Getting on with it. COVID-19, Creative Technologies and the future of the built environment.

There is an increasing amount of pressure growing in the construction industry to design net zero carbon buildings, both in terms of operational and embodied carbon.

throughput and timing data, such as processing times of stations, speed of conveyors and speed of cranes..The data itself was not hard-coded into the model and instead read from an external data file, which made running multiple simulations for differing parameters a rapid process.. Several different scenarios were simulated in the model that were made up from combinations of options.

This included different production schedules and whether transport timings were included, to test sensitivity of the system to these inputs.We also added scenarios for a +/- 20% variation on process timings (for example, the welding stations), using a triangular distribution.. We defined key outputs to measure performance of the system, including schedule completion time (i.e.how long it took to manufacture all trusses in the schedule) and average daily throughput, for comparison against expected market demand.

We recorded buffer accumulation to test for process bottlenecks, as well as the number of occupied painting stations to check capacity against what had been previously assumed.. Case study - modelling conclusion.The model was able to support several assumptions made for the design of the process, such as the allowances for buffers and painting bays.

Additionally, the model could show that the system was sensitive to assumptions made for travel time of materials between stations, but that the different production schedules and variation in process time only resulted in slight variations in results.. With this simulation able to rapidly test multiple options and scenarios, the model can continue to be used to test further sensitivities in the process or be expanded to include even more of the system.

This could include raw material handling, truss packing and shipping, or even wider in the supply chain.. Long term changes supported by simulation and automation.Leadership and facilitation here are key.

In Design to Value, all elements of the project stay in play.Collaborative teams question the value drivers as they go along and they even question the problem statement.

Sometimes problem statements can be rewritten – part way through a project, answers might be found but the team may determine they are insufficient, and perhaps the very question they are answering needs reframing.Everything has to be fluid.