COMPLETED RESEARCH
CONSTRUCTABILITY IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES AT THE PROJECT LEVEL
by
Ann M. Schexnayder
ABSTRACT
The National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors indicates that the advanced technology industry is seeking to reduce capital investment risk by shortening first wafer start time from the current 24 months to 12 months. This reduction in wafer start time implies that new project management techniques are needed to achieve improve the design construction sequence of 9 months. To meet this demand, the elements of factory construction and manufacturing process preparation must be shortened and performed in parallel. This criteria dictates that the owner, architect/engineer, and constructor must be brought together from project inception. One method is constructability based upon the Master Builder concept of historical times. Constructability is defined as the optimum use of construction knowledge and experience in planning, design, procurement, and field operations to achieve overall project objectives (Constructability A Primer, 1986). A constructability program is defined as the application of a disciplined, systematic optimization of the construction-related aspects of a project during the planning, design, procurement, construction, test, and start-up phases by knowledgeable, experienced construction personnel who are part of the project team. If performed right, constructability has been shown to reduce construction cost, by 10 to 20 times its implementation cost.
A corporate and project level constructability implementation program was developed by the Construction Industry Institute (CII), but problems adapting it to the advanced technology industry were identified, and a framework was developed to improve constructability implementation. The focus of the developed framework is incorporating construction knowledge, and experience, as early as possible within the project life cycle and capturing that knowledge to pass onto future projects. The project life cycle within this research refers to project inception as the strategic planning phase, progressing through the conceptual planning phase, to the schematic design phase, construction phase, tool install/qualification phases and ending with the facility operation/tool ramp phase. Research indicates that the strategic planning phase through the construction phase are where the maximum investment returns are realized; therefore, these phases were the primary focus for the development of the constructability program implementation framework.
The developed project level constructability implementation program incorporates this philosophy into a framework for owners to use in the construction of advanced technology facilities. Shortening construction time and improving project management by using constructability is expected to decrease overall project cost and thus reduce capital investment risk.
