This means DfMA can be much more collaborative than conventional design, bringing the designer and builder closer together to pursue a common goal..

Manufacturers can spend less time on the ‘bulk’ components and focus their efforts on the ‘project specific’ parts, and spend more time with customers understanding their individual needs.This is analogous with use of configurators and Platforms – designers can put more effort into the project specific and value-adding design and less into the documentation of the ‘chassis’.. Can we do this?

What should our digital marketplace look like?.Other sectors have grasped the opportunities and challenges faced by e-commerce in different ways and with different levels of success, but it’s now an unavoidable feature of daily life for most businesses and individuals.It is something that construction should – and can – also be heading towards.

There is no question that a digital marketplace for Platforms is achievable; the policy context is in place and there is a growing body of work that would support this.It’s up to the industry to decide what it looks like.

We should shape this now, proactively, rather than wait for external forces or commercial imperatives to impose something on us..

Considering the examples above, here are the key aspects I believe a digital marketplace for construction Platforms should include:.This is also a benefit when there are any late entrants to the discussion, to assure them that the analysis and enquiry have been thorough and rigorous.. Case study: an extensive pharmaceutical manufacturing site.

In one recent project, we worked on the quality assurance (QA) elements of our client’s operation.QA covered four distinct areas of manufacturing, both primary and secondary, and small and large module, split across two campuses and 13 separate testing laboratories, each conducting variety of tests and other QA processes It is not hard to imagine the complexity that engendered.

And while many people had an understanding of parts of the process, no-one had a complete understanding of the whole picture.. We gathered, consolidated and agreed enormous amounts of site and process data with the client and then assessed, in a variety of ways, each of their laboratories.We gave each laboratory a consolidated, weighted score based on their effectiveness and considering any known issues (always using visualisations and the agreed common language).. We produced visual analytics of the entire web of processes on site in a way that was clear and, as a result, very powerful: it gave the client the tools to be able not just to see and understand their complex processes in their relative context, but also to discuss them with each other (regardless of specialism and teams) and senior management.. We could then map this analysis against a range of desired objectives and value drivers, to describe dependencies, adjacencies and requirements, and how to be able to measure outputs.