energy compliance calculations for Building Regulations in England and Wales do not include sources of energy consumption in buildings such as small power, catering, external lighting and vertical transportation (i.e. lifts and escalators). These so called "unregulated" loads are therefore rarely included in building energy models, and the lack of feedback regarding the in-use performance of buildings makes it harder for designers to quantify their impact on the overall energy consumption of a building. Aiming to address these issues, this paper provides an analysis of monitored electricity consumption in two multi-tenanted office buildings, with one tenant in common in both buildings. This paper focuses on tenant electricity consumption, including lighting and small power. Detailed analysis of the monitored data demonstrates significant variation between the electricity consumption of different tenants occupying the same building whilst performing similar activities. Elements such as lighting controls, hours of occupancy and management decisions are observed to have a significant impact on such variations. Further analysis of half-hourly energy consumption data is also provided, in addition to a detailed breakdown of small power energy consumption due to individual office equipment. Future work will build on this study and aim to develop evidence based benchmarks for energy consumption in office buildings. It will include a "tailoring" component allowing the benchmarks to be adjusted according to profiles of occupancy and management behaviour, as well as workstation density and the specification of energy consuming equipment. It is expected that such benchmarks will inform designers about the impact of each of these parameters on the measured energy consumption of buildings

Benchmarking small power energy consumption in UK office buildings: a review of data published in CIBSE guide F

CIBSE’s Guide F is a widely recognised guidance document on energy efficiency in buildings, which includes energy consumption benchmarks for small power equipment in offices. In its recently published 3rd edition, existing power demand benchmarks for office equipment were revised to better represent appliances found in contemporary office buildings. Other key sources of data such as typical operating hours for equipment, however, have been omitted. This paper compares the benchmarks published in both the 2nd and 3rd editions of Guide F against a set of measurements of small power loads in a real UK office building. Load profiles for the monitored equipment are also presented to supplement the information included in the new Guide F. Practical application: With the increasing demand for more realistic predictions of operational energy use in buildings, small power should not be disregarded since it typically accounts for more than 20% of total energy used in offices. Furthermore, small power loads can have a significant impact on the cooling loads of a building. This paper reviews existing benchmarks, focusing on the new update to CIBSE Guide F, comparing available benchmarks against newly gathered monitored data. Detailed load profiles for individual office equipment are also provided, which can be used by designers to inform better predictions of small power consumption in office buildings

Predicted vs. actual energy performance of non-domestic buildings: using post-occupancy evaluation data to reduce the performance gap

With the increasing demand for more energy efficient buildings, the construction industry is faced with the challenge to ensure that the energy performance predicted during the design stage is achieved once a building is in use. There is, however, significant evidence to suggest that buildings are not performing as well as expected and initiatives such as PROBE and CarbonBuzz aim to illustrate the extent of this so called ‘performance gap’. This paper discusses the underlying causes of discrepancies between energy modelling predictions and in-use performance of occupied buildings (after the twelve month liability period). Many of the causal factors relate to the use of unrealistic input parameters regarding occupancy behaviour and facilities management in building energy models. In turn, this is associated with the lack of feedback to designers once a building has been constructed and occupied. The paper aims to demonstrate how knowledge acquired from Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) can be used to produce more accurate energy performance models. A case study focused specifically on lighting, small power and catering equipment in a high density office building is analysed and presented. Results show that by combining monitoring data with predictive energy modelling, it was possible to increase the accuracy of the model to within 3% of actual electricity consumption values. Future work will seek to use detailed POE data to develop a set of evidence based benchmarks for energy consumption in office buildings. It is envisioned that these benchmarks will inform designers on the impact of occupancy and management on the actual energy consumption of buildings. Moreover, it should enable the use of more realistic input parameters in energy models, bringing the predicted figures closer to reality

Lifting wing in constructing tall buildings: aerodynamic testing

This paper builds on previous research by the authors which determined the global state-of-the-art of constructing tall buildings by surveying the most active specialist tall building professionals around the globe. That research identified the effect of wind on tower cranes as a highly ranked, common critical issue in tall building construction. The research reported here presents a design for a “Lifting Wing,” a uniquely designed shroud which potentially allows the lifting of building materials by a tower crane in higher and more unstable wind conditions, thereby reducing delay on the programmed critical path of a tall building. Wind tunnel tests were undertaken to compare the aerodynamic performance of a scale model of a typical “brick-shaped” construction load (replicating a load profile most commonly lifted via a tower crane) against the aerodynamic performance of the scale model of the Lifting Wing in a range of wind conditions. The data indicate that the Lifting Wing improves the aerodynamic performance by a factor of up to 50%

Review of benchmarks for small power consumption in office buildings

There is significant evidence to suggest that buildings consume more energy than initially predicted during the design phase of building procurement. With increasing efforts to reduce the energy consumption associated with the operation of buildings, it is vital that these predictions be improved to represent the operation of buildings more realistically. One approach to bridge this gap would be to include energy consumption due to small power equipment in the energy models. Typically ignored, these end-uses usually represent between 13% and 44% of the total electricity consumption in an office building, according to Energy Consumption Guide 19. Currently there is little data available related to the electricity consumption of small power equipment in the context of office buildings. Existing data published in CIBSE Guide F is over a decade old and the use of office equipment and its associated technologies has changed significantly over this period. This lack of up-to-date benchmarks makes it increasingly difficult for designers to include small power consumption accurately within in their energy models. Following a detailed review of existing benchmarks for small power in office buildings, this paper presents a set of monitored data for a range of equipment commonly found in contemporary office buildings. Key metrics include details of power consumption and hours-in-use for both ICT equipment and kitchen appliances. In addition, a comparison of different laptops of varying specifications is provided and their subsequent impact on productivity is also discussed