Rowlinsson, S and Yates, D (2003) Ndcad: A virtual change agent for professions and procurement systems? Construction Management and Economics, 21(8), pp. 849-857. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
Prof. Urry was always forward looking in his view of the industry and visionary in the way he drew ideas and concepts from other disciplines and applied them to construction. Coming, as an aeronautical engineer, with no baggage he was able to step back and look at how ideas and concepts could be 're-applied' in construction and how the nature, structure and ethos of the industry might be changed. The use of OR techniques from the 1950s onward drove the industry forward with a great leap into a more structured view of the construction process - current uses of IT in visualization and animation have the potential to stimulate a similar great leap forward. The driver for change identified here is multi-dimensional computer aided design (nDCAD); this is a technology that not only animates conventional 3DCAD but invests attributes in its elements, such as cost, structural design and even safety data. It is argued that nDCAD has the potential to become the change agent that will drive the industry participants towards relational contracting procurement systems and provide the basis for truly collaborative design, construction and facilities management. In so doing, the traditional roles played by professionals will be unfrozen, so producing the context within which the professions can embrace a sea change in the way that they are governed and sentient barriers can be broken down.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | change agent; contract strategy; ndcad; procurement systems; professions; visualization |
| Index terms: | engineer, relational contracting, profession, procurement system, agent, visualization, collaborative design, facilities management, structural design, contract strategy, construction process, computer aided design |
| Subjects: | building construction, management, design practice, contractual arrangements, design methods, practitioner, institututions, computational design, architectural engineering, profession |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Digital Applications, Site Management, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions, Procurement |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here