The moment of problematization

Callon starts the discussion of this phase with a question of the researchers who returned from the journey to Japan to study Japanese larvae: “is this experience transposable to France and, more particularly, to the Bay of St. Brieuc?” (Callon 1986, p. 6). Hence, they question themselves whether French larvae, which are different from the Japanese ones, can actually behave, grow, and respond to the collectors the same way as what they experienced in Japan. In order to start answering these questions, the researchers determined a set of actors whose identities became an obligatory passage point in the building network.

From my data analysis, one main actor-network can be identified, and this network is aiming towards implementing the CIS. The central component of this strategy can be defined as “pre-designed products” which is directly linked to the implementation of BIM and the supply chain agreements. This is because the outcome of BIM implementation, which aims to standardise the design and building process, and the development of supply chain agreements, thus working with fewer supplier firms at earlier stages of the design process, leads to houses, or schools which can be considered manufactured from an assemblage of pre-design products. The development of this strategy with the SP project of standardised schools, is a big innovation inside the firm over the last few years and it is proven to be successful. John’s innovative strategy of pre-designed products is explained as:

I suppose it’s just the concept, the notion that you can develop a product to generate a demand rather than develop a response to a demand. It’s just different because it’s a

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risk. You might develop it up and you might not get anything and that is a risk but it’s also that you can develop a product up that you can commit to price on and time on and specification on and it can work. It can work for clients but also as well it can make the margin, if it’s set up right, that we want to make in terms of profit. And I genuinely think that it’s only been limited in terms of the amount that we’ve done, SP has

probably opened more internal eyes than it has external eyes. It’s shown that these supply chain agreements can work and that actually there are benefits to that and in quite a short space of time (…) So it’s gone from probably me two years ago

metaphorically fighting every single surveyor on every single SP job who thought they could buy a better product to now, a couple of years later, being in the position where we are probably mandating those same suppliers for the whole organisation which I think is a massive, massive change (Product Director- 2016).

Moreover, when he was asked about the biggest innovations within this strategy, he first highlighted the certainty of time scale and cost. Then he also discussed:

Our commitment to our partners, in terms of our supply chain partners, so unlike most buildings, we don't tender on a job by job basis for the components, we have strategic deals for all our major components, like windows, doors, and everything else. Uhm, that is pretty radical... and it is radical for construction, it is not really radical for anyone else, I mean, (....) these things are pretty common things everywhere else, but are pretty radical in the construction industry which is so far behind. Then the main (second innovation) is the use of BIM, A) to invest the money to get it fully designed at risk before even having a client (…) B) the way we are starting to try new digital marketing in terms of visualisation and augmented reality, it is certainly something we are starting to move on (Product Director – 2017).

A key part of John’s strategy of innovation and standardisation is the implementation of BIM which also represents, as cited above, one of the main innovations within the business. The mandated introduction of BIM in the construction sector has come from the 2011 Government’s Construction Strategy which aimed to reduce the cost of public sector assets

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of 20% by 2016. In order to do so, construction suppliers are required to work with BIM Level 2 for centrally procured government projects. In particular, they are required to have fully collaborative 3D BIM, meaning that all information, documentation and data should be digital and can easily be shared and work upon collaboratively. Hence, the government push towards BIM can be considered a central part of the problematization of the CIS actor- network. From government projects, the implementation of BIM can extend to commercial projects. Indeed, as part of the firm’s corporate strategy, the implementation of BIM concerned the development of standard school projects from which made the firm obtained a great success and became very competitive in the school construction market. This success was translated into the residential business of the company in order to successfully develop the housebuilding business which lacked innovation even more. Introducing BIM into the residential development of the firm represents an even stronger innovation since the residential sector is still behind of BIM applications.

There are many benefits of introducing BIM into the business, including a better level of information across different levels of the project. For example, the design models, which are in 3D, allow the actors to change and understand the model directly during meetings and remotely. Hence, it encourages a collaborative and coordinated way of working which is also part of John’s strategy of enhancing and involving the supply chain. In the SHT project, the Project Manager highlighted how BIM encouraged communication among participants in the design phase both during meetings, both remotely:

The more people that have got involved, everyone has said how useful it has been, because the house design is very simple. All the discussion has been around the

process and the formatting and how it works. In design management, I always like to be copied in on email conversations so I can sit and see conversations and issues being discussed and reviewed between consultants. That’s my window into the design management process. Allied with that, we have regular sit downs round the table to make it all work so that’s how I manage design. In BIM you also have got the online collaboration which is Buzzsaw as we sit at the moment, it now might be BIM 360 but it is an online portal where all that information gets uploaded, reviewed, uploaded, reviewed till it’s right and shared (Project Manager – 2016).

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Following Callon’s theory of network building, the network is created by one actor (the “network builder”). In this case study, the main network builder is John because he has been the actor developing and pushing this collaborative innovation strategy through. He has been managing other offices and the supply chain in terms of relationship building and marketing. His presence acts a guide for suppliers inside the firm and can be evidenced throughout interviews with suppliers. Indeed, one of the suppliers involved in the standard housing project said:

John got close very early, he was involved in all the interviews with ourselves and other contractors and John always kept this under his own wing so he’s run alongside us for quite a while. So, in terms of continuity, John’s always been there and helped us along in terms of information or introducing us to other people within the organisation. (…) if there’s ever an issue, I’m always available, John’s always available and we speak a couple of times a week as well (Sales Director of TFC – 2016).

If Callon’s (1986) problematization in his study of scallops tried to answer the questions of “how can we make scallops anchor?”, then the question that John aimed to answer could be interpreted as: “how can we implement more collaborative and innovative processes by introducing BIM and integrating the supply chain around the BIM model?” In particular, the network builder aimed to attract the actors’ interests to pass through obligatory passage points. The suppliers must be willing to share change in their process. These include: build long-term partnerships with the contractor and being involved in the early stages of projects; being part of a learning process of BIM in order to implement Government’s requirements (with the help of the contractor and external consultants); innovate which lead to continuous improvement to gain competitive advantage (it is required by the supply chain agreements). Therefore, in order to achieve such change, they must share an answer to the previous question, and recognise the importance of building an alliance with the firm. Regarding BIM and its competitive advantage, and the importance of signing single-supplier agreements, John explains:

So the thought process was if we take the fledgling product that we’ve got and we design it around the technologies, we design it around BIM, we can generate a market

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and (a) provide a differentiator to TCC, (b) it helps our clients, most importantly and (c) it provides pipeline to the offsite people. (…) the idea being that doing these strategic single supplier agreements gives us enough of a carrot to make it worthwhile them innovating. There’s something tangible. If we only said we really want you to innovate but actually we’ll only give you ten units a year, they might innovate for their own reasons but they’re not going to share it with us. We need to give them something properly to get their teeth into. So it’s a valuable enough relationship for both parties (Product Director – 2016).

Hence, John hypothesises the interests and identities of the actors (the suppliers) in the collaborative partnership established through the single-supplier agreements, just like Callon (1986) discussed about the interests and identities of the actors developing from one single question (“does the Pecten maximus anchor?”).

Since BIM needed to be implemented within the firm in its public projects, hence throughout its mandated suppliers, a huge investment has been made inside the firm to build a network of BIM experts throughout all the regional offices. According to the firm’s corporate strategy, and how it has been emphasised during interviews, the introduction of BIM was aimed to stimulate innovation, and improve efficiency and profitability. In particular, BIM can encourage innovation since it has led to innovative practices, such as collaborative working environments during design and relationship meetings and workshops. Indeed, the major involvement of the supply chain in these events can lead to more trust and open communication, and thus to shared innovative ideas.

Moreover, BIM itself represented an innovation both for the firm and the suppliers, particularly for housing development. Hence, even though the implementation of BIM has been mandated by the government, the BIM strategy inside the firm was to go beyond the mandate in order to develop all three main businesses (construction, housing, interiors) and be ready for the required change. This decision to extend the use of BIM is due to the successful results, in terms of time and cost savings and competitive advantage, obtained in the SP project of schools.

Although these changes inside the firm represented a huge investment, John’s mandated suppliers also needed to invest a lot of money to integrate BIM. Most of the suppliers who were involved in the design projects had only a limited comprehension of

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BIM, particularly Revit4_{, which is used to develop the architectural models. Along with the}

implementation of BIM, standardisation processes and off-site construction contributed to reaching more efficiency inside the organisation. This strategy has affected the relationships with the suppliers and the development of the supply chain agreements are part of this strategy. In this situation, a set of actors are determined, and their identities become an

obligatory passage point in the network of relationships that are built (Callon 1986). The

actors who have been identified by the CIS network are both humans and non-humans. Humans comprise of external actors such as the mandated suppliers, architects, and other consultants, and internal actors such as BIM managers, engineers, directors, and the purchasing team. Non-human actors also are part of the network and are represented by four main groups: technological objects such as software BIM (e.g. REVIT), Buzzsaw/BIM 360 Glue; official documents such as the supply chain agreements, BIM documentations and regulations (e.g. BIM execution plan); architectural models both in REVIT and CAD; Power Point presentations during workshops and conferences.

Until now it has been discussed the hypothetical identities and interests of the actors through John’s strategy and following Callon’s problematization phase. The table below summarises the actors’ identities and hypothetical interests as they have been identified by John.

Who Identity Interests

Human actors Internal actors Central Purchasing Team (Purchasing Manager, Product Manager, Purchasing Coordinator) Responsible for implementing John’s strategy; suppliers’ selectors and suppliers’ relationship managers

- to select the best suppliers for the firm through a strict selection process;

- to build strong

relationships with them; - to keep daily contact with suppliers and solve any issues with them;

- to sign the supply chain agreements;

- to organise events to

4 _{Revit is a BIM software, part of Autodesk, and it is an intelligent model-based process used to}

plan, design, construct and manage buildings and infrastructure. It supports a collaborative design process, in which project participants can share information, models, and annotations. It also imports, exports and links data with other common formats, such as IFC (Industry Foundation Classes). Information obtained from: https://www.autodesk.com/products/revit/overview#

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foster suppliers’ involvement and trust; - to conduct quarterly relationship meetings with suppliers. BIM/Project Manager for Standard House Type (SHT) project Leader of the SHT exercise

- to lead and schedule meetings every month with all participants; - to follow a strict schedule of meetings and

workshops from BIM Level 2 to Level 4;

- to foster collaboration by exploring the design process, software

implementation and any other issue. SP Product Manager Manager of the SP school range product, standardised components to be built on site and adapted according to clients

- to manage standardised components for schools; - to adapt these

components according to clients’ and sites’ needs; - to collaborate with the other regional offices; - to respond to clients’ requirements.

Head of BIM Responsible to implement BIM in the firm and in the SHT project

- to implement a constant level of BIM in design processes;

- to train and develop employees within the firm so that they understand how to manage BIM processes.

External actors

GSFC Single-supplier for

light gauge steel frame in SHT project

- to design light steel frame models in the housing exercise and other projects;

- to develop BIM capabilities;

- to keep strategic deals with TCC (supply chain agreements).

TFC Single-supplier for

timber frame in SHT project

- to design timber frame models in the housing exercise and other projects;

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- to develop BIM capabilities;

- to keep strategic deals with TCC (supply chain agreements). RC Designer manufacturer and supplier of roof truss for TCC: recommended by TFC and GSFC for housing project - to develop BIM capabilities (they never used BIM before); - to keep up with innovation;

AC – Architects 3D BIM designer of standard houses; leading the architectural model development; external consultants

- to implement BIM level 2 (they have never done it before);

- learning process: collaborating with sub- contractors and using BIM; - to enhance co-ordination.

RN Single supplier for

suspended ceilings and acoustics

- to partner with TCC in different projects; - to innovate;

- to suggest innovative and best components.

KR Single supplier for

roofing, insulation, infrastructure and structural waterproofing) - to partner with TCC in different projects; - to innovate;

- to suggest innovative and best components.

Table 5.1 List of the actors within the CIS actor-network and their interests.

Focusing more carefully on these actors, the Purchasing team plays an important role in selecting the suppliers and developing their interests. For this reason, John’s responsibility of choosing the right suppliers has been transferred to the Purchasing team. He particularly emphasised the change occurred to the purchasing team and the supply chain managers concerning the relationships with the supply chain:

They’ve gone from just making sure that we keep on friendly terms with supply chain partners and making sure that we have enough people of the right calibre, partners of

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the right calibre, dealing with problems if we have things, to actually now that database stuff being done a lot more by our local supply chain people and the people in the centre of the business looking at strategic agreements and partner approaches and different things as well which has been quite a sea change (Product Director – 2016) .

Based on the interview with the central Purchasing Team, their main responsibilities are:

(…) administering those agreements (supply chain agreements), making sure they’re in place all signed up and then collecting the associated fees that go with that. The other people in the team are predominantly involved with that kind of administration

collection process resolving any invoice disputes, so it maintains the correct type of relationship (Product Manager – 2016).

Their tasks also concern assessing the suppliers to enter the supply chain agreement with questionnaires (PQQ) and pricing exercise. Thus, the process is rather specific and structured in order to identify companies which are as similar to TCC as possible in terms of characteristics, vision, innovation level, and long-term goals:

So in terms of when we’ve got to a partnered supply that we’ll use on every scheme, the exercise generally starts with a PQQ (Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) of some description. It depends on how many suppliers. (…) So it’s a big exercise and what you might do is send out 150/200 question PQQ to 80 companies because I’ve then got to review all that information when it comes back. So we picked out the high level things that were really important to us, like the PEFCs (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification), ISOs (International Organization for Standardization) and things that we felt were really important to the business, did a short PQQ and managed to whittle it down to 25 from these first 15 questions. Once we’d done that, we then sent a full PQQ with all of the questions and a pricing exercise out to all the companies. We then score the companies on their PQQ answers, applying weightings to certain things that we feel are important to the business and again the pricing exercise, we do a comparison to give out a score. It’s generally weighted 50:50, 50% on the PQQ, 50% on price because equally they’re as important to us. We felt we could always get cheaper,

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can always buy cheaper. I could do the exercise again tomorrow and find something cheaper but not necessarily the right product (Product Manager – 2016).

In order to do so, a vetting process which includes, for example, the level of innovation, pricing offers, and interviews, is developed. TCC also plans site visits to the suppliers’ factories in order to obtain a more detailed understanding of the companies and the costs involved:

It’s got to be all about the right company as we said earlier. Then generally the process,