Case Study Shell and Core Fit-out Lean Room

Shell and Core Fit-out Lean Room Overview

The shell and core fit-out sub-project incorporates the CAT Ai floors, the toilets, the lobbies and the staircases fit-out. John is the project manager of the fit-out of the shell and core and he has 10 people in his team. Being the project manager of the fit-out, John has the
overall strategy and view. He is supported by a senior construction manager. The senior construction manager leads the construction team on the floor plate. Two construction managers and two floor managers support him. There are also three package managers. These three package managers look after their STCs, in term of progress meetings, their drawings, checks by the designers, coordination etc. Two mechanical and electrical (M&E) installation managers who are part of the M&E sub-project team join John’s team regularly. The shell and core fit-out team works with them to manage the interface with the M&E installations.

To plan and coordinate the work and deal with issues, the STC managers attend the daily meetings and workshops at the lean room every night. The lean room is a big meeting room dedicated to the shell and core fit-out team. John and his team developed various management tools to run the job. The room walls are covered with boards where, programmes, plans, drawings, instructions, etc are posted to help the team communicate and collaborate on solving problems and planning the work. All relevant managers should provide six-week, look-ahead programmes (progress, snagging status and look-ahead blockers) for the lean board (workshop) at 09:30 am every Friday at the lean room.

Management Tools for Production / Progress / Targets

CAT A Collaborative

Figures 1, 2 & 3, show the strategy look ahead board for the next 22 weeks on a weekly basis, for CAT A floors collaborative work. The green arrows on the top indicate the level, followed by the yellow stickers to show the week number. The work of each interfacing STC work is colour coded, eg light blue, interior fit-out, dark blue, electrical installations and pipework of CAT A floors, light yellow, pipework for the shell and the core, ie the basements and the risersii, dark yellow, sprinklers. The violet diamonds indicate milestones, eg sign off ceiling enclosure of levels 29, 30 and 31 on week 14.

Figure 1: CAT A collaborative look ahead weekly plans.

Figure 2: A closer view of the CAT A collaborative look ahead weekly plans.

Figure 3: A closer view of the CAT A collaborative look ahead weekly plans showing the interfaces with the electrical installations.

CAT A Modular Sequence

Figure 4, shows the strategy look ahead board for the next 13 weeks on a weekly basis, for the modular works in the lobbies, eg modular walls, cubicles, fittings and fixings, etc. The green arrows on the top indicate the lobby number and the level, followed by the blue stickers to show the week number. The yellow stickers indicate the planned sequence of work in each week, eg the tasks in week 3 are at lobby 2 level 29, connections to stacks, drywall 2nd pass and copper connections to walls (figure 5). The arrows to the right are the completed lobbies at a certain level, ie lobbies, 4 & 6 at level 17 and 18 as well as lobby 4 at level 16.

Figure 4: Planning of the modular work in the lobbies

Figure 5: Planned sequence of work each week in the lobbies

CAT A Vertical Logistics

Figure 5 shows the planning of the vertical level access to CAT A floors using hoists and lifts. The interfacing STC, such as the lifts STC, attend these meetings when required. To the right of the picture are the locations of the hoists and lifts in relation to the lobbies, i.e. lobby 1, lobby 2, lobby 3, lobby 4 and Llobby 5 shown on the plan (see figure 6). The blue rectangular shapes are the material hoists (H), the yellow rectangular shapes are the passenger lifts (PL), and the orange rectangular shapes are the goods lifts (GL), while the pink rectangular shapes are the stairs. On the left side of the picture is a table that shows the vertical access. The first column shows the levels and the green cells with ticks show that the particular hoist or lift can access this floor, eg level 42 is accessed by H1, H2 and H3. Level 13 is accessed by GL1 and GL2. The dates in the cells show when this is going to be available. The scribbles on the plan on 3/12/18 shows the changes – it says the H2, H3 and H4 are available up to level 42, while H5 is available between 38 and 42. PL4, PL5, PL6, GL1, GL2 and GL3 are available up to level 42.

Figure 6: Planning of the vertical level access to CAT A floors using hoists and lifts

Figure 7: Location of the lifts and hoists in relation to the lobbies

Delivery of Materials to CAT A Floors

Figure 10 shows the CAT A plan with colour coded areas for material delivery of each STC, eg light blue areas are those allocated to ducts. This helps the team organise material delivery and layout so this will not disrupt other activities ,as well as ensuring that all materials are resourced to meet objectives.

Figure 8: Material delivery to CAT A floors

Daily Risers Coordination

Figure 9 shows the daily riser coordination plan. The plan uses colour coding and numbers to identify each riser location, function and the STC involved in the riser. The risers are listed at the two sides of the plan and its bottom, leaving a space to add information as required, such as the STC involved and the date the riser is handed to the STC. The top middle of the plan is dedicated for the information about the work to be done in the lobbies, stating the level in consideration and the STC involved. Figure 10 shows the colour coding used to link a riser to an STC and a function.

Figure 9: Daily riser coordination.

The following safety instructions are stated on the riser coordination board to organise the possession and handover of risers:

Only the STCs listed below may carry out works within the associated riser shaft.
Removal of debris netting may only take place following riser possession.
All protection must be reinstalled at the end of each shift and prior to handing back the riser.Figure 10: The colour coding used for the risers.
Figure 11 provides a closer look at the daily riser coordination plan showing each riser location, number and function, eg at lobby 3, riser 5 is sprinklers riser, 6 is smoke and vent shaft, 7 is the electrical riser, 8 is the mechanical riser and so on.

Figure 11: Closer look at the daily riser coordination plan, showing each riser location, number and function, eg the green area at lobby 5 is the combined riser number 3.

Safety Actions for all STCs

In addition to the particular safety actions stated on the boards, all STCs should adhere to the following safety actions:

Lock down permit access to floors and respect to finished areas.
Storage of materials.
Induction pre-enrolment process.
Fire loading – Controliii on site and mitigate before site materials even arrive.
English speaking operatives and supporting translators as required.
All persons to be checked to ensure they are inducted working on all CAT A floors.
Clear STC signage around stored materials.
Flame retardant sheeting over all stored materials that are combustible.
Protection under all cutting machines on the structural slab.
Be aware of finished areas and respect them.
Tethering for all work at heights to all tools
(D&B) branded PPE.
Dedicated housekeeping teams or have teams clear up as they go.
Riser housekeeping
Permit system for access onto finished floors level 06 – 24. 9

STC-to-STC Handover Acceptance

Figure 12 shows a list detailing the milestones of the handover between STCs working in the shell and core fit-out and CAT A floors.

Figure 12: Handover milestones details.

Short Term Action Plans and Blockersiv Boards

The short-term action plans and blockers boards show the tasks that need to be actioned and completed to avoid delays to proceeding STCs. These tasks should be completed during the week from Monday to Thursday, ready for the team lean board meeting on Friday.

Figure 13: Short-term action plan for the week commencing Monday 03/12/18.

Figure 13 above shows the short term required actions for the week commencing on 03/12/18.

The above action plan lists the tasks, who should action each one, when, and its status.

Figure 14: Six-week look ahead plan provided by Hotchkiss and agreed on Friday 26/10/18 lean board.

Figure 15: Closer view of the six-week action plan provided by Hotchkiss

All relevant managers should provide six-week, look-ahead programmes (progress, snagging status and look-ahead blockers) for the lean board (workshop) at 09:30 am every Friday in the lean room. Figure 14 above shows the six-week, look ahead plan provided by the ducts STC project manager and agreed on Friday at the 26/10/18 lean board.

It might be also beneficial, as well as manageable, to look-ahead even further. However, the (D&B) directors decided that five to six-week look-ahead is optimal because if something goes wrong, generally speaking, it can be resolved within that period.

John encourages his construction managers to also have a three-month, look-ahead plan. This is a sort of cascading planning system so they have a three-month, look-ahead quarterly programme, and then intensive weekly schedules, as described above. The shell and core fit-out team has just produced a completion programme from six to 24 weeks, which takes them to the sectional completion.

Modular Extract Programme

This is the part of the programme that is relevant to the shell and core fit-out team. On the programme the team scribbles the updates to the programme, things like percent complete, new dates and issues that need to be considered. Figure 16 shows this programme and Figure 17 is a closer view of it.

Figure 16: Modular extract programme, which is the part of the programme that is relevant to the shell and core fit-out team

Figure 17: Closer view of the modular extract programme showing the updates the team scribbled on it.

Contractor Design Portion

The role of the STCs is to meet the performance and the requirements set by the architects in their working drawings. In some cases, these might cause some friction, particularly on the plant floors. It has been quite challenging to meet the criteria set by the architects. On the shell and core fit-out team there are three package managers, as discussed above. Once a package is handed over, the relevant package manager will then lead the package until its completion. However, the STCs have to produce their working drawings. These drawings have to get Status Av from the (D&B) design management team before these can be issued on-site. The relevant package manager is responsible for coordinating this process and making sure it is happing on time, so that the work will not be delayed.

It could be said that for the services to be installed (M&E sub-project), their design has to be coordinated with the finishes first (fit-out sub-project), therefore the finishes design is more or less automatically coordinated. The shell and core packages have a coordination attendance element bought into the packages. For example, the drylining STC was involved in the coordination meetings and on-site, when the M&E people were fixing fan coil units to make sure that they were aligned with their grilles.

The shell and core fit-out team is also involved in some work on the plantroom floors at levels 7, 25 and 41. There are some structures (excluding the concrete and the floors), the doors, the corridors, the screedsvi, the plenumsvii, and things like that. All these works are procured by John and he writes the scopes for all his packages. Since John joined the (D&B)

two years ago, he started procuring these packages and auditing them. Now, being on-site, the role of his team is to manage the fit-out process.

i Shell and core fit-out is the first stage of fit-out once the floors are constructed. This is followed by CAT A fit- out that provides a basic level of finish. This may include raised floors, suspended ceilings and internal surfaces, along with basic mechanical and electrical services. Once the CAT A floors are handed over to the tenants, they will arrange for their own contractors to come and undertake a CAT B fit-out and finish these areas according to the tenants’ particular requirements.

ii A riser is a vertical area that passes from one floor to another floor inside a building. For instance, elevator shafts and conduits from one floor to another floor are all risers. Cables, ducts etc are installed in the risers.

iii Fire loading of a building or compartment is a way of establishing the potential severity of a hypothetical future fire. Buildings under construction or renovation tend to carry high fire loads in the form of construction materials, solvents and fuel for generators.

iv Blockers are the things that obstruct a team from performing a certain task. However, very often, when a blocker is resolved, the team just keeps working on the task and the blocker reason is soon forgotten. Until it appears again. The project manager should establish a process or adapt techniques to deal with the blockers in order to eliminate them.

v Status A: No comment, Status B: Noted subject to comments. Correct and resubmit within five business days. Status C: Rejected. Correct and resubmit within five business days.

vi Screed is a thin layer of specialist concrete applied to a floor to create a smooth, wearing, level finish. Floor screeding is usually laid before a final floor covering, such as tiling, although it can be left exposed for an industrial finish.

vii A plenum is a separate space used for air circulation for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. The space is often between the structural ceiling and a drop-down ceiling. Sometimes, plenum also refers to the space under a raised floor.

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