Integrated Project Delivery: Three Reasons Why AV Should Pay Attention

InfoComm International Special Report

In today’s economy, it pays to invest in tools and methodologies that increase productivity, foster collaboration, and improve communications. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is a method that has seen a rise in popularity and adoption over the past several years. IPD is seen as a means to create value for the building owner, architect, and general contractor on construction projects. And as IPD contracts appear more regularly in the marketplace, building construction trades like the AV industry should be poised to take advantage of increased opportunities.

What is IPD?
From a business perspective, IPD is a single tri-party contract between a minimum of the architect, building owner, and general contractor. Other consultants or trades may join in on the contract but the three main parties are unchanged. The hallmarks of a true IPD project, in addition to the presence of a binding contract, are: early and substantial involvement of all parties, joint risk and reward via a shared profit or loss, lean construction techniques, consensus-based decision making, and an agreement to settle issues without litigation.

From a tactical perspective, IPD means that the three principal parties plus any other pertinent consultants or trades sit down together as a project team from day one. Information is exchanged via building information modeling (BIM) or another form of virtual modeling so that any problems, concerns or hazards are identified and worked through early in the process. The successful collaboration of all parties minimizes the clashes and surprises that sometimes happen between parties once construction begins.

The origin of IPD doesn’t take a clear cut path. Industry watchers credit a 2004 report by the Construction Users Round Table (CURT) Architectural/Engineering Productivity Committee as a seminal moment in the formation of today’s IPD concept. Other forces and influences include the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), and the shared risk/reward contract models used by the deep sea oil and gas industry.

“In my opinion, not any one group can lay claim to the concept of IPD. There is increasing mass around the same topic. There are at least three conversational threads influencing thought about IPD today – industry transformation conversations via organizations like CURT, AIA, and AGC; sustainability and high-performance building conversations; and lean construction conversations,” says Markku Allison, resource architect for the AIA. “However, no one has ownership of IPD. At this point, it’s an industry term.”

Jim Summers, a Senior IT Analyst and associate at architectural design firm Burt Hill and responsible for firm's Practice Technology efforts, says “Let’s clarify how IPD is defined before we get started because, like BIM, everyone’s got a slightly different interpretation.”

Summers explains that Burt Hill has long conducted business with an open team structure to optimize the project through planning, design and construction. Each project presents different opportunities to leverage process & technology improvements and, depending on these and other factors, different contractual structures – ranging from simple agreements to a customized IPD contract.

Craig Janssen, managing director at AV consulting firm Acoustic Dimensions, says that IPD is gaining traction in the AV industry because “this is the time to do radical things. It’s the time to take risks and innovate. The AV industry needs to understand IPD and the cultural, contractual and financial impacts it has on us.”

1) IPD is a path to true collaboration and integration.
“The question of how to integrate into the IPD process for the first time is a common fear,” explains Laura Handler, director of virtual design and construction at construction management firm Tocci Building Corporation. With design partner KlingStubbins, Tocci completed the first IPD project on the East Coast in 2009 - Autodesk’s AEC Headquarters in Waltham, Mass. “AV technology was a huge part of the Autodesk project, but that may not always be the case on every IPD project. The end goal for AV may not be to join every IPD contract but AV practitioners still need to understand the collaboration portion of the process.”

Handler says that trades should develop their organization’s collaboration skills first before tackling an IPD project. “You can ask anyone for help with the IPD process or technology but it’s imperative that you understand collaboration,” she says. Reaching out to others who are embracing IPD is another tool to learn collaboration. “Every industry subset goes through changes when integrating IPD, so you must be able to communicate and share that experience. Traditional contract structures have pushed us apart and, historically, the building industry has built best practices based on the betterment of individual contributors. IPD aims to refocus the priorities back onto what’s best for the project.”

The entrance of IPD into the AV industry’s consciousness is well-timed. The economy has taken a toll on the construction industry, and building owners who are willing to invest in new construction are looking for partners in the process; not just vendors. “Now is the time for AV to work on trust relationships because IPD requires a high trust relationship for it to work,” notes Janssen. “IPD is an invitation club; not a low bidder’s club.”

2) The construction delivery model is changing.
According to the AIA, the design/bid/build model results in 38% of projects that are behind schedule and/or over budget. Their research suggests that percentage is cut in half when implementing collaborative techniques like IPD, which usually means more man hours spent during the planning phase where potential problems are identified and addressed.

 “The value add of IPD is getting the richness of information and expertise into the project as early as possible. For the AV industry, that offers the opportunity to inform the project rather than fill in placeholders created by others. As AV touches more of the building, the industry’s ability to help define the project is beneficial,” explains Allison.

“IPD projects do have a longer planning phase but result in greater efficiency due to increased optimization,” explains Mike DeOrsey, an architect at Burt Hill. “An IPD team is larger and more complex than a design/bid/build team, but it’s more efficient over the length of the project. IPD is the proper tool depending on the complexity, size, and duration of the project.”

A handful of IPD projects were completed in 2009, but 2010 has seen an exponential growth to the number of IPD projects in the market. While the number of IPD projects is relatively small, general consensus within the building and construction industry is that IPD is the way of the future. “The positive impact of IPD is that there will also be a huge rise in IPD-like (collaborative) contracts as well,” says Janssen.

KlingStubbins’ and Tocci’s Autodesk headquarters project had a price tag of $13 million, which Handler notes as being on the small side for IPD projects. She’s seen pure IPD projects as small as $6 million, which dramatically widens the field of possible IPD projects. “There are increased administrative costs to IPD but you can save on the time and materials for the project,” she adds.

However, the market for design/bid/build projects won’t completely go away. If a project is too small, IPD can’t generate enough cost savings to justify its use.

Allison notes that different delivery models exist for a reason, so no one model can be the de facto standard. “Culturally, we’re moving towards collaboration in every arena. Some companies are also experimenting with a hybrid model of some collaboration and some bid contracts to get the best efficiencies” He says. “With the construction industry’s significant impact on our economy, how can we afford not to think creatively for the best end result?”

3) BIM plays a large role in IPD.
InfoComm International first reported about BIM in 2009; since then, a BIM Special Interest Group (SIG) has formed to raise awareness within the AV industry. Janssen, a pioneering member of the BIM SIG, says, “The biggest issue with BIM right now is interoperability and how to get elements of all industries working together. “

AV’s voice in the interoperability discussion is small compared to the rest of the construction industry, so Janssen says that the industry needs to concentrate on education for the time being. “Many AV practitioners still don’t know what BIM is and what it means. BIM is a powerful manufacture, design, construction, and building lifecycle tool. Ten years from now, we will look back and see how BIM changed the way we do business.”

National and international BIM users are also struggling with standards, with organizations like the National Institute for Building Sciences (NIBS) buildingSMART alliance, and member groups like the American Institute of Steel Construction, working to address this issue. “It is important to establish BIM standards so that the information is easily absorbed and passed on to others downstream,” says Summers. “What AV can do in the mean time is to understand your tools and how they interface with the major BIM software packages.”

Tocci’s Handler says that BIM and IPD are the best ways to integrate and optimize AV technology. “IPD requires the use of the best tools possible, and right now that is BIM,” she explains. “It is helpful if an AV manufacturer can provide high quality BIM objects. There is a lifecycle benefit to AV manufacturers owning BIM objects especially as facility managers come on board with BIM.”

On the Autodesk project, the Tocci team created the BIM objects and families for the projectors so that they could visualize the light path through a complex millwork ceiling. In the ideal world, the projector’s manufacturer would have those objects created and populated with product specifications.

Janssen thinks that means nothing but opportunity for the AV industry. “We’re good at picking up technology quickly. Our strength is that we can learn fast,” he says. “We’re moving towards an open-source world. We don’t yet know the power of Wiki thinking. Manufacturers will lead this initiative because BIM means that designers can compare apples to apples and it’s now a fair game.”

BIM allows a manufacturer to draw, add data, and preassemble components. “BIM ties to IPD very neatly. In BIM, we can use preassembly to generate the final solution very early in the process,” says Janssen. “BIM is the technical support for IPD. BIM and IPD weren’t made for each other. It’s just a natural fit.”

What’s Next?

In January 2010, InfoComm’s Board of Directors appointed a BIM Task Force to formulate a strategy for educating the AV community on the importance of BIM and IPD.  In late 2010, the BIM Task Force will be releasing a comprehensive 30-page report explaining BIM and the role it can play in the low-voltage community.  In addition, InfoComm will begin taking steps to automate certain AV functions in BIM software, so that products will appear in a drop-down menu.

InfoComm will also continue to work with the AIA to promote the IPD process to the AV community and to educate architects on the value AV professionals bring to the IPD process.

Resources:
InfoComm’s BIM report: http://www.infocomm.org/cps/rde/xchg/infocomm/hs.xsl/11729.htm

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) IPD Initiative: http://www.aia.org/about/initiatives/AIAS078435