Slide 1: Integrated Management Framework

Learning Objectives

Explore the communication and collaboration issues
Evaluate the integrated project organisation
Design the project technology clusters, a design-led organisation
Appraise the importance of organisation-led procurement strategy

Slide 1: Integrated Management Framework – Achieving effective Communication and Collaboration

In the previous weeks, we looked at the roles and responsibilities of the various contributors to the design and construction processes. This week we will discuss the aspects of the organisational setting that enables these complex multi-professional, multi-organisational teams to work together effectively. As we saw from the façade installation case study, the façade installation STC organised their work perfectly to suit their process and achieved the 3 to zero aim. But what about their interrelationships with the others on the project? Could they get to this level of perfection in isolation and without the contribution from the others who interface with them? The issue here is not just about one organisation. It is about all these teams that need to communicate and collaborate to meet the goals of the project. It is the management’s task to create the right organisation for all these people to work together efficiently and safely without loss of value due to interruption and rework.

This week we will explore the communication and collaboration issues and evaluate the integrated project organisation, where people can work efficiently with no frustration for the higher-level people and no confusion for the lower-level people working on our project. We will design project technology clusters, which are about organising the project teams based on the technologies that need to interface with each other. Finally, we will briefly appraise the importance of designing a suitable procurement strategy that facilitates the full integration of the supply chain. By providing this integrated management framework, the ultimate aim of 3 to zero can be achieved.

Slide 2: Communication and collaboration

Communication issues

Project team is a term to describe the fact that the design and construction processes require inputs from a wide range of contributors and organisations. The key issue is how to integrate these multi-organisational, multi-professional teams with different organisation structures, different cultures, different languages, eg industry jargons, etc, into one integrated project organisation, where people communicate easily, with no misinterpretations or misunderstandings.

The group needs to exchange its skills and knowledge, but within a temporary and changing multi-organisation. People are in and out at various stages of the project. Therefore, teamwork in the conventional sense will not occur. This has big management implications because the assumptions associated with teamwork are not valid in this temporary and changing multi-organisation.

The contributors to a project are a network of different organisations selected because of their knowledge, skills and manufacturing capabilities. There is the need to understand this network of communications. What are the outputs at each stage and who has the right skills and knowledge to contribute to the process for these outputs to be achieved, ie who should contribute what, when and at which level?

Organisation charts do not show this network of communications. Organisation charts provided by each organisation when appointed to the project, concentrate on the vertical communications within the organisation. This is not sufficient because the horizontal links between organisations are not clear and are confused. In addition, these organisation charts often use different terms to describe roles and responsibilities, eg some organisation chart might use the term ‘foreman’ while another organisation might use the term ‘key supervisor’, or a ‘construction manager’ who is in fact at the level of a ‘site manager’ in another organisation. Furthermore, these organisation charts include people who are not involved in the problem-solving process of the project, eg BIM operator or commercial manager of an STC. Assuming we have two organisations, A and B, it is not clear who from organisation B should work with someone form organisation A on a design or construction problem.

In any project, there might be over 30 organisations that should communicate horizontally. As a project manager, you need to draw your project organisation out of these various organisation charts, putting people at their right position in your project organisation and using consistent terms in assigning their roles. In this way, when inviting the team for a problem-solving situation, you know who should be there and make sure the STCs cover these roles in their contribution to your project.

A project generates a ‘core team’ of architects, engineers and key consultants. Given their long-term involvement in the project, they will develop synergy of views and understanding

of each other’s reaction to proposals and ideas. In practice, this takes between six to nine months before full understanding and trust occurs. As the project develops, others are added to this group and will become involved for shorter-terms and specific contributions. The core team therefore has tremendous power through its long-term knowledge. This power of knowledge makes it difficult for the newcomers, particularly the STCs, to have their say. STCs might have better solutions to some design problems or better understanding of the buildability issues, etc. Unless the managers take over the management of the process from the ‘core team’ at the right stage of the project, the STCs might not be able to contribute effectively their knowledge and skills to the project. The project manager should recognise this and update the project’s organisation at key stages in the process.

Collaboration issues

Professionals and specialists cannot work in isolation, they need to be brought together to achieve a product that is the combination of their skills and knowledge. The management task is to provide a collaborative environment to allow for this transfer of skills and knowledge.

On a project, some people’s contributions last a long time, others a shorter time. People will be frustrated if they are expected to work as a ‘team’, but their contribution is unrecognised at the end of an intensive period of work.

In addition, for a group to collaborate they must have shared and clear goals that unify their activities. Collaborating groups must have a joint commitment to these goals.

Language can be a barrier. One typical problem is the use of jargon or metaphors that are difficult for others to understand. Architects can easily fall into this trap as they talk about the underlying social and environmental philosophy of technical issues.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The level of understanding of the detail must be as high as possible. Therefore, each contributor should provide the best people from the organisation onto the project, or increase the learning of the organisation to provide the necessary inputs.

Collaboration requires people to work together to their maximum potential. This can only happen where there is trust and respect for each other’s capabilities. The management must provide this type of working environment for each collaborating group.

Collaborators are constantly reacting and responding to each other and frequency of contact becomes almost as important as the nature of the contact. Formal communication is continual through, for example, fortnightly meetings or issuing of information etc, while informal communication could be continuous. Successful collaboration must allow the continuous exchange of information and knowledge without having any barriers in the way. There should be clear lines of authority and formal communication routes but no restrictive

boundaries, so that the communication can flow informally and freely between organisations.

Organisational design

Therefor the issue of communication and collaboration is an issue of organisational design, where the structure of relationships should allow good communication and collaboration between the people at various levels.

Let us now see how people communicate and collaborate at various levels.

Slide 3: Integration levels

Let us look at some concepts for better understanding of the issues that often cause confusion, misunderstanding and breaks in communications.

Project development requires the input of specialist knowledge that must be communicated by people working at the same level of integration. The distinction between these levels is based upon two factors:

The level of abstraction of the work that a person is capable of achieving.
The time-span for which the person has control.

People at a higher level have a greater degree of abstraction and their time-span of control is longer. For example, a project director will be talking about strategies, plans, etc, and their control spans over the whole duration of the project. While a bricklayer is concerned about the tools, the mortar, the drawings etc. They control the area they work at and their control finishes once they finish laying the bricks in the area. The talk about strategies, visions etc. does not mean anything regarding their work. Besides, they do not have a say in these issues. On the other hand, the project director would feel frustrated if they had to sort out a bricklaying problem. They might not even have the detailed knowledge needed to do that effectively. These are extreme examples, meant to explain the idea of levels. However, in reality, the little difference between the levels will cause problems and confusion if not understood and addressed.

For people to do their task properly, they need to have a manager working at the level directly above their own to give them directions and support, eg the foreman of the bricklayer. In other words, gaps in the structure of levels cause problems of understanding and communication.

People from different organisations who are at the same level are largely dealing with the same issues, therefore they can collaborate and make decisions without problems. Confusion and problems occur when communication is forced diagonally across levels between two organisations. When there is an integration gap, individuals at different levels, are required to work in lateral relationships. Those at lower levels do not get management and direction from their own higher levels, but inappropriate direction and demands from

higher or lower levels in other organisations. An example could be a junior architect at a meeting with engineers and STC project managers, when decisions have to be made about alternative solutions or systems. The junior architect does not have the knowledge or the authority to contribute to the decision-making process. The only thing they can do is take notes of the meeting and go back to their seniors for the decision to be made. Consequently, the meeting is not effective.

To create an integrated project organisation, the project manager should explore the connections between the different participants in the process and make sure these connections are compatible.

Let us see now what this integrated project organisation might look like.

Slide 4: Integrated project organisation

This diagram shows the various roles in a typical project: the client, the designers, the managers, off site and on site, and the STC designers and teams on site. Each of these roles might be one or more organisation. At later stages of a project, for example, there might be 30 or more STCs involved.

The diagram could be used as a template to help the project manager to identify and assign clear roles and responsibilities to the project team, making sure that instructions do not cross levels and organisations’ boundaries at the same time. The arrows A, B, C, D and E are the interfaces between firms that should be at the same level of integration, so that all individuals approach the problem at a similar level of awareness and decision-making ability. The diagram identifies seven levels of integration from site operations, ie the teams responsible for construction on site, up to the strategic level, where people are concerned about what the project should achieve in terms of the client business.

This diagram does not include everyone connected with a project but is representative of the types of relationships that need to be established when creating a project organisation. The management role shown here can be provided by one or more organisations at various stages of the project depending on the project size and complexity. We might have an organisation managing the client’s business related to the project, another one covering off site roles, and an organisation covering on site roles, or we might have one organisation covering off site and on site roles.

In addition, for each organisation involved, the roles shown here should be covered, regardless of the people covering them. For example, you might have the same person covering the roles of the site manager and the foreman for the ducts installation. These roles might be covered by two people for the steel frame installation STC, while you might have a few teams, including site managers and foremen, for the electrical installation STC. As the project manager, you should know who is doing what and ensure there are no gabs in your project organisation so that no diagonal communication happens, causing confusion.

Coordination will occur within organisations and between them to achieve the requirements of the project. The managers should lead the process and manage the interfaces between the various organisations involved at each level of integration, as the arrows A, B, C, D and E show. The identification of the issues to be coordinated and the timing of the coordination should be driven by the managers of the process. Leaving for example the coordination to STCs to sort it out, regardless of what their contracts might say, is not a good management approach. As a manager of the process, it will not look good for the client if you have to knock down a wall or return products that did not fit with the rest. Just pushing the blame is not going to sort out the problem.

The interface marked ‘A’ at Level VI is about understanding what the project is going to achieve in terms of the client’s business. The project director can supply their particular expertise and can convert the client’s expectations into an achievable direction. At this level, the strategic brief, the outline design, the cost plan, the strategic programme and procurement strategy are developed.

The interface marked ‘B’ at Level V is about developing the project plans, such as cost plan, design and construction programmes and procurement plan, ie the overall direction set at level VI above is converted into specific goals and plans. The systems to be developed and the resources to be deployed over the life of the project are discussed at this level.

At the interface marked ‘C’ Level IV, the discussion between the designers and key STCs is related to developing and coordinating the scheme design. Each STC organisation has a specialised input of either overall systems, as in the case of the M&E STC designers, or particular systems, such as the firm supplying the lift installations. Therefore, they have to be able to discuss issues with the architects and engineers as colleagues all working in the same way. Also, each contributor would delegate work to their Level III detailed designers to produce the detailed design.

Feedback from the industry shows that the lack of coordination at this level is always the problem because the STCs are not involved as early as they should. Therefore the designers either progress the design based on assumptions or they leave gaps in the design until the required inputs from STCs are available.

The interface marked ‘D’ at Level III is about developing the project, detailed design and production information, cost plan control and detailed programmes. At this level, the design produced will be used directly by the manufacturers and construction teams and should ensure that the construction work achieves the required standard.

Levels I & II are the construction stage, when the design is realised and needs fully coordinated production information. Gaps at the earlier stages will severely compromise the ability of the construction teams to work well. Missing, inadequate, not buildable or not coordinated information will cause interruption to site activities, as the teams have to stop waiting for the problem to be sorted out.

The project manager is responsible for developing this integrated project organisation for effective communication and collaboration. By adopting a structured approach to managing the design and construction processes, interpretations and ambiguity in expectations would be avoided.

Slide 5: Information requirements in a typical project

Now I will share with you an example of some of the interfaces that need to be managed and coordinated on a typical project. A few years ago, I investigated the number of drawings produced for the building shown here. Although it looks spectacular, it is still a typical high- rise office building with repetitive floors, ie the construction industry is used to building these kinds of office buildings, and yet it needed about 18000 drawings. Almost half of these drawings were original as the iterations are 38% of the total number of drawings produced. The architects and the engineers produced about 36% of the drawings and the STCs produced the remaining 64%. You might say the STCs’ drawings are usually a little detailed here or there, but at the end of the day, a little detail will stop the whole area and interrupt site activities, if it is not produced and coordinated on time.

Slide 6: Number of drawings against the programme

The chart at the top is the strategic programme of the project. The yellow bars are the design activities, the green ones are the construction of the structure, the pink and purple are the M&E installations, the russet is the lift installation and the light blue are the façades.

The bottom chart shows the number of drawings produced by the designers and the STCs per month. Here we can see that when construction started on site, only 3% of the drawings were produced – 65% of the drawings were produced after the M&E installations started.

This chart also shows the extent of the STCs involvement in the design. We can see that during the information production stage of the project, the number of drawings produced by the STCs peaks, while the number of drawings produced by the architects and other consultants declines.

At the beginning of the M&E installations, the number of drawings peaks for all involved.

The final peak is the façade line. This peak is because of the installations of the retail areas at the ground floor and first floors.

Slide 7: Drawing iterations against finalisation trends

Here are the drawing iterations and finalisation patterns. The iterative loop is very active at the production information stage and continues well into the construction stage.

The second chart shows that the number of finalised architectural drawings peaked sharply four months after the M&E installations started. This peak is 8% of the drawings, which is about 200 drawings in one month. This is probably because the architects completed the design after the M&E and lifts STCs provided the necessary information.

This study only looked at one type of information transfer and interfaces between the various organisations involved in a typical project. The number of drawings were about 18,000 not to mention dealing with the daily stream of requests for information (RFIs) and requests for change (RFCs). This is what the managers of the process need to understand and manage to achieve 3 to zero.

Slide 8: 3 to zero is an organisational issue

This graphic reminds us of the roles of the various contributors to the design and construction process.

Designers, when developing the project brief and progressing the design, are in fact utilising their creative skills to set the value requirements of the project that should be conveyed to the team and maintained throughout the process. This is a very complex process as the stakeholders, whether external to the project, such as the users, or internal, such as the client, the funders and STCs, are many, with conflicting interests. Technological excellence is in the design and manufacturing of building components. The STCs and their complex network of subs, suppliers and manufacturers contribute to the design, provide the building components and build the building.

Achieving 3 to zero, ie safe, timely and quality production on site, is dependent on the detail of the design. Inadequate design information, buildability issues in the design, or changes during the construction stage, will cause interruptions, delays and all sorts of problems.

The roles of these four groups should be understood and the right project organisation that enables their contribution at the right time and the right level of integration should be created, as we discussed earlier.

However, it is necessary to design a project organisation that breaks down this complex setting in a way to focus the management efforts on the key issues. In the second part of this lecture, we will talk about such an organisation.

Slide 9: End of part one

So let us now have a little break and reflect on the following; taking into account your background and experience:

The provided ‘Steel frame organisation chart’ is the outcome of two different sets produced by the D&B contractor, steel frame package manager on one side, and the steel frame STC manager on the other. There were many discrepancies between how the package manager and the STC project manager saw their position and role in the project organisation.

After discussion, both parties agreed on the organisation restructure, as shown in the ‘Steel frame organisation chart’, taking into consideration the integration level idea.

• Reflect on the effectiveness of the above exercise. 8

• Reflect on the effectiveness of the communication lines, as described by the steel frame package manager and the steel frame STC project manager.

See you in the next part of this presentation.

Slide 10: Part two

In part one of this lecture, we discussed how to develop an integrated project organisation for effective communication and collaboration. We have argued that communication and collaboration should be at the right level of integration so that there will be no frustration for the higher-level people and no confusion for the lower-level people working on our project.

In addition, due to the complex nature of the project organisation and the amount of issues managers need to deal with, it is necessary to design the project organisation in a way that focuses their efforts on the key issues. Technology clusters is an integrated project organisational approach that is led by the design requirement at each stage of the project, and focused on the technologies need to interface with each other, thus the name technology clusters. In simple terms, this is about subdividing a project around its interfacing technologies to have a better focus on the key problems on time. What we are seeking is quality construction within the constraints of time and cost requirements. At the end of the day, you cannot build any part of a building unless these interfaces are coordinated and buildability, safety, etc problems are resolved. Still, in order to achieve 3 to zero, these issues should be dealt with on time so that there will be no interruption to work areas, delays or rework with the consequent substandard quality.

Although, technology clusters can be implemented under whatever procurement approach, the procurement strategy has to be designed to facilitate the timely involvement of the STCs and the full integration of the supply chain.

Therefore, to achieve 3 to zero, an Integrated Management Framework is required where:

The design is led by the work area requirements.
The project organisation is focused on the interfacing technologies and led by the design requirements.
The procurement strategy is led by the technology clusters’ requirements, and aids the removal of barriers to efficient and quality production.

Let us see how these work.

Slide 11: What is a technology cluster?

The idea of clustered organisation is not new. Mills in 1993 argued in his book ‘The rebirth of corporation’ that modern technology and changing economics are forcing corporations away from traditional management models. He introduced the cluster organisation, which

combines individual creativity with teamwork. The cluster organisation reflects basic changes in decision rules and the role of managers. A ‘cluster’ comprises people drawn from different disciplines who work together to complete a mission. Its purpose is to create and exploit competitive advantage.

The technology cluster approach is the adaptation of clustered organisation in the construction industry. A technology cluster is part of a building that has to work as an entity. You can effectively draw the line once it is finished and move away from it. All the people involved in the cluster need to work together to make this approach work, ie achieving 100% completion of a defined sub-set of technologies that form a complete section of the project. For example, a cluster could be the structure. Structures these days are hybrids of steel and concrete, with all sorts of different organisations involved in the design and construction of this part of buildings.

Typical clusters of a building could be substructure, structure, services, finishes and envelope.

Now let us discuss the key aspects of a technology cluster.

Slide 12: Vertically linked value chain

Technology clusters are vertically linked value chains. What does this mean? People create values when they produce ideas or products; or provide services etc. The value chain of any building component develops vertically, from a concept to an installed product on site, while the usual integration of the project team is horizontal, ie the client team works on its own, the same with the designers and others.

When creating your project organisation, you need to acknowledge the vertical development of building components, in order to preserve the value chain and eliminate the loss of value in rework or unnecessary iterations. The technology clusters approach addresses this vertical development of building components by breaking the teams and reorganising them around the interfacing building systems and elements.

In a technology cluster, focusing the attention of the team on a building component, the client briefs the designers, the designers produce the design, the package managers facilitate the transfer of the design information to the STCs and finally, the STCs detail this component, manufacture it, supply it and install it. The integration of the design team with the STCs ensures that the value requirements created by the design team are conveyed to the STCs continuously and the production requirements are considered as early as the concept stage of the project. In this way, there will be no loss of values in rework or substandard quality.

Slide 13: Integrated Management Framework

When designing project technology clusters, at each stage of the project you need to understand the product, the process, and the organisation needed to deliver this product.

What we mean by that is for a technology cluster team to function and collaborate effectively, and to fully complete each stage of the project and produce the required products, the right combination of designers, managers and STCs should be involved to contribute their knowledge and skills on time.

Therefore, the project manager needs first to identify the product, say, designing the steel frame. To design the steel frame, the necessary knowledge and skills must be brought together, for example, about the façade, the floor covering, the ducts, the suspended ceiling, the lightings, etc. Who is going to contribute these knowledge and skills,? For example, engineers and façade STC. What are the activities they need to carry out to produce the required designs? For example, designing the façade fixings to the concreted steel deck.

The interaction requirements of those with the knowledge should be established, eg suitable procurement process, such as pre-contract service agreements. Also the time required to produce the product should be allowed in the programme. The process should be designed and set in a way to enable the activities to be planned and executed following clear procedures. The organisation design should place the contributors into a project-based structure that allows clear communication at the right level of integration. For example, if a decision has to be made at a higher level of integration, say the lead architect level, and only a junior architect is available in the meeting, the interaction within the team will not be effective.

As the project develops, the cluster team grows, and more people are involved as the need for more knowledge and skills emerges, so the integrated management framework should develop accordingly. At key stages of the project, the integrated management framework should be reviewed and updated.

Slide 14: Level of Involvement and Dominance Patterns

When developing a project organisation, the level of involvement and the dominance patterns should be understood. The level of involvement of the individuals and groups differs from one stage to another. At the beginning of the project, the client involvement is high, while the STCs involvement is high at later stages of the project. In addition, at the beginning, the project involves only a few people, and the interaction requirements are straightforward. As the project develops, many more people are involved and managing the interfaces between the various people and organisations becomes more complex.

At each stage of the project, there is a dominant party. At the inception and concept design stage, the client dominates the process supported by the architect. The project manager is there in the background facilitating this but the dialogue is mainly between the client and the architect. This situation changes as the design develops and the designers become the dominating party during the scheme design stage. During the detailed design, manufacturing and construction stages, the managers dominate the process. The project

manager has to understand what happens, what are the expectations at each of these stages, whether there is a disruptive or integrated project organisation, eg, are the architects dominating the consultants’ detailed design stage while it should be the managers? What often happens is that the architects, being the first on the project, know a lot more about it than the managers, who get involved later in the process. For the project managers to fulfil their role, it is crucial they thoroughly inspect the project once involved and take full control of the process.

Slide 15: Technology clusters example

This an example of project technology clusters. This was a 21-storey office building that is composed of six large cubic shapes stacked on the top of each other asymmetrically and rising up as a series of garden terraces. This shape added to the complexity of the design and construction of the building, eg the directions of the services changed every few floors when the building moved up from one cubic to the next.

This project, and other complex projects we looked at, grouped the STCs into teams of interrelated technologies. In this example, the project was organised into five technology clusters: structure / temporary work; envelope; building services; finishes; and logistic and site management.

Usually, each STC on their appointment to a project provide the organisation chart of the team that is going to work on it. These charts are meant to assist the project manager in knowing who is doing what on the project, and making sure that each STC assigns the right number of people, with the right set of skills, to the project organisation. For the STCs listed in this slide, I used their organisation charts to produce the integrated organisation chart for each technology cluster.

Let us see how these technology clusters looked like.

Slides 16 and 17: (No title) plotting the STCs charts exercise

The example shown on this slide and continuing to the next, is the result of plotting the building services organisation charts provided by the STCs into the technology cluster template. These are mechanical installation; ductwork; electrical installation; lifts; wet risers and sprinklers; fire alarms; and BMS.

This exercise revealed the problems of the organisation charts provided by the STCs. The boxes where the font is in red is where there is a missing role, eg there is a gap at systems and detailed design of the mechanical installations, as well as the ductwork system design. These gaps indicate missing skills that will cause problems and confusion.

What are the implications of this gap of the ‘Technology Cluster Management’ role?

The dark pink box is the required ‘Building Services Technology Cluster Management’ role

that is missing also from the original cluster organisation.

Slide 18: Design and construction management split

Let us look now at the management roles at levels II, III and IV in the current approaches. The design manager role is concerned with coordinating the consultants’ design for the whole project. Each package manager is responsible for the design coordination of their relevant packages. The management on site role is concerned with coordinating site activities. There is a split between the coordination of off site and on site activities and between the consultants and the STCs design. This split often causes problems. For example, some important issues might not be communicated on time or decisions are made in isolation of others. In addition, this situation creates a bottleneck in the communication lines and lack of focus at the design management level, as you might have noticed when you analysed the ‘Steel frame organisation chart’ earlier. All package managers have to go through the design managers to communicate and coordinate their packages design with the consultants and other interfaced packages.

Slide 19: Technology cluster focused and fully integrated project organisation

This is to explain more about the management split we just discussed. In current project organisations, there is a management gap between the design manager and the construction manager on one side, and the package managers with their assistants on the other. The technology cluster approach brings the design management and the construction management one level down to become part of the cluster, filling this management gap. By breaking the project organisation around a set of interfaced technologies, ie clusters, the management efforts will be focused on the issues related to the cluster.

The cluster manager, who has the management skills and the particular technological knowledge of the relevant cluster, is, in a way, a project manager of a sub-project, ie the cluster. They are supported by package managers who are responsible for each STC package in the cluster.

In the services cluster example we looked at, the building services cluster manager should be knowledgeable in building services relevant technologies. They are supported by package managers who are responsible for the following packages: mechanical installation, ductwork, electrical installation, lifts, wet risers and sprinklers, fire alarms, control systems and BMS. The cluster manager would be chairing the meetings with the relevant designers and providing senior leadership for the packages, removing the bottleneck discussed previously.

Slide 20: Trade contractors’ management

The technology clusters approach enables the work area control approach to be implemented, as the STCs’ contributions are incorporated at the required time. In addition, the technology clusters approach enables monitoring of the performance of the STCs at three levels – site team level, package management level and cluster level.

Slide 21: The Management Cluster

The management cluster includes the client, the designers and the managers. These three groups, although they are represented in each of the project technology clusters, would be dealing with strategic issues and plans, handling the interfaces between the clusters, doing trade-offs, and making sure all key issues between the technology clusters are raised and dealt with. At the outset of the project, the management cluster would define the project clusters, the roles and responsibilities and set the framework for collaborative working.

If we take the services cluster as an example, as the project develops, the management cluster would set the big sub-goals of the services cluster within the overall goals of the project. The structure cluster would advise on the structural issues related to the services. The management cluster would monitor the interfaces between the structural cluster and the services cluster, do the trade-offs and make sure all key issues are raised and dealt with on time.

Slide 22: How I draw the line?

No two projects will have exactly the same clusters. The division of the clusters is a matter of discussion and debate as to what is included in which cluster.

A cluster contains all components that when integrated together, complete a section of the building that can be signed off. Plant rooms, for instance, can be tested, as they can be isolated from the distribution system. However, until the risers are connected, the whole system cannot be tested. It Depends on the project whether the plant room becomes a cluster or whether the whole services system becomes a cluster.

The cluster should integrate the whole supply chain for each component included in the cluster. In addition, how the design or modification of one component affects the design of other components, should be considered. Components that have many interfaces between each other should be grouped together in the same cluster.

The interfaces between clusters, say between the structure and services, should be minimal and simpler to resolve. The remaining interfaces between clusters could be coordinated when needed.

There is no absolute division as it depends upon the situation, design of the building and how best to sub-divide the management of the project. However, understanding the need to have clear lines of responsibility for integration and delivery of sub-sections of the building is fundamentally important.

Slide 23: 3 to zero is an organisational issue facilitated by suitable procurement strategy

So far, we argued that 3 to zero is an organisational issue and we introduced the technology clusters approach as a solution to achieve the necessary integration of the supply chain.

Technology clusters can be implemented under any procurement method, although managed forms, such as the construction management procurement method, provide a better framework.

For technology clusters to be implemented, the timing of the involvement of the various contributors is critical. The timing of each type of input should first be considered in terms of the specific information required for an orderly sequence of design development for the whole building. The required timing of the various inputs should then influence the timing of the STCs’ involvement so that they will be integrated with the design team. Consequently, the timing of the STCs’ appointment should be governed by the design sequence and not the construction sequence.

Therefore, an important part of the procurement process should involve identifying and acquiring resources for the design development and also identifying areas of specialist knowledge and STCs’ skills that need to be brought on board at the right stage of the project.

While the procurement strategy should facilitate the necessary level of coordination and planning across the teams and organisations, on the other hand, contracts should be examined to ensure that they put no barriers in the way of collaborative working. Once all of the contributing organisations are in place, the right people with the right capabilities should be involved in the decision-making process.

Slide 24: Conclusion

Project management is not just a collection of planning and control techniques and other decision making tools. It is about understanding the needs of the project at each stage and organising people in a way to meet these needs. It is about creating the right environment for people to work effectively.

All activities on site should start on time without interruption. That means the design and all the relevant documents and specifications should be finalised sometime before manufacturing starts. Therefore the design planning and development should be led by the site production requirements.

For the design to be completed on time, the STCs should be integrated with the design team and the project organisation should be led by the requirements of the design development.

Finally, the procurement strategy should allow for these to happen, ie to procure the services of the STCs at the right time. The procurement strategy should be led by the project organisation requirements.

By providing this integrated management framework, the ultimate aim of 3 to zero can be achieved.

Slide 25: Success factors – Does 3 to zero approach help to achieve them

In Week 1 of this module, we discussed the issues found on most projects that hindered their success. Then we concluded these success factors listed here. Having been introduced to the 3 to zero approach, does this approach facilitate achieving them?