Design chains presents innovative new thinking in supply chain management. Springing from the work of the Integrated Collaborative Design (ICD) research project, a combined industry and academic initiative between Loughborough University and twelve construction companies, it presents a set of key principles and practices that provide a new approach to design management - the design chain.
Design Chains describes how design can be understood, managed and optimised to add value to clients. The practices developed through ICD and described in Design Chains provide a timely response to the need to manage design complexity to help collaborating organisations deliver projects that meet client needs.
The benefits of an Integrated Collaborative Design approach include:
creating business level frameworks for organisations to collaborate for mutual benefit on projects
aiding understanding of design information flows
helping organisations align their business and project competencies and business cultures
promoting value adding design solutions on projects
providing a selection of tools to integrate processes across organisations at the levels of the business and project
This pioneering new book will be of value to a wide readership, from clients to specialised suppliers.