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Case Studies - Defence Estates
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Stanburys - Winners Of Two Defence Estates Overall Excellence Awards |
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Stanburys have surveyed approximately 4,500 buildings, which account for around 10% of the Defence Estates land acquisition. Stanburys were first commissioned by the Site Manager of DERA Fort Halstead, in 1998, to complete a survey and verification of all floor space on that site and provide these in CAD format.
The resulting floor plans were imported into Stanburys Estate Management Information System, Emis.Biz®, developed in conjunction with Defence Estates. Emis was then populated with room type and occupancy information, against system generated metre squared rooms or spaces.
This was a new concept for DERA occupants, as it had previously been difficult to know exactly what space was available, what was occupied and how efficient the space was to maintain. The importance of the data captures by Stanburys would allow the client not only to complete budgeting against space on time annually, but also instantly. The information was also used for future space requirement analysis, risk and hazard location’s (such as asbestos), and proved to be essential for Energy Management.
Whilst the surveying of the site and population of the graphical database was being completed on this one site for DERA, Stanburys had not envisaged that the solution would be adopted by DERA as a whole. However, once the results were available it became noticed by the Corporate Estates and Property Management Team, who saw this as a beneficial tool for the whole Estate.
Through the joint efforts of everyone involved on the project, Emis won two Defence Estates Award’s. The first of these for Innovation and second as the Overall Best in Class Award in 2001, together with the prestigious BIFM (British Institute of Facilities Management) Award for Innovation.
| Read More... |  Stanburys - Winners of The British Institute of Facilities Management Award for Innovation |
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Trusted Partners - Stanburys' Long Standing Relationship with DERA | |
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Adapting to Client Needs - Tailoring our In House EMIS Software to DERA's Requirements | |
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Stanburys' Specialist Knowledge and Skills of the Defence Estates Sector | |
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Working with Existing Client Data | |
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Programme of Works - Gathering and Sharing Data | |
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Helping to Make Informed Strategic Decisions Using EMIS Data | |
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Trusted Partners - Stanburys' Long Standing Relationship with DERA
Stanburys became involved with the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) in late 1998. A typical site was managed by an estates management team, consisting on a site management team, accommodation managers and H & S representatives, with the day to day facilities management contracted out to a 3rd party provider.
Adapting to Client Needs - Tailoring our In House EMIS Software to DERA's Requirements
Due to budgetary requirements Stanburys were tasked to complete the exercise in 16 weeks, and at the same time produce a reporting module to their graphical EMIS (Estate Management Information System) software based on the m², occupancy and room type detail. All of the CAD drawings were imported into EMIS and populated with location information. The area of each room was calculated by the software, and a room type code was assigned, together with an occupant code to identify the business group (or external tenant) using the area.
Stanburys' Specialist Knowledge and Skills of the Defence Estates Sector
The site comprised of 426 buildings ranging in size and use. The main site activities include explosive research and it has a high classification and alert status. Access to some of the buildings on site are difficult and escorts needed. Overall DERA employed a diverse range of business sectors and wanted to provide cost effective knowledge, skills and technology transfer and could only achieve this by consolidating information and knowing where their core capabilities could be best provided.
Working with Existing Client Data
Buildings were zoned already, so we addressed each area separately. Our initial contact was with the FM providers on site, to see what drawings were already held, and what accommodation detail was known. Some of this information was found to be contradictory, for example, we found more than one report listing different square meterage for each building, and not much was known about the actual room types or condition. A few years beforehand a review had been completed to determine the amount of space that was usable and the amount of unusable space, and an approximation of 10% had been attributed to unusable areas.
Initially we were informed that not many drawings were held, however, found that there were more drawings on site than first suspected, albeit not all in electronic format or, if they were, they were imperial rather than metric measurements.
A drawing conversion and verification process was set up initially, and the first buildings surveyed. Electronic CAD drawings were imported into our CAD drawing engine, and populated with a location code, where each space was given a unique identifier. A room description was also added, together with a room type code, a charge code and occupancy code.
From the start we could report back to the site management, and very soon useful data could be obtained from the system. It was clear, for example, very early on that the 10% calculation attributed to the unusable space on site was far too low.
Programme of Works - Gathering and Sharing Data
A programme of works was drawn up, where we would survey for 3 days a week, and draw up and populate the drawings on the other days. We had to review our organisation capabilities and complete an analysis of our functions. These included a review of our primary activities and support activities, to make sure that we could deliver the services in the required time frame. It also had to take into account the research and development we were undertaking of our software. Therefore we had to focus our capabilities on our three core competences, software development, surveying and population of the graphical database.
A training matrix was also used to determine if we had the resources to complete the tasks and this, coupled with a gap analysis of our resources, determined that extra staff would be required, and further training. Some of the in-house training we gave our staff was useful as it formed that basis of the training that we were to give to the estates team, and their FM provider, who were going to maintain the data once the whole site was completed.
Meetings were held to review the surveying and to assess the data collected and our overall performance. Samples of our data collection, the overall strategy for collecting the data, the research design, systems analysis and meeting held to interpret the reports all took up valuable time, which we did not have, but were still an integral part of the services we were delivering. Communication was a key factor. The project manager would also form part of the survey teams, and would communicate directly with the stakeholders while on site.
During the data implementation and population various methods were discussed and documented before one was fully adopted. Standards had to be enforced so that all data was entered uniformly as reports were going to be run across multiple buildings.
Therefore we had to open up our services to a much wider audience, review our capabilities further and identify the needs of the wider DERA community.
It was decided that this should now also include the provision for asset data collection. Further meetings on the collection of asset data, how this was to be recorded, and what information was required from the systems should be completed.
A group of stakeholders formed an EMIS management committee and we met regularly to discuss the relative issues of what data was to be captured, and the standards to be applied in order for the data to be read across multiple sites and buildings.
An analysis of the client’s requirements was made, and this was interpreted into a data model and flow chart. The chart became the basis for captured data, and agreed outputs, in the form of reports were reviewed. Agreed standards were applied, as to the number conventions of rooms and buildings, for example, and what, if not all, buildings would be entered into the system.
An analysis of the actual room types was also made to determine their suitability and if there were sufficient resources in the buildings, or if building refurbishment or consolidation would be required.
In the meantime, the surveying at what was now being termed as our pilot site was completed. All building data was entered. A site structure was agreed, in order to navigate to the drawings, and for reporting across a site. A basic ‘explorer’ folder structure was adopted, where drawings were saved and could be opened from a ‘front-end’ in EMIS.
The drawings were colour coded as to the occupant and room type. The site management, now they were able to determine actual usable and unusable area were able to consolidate each business group function. Feasibility studies were undertaken to ascertain how much space was required for each group to function. Space identification was apportioned to the service charges maintained by the site per each m² to complete the financial forecast.
Each business group had to agree the amount of space they used, and in some cases, justify their usage. Some groups were consolidated as their functions were too closely matched, and under or over resourced in some areas. Every drawing was accessible and the true area of each building known. Area calculations for the building footprint, gross external, and gross and net internal, to RICS standards, were added. Reports and calculations for the whole site, for one business group or a particular room type could be analysed.
The EMIS software, and the populated drawings and data collected was loaded onto the clients servers and used in a networked share. Part of our philosophy was to produce a one set of drawings and data that were maintained on site, by the clients FM provider. To this end we gave regular training sessions, to both full access users and read-only users of EMIS. The read-only users were the estate management team, who could print access and review the drawings and data at any time. Previously they could only request copies of drawings and had limited knowledge on the occupants, size, functions and capacity requirements.
Stanburys offer support and maintenance of both software and data, alongside the FM Provider.
Helping to Make Informed Strategic Decisions Using EMIS Data
During 1999 and 2000 our site surveying strategy was applied to other sites of the DERA Estate. The main sites were completed initially with the data being made available by adding the additional sites into the central core module. Reports could be run across multiple sites or at UK level. Information could be used to form benchmarks for cost analysis purposes.
The same strategies were supplied in the data collection performed, and on each site relationships were built with the site management teams and their FM providers.
Once all the main buildings on the main sites had been surveyed, or the existing floor plans had been verified, DERA itself was restructured, and split into two separate Companies, DSTL which the MoD retained as a fully funded government research agency, and QinetiQ, a commercial based Company.
The spatial data managed by EMIS was an essential element of the data transfer. Full knowledge of the DERA sites, building activities and resource planning was fundamental when decisions were being made regarding where each was to be performed, and under which Company.
The suitability and key principle activities of each site were reviewed. The building stock was taken into account. For example; were there sufficient resources and space to enable the research and development to continue? Could they consolidate the sites and, if so, which were suitable for development?
Although not directly part of the decision making process, the knowledge that EMIS stored was enough to make informed decisions in order for the restructure of DERA to go ahead. One or two of the sites were dedicated to each of the new Companies, where others, it was decided, would still share the resources. The long term plan would be to separate the two companies.