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Active Research - Digital Design Management

High-quality asset design provides value to organisations, owners and end-users across the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (ACE) sector.

Design creation requires managed interactions between different project parties. This involves a set of collated information - traditionally including drawings, specifications, and schedules, but more recently digital models. Design Management (DM) involves the management of project related design activities, processes, people, and other resources to enable the effective flow, and production of design information. Achieving such collaborative and integrated working across a temporary project organisation (TPO) is usually been a ‘messy’, and ‘analogue’ coordination process involving significant process ‘waste’. Without effective digital decision support systems, DM activity may not optimally help achieve desired project outcomes.

In ‘Industry 4.0’, because of an increasing adoption of digital design through the likes of BIM, such information rich content can be better managed through more digital means. Thus, the aim of this Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project - funded by Innovate UK and Turner & Townsend - is to use information modelling technology to create a digital design management (DDM) service for construction projects with an integrated decision-support platform to facilitate collaboration and increase productivity.

Project partners: Northumbria University; Turner & Townsend.

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