Nathan C. Wood

Work structuring as a method of managing handoffs has been extensively investigated as it applies to supply chains within a project. Work structuring techniques help teams manage the supply chain and improve project delivery. Existing case study research, however, tends to focus on particular silos within a project, such as curtain wall or doors, frames, and hardware. The authors hypothesize that work structuring techniques can also be effectively applied at a project-scale to improve overall… Show more

Work structuring as a method of managing handoffs has been extensively investigated as it applies to supply chains within a project. Work structuring techniques help teams manage the supply chain and improve project delivery. Existing case study research, however, tends to focus on particular silos within a project, such as curtain wall or doors, frames, and hardware. The authors hypothesize that work structuring techniques can also be effectively applied at a project-scale to improve overall project delivery. In every project, there is Boundary of Realization, or transition from completion of design intent to “make ready” for construction. This Boundary of Realization period is characterized by a multitude of formal informational hand-offs between design and construction stakeholders, dictated by contract obligations and ingrained behaviours. The authors use case studies to examine the implementation of work structuring techniques at a project scale, the set-up of contractual requirements, and the patterns and methods of communication. With an understanding of contractual relationships and work structuring techniques used to manage a project’s informational supply chain, the authors diagram methods for structuring informational hand-offs at the Boundary of Realization. Show less

The project Building Information Model (BIM), made up of component trade models, can be used to coordinate and sequence building elements prior to construction. The model should serve as a surrogate for prototyping the actual construction process and can also be used to implement the lean practice of filtering work for constraints prior to assigning work. The term ‘constructible BIM element’, referring to an element that can be built exactly as it is modeled, is defined to focus on the use of… Show more

The project Building Information Model (BIM), made up of component trade models, can be used to coordinate and sequence building elements prior to construction. The model should serve as a surrogate for prototyping the actual construction process and can also be used to implement the lean practice of filtering work for constraints prior to assigning work. The term ‘constructible BIM element’, referring to an element that can be built exactly as it is modeled, is defined to focus on the use of the model for constraint removal and visual planning. Using an in-depth case study, incomplete assignments from Weekly Work Plans were identified and their root causes were mapped onto their associated BIM objects. This spatial analysis makes explicit and begins to quantify the connection between constructability of BIM elements and the variability of work execution in the field. Learning from the underlying patterns, the authors propose process changes for teams to more effectively identify constructability issues in BIM models, and thus leverage the BIM process to improve the reliability of field work planning. Show less

This paper is about restoring confidence in shared risk and reward. In such projects, characterized by multiparty contracts, clients bear the risk of costs exceeding budgets and the project’s design professionals and constructors risk doing the work for no profits. A small chance of either occurring might dissuade the parties from embracing shared risk and reward contracts. In a recent study by the authors, of four shared risk and reward projects, one exceeded budget. The client paid 6.4% more… Show more

This paper is about restoring confidence in shared risk and reward. In such projects, characterized by multiparty contracts, clients bear the risk of costs exceeding budgets and the project’s design professionals and constructors risk doing the work for no profits. A small chance of either occurring might dissuade the parties from embracing shared risk and reward contracts. In a recent study by the authors, of four shared risk and reward projects, one exceeded budget. The client paid 6.4% more than expected and the risk pool members made no profit. Adding other shared risk and reward projects on which the authors companies have worked, the failure rate was 15%. Compared to traditional practice, clients may have received value for money even on these failed projects and so want to continue shared risk and reward, but may be unable to attract more experienced companies in the face of this probability of profit failure. The objective of this paper is to identify the factors that contributed to the failures and to propose counter measures to prevent reoccurrence. Failure to follow target value design principles is found to be a primary contributor to cost overruns on shared risk and reward projects. Show less