Chapter 4 Case Study
4.1 Project Description
This section introduces Statsbygg, the case at Domus Medica and the background of the study at IFI2.
4.1.1 Introducing Statsbygg
Statsbygg, the Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property, acts on behalf of the Norwegian government as property manager and advisor in construction and property affairs. The organisation is an administrative body responsible to the Ministry of Government Administration and Reforms. Statsbygg manages approximately 2.3 million m2 of floor space in Norway and abroad, completes about 30 projects per year, has more than 700 employees, a yearly investment of around 3 billion NOK in buildings, maintains 1500 properties and has about 140 ongoing projects.
Statsbygg is the owner of must civil public on central government level, and is responsible for the management, development and maintenance of these buildings. Examples of building projects conducted by Statsbygg are university-colleges, universities, prisons, courthouses, theatres, museums, Government offices, traffic stations, castles and embassies. Examples of recent famous projects are the Opera building in Bjørvika and the Global seed vault in Svalbard. The organisation offers consultancy and assistance in civil engineering and technical matters to ministries and governmental organisations. Statsbygg is member of the Lean construction network Norway (Statsbygg 2009, 2008).
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4.1.2 Domus Medica
The Domus Medica case takes place at the Gaustad campus of the University of Oslo (UiO) and is an extension to the existing university buildings Domus Medica and Domus Odontologica. These buildings are used by the medicine and odontology faculties. The project is estimated to cost 529.9 million NOK and the construction period is estimated to last approximately 2 years. The construction process will start in summer 2009. The site consists of an area of 11. 262 m2 divided in four main parts:
- The lab (main building); area: 5.370 m2
- The building with classrooms (Rotunda); area: 1.593 m2 - Animal department (cellar in Rotunda); area: 2.213m2 - Parking cellar (underneath the main building); area: 2.086 m2
The site plan is showed in figure 11. It shows that the site has a limited space for material storage and laydown areas and other facilities. The two arrows show the two access roads to the site. The dotted lines indicate a possible drive-through construction road. The long lines demarcate the staging area, and the continuous lines depict the new building. The access road from Slemdalsveien crosses a narrow but reinforced bridge. The access road from Gaustadalléen needs to be kept open because it is a busy road for traffic.
56 Figure 11: Aerial photo © Google with improved drawing of D-Medica (Adapted from Statsbygg 2008)
It is noteworthy that Statsbygg does not do any construction activity themselves. Basically the procedure starts with the user (University of Oslo in our case) realizing the need for a new building. The user contacts Statsbygg who takes responsibility for carrying the project. An architect is chosen for the preliminary design of the building through tendering. Once the first design done, the architect and some consultants in collaboration with Statsbygg develop a tendering document for the potential main contractor and all subcontractors. The document is then sent out for selection of the different contractor. The organisational chart of the Domus Medica project is shown in Appendix 1. The Latham report (1994) underlined the reliance of the construction sector on competitive tendering for subcontracted work and price based selection. After selection, contractual agreements are signed between the different parties and Statsbygg, which define roles and responsibilities in the project. Some changes in design can happen through comments from the selected contractors, at the end, the best design solution for Statsbygg and the architect
57 is chosen. The figure below describes a possible construction supply network used by Statsbygg.
Figure 12: The Construction Supply Network
(Adapted from Briscoe et al. 2001)
In the Domus Medica case, construction is the responsibility of a general contractor under contract to the client. The main contractor has responsibility for the staging area and the construction site. This means tidiness and maintenance of the site as well as providing offices, cranes and other equipment and storing space are under his responsibility. A third party construction site manager has been hired for the project.
4.1.3 Background of the Field Study (IFI2)
Since the different contractors for Domus Medica were not yet selected at the time of this study, a field study was conducted on the construction site at IFI2, one of the current construction projects managed by Statsbygg in Oslo. This project is also for the same customer, the University of Oslo, and is located just south of Domus Medica across the main road and is going to be the new building for the informatics students.
The construction process is assessed based principally on the literature review discussed in section 2.4 Lean Supply Chain Management in Construction. This construction site is a 28,500 square meter informatics and computer sciences research building. The project at IFI2 is organized with Statsbygg managing the different contractors operating on the
Demand for construction. Client’s requirement for a new building (UIO) User (UiO) Statsbygg (Project manger and building owner) Principal Tendering Architect & Engineers Design building Main contractor appointed to procure building Raw Material Conversion of building materials into building products Subcontractors to convert building product into substance Subcontractors to convert building product into superstructure Subcontractors to convert building product into services Subcontractors to convert building product into internal finishings Commissioning of building Occupancy of building by client
58 construction site. No general contractor has been assigned for this project. Sixteen contractors taking part in the project have been assessed in their approach to supply chain management. The organisational chart for the IFI2 project is displayed in appendix 2. Figure 13 and 14 give an overview of the building at IFI2.
Figure 13: IFI2 under construction Figure 14: Architectural Lego™ of IFI2