INTEGRATED PROJECT DELIVERY - A RESEARCH REPORT
As detailed in last month’s issue of CES, Sutter Health is a community-based healthcare provider, which works on a non-profit basis. Although there are many other case studies of integrated project delivery (IPD), Sutter Health is considered to have pioneered the concept of integrated lean and BIM. This particular project benefitted from improved collaboration through IPD between Sutter Health, the main contractor (DPR) and other supply chain partners (Dave et al., 2013). Three semi-structured interviews of leading practitioners were carried out to establish the current state of adoption of IPD on construction projects. Although the research methodology involved gathering data and information from secondary and primary sources, this article focusses on the qualitative data around key IPD themes.
As qualitative data is considered meaningful due to its diversity of opinions (Gibbs, 2018), three semi-structured interviews were conducted via Teams, with each interview lasting about an hour. This method has become fashionable for any method other than doing a survey, such as conducting semistructured interviews (Dey, 1993). As qualitative data involves sheer amount of information (Gibbs, 2018), samples were taken around the key IPD themes/sub-themes. The interviews and transcripts were recorded and as Gibbs (2018) questions the accuracy of such transcripts, the transcripts were read a few times along with the recorded interview.
To protect the identity of interviewees, they are designated pseudonyms (Liam, Imran and Victoria) in the report. The participants were chosen due to their extensive backgrounds in lean, BIM and project management.
As the projects becomes more complex, it becomes harder to handle complexities, as argued by Williams (2002), and it becomes impossible to apply the same techniques on different projects (Wysocki, 2007). Sutter Health demonstrated how adoption of such traditional approaches resulted in it getting over the budget in the first one and a half year (Fischer, 2017).
As the projects becomes more complex, it becomes harder to handle complexities... Sutter Health demonstrated how adoption of such traditional approaches resulted in it getting over the budget in the first one and a half year.
Although Imran and Liam have agreed with the same point by highlighting benefits of this switch from traditional to integrated approach by using lean tools, Victoria expands more on these traditional approaches and the challenges. She thinks traditional approaches, such as the waterfall model, work as long as one thing follows another. “The projects, at the beginning, start off being quite simple, but they become bigger and scarier. They have more impact, more stakeholders, more dependencies, more everything, and that becomes harder to manage. That simple project management model needs to also move along to evolve, so that you see different, more agile processes.”
For Liam, it is more the effective utilisation of staff and equipment that results in better quality control when teams started working in a more collaborative manner, “so there’s no split between site engineers and surveyors, which does make it easier. If you look at the way that it’s been traditionally done, you’d have a surveying department and then you’d have a separate site engineering department that will fall under two different management streams, which makes it a little bit difficult.”
Imran made a reference to transition from traditional non-lean processes to lean processes of data capture: “Back in the ’90’s, we were still going on site with a disto and a tape to measure building surveys and have been using total stations. Fast forward to today and we’re using laser scanners and other such advanced technology.” For Sutter Health, the adoption of technology such as laser scanners and inclusion of key stakeholders was key to IPD (Eastman et al., 2011).
Although the transition from traditional data capture to lean data captures techniques was completed in the ’90s for Liam, it wasn’t until quite recently for Connect Scaffolding (KOREC, 2023). This is most likely where the resistance to change comes, as highlighted by Liker (2020). According to Victoria, “some people have been using pencil and paper and Excel on their ERP system…let’s go for a bit of basic physics. Nothing moves unless it has to and it’s the same with people.”
Adoption of technology and effective utilisation of staff/equipment
When it comes to the adoption of technology and lean processes, Liker (2020) has attributed it to increased productivity. This increased productivity is a consequence of effective adoption of tools, which helps complete activities with less time and minimal effort (Womack and Jones, 2003). Dave, et al. (2013) reported a similar increased productivity for Sutter Health through adoption of technology such as laser scanners. Although Sutter Health started exploring lean technology as early as 2003, its Castro Valley site used more advanced lean tools (Dave et al., 2013). Similar lean tools were successfully applied at Saint Francis Hospital (project area of 18,580m2 ) by HOK. By adopting the latest technology within laser scanning, HOK reported a boost of 90% in the productivity.
Eric Bogenschutz, senior design technology manager at HOK, reported: “Using the BLK2GO, we can complete the same amount of work that we used to be able to complete in the past in a tenth of the amount of time” (Wilson, 2022).
Liam talked about the adoption of Leica’s iCON application to allow his team to make better utilisation of equipment and staff on site, hence improving their productivity and efficiency, instead of using Excel to compare their total station readings and later working out to see if there have been any deviations from design. He said: “There will be some tolerances where they will have to depend on what they’re setting out. What we’re deciding is how to produce real time information on site, to show the inspector, for example, and say these tolerances have been met.”
Imran has also seen a significant increase in their productivity, when he talked about their recent switch to the latest scanners available within the market. “Our ratios of site time to office time have reduced significantly in the advent of laser scanning. We could have been on site in a multi floor commercial building for a week, now we can be a couple of days or a day sometimes.” For Victoria, automation, such as Spot the robotic dog, has provided a much safer environment for their team to work in.
In her own words: “With your autonomous vehicle, you can send a machine out there to go and collect your data. They can process the data without having to go and live and work in a potentially hostile environment.” Balfour Beatty used this automation concept by employing Spot at its Derby site, with its digital plant manager reporting: “Out on its own in the wet and windy weather, we’ve completed its first solo field walk mission, with a 12 scan set up, all done in 18 minutes of scanning time and 10 minutes of travel.” (KOREC, 2022).
Scan to BIM and estimation
Cost estimation using BIM was effectively used by Sutter Health and this ability within BIM provided the team to estimate cost, material and labour (Fischer, 2017). BIM provides a function to automate this estimation (Dave et al., 2013), while allowing a link to components of model to per unit cost (Hardin, 2015). This feature is helpful in reducing dependence of prediction, hence yielding better estimates (RICS, 2014). Both Liam and Imran strongly agreed with this capability of BIM, with Liam talking about their plans to use scanners within the BIM environment to help them calculate cut lengths and then pushing that through to the fabrication/ procurement process: “Rather than each support being delivered to site deliberately oversize, which is then cut, we are exploring how can we calculate these cut lengths.”
This approach clearly demonstrates how Liam and his team are working to reduce waste on site by adopting BIM technology, while appreciating the caution needed. “It does introduce more risks; on site you have very little flexibility. If there are any sort of practical problems, you have to go through a full redesign or refabricating that support.” Liam also mentioned how they were planning to adopt Leica’s RTC360. “We will be scanning an element, issuing the point cloud to the manufacturer and they will be fabricating the connection piece between two different elements.”
Imran also provided convincing arguments on the benefits of the latest generation laser scanners and how they have been able to create better estimates for their project. “We’ve got two Trimble X7s and the difference we’ve noticed was remarkable in terms of how quick the registration process is. We sometimes don’t even use control. That’s the biggest jump in technology, the on-board registration. The sheer amount of data that you can capture, it mitigates you possibly missing information on site.”
Sutter Health also adopted laser scanning to carry out its asbuilt surveys of various elements before these were enclosed. Similarly, Target value design was employed by Sutter Health, which incorporated BIM (Fischer, 2017). Victoria emphasised on this value element by saying: “The modelling that you get out of it makes our predictions a lot better. This provides added value to your client and that is going to involve a bit of client education in that respect.”
Clash detection
Clash detection is considered low-hanging fruit among the other benefits of BIM, where automatic detection works as an excellent tool to detect design errors (Eastman et al., 2018). Using clash detection not only allows designers to detect errors but also help contractors to rectify these issues to avoid any financial loss caused due to these errors (Smith, 2009). Dave et al., 2013 argued how the application of lean processes and BIM tools help minimise waste on site due to improved design and clash detection ability. Using Navisworks, Sutter Health managed to avoid clashes in time before commencement of work (Aliaari, M. and Najarian, E., 2013).
Clash detection is considered low-hanging fruit among the other benefits of BIM, where automatic detection works as an excellent tool to detect design errors.
The use of a virtual model by Sutter Health also helped detect clashes and conflicts and subsequently reduced these clashes (Eastman et al., 2011). Imran talked about the effectiveness of this feature and linked effective use of this tool to waste reduction on site. “Clash detection is massive. It’s all about reducing waste on site, isn’t it? Then the budget should be more accurate.”
Collaboration/Big Room/ contractual approach
Collaboration is paramount to be able to deliver an integrated project, where it is essential that different team members working on the project are given an empowering environment to achieve this. On a larger project, teams may need to relocate to a single larger office, referred to as a Big Room. Collaboration has a direct link with the frequency of interaction and is considered as the assembly line of ideas and information (Fischer, 2017). Dave et al., 2013 have also discussed how traditional construction processes Sutter from breakdown of communication and how the use of BIM and communication technologies can enhance collaboration by providing one platform to different team members from different regions.
Collaboration was one of the key ideas of Sutter Health (Lichtig, 2005), with it implementing Big Rooms and online collaboration tools, including Webex and GoToMeeting (Eastman et al., 2011). The adoption of a web portal to allow team members to exchange different methods and tools added value to this concept of collaboration (Lichtig, 2005). Dozens of gigabytes of documents and 3D models were shared with other team members working from different locations by hosting this data on a server.
The use of a virtual model by Sutter Health was a key feature, enabling improved collaboration between team members.
The use of a virtual model by Sutter Health was another key feature, enabling improved collaboration between team members. The use of Big Room for face-to-face meetings coupled with virtual meetings enhanced a collaborative approach to identifying issues and problems (Eastman et al.,2011).
This level of collaboration resonated with each interviewee. Liam said: “We have a folder within a server we can put information, data, etc. Whatever we want, they will be able to download it onto their tablet.”
Imran also gave an interesting example on collaboration, which was similar to Sutter Health’s use of Webex and GotoMeeting. “During COVID-19, there was a massive shift in the way we work. A few years ago, I wouldn’t be talking to you on this Teams call. You’ve got information up, you’re sharing your screen…I can call the client and we can discuss it, and I can move my cursor and save this point here. Rather than them all get in the car and drive to the site, they can sit around a Teams call and navigate through it. There’s a carbon footprint.” Victoria’s focus of discussion was more about the concept of Big Room and contractual sides, where she talked about how the margins on these projects are so low and how it is heavily commoditised. “It’s a buyer’s market. You want to minimise the risk to you in your business and on a lot of the contracts you pass the risk on to the other person, to your subcontractor and things like that. And some of those contracts aren’t very friendly. To establish one standard way of doing things, you want to get those people, the experts in the room. And that’s what lean is.”
Investment, big data and training
Ikuabe et al., 2020 have discussed how the construction sector has been reluctant to the adoption of technology when other sectors such as health and banking sectors have embraced it successfully. They have recommended investing in the use of technology to address the issues within construction processes. This adoption and infusion of this technology is expected to increase productivity and reduce waste (McKinsey Global Institute, 2017). According to McKinsey Global Institute, 2017, some firms have begun to adopt technologies such as virtual reality and drones, however, a 2016 survey by Associated General Contractors of America showed only 7% of firms were investing in BIM.
Following the Northridge, California earthquake, a seismic safety legalisation-imposed deadlines on design and construction of care facilities and Sutter Health committed to fulfilling these deadlines by having a capital investment programme of US$6bn, although it created a strain on resources. Sutter Health encouraged the use of 3D technologies to eliminate risks in the design and construction stages, but also to help streamline information digitally (Eastman et al., 2011). For Liam, the availability of funds is still a big constraint, in particular when the adoption of technology is not straightforward and cheap.
“Financial constraints are one of the biggest issues. Survey kit is not cheap. One of the biggest barriers, in my opinion, is training on the new technology that’s been introduced into the workforce.”
Imran talked about the successful adoption of such 3D technologies but argues how they still face issues when it comes to big data and the availability of high processing power. “People that are selling these things, they show you the point cloud but don’t tell you about big data.” Victoria gave a similar argument: “Even just from a storage perspective, imagine just our LIDAR data sets. How huge were they? And that was just the basic raw data.”
While Liam talked about how the adoption of new technology is interlinked with training the requirements of staff, Victoria talked about change management when it comes to addressing these issues. “You can have changes that come on a company level, but you still need every single person in that company to say yes. You can design the most perfect ERP system but if people won’t use it, it’s failed. The change hasn’t had its desired effect.”
Sutter Health made sure its staff had the necessary training in LPS tools and organised training sessions for this purpose. Learning and training has been at the core of Toyota and when Yamashina became president, he made the development of skills one of his 10 management principles (Liker, 2020). Both Liam and Imran agreed with this philosophy and talked about how they ensure their staff are competent in what they do on sites, with Liam saying: “If there’s a gap in knowledge and there’s a requirement around that, then we would need to put them on some internal/external training to address it.”
Interoperability is considered a cause of numerous issues including increased costs where different stakeholders are unable to share and collaborate information/ data due to interoperability issues (Eastman et al., 2011). Interoperability between tools is also a major challenge when integrating performance analysis. As a result, a significant amount of time is spent in coordinating information, when this time could be used to help make informed decisions (Sakikhales and Stravoravdis, 2015).
Liam talked about how a client had interoperability issues when they were provided with files in E57 and PTS formats (laser scanner data format): “What they’re saying is, the software we use only runs off a msz file. I’ve never heard of that type of file.” Imran talked more about different versions of Revit and how clients using an older version of the software had been one of their biggest problems. “If our client is working in 2019, we’re forced to actually work with a more inferior release of the product in order to create the Revit model for them.”
Unlike Liam and Imram, Victoria believes there has been improvement when it comes to these issues and that standardisation is key. “These are still there, but I think there’s a lot of steps that are being done to overcome this. For example, geotechnical data. You can have lots of things; you have data about soil, soil moisture, contents, but there’s still the standards of things like AGS 4.”
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