We need to be at the right scale to survive and prosper.. More in my next Blog….
This was a really interesting project because there are two things in it that are probably unique, certainly in the UK, if not in the world..This building contains hundreds of thousands of samples, stored in vats of liquid nitrogen at -278o centigrade.
Currently, accessing the samples is a manual process which exposes the users to risk of asphyxiation due to their close proximity to the liquid Nitrogen.As the Nitrogen evaporates, a blanket of cold Nitrogen forms on the floor and rises upwards, thereby excluding the oxygen necessary for human life.. For the new facility, they wanted to make sure no-one had to go near the storage vessels.So they commissioned a US company called Brooks to design a robot that could collect samples and deliver them to the scientist, in a way that’s a bit like a vending machine.
Our challenge was to design and build the building around the robot system which was a world first and still in development.. Additionally, the way Bryden Wood have designed the extraction systems is a UK - and probably world first.Because these rooms are highly hazardous, the air change rate must be high in volume, but it must also be at low level physically.
In every other facility I know of, extracting at low level is done with ductwork.
It's inefficient because you can only put ductwork in certain areas, as people cannot be required to step over it as they move around the space.We then review the data, organise, consolidate and present it back to the client, to check our understanding and its validity and accuracy.. Then we identify and agree a number of potential scenarios with the client, which describe a hypothetical future – for example, a change in market direction – from a number of different perspectives; commercial, operational etc.
We then look to identify potential solutions or options and evaluate how these perform against the problem statement and value drivers in the agreed scenarios.. We combine a number of clear strategic directions with a systematic exploration of potential improvements at different levels of detail, using the ‘5S method’ as guidance.This is an established methodology for handling workplace organisation, which breaks the master planning process down into five steps: sort, set in order, shine, standardise and sustain.. At each stage we determine the appropriate level of detail (resolution) at which to visualise and model, depending on whether we are looking at the whole site or a single unit or process, for example.. We present the options or solutions and our evaluation back to the client and agree whether there are further options to be considered or whether the existing options need to be adjusted.
Once an agreed set of options has been identified and developed, we finalise our evaluation, develop recommendations and an output which is a clear and compelling presentation of the findings, and possible next steps.We focus on ensuring that the output: meets the business’s needs; is cost effective and robust, but also flexible and adaptable, and; is practical to implement (for example: along with the usual constraints of time and budget, we may well need to work around keeping current processes fully operational while we effect any changes).. It’s important to state that this is not Bryden Wood dictating the master planning solution to the client.