I just returned from the excellent, inaugural two day Symposium on Technology for Design and Construction sponsored by Northwestern University’s Master of Project Management Program.
The 3 biggest differences between this Symposium and July’s BIMForum 2011 Chicago and June’s 2011 Revit Technology Conference?
The pace: Each speaker was given 30 minutes to present and field questions, which kept the topics and delivery sharp and on-target.
The mix: The attendees included Owners, Researchers, Academics, Practitioners, Developers, Vendors, IT Professionals and Students from Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Facilities Management.
The cost: The event is very affordable at just $200 for full registration and $25 for students.
Be sure to mark your August 2012 calendars for what will surely be an annual event.
If you would like to speak at – or co-sponsor – the Symposium on Technology for Design and Construction 2012 please contact Professor Raymond J. Krizek jrkrizek@northwestern.edu
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Contractors kicked-off the first day of the conference, Thursday, August 18, 2011 with a series of talks focusing on Building Information Modeling.
1:00-1:30pm Kevin Bredeson – Pepper Construction and John Jurewicz – Lend Lease/MPM Faculty
1:30-2:00pm Kevin Labreque – Limbach
Kevin Labreque’s talk on eliminating waste in BIM deployment included this gem (from Dennis Sowards’ Lean Construction Practices presentation): the “8 Basic Types of Waste to Attack”
8 Types of Waste (Muda) to Attack
- Defects in products: Rework, Field orders & Punch Lists
- Overproduction: Fabricating material or ordering it too soon, JIC thinking
- Inventory: Material stored at site or yard, work in process, unused tools & parts, forms and stashes
- Unnecessary processing: Double & triple estimates from suppliers, redundant or unnecessary reporting, multi signatures on forms, material requisitions or time sheets, any non-value added steps
- Unnecessary movement of people: Treasure hunts, looking for files, poor layout of work area (ergonomics)
- Transport of goods: moving material, tools or parts, handing off work between crews
- Waiting: Crews waiting for equipment, plans, RFI’s, field orders, or material, payroll waiting for time sheets, equipment waiting to fabricate material. Plus an eighth:
- Unused employee creativity
Kevin nailed it when he said: “Technology is great – but behind these tools is a person and therefore, the integration of all these people.” Amen.
2:00-2:30pm Sandy Damasco – Lend Lease
Sandy stated emphatically: “The biggest issue isn’t the technology – it’s the adoption (of it.)”
3:00-3:30pm Stacy Scopano – Trimble
Stacy’s talk was remarkably informative, entertaining and poignant – all in one.
He acknowledged that other industries serve as a metaphor for our own and proceeded to use the example of Pac Man (us in 1980) and Gears of War III (kids today;) single-player vs. collaborative gaming; digital immigrants vs. digital natives.
Keep your eye out for Stacy Scopano and the work he’s doing at Trimble. One of our industry’s bright lights.
3:30-4:00pm Dan Klancnik – Walsh Construction
4:00-4:30pm Fred Cardenas – Meridian Systems
4:30-5:00pm Neil Parker – EcoDomus Inc.
5:00-7:00pm Reception
8:00-8:30am John Moebes – Crate & Barrel
As Director of Construction for Crate & Barrel, John Moebes kicked-off the Friday, August 19, 2011 talks focusing on Technology Management.
Moebes travels extensively presenting C&B’s dedication to and involvement with BIM, IPD, Design-Build, prefabrication and sustainability on their museum-like store projects.
I have seen him speak at least a dozen times and no two presentations have been quite the same. They have all been excellent and compelling arguments for the use of BIM and IPD to eliminate waste in design and construction.
Here are Moebes’ “10 Changes to Make to Management on Projects using BIM”
1. Establish what the BIM model will be used for
2. Have BIM standards at the very beginning
3. Push BIM and offer BIM
Crate & Barrel have become BIM evangelists. Your project team needs them too.
4. Get final BIM content as early as practical.
5. Use swim lanes and value-stream mapping
Crate & Barrel knows when to have their structural consultant and fabricator cross over the line to know where value can be gained. “The structural engineer needs to walk the fabricators line.” And vice versa.
6. Meet frequently but with results
Less “meetings” than (agile software development) huddles. “As the BIM gets larger you need to meet more frequently. Meet at least weekly or co-locate, if possible.”
7. Avoid re-modeling
“Know who models what. Assign responsibility (to avoid redundancy.)”
8. Use a model umpire
9. Traditional 2D documents are very bad BIM
10. Get the BIM to the field and the field into the BIM
9:00-9:30am Jordan Brandt – Horizontal Systems
“For every BIM content creator there are 10-20 people who need that information.”
“It should be called conflict resolution, not clash detection.”
10:00-10:30am Andy Verone – Oracle
10:30-11:00am Steve Thomas – Lend Lease
11:00-12:00pm Paul M. Teicholz, research professor emeritus at Stanford University, co-founder of CIFE and co-author of the BIM Handbook (Wiley, 2011) has made revolutionary contributions to the construction industry through the use of information technology.
He and Atul Khanzode – DPR Construction – presented a case study on BIM and Lean in Construction via video conferencing.
1:00-4:00pm Healthcare Round Table
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Be sure to visit the 2011 Symposium site for information on accessing all of the excellent presentations
BIM + Integrated Design 
Randy, thank you for presenting these highlights.
For bloggers, I believe there’s an important corollary to Mr. Damasco’s, “The biggest issue isn’t the technology – it’s the adoption (of it.)”
I believe that, “The biggest issue isn’t the content – it’s the sharing (of it.)”
Thank you for sharing what you experienced at the symposium. I’m on the periphery when it comes to BIM and IPD adoption, but your blog is a great resource for those of us who need to wade in.