What do Specifiers Want from Product Manufacturers? #SPRAconference2018
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Presentation by David Bain, NBS Research at the SPRA Conference 2018 held at Eastwood Hall, Eastwood, Nottinghamshire on the 20th June 2018. More information: https://spra.co.uk/events/spra-conference-awards-2018/
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What do Specifiers Want from Product Manufacturers? #SPRAconference2018
- 1. 20th June 2018 David Bain, CMRS, Research Manager, NBS Research What do specifiers want from product manufacturers? Single Ply Roofing Association Conference 2018
- 2. What Specifiers Want Engage with the construction industry • Architects • Architectural technologists • BIM managers • Engineers • Manufacturers Carry out • Industry surveys • Advisory panel • Interviews About • Specification • Product information • Product identification • BIM • Technology adoption • Regulations • Contracts and Law For • NBS • UK Government • RIBA • Manufacturers • Other companies and organisations NBS Research
- 4. What Specifiers Want Specifiers: include named manufacturers and their products in their specifications
- 5. What Specifiers Want Specifiers: rely on manufacturers to provide inspirational and reliable technical information
- 6. What Specifiers Want 1. What type of information and support do they want? 2. When and how do they want it? 3. What trends and challenges are affecting them?
- 7. What Specifiers Want • What Specifiers Want Report • Based on the 4th NBS Specification Survey • More than 500 responses • 4 out of 10 were architects • Also: • architectural technologists • building surveyors • building services engineers • Range of practice sizes
- 8. What Specifiers Want What information and support?
- 9. • Performance • Relationships and support • Standards • Price
- 10. What Specifiers Want Substitution Lack of co-ordination between spec and drawings/model 32% 34% 35% 38% 46% 57% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Poor specification writing The specification was too long Lack of communication between disciplines Inaccurate or incomplete technical data The drawings and the specification contradicted each other Specified materials were substituted Top causes of specification difficulties
- 11. What Specifiers Want Information needs to be • Standardised • Reliable • Technically accurate • Co-ordinated between documents and people • Reassurance of adherence to standards • Maintain identification and audit trail of decision making • Reduced substitution of products • Knowing what is installed in the building • Increasingly digital
- 12. What Specifiers Want Clearer, standardised product information “Clearer descriptions of products and their uses”. “Standardisation of information to enable, materials and products to be compared on a like for like basis”.
- 14. What Specifiers Want 7.28 A recent UK Research and Innovation project – ‘Persistent Digital Identifiers for Construction Products’ – considered the feasibility and usefulness of developing an identification system that could provide every component in a building with a unique and persistent identification code. The project brought together the NBS (RIBA Enterprises Ltd), BSI and the Construction Products Association (CPA) to consider how a machine-readable, persistent digital token for construction products could be issued through the supply chain, enabling all stakeholders to reference the products they are specifying, sourcing or maintaining in buildings. Similar ‘persistent identifier’ systems are the industry-norm in domains such as academia and the entertainment industry. The review understands that the work on this research project has now been completed, and the partners are aligning the appropriate resources and systems to support a commercial service later in 2018.
- 15. What Specifiers Want • A DOI provides a unique identifier of a construction product, or class of construction products. • A DOI is permanently assigned, and continues to point to the data about an object it identifies even if the data moves, is updated or modified. • A DOI always has a set of metadata associated with it. It is not a ‘dumb’ identifier.
- 17. What Specifiers Want When and how?
- 18. What Specifiers Want Building a relationship is key
- 20. What Specifiers Want Many specifiers start thinking about products early in a project
- 21. What Specifiers Want Early stages: Inspirational content and ideas 80% prefer to get some initial ideas and then look at those products in more detail later 59% say that aesthetics is the priority when getting initial product ideas 89% use manufacturers’ websites: they need to inspire with engaging imagery, showcasing product and a quick route to technical information
- 22. What Specifiers Want Support, knowledge and relationship: CPD • Face-to-face still valued and often preferred • Supported with more online and microlearning options
- 24. What Specifiers Want • Specifiers look to manufacturers for information and support • 73% find it helpful if a product is included within NBS • Helps to avoid mistakes “Ensure more manufacturers have NBS clauses”.
- 26. What Specifiers Want • BIM is here to stay • Specifiers want information in a BIM format • More want BIM objects than specification clauses • Almost the preferred format now with only a few more preferring product literature • Some specifiers tell us they will not consider using a manufacturers’ product if they can’t find BIM information for it “More BIM objects required.”
- 29. What Specifiers Want Looking ahead
- 30. What Specifiers Want Environmental performance, collaboration and longevity will be increasingly important for specifications
- 31. What Specifiers Want BIM and adoption of other forms of technology will continue, at pace
- 32. What Specifiers Want Specifiers • Are time-pressured and rush the process • Need to know about a wide range of products • Need to learn about new methods of construction and manufacture • But don’t like the hard sell • Must adapt to new ways of working
- 33. What Specifiers Want Specifiers – what do they want? • Standardised, well structured product information • Digital Information – like BIM objects • Your help to realise design intent, and to understand what’s possible • A project colleague , not a sales person
- 34. What Specifiers Want Thank you Download the What Specifiers Want 2017: www.thenbs.com/whatspecifierswant17 Contact me: • David on 0191 244 5785 • Email: david.bain@theNBS.com • linkedin.com/in/davidbainnbs
Editor's Notes
- The Specification survey
- Nearly everyone responding to the survey told us they had experienced difficulties when producing or using a specification
- We have already seen that the relationship specifiers have with manufacturers is important to them And we see further evidence of that here with 7 out of 10 believing the process does work best when manufacturers are involved at an early stage And rely on manufacturers for help and support when selecting products But 4 out of 5 respondents do see a need for better communication between those involved in the product selection process not just with manufacturers But between consultants, contractors and manufacturers This would also help avoid some of the specification difficulties caused by those involved in the specification not working collaboratively or communicating effectively
- Having considered why specifications are created, it makes sense to look at when they are created, what information they need to include and how they are created. Shown here in the purple bars are all of the stages when respondents are writing or modifying their specifications The majority do this during the developed and technical design stages As we found in 2013 But we are now seeing more specifiers start the process earlier during the preparation and briefing stage or before And continuing to modify it through construction and into the handover and close out We are moving towards the concept of a lifetime specification - one that begins during the strategic definition of the project and then develops during the design, construction & handover But we aren’t there yet. Looking at the blue bars, these show when respondents start to consider what products to include or what their performance criteria should be Again the majority consider these during the developed and technical design stages But a significant number think about them earlier especially during the concept design stage And continue to think about them during construction, perhaps as alternatives are suggested It is clear though that specifiers spend a lot of time thinking about and researching products before actually adding them to the specification.
- I’ve no doubt that we have all heard different views from specifiers about the specification process One that I have certainly heard is of it being one of the less interesting aspects of a construction professional’s role Specification’s are also something that are not taught at university and For various reasons can be left until the last minute But to what extent do such views hold true today? Concerningly, 3 out of 5 respondents tell us they often rush the specification writing process Perhaps that isn’t a surprise knowing that specifiers are busy And that more than half believe that not enough people in their practice know how to write specifications But manufacturers can help with this by making sure the information specifiers need is easily available to them at the time when they are writing the specification - even if that is outside of working hours, and are in the formats that they need them Therefore, making the specification writing process quicker and easier Perceptions of specifications as a chore is a much more contentious issue with respondents having very contrasting views Despite that specifiers do value any help they can get to make the task of writing a specification easier and quicker
- “[You could help by} increasing [the] database of manufacturers and their associated standard specifications for integration into NBS. This avoids mistakes from misinterpretation by [the] person developing [the] specification”.
- Buildings are made of things. BIMs are made of BIM objects. A BIM object may contain detailed information about the thing that it represents. This can be information about its geometry (it both contains geometric information and lets people see what the thing looks like) and about its properties (like weight, or performance). It is very important that the information contained within a BIM object is accurate, standardised and well formed. Poor quality BIM objects make for a poor quality (and so professionally risky) model. Designers need manufacturers to provide BIM objects (three quarters agree). They also need generic objects (85% agree). The NBS National BIM Library provides both of these.
- Coordinating the project documents and models within the project team is one thing. Another is coordinating the documents and models themselves, so that the information they contain is consistent. Central to this is making sure that the specification and the models agree. 61% co-ordinate specs and models NBS offers a range of tools to do this.
- In summary
- We find that manufacturers and specifiers have some shared goals: They both want to reduce substitution And both value strong relationships In the case of specifiers they are time-pressured, which puts pressure on the selection and specification of products. It often means that they rush the specification; They have to know about an increasingly wide range of products; need to learn about new methods of construction and manufacture; and They need to adapt to new ways of working managing technical information and collaborating with other members of the project team. Manufacturers: want to strengthen their relationships with specifiers, and start the dialogue earlier in the project timeline; want to improve the accuracy of specification; have technical knowledge and expertise that can help specifiers and aid collaboration; are able and willing to support specifiers, and continually look to improve how they do this.
- We find that manufacturers and specifiers have some shared goals: They both want to reduce substitution And both value strong relationships In the case of specifiers they are time-pressured, which puts pressure on the selection and specification of products. It often means that they rush the specification; They have to know about an increasingly wide range of products; need to learn about new methods of construction and manufacture; and They need to adapt to new ways of working managing technical information and collaborating with other members of the project team. Manufacturers: want to strengthen their relationships with specifiers, and start the dialogue earlier in the project timeline; want to improve the accuracy of specification; have technical knowledge and expertise that can help specifiers and aid collaboration; are able and willing to support specifiers, and continually look to improve how they do this.