Content area
Full text
1 The ICD project
This paper presents a new approach to fostering integrated teams developed by the integrated collaborative design (ICD) research project; a combined industry and academic initiative between Loughborough University and 12 construction companies with financial support from the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as part of the LINK integration in design and construction (IDAC) program which supported collaborative research between industry and academia.
The paper presents new thinking in supply chain management (SCM) derived from applied research, how this impacts on the flow of design information within projects, and its wider effect on strategic business relationships between companies that exist outside short-term project relationships. This approach places the design processes and the management of design information at the center of project management practice.
2 The need for change
2.1 Role of design
The construction industry is adept at delivering highly complex products. It differs from much of engineering in that its products are often bespoke and respond to the specific needs of individual customers. These products are also generally assembled in unfamiliar locations. Construction projects involve relationships between many organizations and thousands of processes. The industry has evolved highly developed methods of accommodating this complexity, with the evolution of many specialized roles and embedded relationships. These are mediated through well-established contractual arrangements, while the delivery and assembly of components to dispersed locations is being continually refined with improving working methods and assembly technologies.
However, design - that part of construction that needs to be in place before the physical work can begin - remains an area where the complexity of the process is not well understood or managed as physical production. In much of the construction industry, the act of design takes place as an ill-defined process - a "black box." It occurs at a particular time in the project process, is performed by different parties and is creative. But despite its importance, it is poorly understood and managed. ICD is concerned with understanding the act of design more fully, how design activities are dispersed through the supply chain and how these activities can be integrated across organizational and functional boundaries. By developing this understanding, methods of managing business and project relationships...