About Building Forward®
Our Building Forward® approach represents our cultural commitment to continuously improve everything we do. Through four main tenets—Collaboration, Continuous Improvement, Leadership Development, and Building a Learning Culture—we empower individuals at every level to share innovative ideas and provide feedback on processes. While this effort began within Robins & Morton, we extend this philosophy into our relationships with clients, trade contractors and industry peers. Encouraging collaboration that fosters trust, transparency and efficiency is essential to delivering exceptional results.
When applied consistently, Building Forward® yields benefits to our teams that contribute to the success of our projects and initiatives.
Some benefits of implementing Building Forward® include:
- Team health
- Preferential response from trade contractors
- Improved team communication
- More effective onboarding
- Value-creating technology
- Improved quality
- Strengthened safety culture
- Better budgets earlier
- Consistent schedule accuracy
Conditions of Satisfaction
By developing Conditions of Satisfaction (CoS), we can gain a thorough understanding of our client’s objectives so that all team members can align to accomplish those objectives. The CoS will guide the team members as they design, plan, and execute the project.
The following is an example CoS from our Carilion Clinic Crystal Spring Tower project.
The following items were defined by our project delivery team as requirements for a successful project outcome.
Project Delivery Health
Deliver a state-of-the-art, cost-efficient and timely project in the safest environment.
Community
- Improve access to care for western Virginia
- Establish and facilitate outreach programs to recruit and educate local craft workers
- Quarterly participation in community-oriented events
- Monthly creative town hall sessions to communicate project health to all stakeholders
- Couple local knowledge and national experience to improve quality in the industry
Plan & Logistics
- Develop and sustain a process to identify operational impacts
- Bi-weekly facility coordination to communicate plans and logistics
- Utilize leading-edge technology
Trust & Respect
- Develop and nurture relationships that drive measured accountability
- Establish an environment that fosters a collaborative culture
- Implement a measured assessment to continuously improve team health
Project Delivery Approach
Learn more about how our approach to preconstruction and construction provides value to our clients.
Co-location
A co-located office is being used for the Carilion project delivery team, consisting of the client, architect, Robins & Morton – Branch Builds, and trade contractors. This open office environment facilitates efficient information flow and access to shared resources, such as VDC, meeting spaces, technology, and infrastructure. Working together, relationships are forged, trust is built, and stakeholders maintain alignment throughout planning and construction.
Take the Carilion Clinic Crystal Spring Tower co-location 360° walkthrough
SmartFab® is a systematic review process to identify and implement a customized pre-assembly, modular, and prefabrication plan for each project. Robins & Morton developed our SmartFab® approach to ensure a consistent, coordinated, and comprehensive assessment of the value of pre-assembly, modular, and prefabricated elements as well as thorough planning from design through installation. Our holistic approach to prefabrication eliminates waste and improves safety, quality, schedule, and budget.
The Carilion Clinic Crystal Spring Tower project was identified as an ideal candidate to apply Robins & Morton’s SmartFab® approach because of its size, tight site, challenging logistics, and downtown location adjacent to major thoroughfares. One of the most critical pieces to the Carilion SmartFab® strategy is the offsite prefabrication warehouse that has served as a hub for the foundations and underground mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems. In addition to encouraging collaboration among the trades in maximizing prefabrication opportunities, the prefabrication warehouse also provides a controlled environment to boost quality, improve productivity, and mitigate the challenges associated with material laydown on a tight site, providing a central location to consolidate materials for just-in-time deliveries.
Take the Carilion Clinic Crystal Spring Tower SmartFab® warehouse tour 360° walkthrough
Below is a listing of the SmartFab® savings realized on the Carilion project to date. These items contributed to reducing the demand for labor by 30%.
- Overall warehousing strategy to facilitate our prefabrication effort and just in time delivery
- In-wall and overhead electrical prefabricated components
- Multi-trade prefabrication including shower valve assemblies, headwalls, med gas zone valve boxes, and wet walls
- Kitting of anchor bolts and embeds to ensure a quality install and prevent misplaced material
- Single sourcing onsite rental equipment, realizing $1 million in savings and improving safety and quality
- Using a telescopic handler instead of a tower crane, resulting in budget, safety and quality improvements
- Pre-coring each foundation to locate bedrock, reduce contingency, improve production and minimize unforeseen delays, which could result in an estimated $1 million in savings
- Virtual Reality (VR) mock-ups of patient rooms and other spaces saved $500,000 over conventional mock-ups. Carilion will also use these VR mock-ups in their simulation lab for testing, education and performance studies
- Pre-installed door hardware