Think ! About estimating, ants and Star Trek

Lately my head seems like a crossroad where classic work ethos collides with the strangest thoughts.

80% of my time these days is spent on budget control. 
A client hires my services as a back-up and reflection chamber for the hospital he is building. Not really a small one: 105.000 m² which means an investment of 327 million euros.
It started as a classic building project in 2008. The only thing different back then was the use of BIM, Building Information Modelling, combined with three different designer companies: one for the architecture, one for stability issues and one for technical installations. Very new at the time but not revolutionary since the software has been around for more than a decade. 
The first contractor was appointed in 2013 through a tender procedure. But not the classic one which gives the order to the lowest price. My client had followed a workshop lead by me some years ago and remembered that a set of criteria through which the contractor could show his eye for quality and process control was necessary. So he went that way. Brave but again, not really revolutionary.  

And yet, this project can indeed be called truely revolutionary !

Not by the use of the most fancy software or process methodology but by its mindset. 
The revolution at this project takes place in the meeting room. The way we work and interact as a team, even though we are different companies with an agenda of our own.
I hear you thinking: this is the utmost normal way of behaviour ! 
Well, not in the Belgian Construction World for the last decades: a meeting is normally a battle field where there is way to much testosteron in the air. You are supposed to work as less as possible and to sheet as much as possible. No person will admit it but deep down in their hart they know it's true. At the new hospital we're building: none of that ! The workload is shared, mistakes are admitted and solved without raised voices. And budget and planning is still under control.

But there is more: we question every step of what is considered to be daily business and don't hesitate to turn it around when it means less administration. 
Again, you're thinking: of course ! What else would you do ? 
One exemple: I dare you to find Belgian architects and contractors who work without monthly time consuming quantity surveys even though everyone is convinced that this is an enormous burden to get your money without gaining any knowledge. Well, we skipped it and replaced it by a far better system that demands less time and generates way more knowledge ! 

The other 20% of my time I spend teaching estimation to unemployed people with very different backgrounds and of very different ages. Without estimation software. Well, I don't consider Microsoft Office software. Excel has become as ordinary as pencil and paper. 
The emphasis is on the thinking. 
Analyzing the project means finding the story of the design. Making the estimation means creating the sequel of the building. Estimation software can help you finding the words, perhaps finding shreds of sentences and offering some grammar rules. But it won't tell the story of the project. Finding and continuing the story is how a job, which is perceived to be boring and often useless - in case the estimation doesn't results into a contract, which can run up as high as 9 times out of 10 - , when that job turns into a quest for knowledge.
This is my message to estimators: think, be active ! Don't let software turn you into a robot. 

A while ago Peter Hinssen posted a tweet or facebook message (I don't recall which one it was) about ants and wondered if this would be our future: equally looking creatures performing seemingly imposed tasks ? Becoming a kind of robot controlled by others ?

Recently I searched the internet and found it again: http://bigthink.com/videos/how-ants-and-humans-are-alike  
I think this will be our future indeed but I also think we won't mind looking the same and the tasks we will perform won't be imposed.

In the sixties Star Trek came to the screen and got violent reactions because humans where presented so differently: a black woman who was an officer was in those days not heared of ! At that time everyone in the Western world could dress the way they wanted but were stuck in their social position by the colour of their skin, their gender, the people they knew. Start Trek is very different: almost no distinction in outer appearance but what a mixture of characters ! Characters who help them to excel at their job. Characters who can turn their differences into a benifit for the team. Characters who respect each other for what they are; the good ànd the bad sides.

Even today we are still far from the Star Trek situation: we still want to look very different on the outside but prefer to be the same on the inside. 

We are no victim of our society and do create thoughts and ideas of our own but the most of us will only express them as long as they are harmless for the organisations who control our lives: companies, politics, labour unions, health insurances, etc. However, the number of people who lack the possible dangers is growing by the day. And it will turn our society upside-down !

The availability of data, big data, will structure our daily life because information will be available to every single one of us at any given moment in space-time. 

Rigid organisations, which have their own survival as their number one priority, will disappear. Organisations will become contemporary, rather organic things, brought to life to fill a need which springs from the bottom of society. Need fulfilled, organisation gone. Or the organisation reinvents itself to help solving another up-popping need.

A lot of people think that innovation is creating an artificial market which, by means of the right marketing strategy, will find it's way to the consumer. Some companies let us believe that they search for the "needs" of society and are not "just doing something". 
But according to what I can see around me, I don't think they fully grasp the idea and contemplate themselves with just some green-washing because this is the fashion of the day. Start Trek and the ants seem to be far away ... 

Yet, some people have started thinking and that is important.
Something is on the move ... :o)

Nieuwe normen in 2013

Dit jaar is er zowel in Nederland als in het Verenigd Koninkrijk een nieuwe norm gelanceerd.

In Nederland is dit de NEN 2699 die handelt over de investerings- en exploitatiekosten van onroerende zaken. Ze vervangt de volgende normen :

• NEN 2631 / NBN B06-003 m.b.t. de investeringskosten voor bouwprojecten
• NEN 2632 / NBN B06-004 m.b.t. de uitbatingskosten
• NEN 2634 / niet overgenomen in België m.b.t. de bouwfasen, bijhorende begrotingen en kwaliteitseisen.

Gezien deze normen de basis vormden voor het rekeningstelsel dat ik in 2008 met steun van het IWT kon ontwikkelen, was het logisch om de nodige aanpassingen door te voeren. En ik moet zeggen, daar waar het bij de oude normen, mijns inziens, nog een beetje stokte richting praktijk, lijkt dit nu helemaal weggewerkt.

Alleen inzake bouwfasering blijf ik op mijn honger zitten: de NEN 2699 hanteert hierbij De Nieuwe Regeling van 2011 die relatief weinig verandert t.o.v. de bouwfasering uit bijlage A van de NEN 2634.

BREEAM hanteert, m.b.t. de bouwfasering, de indeling van het Britse RIBA. En laat deze laatste dit jaar een nieuw workplan doorgevoerd hebben dat helemaal aansluit bij mijn research van 2008. Het enige verschil is dat zij nog een fase 0 hanteren, nl de fase waarin de strategische keuzes gemaakt worden - de initiatief- en haalbaarheidsfase in de NEN 2699. Een vergelijking van de vier indelingen inzake fasering is terug te vinden op de pagina "DOWNLOADS" van www.bouwdata.net.

De nieuwe object code m.b.t. LCC (life cycle cost) is eveneens op diezelfde pagina te downloaden.

En op de homepage van www.bouwdata.net staat de bijgewerkte powerpoint presentatie die ik gebruik bij gastcolleges.

Veel leesplezier !

Vriendelijke groeten,
Peggy

nieuwe versie BouwData beschikbaar

Op de pagina "downloads" van www.bouwdata.net is een nieuwe versie van de afsprakenstelsels inzake development, object, material, fasen en groupware geplaatst. Feel free to download !

Workshop Construction Management

Tijdens gastcolleges heb ik slechts enkele uren de tijd om construction management uit te leggen. Is er interesse voor een meer diepgaande, interactieve workshop ? Een vlugge berekening leert dat een workshop van 9.00h tot 17.00h incl broodjeslunch mogelijk is voor € 149 pp excl BTW bij 7 deelnemers.

Vriendelijke groeten,
Peggy

The ideal quantity take-off: how do they do it ?

The ideal quantity take-off provides information to the developer, the designer and the contractor.

How do they do it ?

The backbone of this QS are the objects the designer works with. From there you take sidetracks towards floor surface to gain knowledge for the developer and towards materials to come to the full shopping list for the contractor.

How detailed do you need to work ?

This depends on the phase: when you are only considering to invest, you will determine the cost on a much more global scale than when you're preparing the start of the works on site.

On www.bouwdata.net at the "download" page you find the Excel file with the Object Code in Dutch to start from.

In the left top corner you see 4 groups:

• group 1 is the structure of costs according to the investment standard NBN B06-003, the standard for costs related to facility management NBN B06-004 (both dark blue lines) and table 6 of the NEN 2634 (light blue lines) which connects the investment standard to table 1 of the international classification system SfB.
  But for daily practice, this is too vague.
  So we move to group 2 to get started.
   
• group 2 are the things you have to put a price on when you consider to invest.
  According to the NEN 2634 one only needs to put figures behind the dark grey lines, the "element clusters", table 7 of this standard. But in order to make a proper decision between several options I dig deeper. The light grey lines - "elements" according to table 8 of the NEN 2634 - and white lines - "components" according to the BB-SfB (plus) - you see in group 2, are the checklist to follow. In the next phases (groups) more of them will appear.
   
• group 3 you use when you are working on a structural design.
  This is often called the "provisional" design phase. But there is nothing provisional about it ! The moment you decided to go on with the investment, you started working on a layout plan, you determined where the loads will go to the foundations and where the technical shafts would come. I can't imagine that, once this job done, you consider to do it all over again because you changed your mind overnight. My advice: go slowly but steady forward in this phase and consult every teammember involved. This way you won't have to start all over again.
   
• group 4 you use when you are completing the design.
   

Group 4 is the level where the top-down of the designer meets the bottom-up logic from the contractor. The emphasis is still on fonction. E.g. everything concerning windows in the facade is to be found together in 2D.31:  the beam above to support the facade and inner wall of the facade, the window itself, the plasterwork on the sides, the tablets and all ornaments around the opening. 

Why ?

Well, the designer works with models. When he removes a window, everything related to this particular window has to be cut out of the cost. And the designer doesn't want to look at ten places in the QS to do so.

On the other hand, when the contractor needs to put a price on a project, he doesn't want to look at ten places in the QS to find all the plasterwork, either.

So, what do we do ?

Well, the moment we start determining the materials, we add an extra column.
On www.bouwdata.net at the "download" page you find the Excel file with the Material Code in Dutch to work with. As explained in one of my first articles on this blog, I use the STABU standard instead of table 2 and 3 of the SfB.

You are used to a QS in a single tab of an Excel file. 
To have an ideal QS for both the designer and the contractor, we are going to add an additional tab with the material code in the lead. Through the formula "sum.if", you can reorganise the QS you allready made into a shopping list for the contractor.

How ?

By moving forward to real construction cost engineering, and adding the cost type (labor, material, equipment or subcontractor) and a unique number (e.g. the article number of the supplier) to the material code. Once you have this, the "sum.if" formula turns this second tab into the complete shopping list for the contractor.

Now two partners have their ideal QS. What about the third one, the developer ?

He is interested in costs related to the big surfaces and in an analysis of the floor surface: gross floor space versus net floor space; salable floorspace versus net floor space.

When we look at the exemple of the window, the different levels of the object code will do.
In the tab of the material code, you enter a price per unit.
In the tab of the object code you add another column. 
With the "vertical.search" formula you retrieve this price per unit from the tab with the material code. 
In a next column in the tab of the object code, you multiply this price per unit with the quantity of the component (smallest particle of the object code). This gives you the total price per component. 
E.g. the sum of all the components of 2D.31 divided by the total surface of all facade openings gives you a figure per square meter facade opening. 
Store this in a database together with a solid project information sheet and the developer will get, over time, a good source for budgetting next projects.

But a developer needs more. On www.bouwdata.net at the "download" page you find the Excel file with the Development Code in Dutch to work with. This is a mixture of common sense, the Uniformat Classes and a variation on the coding of spaces in the Dutch Bouwbesluit.

Add this as a third tab to the QS.
I usually put this one first, then the tab with the Object Code, followed by the tab with the Material Code. Development is to be recognized by red-grey colours, Object by blue-grey colours and Material by green-grey colours.

When you go back to the Excel file concerning the Object Code you will see in the 4th column how this Object Code is related to the Development Code. By deviding the cost of the Object Code to the quantity of the, in column 4 mentioned, Development Code, you get e.g. the cost of the architectural and structural works per m² gross floor surface.

As a general rule I state that, with every item you want to measure, you ask yourself to which room this belongs (this is mainly the case with finishings and certain parts of the technical installation), which function it has (e.g. will it disappear when the window is removed from the model ? If so, put it onder 2D.31) and of which material it is made.
Whenever you work your way through the project in this methodological manner, you will certainly come to the ideal QS for the developer, the designer and contractor all at once.

But be aware: it remains a hideous job no matter whether you do it by a simple Excel file or by adding parameters in a BIM software.

Kind regards,
Peggy

Some thoughts on QS, BIM and renderings

The past two months I have been busy making old fashioned quantity take-offs based on plans in dwg format and figures to be put in an excel file. 

The first project would be realised in a building team. So I could make sure that the quantity take-off would deliver knowledge for the developer, the designer and for the constructor. A hideous task but very rewarding. 

The following projects were more old fashioned school: projects in a design-bid-build setting with the sole purpose of checking the bill of quantities and gaining no other knowledge whatsoever. The contractor made a bid based on the quantity take-off delivered by the architect and considered it to be presumably. But, as it often goes in private projects, the negotiations tend towards a total fixed price so the quantities presumed at first need to be checked. 
That is where I pop in. The estimator is busy with his next "box" - cfr my first articles on this blog last year - and doesn't have the time to dig in the previous one. And another set of eyes detects other things. So they pay me to do the job.

The big difference with a decade ago is that there isn't any detailed quantity survey available to ease and shorten this time consuming control job. And skipping the control is no option because the rate of mistakes is no less than 10 years ago, quite on the contrary ... 

Why ?

The first problem is the marketing motto of BIM software: it will shorten the time needed on the drawing table. What they don't mention is the vast amount of extra time needed to put all the parameters right in order to get the thorough quantity take off needed to finetune the estimation to its lowest price. The second problem is the lack of knowledge about estimation of the person who makes the drawings.

Let me give you an example: the walls in a bathroom of an apartment and judge for yourself.

A lot of different situations for such a small room, isn't it ?

Next question: how are we going to deal with this given the still existing "design-bid-build" culture and the possibilities new software has to offer ?

Here is my point of view.

The designer really sticks to his core business and chooses the software who gives the best rendering possibilities in the shortest possible time. His output reaches no further than a "moodboard" so that every participant in the building process can get the "look and feel" of the project.

Than the engineers have a look at it and determine the width of the construction needed for stability and the insulation needed for thermic and acoustic comfort desired by the client.

BIM is primarily a database and should also be threated this way. It contains solely information of the engineers and contractors. Nice rendering possibilities remain in the "moodboard" software.
Yes, this means drawing everything twice but the second pair of eyes allows you to detect errors and opens up good old fashioned communication - sometimes people, in business, tend to forget that we can also use our mouth for speech instead of our fingers.

There are two possible ways to create this BIM depending on the knowledge of the person making the model.

1. He/she knows how to estimate from a contractor's point of view. In this case everything of what is drawn in the example above is to be put into the model with the correct coding towards development, object and materials. A job as hideous as my excel file, believe me !
    
2. He/she never worked as an estimator at a contractor company and therefore lacks the knowledge for thorough coding. In this case he/she makes sure that the parameters who generate the quantity take-off are left blank. This under the motto to put only these things into the model/database that are correct and generate knowledge for the other partners in the building process.

The person of situation 1 is currently a white raven and very hard to find. So most of the time we will be confronted with situation 2: a person who draws and is very familiar with BIM software and a person who estimates and hardly knows how to open a BIM file.

So, here is my advice when you choose a design-bid-build formula and work with BIM in the design phase:

1. When you are not familiar with parameters in BIM, don't deliver the quantity take-off to the contractor. It only confuses him when he gets the wrong figures.
2. Invite the contractor for a short briefing on how to use the BIM model in a BIM viewer software. Give him a locked BIM model to explore while estimating.

And remember: the purpose of BIM is not to save time but to eliminate errors by sharing a common tool. Only used at its best, it will ease the process. Carrelessly used it will generate extra failure and cost.

Kind regards,
Peggy
www.bouwdata.net 

Bouwteams en overheidsopdrachten: hoe zou dit werken ?

Dat is wat Dimitri De Cock probeert uit te zoeken.

Dimitri De Cock werkt bij de Dienst Infrastructuur en Vastgoed van de provincie Antwerpen en volgt daarnaast de opleiding Master in the Real Estate aan de Antwerp Management School.
Vorig jaar gaf ik er een gastcollege omtrent construction management en geraakten we aan de praat over bouwteams en overheidsopdrachten. Waarom gaat het daar nog moeizamer dan in de privé sector ? Hij wijdt er zijn masterproef aan.

Het zou hem - en mij ! - enorm helpen, mocht u enkele minuten vrij maken om de enquête in te vullen op https://www.enquetesmaken.com/s/95fda47 

Van harte bedankt !

Vriendelijke groeten,
Peggy