Digital Transformation of the AEC Industry: An Innovation Perspective

Youngjin Yoo, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Richard J. Boland, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
Kalle Lyytinen, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

Digital Technology in the AEC Industry

Rapid developments in digital technology are revolutionizing the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. Powerful 3-D visualization tools, combined with increasingly sophisticated digital modeling systems and centralized databases enable radically new ways of coordination among the many actors in an AEC project. Building Information Management (BIM) systems provide an integrated platform through which digitized construction and design information from diverse sources can be effectively communicated and coordinated. Digital tools to manage costs and schedules are being integrated into BIM systems, and supporting technologies like wireless networks, intelligent sensors, mobile computing and digital measurement systems are also being integrated with these systems to take full advantage of emerging digital infrastructures. The integrated use of digital technologies can significantly decrease cost and mitigate risks on complex projects, while enabling architects and builders to explore innovative building designs and new construction methods and materials. 

Over the last eight years, our research team has been studying how digital technologies are transforming the AEC industry. We began by following the use of digital technologies by Frank O. Gehry and Associates, as they adopted digital modeling tools that were originally developed for the aerospace industry. In a four-year field study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that we conducted from 2002 to 2006, we studied several major projects by Gehry in which his firm used the powerful 3-dimensional representation tool, CATIA, to model the complex geometry of their buildings and how that has influenced the way he works with owners, contractors, subcontractors, engineers and fabricators. Our work on Gehry’s use of the CATIA 3-D representation tools focused on how the tool enabled him to design more complex buildings, and also how it changed the way those projects were managed and how multiple other innovations were spawned during these projects. We are now beginning a new research project, also funded by the NSF, which will study the effect of today’s emerging technologies, such as BIM, on a wide variety of AEC projects by a broad range of architects, engineers and contractors.

To make this research as meaningful and useful to the AEC community as possible, we are making an open solicitation for participation from architects, engineers and contractors. Below we will briefly describe our initial, completed project, and following that, we will describe our new project, and invite participation by AECbytes readers.

Wakes of Innovations

In studying Frank Gehry’s use of CATIA, we drew several conclusions. First, we noted that adopting a new IT platform is part of a complex, system-wide change in the way project teams collaborate in doing their work, and in the way projects are controlled. For example, the use of a centralized database and building model changes the pattern of collaboration on a project from a series of loosely-coupled message transmissions to a network of more tightly-coupled information exchanges. The changes in the collaboration and information-sharing patterns within project teams also brought significant changes in the intensity of interactions among their members. In many instances, subcontractors and fabricators collaborated with architects and general contractors during the design stage with the result that key players are involved in the design process much earlier than they normally might be. Such tightly coupled collaboration patterns not only enhanced the quality of communications, thus reducing errors and redundant communication, but also enabled the design team to tap into the expertise of various trades and specialists in a much more meaningful way.

Such tight collaboration early in the design process enabled Gehry and his associates to experiment with new materials and constructions methods for their projects, and it also pushed contractors, subcontractors and fabricators to innovate in their own domains, which in turn inspired others, including Gehry himself, to pursue further innovations. In this way, 3-D tools played an important role in connecting all the players and stimulating their joint and separate innovations. As a result, the projects became a nexus of emergent and distributed innovations. We also observed significant changes in the roles of different members of the project and the relationships among them, which not only produced daring buildings but also changed the way they do business. In the projects we studied, we did not find a clearly identified, single center of innovation, but instead saw innovations emerging out of complex interactions among individuals who were struggling to respond to new ideas and push them to the limit. The use of 3-D representations became a part of a larger process in which the whole project network became a vibrant source of innovations.

Consider the following examples from the Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, O.  (These examples are taken from the paper, “Wakes of Innovation in Project Networks: The Case of Digital 3-D Representations in Architecture, Engineering and Construction,” by Boland, Lyytinen, and Yoo, Organization Science, 2007, 18:4, 631-647.)

1. The new roof structure enabled the exterior and interior surfaces of the building to directly coincide with each other—an usual condition in a complex building.
   
   
2. The roofing shingle system enabled that parallelism between the interior and exterior surfaces to be carried out with extremely tight precision.
   
   
3. The precision requirement challenged the interior surface contractors to invent new, closer tolerance, curved surface construction techniques.
   
   
4. The curved interiors created a new challenge for the fire smoke evacuation studies, stimulating the invention of new models of air flows for extremely complex interior surfaces.
   
   
5. The precise tolerance increased the risk of location errors, leading the construction manager instead of the contractors to measure the position of all pipes, windows, ducts, etc.
   
   
6. The precisely curved interior surfaces made the traditional techniques of acoustic control less desirable, simulating a search for alternative construction materials.

Here, each innovation responded to the challenges created by prior innovations, and set the stage for future ones. What we observed was a series of abrupt and unexpected changes in the long-established norms, roles and relationships in the AEC industry that had evolved over many centuries. These norms, roles and relationships form a strong self re-enforcing system of traditions that regulates the way AEC projects operate, but a significant change in one part of this system can cause wakes of changes throughout the network. This is particularly true when the primary means of communication among key actors on the project incorporates 3-D representations and building information models, because it changes how these actors collaborate and coordinate. We saw that these changes took place in a sporadic pattern as the paths of innovations followed by different actors crisscrossed at critical moments in the project, propelled by the expanded deployment of 3-D representations for a design challenge or a particular construction issue.

We found that the image of cascading, multiple wakes is an appropriate metaphor of the pattern of innovations that we saw in many of Gehry’s projects. The multiple wakes of innovation, flowing from different centers, can sometimes interfere and cancel each other, but at other times they amplify each other, creating a larger unexpected vortex of change. Each organization in an AEC project has its own identity, expertise, skills, tools and technologies. These firms chart their own innovation paths, which follows their own logic and temporal pacing. The 3-D representations provided “trading zones” where the boundaries of these organizations are temporarily crossed or overlapped, producing a space for exchanging knowledge, skills and techniques. In summary, our study suggests that 3-D information models are not only an effective tool to manage and coordinate complex AEC projects, but also play an important role in learning and innovation among many project actors. 

From Design to Designing        

Second, our research on Frank Gehry’s projects reveals how the use of 3-D representations intensified the focus on form giving. (This finding is a summary of the paper, “From Organization Design to Organization Designing,” by Yoo, Boland, and Lyytinen in Organization Science, 2006, 17:2, 215-229.) Even though form giving is an essential aspect of architectural design, a firm’s ability to focus on form giving is often constrained by various forces. Gehry and his associates follow a design process that starts with his sketches and physical models at various scales and later adds 3-D digital models in order to incorporate the form giving energy of others throughout the project. The architectural vision provided by Frank Gehry in his initial sketches is carried forward throughout the project by using 3-D representations to enlist contractors and subcontractors in exploring and expanding upon his original architectural vision. What is striking in this process is how each building uniquely responds to clients’ needs, local regulations, and the availability of talents and material and environmental conditions, but at the same time reflects his unmistakable design vocabulary.

Gehry’s ability to balance the tension between maintaining his architectural design identity and responding to the unique local needs of a client is a core capability that makes him one of the most significant architects of our time. His ability to strike a balance in this tension is not only driven by his inherent design ability, but also by the way he organizes his projects, in part by using 3-D representations. Unlike many project-based organizations, where an existing, standard organizational structure is adopted for a project, for Gehry and his associates, it is the project itself that determines the form of the project organization. As Jim Glymph, a former senior partner of Gehry Partners put it: “The organization structure does not cause the success of a project. Instead, the success of the project is the cause of its organization structure.” Here, we found a remarkable resemblance between the way Frank Gehry designs buildings and the way he designs their project structures. In both cases, Gehry’s intense focus on form giving allows him to constantly project his identity (both organizational and architectural design) into the world through an on-going dialogue with the environment. There is a continuous movement between fixed and fluid states—holding things constant and letting them loose, and choosing to push things and letting them go—which is part of an on-going search for design identity within a process of becoming in a constantly changing world. This unique attitude toward form giving in both the building and the organization structure is at the core of Gehry’s capacity to open more options without losing his own identity.

We observed that 3-D representations played a critical role and were a central tool that Gehry and his associates use in exploring different project structures. The 3-D tools and building information models were used to experiment with different patterns of communication and collaboration among project actors, and to identify the areas where they will push innovations and where they will pull back. Such a flexible approach to project structure, along with the intense focus on form giving, provides them a unique capacity to constantly look for new innovations in their projects while at the same time continuing to carry forward their own ideals.

Next Step—The Emergence of Distributed Innovation

Currently, we are involved in a follow-up study (also funded by the NSF) to track the broader set of information technologies that are increasingly used in AEC projects and to identify their consequences. We are studying the work practices, technology use and organizational structures of AEC projects by industry leaders in the adoption of a wide range of digital information technologies. In this study, we are examining emerging sets of tools including Building Information Management (BIM) systems, Wireless Technology, Tablet PCs, digital measurement tools, and Integrated Project and Document Management tools to determine how they affect the way different actors communicate, coordinate and innovate in architectural construction projects. Our research will explore how IT-enabled innovations successfully emerge in the AEC environment, and how they affect project performance. We believe the AEC industry is an indicator of how our global economy is evolving in technologies and organizational structures. Because AEC projects involve multiple firms with diverse technologies collaborating to achieve remarkable results in a resource constrained setting, it is a prime example of the doubly distributed environments (in which organizations with different structures and different technologies work together to achieve shared goals) that increasingly characterize today’s economy. Learning how to build, use and manage information infrastructures to support the emergence of innovations in such environments is our objective. The continuing support from NSF for our efforts in the AEC industry signifies the importance and urgency of carrying out careful and empirically grounded field research on this topic.

Using advanced network visualization technology, we seek to represent and analyze the way individuals and various technology tools are interrelated during a project to create a complex form of knowledge network and how such networks evolve over time. We are also tracking the various forms of innovations that take place in these technology-enhanced project networks. The project will provide new insights on how the emerging digital technologies facilitate the innovations throughout the project network. Our findings will lead to new managerial strategies for those firms who want to use IT to support innovations throughout the project network.

About the Authors

Youngjin Yoo is Associate Professor in Management Information Systems and Irwin L. Gross Research Fellow at the Fox School of Business and Management School of Management at Temple University. His research interests include integrating design approaches in managing innovations and information technology, knowledge management and ubiquitous computing. His work has beenpublished at leading academic journals including Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Organization Science, the Communications of the ACM, and the Academy of Management Journal. He is a senior editor of theJournal of Strategic Information Systems, an associate editor of Management Science and Information Systems Research, and on the editorial board of Organization Science, Journal of AIS, and Information and Organization. His website is at http://youngjinyoo.com and he can be reached at: youngjin.yoo@temple.edu.

Richard Boland is Professor of Information Systems and Professor of Accountancy at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and a Senior Research Associate at the Judge Institute of Management at the University of Cambridge. His research emphasizes interpretive studies of how individuals experience the design, implementation and use of information systems. He has served as Professor of Accounting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and visiting Professor at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, and Malmsten Professor at the Gothenburg School of Economics. Some representative publications include: R. J. Boland and F. Collopy, eds., Managing as Designing, Stanford University Press, 2004;  "The Process and Product of System Design," Management Science (1978); "The Experience of System Design: A Hermeneutic of Organizational Action," Scandinavian Management Review (1989); “Perspective Making and Perspective Taking in Communities of Knowing,” Organization Science (1995); and “Knowledge Representation and Knowledge Transfer," Academy of Management Journal (2001). He can be reached at: Boland@case.edu.

Kalle Lyytinen is Iris S. Wolstein professor Case Western Reserve University, USA, adjunct professor at University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, and visiting professor at University of Loughborough U.K. He serves currently on the editorial boards of several leading information systems and requirements engineering journals including Journal of AIS (Editor-in-Chief), Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information&Organization, Requirements Engineering Journal, Information Systems Journal, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, and Information Technology and People, among others. He is AIS fellow (2004), and the former chairperson of IFIP 8.2 and a founding member of SIGSAND. He also led the research team that developed and implemented MetaEdit+ which is the leading domain modeling and metaCASE platform globally. He has published over 180 scientific articles and conference papers and edited or written eleven books on topics related to nature of IS discipline, system design, method engineering, organizational implementation, risk assessment, computer supported cooperative work, standardization, and ubiquitous computing. He is currently involved in research projects that looks at the IT induced radical innovation in software development, IT innovation in architecture, engineering and construction industry, requirements discovery and modeling for large scale systems, and the adoption of broadband wireless services in the U.K., South Korea and the U.S. He can be reached at: kjl13@case.edu.

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