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CABA Home & Building Automation Quarterly, Winter, pp. 27-28, 2003-11-01
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Research viewpoints by IRC : collaboration is key to advancing construction innovation
Bullis, R.
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Research viewpoints by IRC : Collaboration is key to advancing construction innovation
Bullis, R.
IRC-VISI-400
A version of this document is published in / Une version de ce document se trouve dans : CABA Home & Building Automation Quarterly, Winter 2003, p. 27
COLLABORATION IS KEY TO ADVANCING CONSTRUCTION INNOVATION
By Robert Bullis
The past decade’s explosive technological growth has changed not only the way that much of the world lives, but also the way it does business. Increasingly sophisticated clients are demanding more and more from the industries and businesses that serve them; in the construction sector, this has meant, for example, a growing need for intelligent
buildings that can self-assess and self-maintain – a fact that is well known to CABA members.
In attempting to innovate to meet this challenge, however, the construction industry and building owners and managers are discovering that better integration of
technologies and systems is necessary. But, while various groups across North America have made excellent progress in developing new approaches to innovation, such as technology roadmaps, more is needed.
IRC Plays Pivotal Role
The Institute for Research in Construction (IRC), long a leader in Canadian construction research, is part of a
growing collaborative movement in North America trying to advance the innovation agenda. IRC research covers a broad spectrum of issues (see the summaries of some IRC projects on
pages 22-24 of the Autumn 2003 edition of Home and Building
Automation Quarterly).
Collaboration means taking continental, and even global, perspectives, as well as sharing information and pooling
resources. In fact, the pool of knowledge that can be drawn from is enormous.
A U.S. agency that is part of the movement is the
National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST), another leading organization with parallels to IRC. NIST has a broad mandate to develop and promote standards and technologies to enhance productivity and facilitate trade. Its activities include building and fire research; chemical science and technology; electronics and electrical engineering;
information technology; manufacturing engineering; and materials science and engineering.
Research at IRC and NIST can play a role in developing and integrating new technologies in the construction
industry. IRC, for instance, can help with its work in the development of diagnostic and asset management tools and wide-ranging research that includes fire safety and the indoor environment, areas that often have controls
implications. NIST can offer, along with some similar research, strong expertise in standards and protocols for systems integration and communication.
In June 2002, IRC joined the U.S. research consortium FIATECH (short for Fully Integrated and Automated
Technology). FIATECH was formed because of a recognition that the highly fragmented U.S. construction sector lags, as it does in Canada, behind other industries in research,
development and integration. Its formation led to a
coordinated effort to ensure the dissemination of information between its members, and to facilitate the development and use of new technologies.
Through the reduction of design changes/reworks and the detection and rapid correction of differences between design intent and construction, FIATECH hopes to reduce costs and schedules for capital projects by 30 percent. The tools for these endeavours include integrated software applications, 4-D visualization, advanced communications, field sensing and tracking, modularization, pre-construction (off-site assembly and prefabrication), and automation in the field and during construction. FIATECH members include building owners, operators, contractors, suppliers, government agencies, and academic organizations, and they have a number of projects underway, such as the Capital Projects Technology Roadmap, and the Study on the Economic Impact of Imperfect
IRC acts as a contact for the Canadian construction industry at FIATECH meetings. Its membership ensures that Canada will have a voice in the next generation of a major roadmap for the industry, and should, in time, enable greater technological advances because of the sharing of information with other FIATECH members.
The partnership between FIATECH and IRC extends to CABA through the participation of IRC’s director general, Dr. Sherif Barakat, who serves on the board of both FIATECH and CABA. A recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between CABA and FIATECH underlines the commonalities between the organizations and refers to the development, promotion, pursuit and understanding of integrated systems and
automation. The MOU notes the common objectives of advancing the development and deployment of technologies in order to improve the design, engineering and maintenance of capital projects, and the advancement of operability in order to achieve mass market adoption and use of technology.
The NSCIC Connection
As part of the coordinated effort to develop a strategic approach to innovation across the Canadian construction
sector, the National Steering Committee for Innovation in Construction (NSCIC) was formed two years ago. A
transitional group, NSCIC is made up of members from both the public and private sectors across Canada. With a mandate much like that of FIATECH, NSCIC has established the goal of developing a vision for the industry and drafting a roadmap to help meet that vision. NSCIC agrees that Canada’s
approach to construction innovation needs to be integrated. Although a single firm can champion innovation it recognizes that industry acceptance and advancement will only happen if all major stakeholder groups collectively agree to it.
While it may appear there are many disparate activities going on, forward-looking organizations like IRC, CABA, NIST, FIATECH and NSCIC are seeing to it that those efforts are part of a master plan.
For more information about NIST, check out their Web site at www.nist.gov; for NSCIC, go to www.nscic.ca; for Fiatech, see www.fiatech.org; and for IRC, go to www.irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
