Appunti Technical assessment

Introduction

In physical science, the first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to practicable methods for measuring some principles of numerical reckoning and quality. When you can measure what you are connected with, I often say that speaking about it and expressing it in numbers means you know something about it. However, when you cannot measure it or express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind. It may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely advanced to the state of Science, whatever the matter may be.

Quality characteristics

Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfills requirements.

• NOTE 1: The term "quality" can be used with adjectives such as poor, good, or excellent.
• NOTE 2: "Inherent," as opposed to "assigned," means existing in the object.

Requirement

A requirement is a need or expectation that is stated, generally implied, or obligatory.

• Note 1 to entry: "Generally implied" means that it is custom or common practice for the organization and interested parties that the need or expectation under consideration is implied.
• Note 2 to entry: A specified requirement is one that is stated, for example, in documented information.
• Note 3 to entry: A qualifier can be used to denote a specific type of requirement, e.g., product requirement, quality management requirement, customer requirement, quality requirement.
• Note 4 to entry: Requirements can be generated by different interested parties or by the organization itself.
• Note 5 to entry: It can be necessary for achieving high customer satisfaction to fulfill an expectation of a customer even if it is neither stated nor generally implied or obligatory.

Monitoring

• Determining the status of a system, a process, a product, a service, or an activity check.
• Note 1 to entry: For the determination of the status, there can be a need to supervise or critically observe.
• Note 2 to entry: Monitoring is generally a determination of the status of an object, carried out at different stages or at different times.

Measurement

• Process to determine a value.
• Note 1 to entry: According to ISO 3534-2, the value determined is generally the value of a quantity.

Inspection

• Determination of conformity to specified requirements.
• Note 1 to entry: If the result of an inspection shows conformity, it can be used for purposes of verification.
• Note 2 to entry: The result of an inspection can show conformity or nonconformity or a degree of conformity.

Conformity

• Fulfillment of a requirement.

Nonconformity

• Non-fulfillment of a requirement.

Defect

• Nonconformity related to an intended or specified use.
• Note 1 to entry: The distinction between the concepts defect and nonconformity is important as it has legal connotations, particularly those associated with product and service liability issues.
• Note 2 to entry: The intended use as intended by the customer can be affected by the nature of the information, such as operating or maintenance instructions, provided by the provider.

Audit

• Systematic, independent, and documented process for obtaining objective evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which the audit criteria are fulfilled.
• Note 1 to entry: The fundamental elements of an audit include the determination of the conformity of an object according to a procedure carried out by personnel not being responsible for the object audited.
• Note 2 to entry: An audit can be an internal audit (first party) or an external audit (second party or third party).
• Note 4 to entry: External audits include those generally called second and third-party audits. Second-party audits are conducted by parties having an interest in the organization, such as customers, or by other persons on their behalf. Third-party audits are conducted by external, independent auditing organizations such as those providing certification/registration of conformity or governmental agencies.

The reasons for the technical assessment

In the current Italian and European context, the management of the built environment has strategic importance for socio-economic development. It requires specific skills to assess in advance, and in a synthetic way, the characteristics and values of buildings and real estates in order to plan the activities of operation or enhancement, balancing the time-cost-quality ratio.

• Analysis and technical assessment of the built environment are characterized by a high interdisciplinary approach and they are essential tools for checking the feasibility of rehabilitation projects concerning the built environment.
• The course addresses the issue of the technical assessment at two levels of detail: the building and the external environment (the territory).
• At the building level, the course addresses the issue of methodological and operational tools for the condition assessment and the performance analysis of the built environment. The assessment provides information with respect to factors such as regulatory framework, uses, profiles space utilization, management policies.
• In the management of the constructed assets, the assessment techniques are related to several possible scenarios such as, for instance, those relating to:

• Due diligence activities preliminary to purchase or sale of properties (real estates).
• Technical assessment to restore the compliance of the buildings with compulsory standards.
• Technical and organizational assessment to set up contract specification for the operation and management of real estate assets.

For each of these possible scenarios for the assessment of the built environment, the main tools for the identification of the framework for the course aims to provide operational activities of inspection and field survey. Moreover, the main issues will be analyzed relating to the planning and execution of inspection of buildings or parts of buildings in accordance with international standards for the inspection activities such as ISO/IEC 17020.

Level of the territory

The course deals with the theoretical and operational aspects of the environmental assessment applied to processes, projects, and products addressing issues related to:

• The environmental assessment of the built environment applied to works and projects (EIA environmental impact assessment) or applied to plans and programs (SEA strategic environmental assessment).
• Environmental management systems applied to businesses, organizations, and sites (EMAS/ISO14001).
• Tools and methods for the environmental certification of buildings.
• Quality and environmental certification of the products.

In this sense, the course aims to provide specific information and methodological tools for the analysis, assessment, and control of the built environment, intended as fundamental contributions to support the development of strategies, plans, programs, and projects for the maintenance, management, enhancement, and the redevelopment of buildings, urban and environmental assets.

Technical assessment (building scale)

In the management of the built assets, technical and performance assessment are related to a context of multiple scenarios such as those relating to:

• Due diligence activities preliminary to trades in real estate.
• Analysis for the definition of an asset realignment of performance.
• Analysis for the planning and design of compliance projects.
• Analysis for the setting of contracting models for the management of real estate assets (e.g., facility management, global service maintenance services).

Ecological footprint of cities

Ecological Footprint: A measure of how much area of biologically productive land and water an individual, population, or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates, using prevailing technology and resource management practices. The Ecological Footprint is usually measured in global hectares. Because trade is global, an individual or country's Footprint includes land or sea from all over the world. Without further specification, Ecological Footprint generally refers to the Ecological Footprint of consumption. Ecological Footprint is often referred to in short form as Footprint. "Ecological Footprint" and "Footprint" are proper nouns and thus should always be capitalized.

Focus on the main theme: meaning of the term “assessment”

The course focuses on the relationship between “to assess” which basically means "to compare" something with a term of reference. The correct identification of the “measurement tool" is a necessary condition for the management of evaluations.

• The construction of the measurement tool (terms of reference) usually requires proper identification of possible sources: mandatory standards, voluntary standards, the customer requirement.

The reasons for the development of inspection and maintenance activities

Already known:

• Ageing of the national building stock in both the residential and non-residential sectors (commercial, industrial, offices).
• Density of land use and reduced availability of residual areas not built.
• The regulatory framework that emphasizes intervention on the existing buildings (for example, law on Public contracts).
• The awareness that the use of the built environment and the lengthening of its life cycle allow to get a better exploitation of the resources of the environment.

The main objective is to emphasize the importance of a correct definition of the “object and purpose” of the assessment of the built environment in order to make the assessment effective and efficient by balancing methods, tools, and resources in relation to the expectations for the possible outcomes of the evaluation.

Construction industry

The theme of fragmentation is declined, in the construction sector, in different dimensions and in different areas:

• “Vertical” Fragmentation which derives from traditional methods of managing the building process based on breaks between the different and consecutive phases of the process (e.g., three macro phases of conception, execution, and management of the building artefact, which differ in practice, skills, responsibilities, organizational models, etc.).
• “Horizontal” fragmentation which normally concerns, within the same process stage, aspects of an organizational nature, but also questions of competences or related to the tools used by the various operators. As an example, the fragmentation of skills that involves the planning phases in which the different disciplines - structures, installations, safety, energy, computations and estimates, acoustics, fire prevention, etc.; fragmentation of the execution which, especially in Italy, consists of a multiplicity of micro-enterprises.

The construction sector plays an important role in the European economy. It generates almost 10% of GDP and provides 20 million jobs, mainly in micro and small enterprises. Construction is also a major consumer of intermediate products (raw materials, chemicals, electrical and electronic equipment, etc.) and related services. Because of its economic importance, the performance of the construction sector can significantly influence the development of the overall economy. The sector could contribute significantly to job creation by increasing its activity in some very promising areas, such as the renovation of buildings and in infrastructure, with support through, for example, appropriate policies to promote demand but also to encourage investment.

Technical assessment

Assessment: why and how

Nature of facilities

A well-developed understanding of the demand organization’s core business needs means that attention can focus on the extent to which the existing facilities adequately support the core business activities. This involves close examination of the facilities to determine if they fulfill the defined needs or if action is necessary to make good any shortcomings in functionality or performance. Where new facilities are contemplated, the FM organization should ensure timely input of the demand organization’s defined needs so that the required functionality and performance are agreed.

Briefing should precede these work stages and focus on functional outcomes and operational performance targets defined in line with recognized sustainability criteria. A key principle to which the FM organization should adhere when embarking upon a project for refurbished or new facilities is “design and construction for operability.”

Possible scenarios

Areas (scope)

• Real estate trades (sales/acquisitions).
• Sale of business units.
• Operation and maintenance contracts ("global service / facility management").
• Asset enhancement/requalification.
• Communication to the public (e.g., real estate investment funds).
• Reorganization of the maintenance management.
• Risk management (environment, safety, health).

Activities

• Real Estate survey/inventory (census).
• Due diligence review.
• Building logbook (e.g., Rome, Naples).
• Audit (safety audit, environmental audit, compliance audit).
• Technical diagnostics (asbestos, lead, legionella, mineral wool, energy performance).
• Specialized technical investigations (structural, plants, fire safety).

The different “parties”

Third-party: a person or body that is independent of the organization or person that provides the object of conformity assessment (adapted from ISO/IEC 17000, 2005, Definition 2.4).

• First party audits are used by organizations to audit themselves. They confirm or improve the effectiveness of management systems.
• Second party audits are external audits. They're usually done by customers or by others on their behalf. However, they can also be done by regulators or any other external party that has a formal interest in an organization.
• Third party audits are external audits as well. However, they’re performed by independent organizations such as registrars (certification bodies) or regulators (ISO 19011:2011).

Contracting out the maintenance services

Deep and reliable knowledge of the assets is the basis in order to:

• Analyze the relationship between the processes carried out by the organization and the built environment in which the processes are carried out.
• Identify the "risks" associated with the progress of the processes.
• Plan the quality objectives for the operation and maintenance.
• Outsource with awareness and control the activities of operation and maintenance.

Service di manutenzione according to Standard UNI 11136

Global Documento di indirizzo preliminare BRIEF

• Set up of BRIEF document requires 3 assessments:
• Technical assessment (“how the building is made”).
• Functional assessment (which function or activities are foreseen in the building and which are the required conditions to carry out those activities).
• Organizational assessment (which resources are needed to contract out the maintenance activities).

Start of the design process

It requires awareness of three key aspects in any project:

• Objectives: Usually related to client’s & user’s needs/activities/functions.
• Constraints: Time schedule, legal constraints, urban planning regulations, climate, existing buildings/infrastructures.
• Resources: Existing buildings, neighbors, budget, natural resources.

International references for briefing:

• ISO 9699: Performance standards in building - Checklist for briefing - Contents of brief for building design.
• BS 7000 part 4 Design Management Systems.

Brief/briefing: document/process

Briefing: Process of:

• Identifying and analyzing the needs, aims, and constraints (the resources and the context) of the client and the relevant parties, and of any resulting problems that the designer is required to solve.
• Formulating Briefing process.

Organization

• Greater individual autonomy.
• Greater interaction.
• Flatter.
• More effective decision making.
• Faster change.
• More teamwork.
• Flexible working patterns.
• More effective use of technology.
• Mixture of open and closed - individual and shared workspace.
• Concern for quality.
• Adaptable fit-out.
• Greater variety in settings.
• Shared knowledge.
• Flexible environmental control.
• Home-based working.
• Large contiguous floor plates.
• Adaptable security and environmental systems.
• Informal meeting spaces.
• Open areas-interactive support facilities.

Questions to be asked when assessing needs:

Organization

• What are the organization objectives?
• Can the relationship between the departments in the organization be described?
• What are the distinctive features of the organization’s culture?
• How does the organization wish to present itself to the public, customers, and staff?

Questions to be asked in establishing the strategic brief:

• Can the main benefits to the organization that will be provided by the new building be described?
• What is the increased efficiency that will result from operating in the new buildings?
• What procurement route will best suit the organization’s needs and why?
• How will the success of the project be judged?

Questions to be asked in establishing the Draft project brief:

• What performance standards will be provided in the new building?