Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd - Frimley Business Park

Transcription

1 Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd - Frimley Business Park construction industry as a whole and Facilities Managers themselves more aware of the benefits of drawing on facilities management expertise during the design process. The project team Background Novartis is a leading international pharmaceuticals company whose head office is in Basle, Switzerland. The Frimley site houses the company s UK main headquarters although the main UK manufacturing plant is in Horsham. The three buildings at Frimley currently accommodate approximately 350 staff in total who are all office-based personnel working in marketing, medical information and administration. The new building, Building 3, was completed in 1998 and there are plans to construct two new wings to the buildings over the next few years. The decision to commission the new building was led by a business need. The company had been experiencing rapid expansion and a number of staff were being housed in Portacabins because of the lack of space. Of late, space has again become a problem and, the company has leased another building in Farnborough, about 10 miles away, until the next phase of building at Frimley is completed. This case study highlights the role of the Novartis Facilities Manager in ensuring the success of the project. It has been produced to support a DETR sponsored Partners In Innovation project aiming to make the The Facilities Manager was heavily involved in the construction of the building. The Financial Director originally took charge of the project but when he left the company, responsibility devolved to the Facilities Manager who had originally reported to him. She was the main client representative for Novartis on the project team, with responsibility for the budget. The core team comprised the Facilities Manager, architect, M&E consultant, structural engineer, quantity surveyor and main contractor with other professionals brought in as and when felt necessary. The Facilities Manager chose to be involved in most discussions involving the architect and specialists (such as M & E and Health and Safety, and Security) together, but chose not to attend specialist sub committees as it was felt that decisions at that level could be made without client input. She was happy with this degree of involvement, as based on her experience of the two previous buildings she had felt able to make an appropriate contribution, and incorporate lessons learnt, through the joint meetings alone. External consultants Architect - Scott, Brownrigg and Turner M & E consultant - Buro Happold Main contractor Try Construction Ltd Quantity Surveyor W T Partnership Structural engineer - Peter Brett Associates Communication within the project team The project team met once a month to discuss any issues that arose and regular informal communication took place when necessary. The Facilities Manager felt that the job was successful because the project team worked 1

2 well together and respected each other s opinions. Cost control was constantly monitored and when necessary, the whole team pulled together and made recommendations as to how they could cut costs elsewhere to bring them back into line. This team approach so impressed the client that they would be prepared to employ the same personnel on subsequent projects. The procurement route A traditional procurement route was chosen. The company approached two architectural practices to produce initial designs, and chose the preferred consultant, Scott, Brownrigg and Turner who then created the detailed design. This was tendered and a main contractor selected from eight bids. The Facilities Manager was involved in the final choice of contractor, as she had gained valuable experience during the construction of the previous buildings. In particular there had been problems with over-running and she did not wish to invite a recurrence of these. Project development The design brief There was no standard company brief provided by Novartis Head Office. The new building was totally different from the other two on the same site as the company wanted to project a new image and to incorporate some additional facilities such as an auditorium, which is planned for the next phase. The Managing Director and architect had agreed certain aspects of the actual design of the new building, such as the need for a bridge connecting the new building with an existing building separated from it by a road, before the Facilities Manager became involved in the project. Design development The Facilities Manager became involved at the detailed design stage, however she did feel a requirement to implement some changes to the original proposals. A very important issue for her was that the building space should be flexible. The company was experiencing a high rate of churn due to constant expansion and, from her experience with the existing buildings, she knew the problems and expense that this could cause. She therefore insisted on maximum flexibility in the positioning of, and access to, the floor boxes and the light fittings to allow the office partitioning to be reconfigured easily. Another feature of developing the fit out was in the provision of storage space. In the first building, in 1989, the architect had envisaged a paperless office, and hence had not allowed for any cupboard space. The Facilities Manager proposed that thin cupboards could be built into the office partitioning to provide additional storage and ensured that this theme was continued in the new building. The Facilities Manager also put into practice lessons learnt from her previous experience of IT systems. One example of this was to ensure that satellite units (distributed servers) could be fitted into spare riser space and not left out in the office taking up valuable space. 2

3 Involving the end user The building provides a mix of open plan and cellular office accommodation. The cellular offices are glass walled and situated around the edges of the central open plan areas. More staff are based in individual offices than in the open plan seating, due to the nature of their work. Although the end users did not have much involvement in the design, as the office space itself is fairly standard, the Facilities Manager worked with each department once their space was allocated. A series of collective decisions was made on a departmental basis as to how the areas would be set out. For such issues, the Facilities Manager asked each department to nominate a representative to report to the team as to how they would like their area to be arranged. All the cellular offices have standard features - desk, whiteboard, cupboards and mobile pedestal - and are of a standard size so that it is easier for people to change offices. They also have the same colour scheme throughout the three buildings for ease of moving and relocating furniture when needed. The Facilities Manager controlled the budget closely and discussed with the team how to achieve cost cutting solutions when overspends occurred. No formal value management techniques were used but priorities were discussed informally by the team when necessary. Although there were some structural challenges in designing and constructing the bridge over the road connecting the old and new buildings these were readily solved by the structural engineer. In general the construction stage ran smoothly and the project was completed on budget and on time. The Facilities Manager felt that this was partly as a result of the regular meetings and updates, and also because her experience with the other buildings ensured that the project team had set themselves realistic timescales as opposed to challenging ones. Although there was a certain amount of disruption on the site, the good communication helped her to manage this. The construction company always let her know what stage they were up to and what they would be doing next. She was then able to keep staff informed and involved in the project via a staff notice board carrying photographs that illustrated the current stage of construction and describing future activity. Commissioning Building services commissioning was carried out by the M & E specialists, using CIBSE guidelines, prior to occupation. The Facilities Manager was not heavily involved in this process. A few problems were experienced and adjustments made. However she was involved in some post-handover commissioning when further changes were made to the ventilation and heating systems. Construction 3

4 One particular problem occurred with a snack area serving hot food. This proved to be particularly popular with staff. It was realised that the ventilation needs had been underestimated and adjustments had to be made to ensure that the smoke and smells did not drift through the whole building. The services engineer felt that these problems were solved fairly painlessly mainly because of the involvement of the Facilities Manager from day one of the project. She had understood these issues and they had been able to work things out as a team, rather than creating an us and them situation. In fact they felt that this was one of the best projects they had worked on because of the involvement of the Facilities Manager. Handover No problems were occurred in receiving timely and adequate O & M manuals, Health and Safety files and defects list on handover. The on-site maintenance group were given training on the lifts and the services plant. Cradle training was also provided for the window cleaners. Post handover, end users were encouraged to report any problems to the maintenance team who noted them on the snagging list. As might be expected some additional defects were spotted but these were easily remedied by the Facilities Manager and the architect working together. Post occupancy feedback Operation The Facilities Manager believes that all three buildings on the site are as energy efficient as each other, as they are all less than 12 years old. The maintenance requirements of Building 3 will differ from the other two buildings as the choice of fan coil units, as opposed to VAV in the older buildings, means that maintenance will have to be carried out in the evenings and at the weekends. This was a conscious decision made by the client and design team in order to give cost benefits, ie through reduced plant room and riser space requirements. Also some further benefit was gained in terms of reduced clear ceiling void and building height. Occupants views The company did not carry out a postoccupancy evaluation as such, but they did have post-moving meetings with each department to deal with any problems. The users are happy with the building as they all have access to natural daylight, although sometimes through glass walls. Consequently the building has a light, airy feel to it. The lighting system itself is well received. It was specified very carefully at the start of the project, with a mixture of both up and down lighters to avoid problems with glare. A great deal of VDU based work is carried out in the building and the Facilities Manager had learnt from past experience that one of the biggest causes of problems in these circumstances was glare. Staff are particularly appreciative of the hot snacks deli bar on the top floor, as they do not have to leave the building to buy food at lunchtime although there are two other restaurant areas on site. The colour scheme is popular and the storage is now adequate after the Facilities Manager s intervention. The occupants are also now happy with the comfort levels, which the Facilities Manager feels is the key to satisfaction with a workplace. During the early stages of occupation it was often either too hot or too cold. There is however a shortage of informal meeting space, although staff have now started to use smaller offices and areas such as the atrium for small meetings. The Facilities Manager, recognising this would be an issue, had put sofas into various spaces at the outset to create informal areas wherever possible. She had added these in the previous buildings to meet a similar need. The female staff were unhappy with the toilet flushes at first as the finger pushes employed caused broken fingernails. The Facilities Manager had the flushes changed to a palm push and would now wish to use these in the future. Lessons for other Facilities Managers 4

5 When the company moved into the first building, a speculative building on the present site in 1989, the present Facilities Manager became involved. She felt she had learnt some important lessons from those days and from her subsequent involvement with Building 2 that she was able to put into practice in the new building. Two years on, she would not change anything in the third building, she is still very happy with the way it works. This is largely because of the ongoing facilities management involvement throughout the process. The Facilities Manager feels that it is really important for her fellow professionals to know the make-up of the building they are going to manage. They do not need to have an in-depth knowledge, but an overview of all the facilities is required. It makes the job much more interesting and also it helps a great deal when you are involved in the design of a new building. The project team was very receptive to the Facilities Manager's ideas, but many Facilities Managers do not have the opportunities that she had. This is a pity because most Facilities Managers know, and are in tune with, the end users and their requirements better than any one else. She believes that buildings should be built and refurbished according to the needs of their occupants and not necessarily purely to an architectural design. It is an advantage for the Facilities Manager to report to a Board Director as she does to the Financial Director. The budget that she controls is huge both for operating purposes and during the construction process hence mistakes can be expensive. It is therefore very important to have the confidence of the Board. It is important for Facilities Managers to acquire technical knowledge and skills as this builds their confidence in themselves and others around them. They need to have excellent interpersonal skills and good communication skills 'sometimes it is like walking on glass, but you have to keep a healthy balance and a level head. Acknowledgements BRE would like to express their grateful thanks to the Facilities Manager at Novartis, Rita Schiefersten for her time in assisting in the production of this case study, and to the organisation for permission to publish it. 5