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| On This Page: |
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| Process, Organization and Product (POP) Modeling |
| Narratives |
| 4-D Computer Aided Design |
| Virtual Design Team (VDT) |
| Integrated Concurrent Engineering (ICE) |
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Process and Visualization Tools and Methods
Our most recent efforts in advancing CEM are tied to our Sustainable Built Environment initiatives, built on the pillars of:
- Environmental sensitivity
- Economic efficiency
- Performance beyond safety
- Social Equity
We have found in our research that to achieve meaningful progress in these areas, projects must take a broader view in each of the principal domains as depicted in the animation below.
We can demonstrate considerable increase in overall project value when the project scope takes into account this broader view.
But to make this kind of scope expansion practical, new tools and methods are required.
Students and researchers in our program will gain understanding and participate in the development of the technologies and methods that are needed to make this vision a reality.
These are just a few of the tools and methods developed, taught and/or used by CEM in our education and research.
Process, Organization and Product (POP) Modeling
POP Modeling is a tool for organizing information, parsing priority and understanding connections between design process, team organization, and product quality. A technology developed by the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering at Stanford, POP modeling has been used extensively on our project for organizing meeting minutes and clarifying project goals. Read more about POP »
Narratives
Understanding the dependencies between the many simultaneous processes carried out by designers on any building project is complicated. As more advanced technology and detailed science is used to analyze design options for more and more complex buildings, difficulties in communication between project team members becomes more apparent.
Professor John Haymaker has pioneered a new method for displaying the networked dependencies that exists between the various design processes. Narratives allow for the whole story, the whole design process to been seen from a high level, while the format also holds detailed information about each piece of the puzzle. Read more about Narratives »
4-D Computer Aided Design
Traditional construction planning tools, such as bar charts and network diagrams, do not represent and communicate the spatial and temporal, or four-dimensional, aspects of construction schedules effectively. As a consequence, they do not allow project managers to create schedule alternatives rapidly to find the best way to build a particular design. Extending the traditional planning tools, visual 4D models combine 3D CAD models with construction activities to display the progression of construction over time. Read more about 4D CAD »
Virtual Design Team (VDT)
Large scale and multidisciplinary engineering projects (e.g., design of a hospital building) are often complex and involve many interdependent activities, and require intensive coordination among actors to deal with the activity interdependencies. To make such projects more efficient and effective, one needs to understand how coordination requirements are generated and what coordination mechanisms should be applied for a given project situation. Our research on the Virtual Design Team (VDT) attempts to develop a computational model of project organizations to analyze how activity interdependencies raise coordination needs and how organization design and introduction of communication tools may change the coordination capacity of project teams, with resulting impacts on project performance. Read more about Virtual Design Team (PDF) »
Integrated Concurrent Engineering (ICE)
Integrated Concurrent Engineering (ICE) uses:
- a singularly rapid combination of expert designers;
- advanced modeling, visualization and analysis tools;
- social processes;
- and a specialized design facility;
to create preliminary designs for complex systems.
ICE is a disciplinary approach incorporating a number of technologies, rather than a technology itself, providing a framework for designing:
- Organizations
- Design Processes
- Information Technologies
with the goal of reliably improving project schedules, costs and quality.