This building contains hundreds of thousands of samples, stored in vats of liquid nitrogen at -278o centigrade.
QA covered four distinct areas of manufacturing, both primary and secondary, and small and large module, split across two campuses and 13 separate testing laboratories, each conducting variety of tests and other QA processes It is not hard to imagine the complexity that engendered.And while many people had an understanding of parts of the process, no-one had a complete understanding of the whole picture.. We gathered, consolidated and agreed enormous amounts of site and process data with the client and then assessed, in a variety of ways, each of their laboratories.
We gave each laboratory a consolidated, weighted score based on their effectiveness and considering any known issues (always using visualisations and the agreed common language).. We produced visual analytics of the entire web of processes on site in a way that was clear and, as a result, very powerful: it gave the client the tools to be able not just to see and understand their complex processes in their relative context, but also to discuss them with each other (regardless of specialism and teams) and senior management.. We could then map this analysis against a range of desired objectives and value drivers, to describe dependencies, adjacencies and requirements, and how to be able to measure outputs.We presented a wide range of variables, for example: density of operations in laboratories by m2; activity in terms of people per m2; test time by laboratory and category of test; laboratory capacity by time taken per test, and by number of tests carried out per year; and so on..This gave the client a clear way to see the most pressing requirements, and an initial indication of how to prioritise and plan the way ahead.. We carried out further analysis of the full scope of what is covered by ‘Quality Assurance’ – from the routine to the exceptional – and what impact this activity has on value in the client’s manufacturing process (cost, speed, quality and flexibility, for example)..
Finally, we offered options for strategic direction for improvement, combined with comprehensive and highly detailed potential improvements (using the 5S method).These ranged from maintaining the current system but fixing the most obvious issues, through to relocation and/or consolidation of laboratories, and optimisation and automation of Quality Assurance processes.. A digital methodology.
At Bryden Wood, we say that we are powered by technology as a methodology, a way of thinking that unlocks new approaches to complexity.
Our Design to Value approach to master planning is an example of that.. Our Creative Technologies team has produced a number of digital configurators, including master planning tools for railways, roads and data centres.They want a sophisticated way of delivering, but through an existing framework, an existing set of contracts, an existing set of contractual terms.. “No one doubts that you can deliver an asset using some of these technologies, he says, “but it's the framework of procurement methodology and contracts, and IP, and warranties and insurances - all those other things that need to change.”.
“What I'm finding now,” says Amy Marks, “is that they love industrialised construction, they want to understand certainty, so they're starting to dictate and decouple the process of construction and productising it.”.We need to connect makers and designers, she says.
We need to look across everything we’ve built and find the consistencies.We can’t do it by hand, we need to use algorithms and machine learning.