10DBMC International Conférence On Durability of Building Materials and Components Building Life Cycle and Tacit Knowledge Base of Best Practice A. Kaklauskas Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Sauletekio al. 11, 2054 Vilnius, Lithuania Arturas.Kaklauskas@st.vtu.lt TT5-175 ABSTRACT An enormous volume of knowledge is generated during the phases of brief, design, planning, construction, maintenance, facilities management and demolition of a facility. Throughout the whole life cycle of a building, organizations rely on their experiences, professional intuition, and/or other forms of tacit knowledge to accomplish satisfactory work. Usually, professionals find it difficult to reuse core experts' knowledge for highly knowledge-intensive building life cycle activities. This situation calls for better disseminating tacit knowledge from experts' brains to achieve higher quality building life cycle. In order to apply experts' tacit knowledge better the multiple criteria decision support systems have been developed for a building life cycle and its stages. KEYWORDS Building life cycle, tacit knowledge base, best practice, decision support system.
1 INTRODUCTION Tacit knowledge base of best practice consists of informal and unrecorded procedures, practices, and skills. This "how-to" knowledge is essential because it defines the competencies of employees. Knowledge management systems is of value to organizations to the extent that it can codify best practices in a building life cycle, store them, and disseminate them through-out the enterprise as needed. It makes the company less susceptible to disruptive employee turnover. It makes tacit knowledge explicit. Tacit knowledge is highly personal, context-specific, and therefore hard to formalize and communicate. Tacit knowledge is knowledge housed in the human brain, such as expertise, understanding, or professional insight formed as a result of experience. Because of the orientation toward unique projects, much knowledge in the building life cycle is experience-based and tacit. The knowledge needs are dynamic, depending on the task to be performed or the problem to be solved. Nevertheless, the typical strategy for knowledge management is to make knowledge explicit and store it as computer software and databases. Organizations have been successful at collecting and storing explicit information in their databases, but they are poor at knowledge retrieval and exchange. Tacit knowledge is extremely important to the organizations because, once a project is completed, professionals tend to forget it and start something new. Therefore, knowledge utilization is a key factor in productively executing a building life cycle. In order to develop of tacit knowledge base of best practice its economic, technical, qualitative, technological, social, legislative, infrastructural and other aspects analysis is needed. The diversity of aspects being assessed should follow the diversity of ways of presenting data needed for decision making. Therefore, the necessary data may be presented in numerical, textual, graphical (schemes, graphs, charts), formula, videotape and other forms. The paper is structured as follows. Following this introduction, Section 2 outlines explicit and tacit description of a building life cycle. In Section 3 we describe handling of best practice by organisations. The development of a decision support system for building life cycle is introduced in Section 4. 2 EXPLICIT AND TACIT DESCRIPTION OF A BUILDING LIFE CYCLE A building life cycle consists of six closely interrelated stages: brief, design, construction, maintenance, facilities management and demolition. A building life cycle may have a lot of alternative versions. These variants are based on the alternative brief, design, construction, maintenance, facilities management and demolition processes and their constituent parts. The above solutions and processes may be further considered in more detail. For instance, the alternative building variants may be developed by varying its three-dimensional planning, as well as structural and engineering solutions. Thus, dozens of thousands of building life cycle alternative versions can be obtained. The diversity of solutions available contributes to more accurate evaluation of climatic conditions, risk exposure, maintenance services, as well as making the project cheaper and better satisfying a client s architectural, comfortability, technological and other requirements. This also leads to better satisfaction of the needs of all parties involved in the project design and realization. Various interested parties (clients, users, architects, designers, utilities engineers, economists, contractors, maintenance engineers, building material manufacturers, suppliers, contractors, finansing institutions, local government, state and state institutions) are involved in the life cycle of a building, trying to satisfy their needs and affecting its efficiency. The above needs or objectives embrace the expected cost of a building, maintenance costs, living space, number of floors as well as the requirements to its architecture, aesthetics, comfortability, functionality, proportions, materials, sound insulation of partition walls, taxes and allowances, interest rates, etc. Besides, the environment of the
site, its ecology, sound level and local infrastructure are also taken into consideration. This list may be continued. There are two essential branches of knowledge management in a building life cycle. According to one of them, knowledge can be explicit. Knowledge systems facilitate the storage, registration, organization, filtration, analysis, collection and distribution of explicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is comprised of the documents and data that are stored within the memory of computers. This information must be easily accessible, so that an organization could get all the necessary knowledge without disturbances. The knowledge system is valuable for business as long as its present possibilities are practically used. One of the main management factors of such knowledge is information technologies. The other branch, the main organizational knowledge is tacit. Knowledge does not belong to the group of the direct resources of a company (raw material, equipment, labour, finances). This is the integrated sum of physically intangible resources, the bigger part of which is tacit: skills, competence, experience, organizational culture, informal organizational communication networks and intellectual capital of an organization. It is impossible to manage such knowledge with conventional methods. To sum up, it is necessary to stress that, nevertheless, the newest tendencies of knowledge management evolve from explicit to tacit knowledge management. New knowledge is created during the interaction between people, when individuals having different types of knowledge (explicit of tacit) communicate with each other. Explicit knowledge, i.e. information is widely used in information technologies. The main organizational knowledge is tacit. It is impossible to manage it using conventional methods. The creation and distribution of tacit knowledge require creativity and competence. Explicit and tacit description provides the information about various aspects of a building life cycle (i.e. economical, technical, technological, infrastructural, qualitative (architectural, aesthetic, comfortability), legislative, social ones, etc.). Explicit information is based on the criteria systems and subsystems, units of measure, values and initial significances as well as the data on the alternative projects development. When drawing up the system of criteria fully describing the life cycle of a building, it is worth-while to take into account the suggestions of other authors. This is explained by the fact that the goals pursued by the interested parties and the system of criteria describing the projects in a certain sense are rather subjective. Therefore, in order to increase the degree of objectivity, we shall rely on the suggestions of specialists working in this field when drawing up the system of criteria describing the projects. Tacit description of a building life cycle presents textual, graphical (schemes, graphs, diagrams, drawings), visual (videotapes) information about the projects and the criteria used for their definition, as well as giving the reason for the choice of this particular system of criteria, their values and significances. This part also includes information about the possible ways of multivariant design.. 3 HANDLING OF BEST PRACTICE BY ORGANISATIONS Perception, that much more attention has to be paid to the knowledge creation and spread in the form of the best knowledge bases and databases, have been recently set in a building life cycle field. Governments of the most progressive countries stimulate construction and real estate sector to store and spread knowledge of the best practice. It is tried to find it more quickly, describe in quantifiable and qualitative form, classification and spread. Advanced construction and real estate companies often point out, that they are applying the best practice of their own field. Storage, management and
improvement of the best practice, and the best practice knowledge bases and databases created on their basis, is one of the main and justified priorities of advanced companies. Comparative analyses of the best practice are becoming more popular in the world. They are based on the analysis of the best examples of a building life cycle. On the basis of this analysis, certain recommendations are formed, indicating how to provide services of higher quality and better serve needs of clients. They provide a possibility to quickly and efficiently understand and apply the methods, which could help to achieve the quality of client service of world-class. Further, in short usually occurring pieces of advice of comparative analysis of the best practice are provided: create favourable atmosphere for the employees of a company to constantly take interest in the best practice; pay constant attention for the search and practical use of the best practice; relate the best practice with the implementation strategy of a company; create systems of determination and recognition of the best practice; create information, expert, knowledge and decision support systems of transmission and spread of the best practice in a building life cycle. Construction and real estate sector organisations, applying the information of the best practice stored in the databases and knowledge bases, could assume the following advantages: preserve vitally important experience when employees leave an organisation; install more perfect mechanism of decision making; be able to adapt more flexibly to shifting micro and macro environment; more perceptively determine client needs and satisfy them more accurately; increase efficiency of enterprise activity; decrease total expenditure on a building life cycle. Databases and knowledge bases of the best practice are knowledge-obtaining tools, which allow to save a lot of time, provide information on the best construction and real estate sector business practice in different forms (criteria systems, slide presentations, structural schemes, text, video and audio material, etc.). Interested groups most often are trying to achieve different economic, technical, technological, ethical, social and other aims. Different means could be used to achieve them. Some aims are not so easy to be achieved, others might require more expenses. The best practice allows not limiting oneself only to the implementation of economic aims; it creates conditions to better achieve integrated qualitative objectives and understand, from what perspective this practice was named as the best one. The main problem of many best practices is the way of their presentation: they are suggested, not taking into account certain situation. Let us say, auto-mechanics from construction mechanization organisation find for excavator-dragline the best excavate system, the best transmission mechanism, the best driving system, the most economical fuel system, etc. Let us say, that after evaluation it becomes clear (and it is most likely to appear) that such systems acknowledged (driving system, etc.) are the systems of different excavator-dragline producers. It is most likely, that the best systems of the best excavatordraglines joined together would not work. Every the best subsystem of an excavator-dragline is designed in the way, that it fits other specifically designed parts of a certain excavator-dragline. All an excavator-dragline is studied as a solid, very integrated mechanism. Often others could not physically substitute some parts or their substitution is not worth to be provided due to economical and efficiency approach. However, very often the best practice is presented as if it was applied ignoring certain situation. The best practice is obtained in different ways: fundamental and applied researches, wisdom and experience stored by practicians, experience of clients and other interested groups, opinion of experts, models recurring in different spheres, etc. Building life cycle knowledge is in design and contract documents, software, etc., e.g. spreadsheets, presentations, e-mail messages; and this information is not exchanged. Providing all search results of the best practice, summary of each document, evaluation of search criteria match, and document source is presented.
If an employee leaves a company or if he is shifted to other position, his knowledge is easily lost. Possibility to efficiently spread and repeatedly use collective organisation knowledge is the basis, and with reference to it a company could obtain competitive advantage in different spheres of its activity. Comparative analysis systems of the best practice help companies to determine directions of priority for the increase of activity efficiency and ways of determination of achieved progress, which allow to compare the performed construction and real estate management processes with existing ones in other organisations; as well as, determine the spheres lacking behind and suggest tools to eliminate these gaps. Modern companies know how to use possibilities of comparative analysis, and therefore decrease their expenditure, increase productivity and competitiveness. In order to efficiently distribute existing resources, comparative analysis is performed in the spheres, in which better results could be achieved with the help of minimum analysis. Mostly principle of costbenefit analysis is applied. Successful comparative analysis helps to distribute existing resources in a right way; afterwards, a company could implement its strategic aims. For projects and activities meeting the main company aims, high priority is given, when distributing the resources, time planning, accumulating efforts and applying experience. In reports of the best practice detailed information on successfully used strategy and tactics in the organisation is often presented, which are used by the most progressive companies when solving the basic objectives of their activity. Knowledge management helps to solve issues of organisation adaptation, existence and competence, which become vitally important due to constant increase of discontinuity and inconsistency of micro and macro environment changes. This tendency stimulates synergetic coordination of information collection and its process capacities, creative and innovation abilities of employees. Managers, trying to more efficiently apply the best practice in their organisation should pay attention to the following pieces of advices: Based on possibilities, create good conditions for organisation employees to use information, expert, knowledge and decision support systems, yet, guaranteeing, that in case of change of micro or macro environment conditions, necessary decisions could quickly be taken. In a company implement new, flexible organisational forms, which would create conditions for the establishment and better functioning of local and external interrelated activity communities. Communities of such activity are activity groups, established by non-official and half-official employees and persons not working in an organisation, on the basis of common troubles and interest. Stress your approval to tacit knowledge and human aspects related to them, such as ideals, values or emotions, in order to more efficiently formulate more comprehensive conception of knowledge management. Perceive organisation as community of people, which, using technological systems, could provide the received information with different meaning. Do not follow traditional approach, when most of attention is paid to orders and control. Try to refer the approach, stating that it should be done because it was usually done like this as less as possible. Then the best practice could be constantly and in different aspects evaluated and applied to dynamically changing micro and macro environment. Stimulate formulation of different approaches and do not make consensus too early, if it is necessary to perform more detailed analysis of assumptions and reasons. Often approaches of persons, having different qualification and experience of life might differ, and this would create a possibility to approach the issues discussed more widely. It is vitally important in order to understand the essence of the main issues, especially, when micro and macro environment quickly changes; and it is necessary to overview that was called as standard or the best practice the day before. Stimulate employees to more actively and initiatively use their experience, fantasy and creativity, because it will help to achieve inner organisation completeness, which matches variety of environment. 4 DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR BUILDING LIFE CYCLE
Based on above ideas multiple criteria decision support systems developed by the author and colleques for a building life cycle and its stages as follows [Zavadskas & Kaklauskas et al. 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002]: multiple criteria analysis of a building life cycle and its stages, multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis of refurbishment of residential houses, multiple criteria analysis of construction projects, multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis of in-situ buildings, project total quality analysis, multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis of one-family houses, multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis of foundations of agricultural production buildings of 1.810.2 series based on three-joint reinforced concrete frames, multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis of foundations of various types, multiple criteria analysis and multivariant design of agricultural production buildings. In order to demonstrate the above systems a Decision Support System for Building Life Cycle will be considered below as a sample. Based on the analysis of existing information, expert, knowledge and decision support systems and in order to determine most efficient versions of building life cycle a Decision Support System for Building Life Cycle consisting of explicit and tacit knowledge database, database management system, model-base, model-base management system and user interface was developed. In order to perform a complete study of a building life cycle a complex evaluation of its economic, technical, qualitative (i.e. architectural, aesthetic, comfortability), technological, social, legislative, infrastructural and other aspects is needed. The diversity of aspects being assessed should follow the diversity of ways of presenting data needed for decision making. Therefore, the necessary data may be presented in numerical, textual, graphical (schemes, graphs, charts), formula, videotape and other forms. Explicit and tacit description of a building life cycle and its stages made is used as a basis for developing a integrated databases containing overall information about it and allowing to carry out its multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis. Since the efficiency of any constituent part of the project depends on a particular party in its execution only integrated design of a building life cycle involving close cooperation of all interested parties can yield good results. Alternative building life cycle versions include different cost of a plot and a building, maintenance costs as well as various architectural, aesthetic, space-planning, comfortability characteristics, infrastructure and environment pollution. Particular interested parties often have their own preferential rating of these criteria, also giving different values to qualitative characteristics. Besides, designing of a building life cycle allows for the development of plenty of the alternative versions of its particular stages. This causes a lot of problems in determining the most efficient project. To overcome these difficulties some integrated databases were developed. They contain a complex description of the alternative versions available in explicit and tacit forms. These data taken together can describe the object to be considered in more detail. The application of integrated databases described allows to better satisfy the needs of the parties involved as well as helping to choose an efficient project. Integrated databases consists of the following parts: Initial databases. These contain the initial data provided by various interested parties allowing to carry out a complex design of the whole project or its parts. Evaluation databases, containing integrated explicit and tacit information provided by interested parties allowing to get a full description of the alternative variants. Based on the evaluation databases multiple criteria analysis of a building life cycle and its stages is carried out.
Multivariant design databases consisting of integrated explicit and tacit information about possible combinations of the alternative variants available. These integrated databases can contain data on theoretical and practical experience of the interested parties, some additional facts as well as the recommendations as to how to avoid previous mistakes. For example, a decision support system using these databases can help compare the project being designed or executed with the alternative or already realized projects in order to find its disadvantages and provide recommendations as to how to increase its efficiency. In this way, the use of integrated databases enables the user to take into account experts (including building owners and users, financing organisations, architects, engineers, manufacturers of building materials, contractors, state and its institutions, local governments, etc.) knowledge in various fields and the previous experience gained in developing similar projects applying them to currently developed project. For getting more efficient projects this information should be used at an early stage when the first meeting with a client takes place, which could save from repeating prior mistakes as well as leading to a more advanced and efficient project. In making a complex building life cycle design architects, designers, utility engineers, economists, contractors, suppliers, users can more efficiently solve common problems. This results in lower project cost and building time, as well as increasing its quality. Interacting with the databases the user can get more detailed or integral information on the object considered. Given this opportunity and using the data from integrated databases as well as being provided with a decision support system, the user can find an effective project variant in a comparatively short time. In this way, a project best satisfying the needs of the client may be found saving the time of the client and designers. In order to design a number of alternative building life cycle versions as well as determine the utility degree of the alternatives obtained and set the priorities new multiple criteria analysis methods [ ] were developed. It is quite obvious that to develop and analyse thousands of the alternative variants based on dozens of criteria having each specific values and significances would be hardly possible without the use of computers. Only development of decision support systems could help solve this complicated problem. Therefore, to achieve the above-mentioned aims a multiple criteria decision support system consisting of databases, database management system, a model base, model base management system and the user s interface were created to be used for a building life cycle design and multiple criteria analysis. 5 REFERENCES Zavadskas, E., Kaklauskas, A., Kvederyte, N. 2001, Multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis of a building s life cycle, Technika, Vilnius, 380 p. Zavadskas, E., Peldschus, F., Kaklauskas, A. 1994, Multiple Criteria Evaluation of Projects in Construction, Technika, Vilnius, 276 p. Kaklauskas, A., Zavadskas, E. 2002, Web-based decision support, Technika, Vilnius, 296 p. Zavadskas, E., Simanauskas, L., Kaklauskas, A. 1998, Decision support systems in construction, Technika, Vilnius, 205 p. Zavadskas, E., Kaklauskas, A. 1996, Multiple criteria analysis of projects in construction, Technika, Vilnius, 276 p. Zavadskas, E., Kaplinski. O., Kaklauskas, A., Brzezinski, J. 1995, Expert systems in construction. Trends, potential & applications, Technika, Vilnius, 180 p.