Federal Policies to Foster Innovation and Improvement in Constructed Facilities Summary of a Symposium (1996) / Chapter Skim
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EXPERIENCES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
EXPERIENCES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Pages 51-78
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From page 51... ...
The issue of promoting innovation is addressed in various ways. First, the research programs run by universities and public research centers generate innovations, which the most highly motivated construction companies then attempt to put into practice.
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From page 52... ...
This means that the leading construction companies possess highly competent design departments enabling them to submit variant solutions which give them the competitive edge. These variants act as a vehicle for the introduction and promotion of technical innovation.
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a special concrete mix had to be developed. A further step was achieved in this long trend toward improved construction materials with the introduction of ultra high-strength cementicious matrices called RPC, which means reactive powder concrete.
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We developed, at the same time of course, the machine which is necessary to apply this pavement. FIGURE 3 Single-Span Footbridge Using Reactive Powder Concrete 54
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Therefore, the best form of promotion for innovation involves achieving the most open market procurement procedures possible with the adoption of performance-based rather than normative specifications. We have the impression that the situation in Europe ~ this context is a little bit better than in the United States.
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From page 56... ...
Ltd. as a research engineer in 1964 and has held several positions with the company including Deputy Director, Technology Division; Executive Vice President, Shimizu Technology Center America; General Manager, Shimizu Technology Division Overseas Technology Department; and General Manager, Shimizu Technology Division Planning Department.
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From page 57... ...
The Shimizu Corporation also established a policy. Our policy says the construction industry exists to create a sustainable environment for human beings, society, and the ecosystems.
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Those big national projects foster innovative construction technology. The huge tomb built in the fifth century included a lot of construction technology.
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After the Tokyo Olympics, steel structures grew up and we had local investment in research. Today, I think 36 large private construction companies have their own research institutes.
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\ Fnein~no ~I _Kcsearcn _ l, ~ , Convention 1 R ~ D Hcadquancr ~ // U con ultationi an\ ~ Technical Seminar ~-a : D~\\~ I Rollins; ; \ I 1 \: / \\ / \ Collaboration with I ~ \ Patent Relation ( :~ Publication ~Hi \ / A< \ News Letter / / / \ \ Mess Media / / Convention a\ | Technical Forum \Engineers Meeting,, FIGURE 1 Role of Central Research Institute for Construction Technology 60
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From page 61... ...
For technology collaboration among foreign country governments to occur, government leadership is also needed. The Ministry of Construction's S-year plan for international collaboration contains the following items, including Japan-United States joint research for structures: Five-Year Plan of Japan's Ministry of Construction (International Version)
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From page 62... ...
In closing, the construction industry exists to create a sustainable environment for human beings, society and the overall ecosystem. Research and development play an important role in the construction industry.
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He holds a dual professorship in the schools of Architecture and Industrial management at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and is a full member of the graduate faculty of Rutgers University. He has been a long-term visiting professor of the Institute of International Business at the Stockholm School of Economics.
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From page 65... ...
It allows a broader perspective when looking at problems here and is also a source of ideas for ways of doing things differently. Comments presented here are the result of international construction research carried out over the past decade at the Stockholm School of Economics and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
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From page 66... ...
During the construction phase, the construction company decided to improve the efficiency of the design and reduce the energy-use requirements by putting in less lighting, thus needing less air-conditioning, thereby requiring reduced electrical services. The German engineers thought it prudent to lower the potential operating costs, increase the floor area, and shift the product towards a European standard of lower energy-use systems.
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From page 67... ...
The study group considered design critical to the next decade of the industry, but not design as architects and engineers had learned it in school. Idstead, design needed to be conceived as a higher-level organizing force requiring inquiry and innovation as part of a discovery process that focuses not on the final form of the product, which is the facility, but on defiming the useful characteristics and conditions of the facility over time.
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From page 68... ...
We need to learn to be much better listeners and much less arrogant. In my opinion, in the Finnish study, we could have examined questions of how to provide the suppliers, who have more responsibility for the R&D that gets done and the most to lose if things go badly, with a dynamic shelter for highly dynamic production conditions.
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From page 69... ...
Our major trading partners in Europe and Asia are predisposed to combine public and private resources to bring innovation into construction as efficiently as possible. We are not so oriented.
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It was based on research for a study funded by the Swedish Parliament to compare European and American approaches to environmental protection. It used multinational companies with similar production plants in various countries to examine different practices for environmental protection and determine their effectiveness in limiting industrial pollution.
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Americans tend to define quality by the number of projects completed without being sued for errors or omissions of contract dispute. 'Breakdown from Rand Institute of Civil Justice Policy Report in 1992: 37 percent EPA litigation costs, 42 percent insured litigation costs, 9 percent other legal costs, and 12 percent Superfund cleanup (or 88 percent total legal costs)
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They also provide interesting examples of how to translate research and development into construction in the two European countries where they are based. The major source of construction research funding in Sweden is the Swedish Council for Building Research (BFR)
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During a history of easy trade with its large neighbor, the Soviet Union, it did not have to be concerned about the highly dynamic world of economic change to the west. Essentially, Neste, the big oil company in Finland, would take $4 to 5 billion worth of oil from the Soviet Union, process it, and give the money back in trade, that is, in goods and services, many of which were construction-related.
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From page 74... ...
In 1993 Finland invested about 11 billion Finnish Marks in research of which 6 billion was supplied by industry and 1.3 billion, or 25 percent of the government part, was allocated by TEKES. TEKES is somewhat similar to a combination of the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United States.
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thinking or our relationships with business partners, clients, or other nations. From this basis we might better move the industry to more integrative approaches and new ways to produce facilities that result in new efficiencies and qualities to the occupants.
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h 11 ~ FIGURE 2 Public sector activities of R&D in Finland FIM bill.
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From page 78... ...
Dr. Wright is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of Earthqualce Engineering Research Institute Inc., Sigma Xi, and the National Society of Professional Engineers.
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