Building Design Cost Management

Models - Introduction

The models are all based on an electronics factory recently constructed in the North West of England. They have been established at the key stages in the development of the design solutions thus showing the gradual expansion of detail in the design cost management process as the design solution develops, culminating in the models that are built at the cost checking process to complete the design cost management process.
In establishing the various models information from the BCIS database has been used where appropriate supplemented by the authors' own experience and other information sources where required.

The models and the decisions that have been made in their establishment all follow a similar format:

·
Client needs	Procurement issues
Project location	Market conditions
Life cycle considerations	Those involved in the decision making process
Buildability issues	Selected procurement strategy
Size	Quantitative information
Qualitative information	Shape/geometry
Definitive ·level of specification	Definitive Performance
Time management	On-site/prefabrication
Plant/labour relationships	·Integration of site operations

The key stages at which the models have been built are currently based on the RIBA Plan of Work as referred to in the text. The user by clicking on to each of the key stage headings can see the various decisions that have been made, the BCIS information that has been used and the resultant cost model at the level of detail appropriate to the particular key stage. Within each of these models the users may, if they so wish, adjust the models by substituting their own design parameters for those developed by the authors.
As well as the user being able to click on to each of the key stages and explore the contents of each stage the users can, if they so wish, follow discrete sub-sets of the models through each of the stages based on the elemental breakdowns of the models