Systems Integration for Building Services
Start Date: May 2004
End Date: Aug 2006
Project Status: Complete
Background
Building services are worth about 2% of GDP and are essential for the effective and efficient operations of buildings. Building services routinely account for over 50% of the capital costs of new buildings and up to 70% of life-cycle costs. It is increasingly recognised that the value of a building is related to the way it supports the client organisation’s ongoing business operations. Buildings services are central to the functional performance of buildings and to the necessary conditions for health, well-being, safety and security.
Building services are becoming increasingly technologically complex. They frequently comprise several technologically distinct sub-systems and their design and construction requires the involvement of numerous disciplines and trades. Designers and contractors working on the same project are frequently employed by different companies. The coordination of these many participants and subsystems is crucially important for the optimum performance, but too often is neglected. This leaves room for serious faults to develop during the building process, particularly where the work of different designers, contractors or suppliers overlap. The need the effective integration is paramount and leading companies increasingly refer to the need for a systems integrator. The importance of this role is widely recognised in the aerospace and defence sectors and has led to a major shift in procurement procedures.
In common with the aerospace and defence sectors, the procurement of building services systems is increasingly characterised by technology push. Modern technology is affording increasing opportunities for integrated personal-control systems for lighting, ventilation and security. Emerging self-diagnostic technology enables continues adjustment of building services systems to match occupants’ continually changing needs if only traditional procurement discontinuities can be overcome. Opportunities for a new mode of systems integration are provided by the emergence of PFI/PPP procurement frameworks. The technological and organisational frameworks are in place to support a systems integration approach that make continuous commissioning and post-occupancy evaluation a reality. The primary barrier to such innovations is the embedded working practices that pre-date the emergence of integrated systems. The fragmented structure of the building services sector and the continued dominance of small firms present significant barriers to the diffusion of technological innovation.
Aims
The project aims to establish how systems integration can be achieved in the process of designing, constructing and operating technologically sophisticated building services. The research will focus on organisational responsiveness to technical innovation in the building services sector. A range of alternative systems-integration scenarios will be proposed drawing from technological forecasting techniques. The industrial partners will be actively involved in plotting the appropriate organisational responses to alternative scenarios. A particular focus will be given to the extent to which latest embedded technologies assist in the process of systems integration. A demonstration project of systems integration in building services will be developed as a means of diffusing innovation in the sector. The essence of the project is to envisage the emergent organisational responses to the realisation of building services as an interactive systems network.
Methodology
The methodology will include scenario planning and technological forecasting to extend the work already completed on Integrated Logistic Support Analysis for Building Services Systems and Design for Business Needs Reliability. Empirical work will investigate the extent to which trends towards systems integration are already apparent in practice, including the impleme