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The end customer does not seem to be willing to pay extra for the possibility to use virtual models, though.
The case data supported the obvious fact that the user of the facility must be incorporated in its design phase. In history, the higher the participation has been, the better the results have been in terms of the final product’s ability to deliver value to the user. By experience, when the features of the final product have been gone through in detail among the user and the designer, the spaces have been exactly as they are needed to be.
The case data showed that insufficient communication among the end customer, the designers, and the construction company leads to misunderstandings that cause waste. The needs and expectations of the end customer are not always clearly communicated to those involved in the design and construction process. On the other hand, the planned features of the final product are not always clearly communicated to the end customer.
This leads to a product that does not meet the user’s needs.
Insufficient communication leads to defects in design of the spaces that hinder their usability. These defects concern for example the materials, dimensions, or furniture. When the defects need to be repaired later on, waste is generated in the form of duplicate work. If the defect is not such that can be repaired, it will continue generating waste throughout the operation period, as the operation is not as efficient or effective as it could be. The virtual model of a building can help avoiding these wastes through visualisation and through simulation.
The designer being a professional in designing buildings means that interpreting two-dimensional figures and lines to conceptualise the final product may be quite easy. The same does not apply to end customers. The drawings used by professionals deliver considerably less information to the user, whose expertise lays obviously somewhere else than in interpreting design drawings.
Miniature model is a traditional example of how the designer could communicate the dimensions of the final product to the end customer prior to commencing the construction works, but a contemporary and more efficient way of doing this is the 3D virtual model. When the final product can be easily visualised to the users as it is intended to be, they can more easily conceptualise it in terms of dimensions and from aesthetic aspects.
Simulation would go a bit further. A simulator would let the employee, resident, or other occupant to wander in the building and experience it and the tasks and processes to be conducted within it already at the design phase.
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When the users see or experience the product exactly as it will be, they can better affect how the final product will be prior to starting the relatively expensive construction works. If the alternative would be to first time see the product in 3D when it has been built, using a virtual model means the waste generated by trial-and-error could potentially be avoided.
It rose up in the nursing home development case that at present, the focus has been too much on refining the design and construction process as efficient as possible. Too little focus is put on the actual processes for which the facility is built. Higher value for the end customer would be delivered by a facility that as fully as possible supports the processes conducted within it through its lifecycle.
The studied nursing home operator has standardised certain attributes for a nursing home building that have been identified to lower the costs from operation. For example, with a certain size and shape for a nursing home, the number of night nurses needed has been reduced to a certain level.
Reduction of one in the number of nurses needed means saving tens of thousands of Euros each year. Obviously, significant efforts would be worthwhile if such savings could be gained.
The virtual model of a building is the tool for this purpose. While visualisation could already help the user to figure how the operation in the building would be, simulation goes a few steps further in this. Above simulation was discussed from a single user’s perspective, but it can also be utilised in a more comprehensive way. Complete processes – processes that perhaps incorporate multiple users may as well be simulated. These kinds of simulations have been used for instance in factory settings.
Simulating the operation of the building in such a comprehensive way would enable optimising its shape, size and other features to meet the end customer’s needs as fully as possible. As a result, the end customer would save resources throughout the lifecycle of the product.
The advantages of virtual models are not limited to the design phase.
Simulation can be used for virtual demonstration of the use of a new facility. The nursing home end customers find the possibility for this attractive. The is able to become familiar with the new building and its operation prior to its completion, which would shorten the introduction period and have the new facility in full operation and delivering value to the end customer sooner.
Currently, emergency procedure training is not too standardised in nursing homes. Virtual models could help in this respect as well.
Emergency situations could be simulated in a virtual environment. This
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would allow many more alternative situations to be created and rehearsed as costs for simulating dangerous situations in real environment would not be an obstacle. For example fires of different kinds could be simulated.