At present, the world economy has entered a new economic era represented by information revolution and market globalization. Competitors are all over the world, and the architectural boom in China has attracted global star architects and famous firms to carve up the architectural design market. Many well-known overseas firms have quickly set up branches in China, and various joint-venture private construction firms have mushroomed. The fierce competition in the market has benefited the construction unit, but at the same time, it has made the life of domestic design institutes more and more difficult.
Most of the leading large-scale engineering design institutes in China were born under the planned economy system and belong to their respective industry departments. Recently, some courtyards are gradually transitioning to enterprises, facing strategic adjustments in ownership structure, enterprise types, business scope, project organization and management methods, and service awareness. There are both successful experiences and failed lessons in the reform. Market competition means survival of the fittest.
Based on the author's working experience in American firms, this paper tries to summarize the operation mode and characteristics of American firms, hoping to provide reference for the development of architectural design enterprises in China under the new situation.
2. Human resource management of American architectural firms
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As a special profession, architect's work scope does not belong to the single field of art, science, engineering and sociology in the traditional sense. Therefore, in the western education system, the education and training of architects are independent of the above-mentioned colleges. Architects' firms are also very different from most educational enterprises in organizing product market and development. Successful firms are not only good at business operations, but also rely on professional design teams and famous architects. Human resource management is a very important part of the management system of design companies.
2. 1 talent echelon
Adequate and good human resources determine the productivity of the company. American firms generally have human resources managers, who not only interview candidates, but also regularly submit employee status reports to management, which is an important reference information for management to decide employees' promotion and demotion and control operating costs. When using existing resources, American companies attach importance to maintaining a reasonable personnel structure. In short, a reasonable echelon structure of architects should have at least three levels: high, medium and low.
Boss (usually I am also an architect), design DL director (design DL director) and senior architect/designer make decisions on the macro development of the company, customer market development, project design positioning, etc. Generally do not participate in the specific technical design of the project.
Middle level: it is mainly composed of project managers and architects with certain skills and experience, and can implement technical details under the condition of determining the general direction.
Low-level: mainly composed of draftsmen, assistant architects and practical students, to complete specific drawing work.
From the management point of view, people at any level should be engaged in corresponding work, and any "leapfrog" move is a challenge to production relations and a waste of productivity. A friend once "demoted" and applied for a lower position. He thought he was a shoo-in, but he was rejected on the grounds of being too senior. Americans believe that the gap between qualifications and positions will bring instability to enterprises. Some well-known domestic brand design units pay too much attention to the recruitment of highly educated doctors and masters. Regardless of whether there is a direct relationship between high education and high efficiency. Just from the talent echelon itself, it is a management mistake, which not only increases the cost of the enterprise, but also damages the overall efficiency of the production system.
In order to reduce the waste caused by "leapfrog work", we should maintain a reasonable human resources system structure. The specific proportion of personnel at all levels depends on the types of thousands of projects (residential, medical, commercial, school, etc.). ) and the company's financial situation. The proportion of high, middle and low-level personnel in the residential, commercial and campus project teams of American architects' firms is usually 1: 1:2. Due to the complexity of its professional requirements, hospital projects reach 1:2:3. Senior personnel can usually at the same time.
2.2 Employee performance appraisal and salary system
In Europe, due to the existence of strong trade unions and strict laws, it is very difficult and costly for enterprises to dismiss employees, which has caused a conservative and stable industrial situation and no competitive vitality. At the same time, the personnel system in the United States is more biased towards capital owners, and there are almost no legal restrictions on the dismissal of employees by management. The pressure of unemployment urges employees to work hard. On the contrary, "a good bird chooses wood to live, and a good minister chooses the Lord." Americans change jobs every four to 15 years on average. The boss's supervision pressure on employees' job hopping not only improves work efficiency, but also increases the possibility of employees' job hopping. How to ensure production efficiency and avoid brain drain? Different business ideas produce different corporate cultures. Some companies monitor each computer in real time through local area network, and security surveillance cameras are used to supervise employees. The method of not being infatuated with the west has obvious effect on some industries, but it will reduce employees' loyalty to the company. Especially in the field of architectural design, it relies heavily on the creativity and skills of employees, and this distrust will affect the long-term interests of the company.
Architects' offices have never adopted a strict staff supervision mechanism, with flexible working hours and relaxed atmosphere. Many senior employees and technicians are willing to serve the company for a long time. Some even work for 20 years without changing jobs, which is rare in the United States. What's the trick? As the boss of a company said, it is a paper controller in the United States. I'm afraid the weekly work schedule of relevant national architects' offices is the most impressive management method for checking turnover (see table 1). Managers don't need to monitor employees' disciplinary attendance, but can obtain the most accurate information on work progress and efficiency by comparing the weekly work report submitted by employees on the company website with the project work report of the project manager. The weekly work report corresponds to the number of days in a week horizontally and the number of projects vertically. Employees fill in the time spent on a project every day, and the workload is approved by the project manager.
There are two kinds of architectural design fees in the United States: one is similar to our country, and according to the complexity of the project, it is charged according to a certain proportion of the investment, with a total guarantee; The other is to settle accounts with Party A by hours in stages according to the actual working schedule of personnel. Different levels of personnel charge different fees. The labor cost in the United States is high, and architectural design is not a high-profit industry. One of the important tasks of the project manager is to control the cost. Careless management will lead to losses. Therefore, the employee's work report is of great significance to the company, and it is the basic statistical data for the cost accounting of each project and the quarterly and annual assessment of employees. The workload and work efficiency of each employee are based on data, and the change of employee's salary is directly linked to the quarterly performance appraisal. This will help to enhance the consciousness of employees and create a good working atmosphere in the company.
Table 2 is the interface of working hours and billing statements in a certain week, and the salary system is directly related to the stability and work enthusiasm of the talent team. Through the reform of distribution system, some domestic design institutes link employees' income with their output responsibilities and encourage their enthusiasm. But if there is no scientific and systematic quantitative analysis and management, it will easily lead to contradictions and dissatisfaction. At present, some senior positions in American architectural firms, such as senior managers, project managers and key designers, are difficult to quantify because of their important work, and most of them are fixed annual salaries. The salary is high but there is no overtime pay. Other jobs that are easy to determine are mostly hourly wages. Such as draftsman, system maintainer, accountant, etc. Reasonable distribution of the ratio of annual salary system to annual salary system can save personnel expenses for the company on the premise of meeting the normal operation of the company.
3 Project management of American architectural firms
3. 1 document management and drawing specification
The early operation time of real estate projects in the United States is generally longer than that of similar projects in China. The design cycle of some large-scale projects will be as long as 5-7 years, while the turnover of personnel in the United States is relatively frequent. In order to ensure the continuity of work, standardized document management system and drawing standards are very important.
On the first day of a new employee's work, managers usually focus on the company's filing system and system norms. The manual is printed out for employees' reference at any time. American architects' projects have their own unified numbers, and different stages of the same project also have corresponding sub-numbers, so it is convenient for the project to reach a certain stage.
Full-time file managers of the company are responsible for filing in stages. These once tedious tasks are easy to complete in today's office system, and the system norms are more systematic. There are strict regulations on drawing size, sequence, format, soil naming, line type selection, drawing scale and marking text size. After the unified application of this specification. Design drawings are like an assembly line. The coordination between designers becomes smooth. And no matter who takes over, you can quickly enter the state. Many domestic design institutes can ensure that the completed drawings meet the national drawing specifications. However, the habits and methods of drawing vary from person to person, and it is difficult to take over. If we can learn from foreign experience, we can reduce our dependence on individual draftsmen and make the manpower arrangement of the project team more flexible.
3.2 Project team staffing
Two common modes of American architectural firms are:
1) Staffing of fixed project team
It's just that some people form a working group with long-term fixed cooperation. The advantages of this model are that the members in the group are familiar with each other, with clear division of labor and easy cooperation. Shortcomings are not conducive to the cultivation of new people, and the emergence of new ideas and concepts is not conducive to the overall distribution of human resources in the company. This form of organization often causes some working groups to be as busy as a bee, while others have nothing to do. Sometimes the whole working group will jump ship. This form is usually adopted by large firms with large numbers of people.
2) Flexible allocation
Generally speaking, the preliminary work of the project is mainly undertaken by the project manager alone. With the progress of the work, the company's management personnel co-ordinate the deployment of design and drawing personnel of various types of work. The advantage of this model is that it is convenient to organize human resources reasonably, but managers need to know and master the work progress of everyone in each project in real time. Today's software resources greatly reduce the difficulty of this work. Judging from the current situation. This model is more suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises.
3.3 Quality management
The architect responsibility system is implemented in both American and international architect markets. Customers can pursue the loss caused by the architect's responsibility through the court, so a perfect quality control system must be established. At present, most domestic design companies have been brought into the ISO900 1:2000 quality management system, which is in line with international standards. If strictly implemented, the design quality should be guaranteed.
American companies have some experience in details that we can learn from. For example, if an architect finds a mistake, he will mark it with a red highlighter on the drawing. Every time the drawing staff corrects mistakes, they will mark them with a yellow highlighter, and the unclear places will not move. After revision, the original drawings and new drawings will be returned to the architect for comparison and review. This indigenous method seems simple, but if strictly implemented, it can reduce a lot of repetitive work of draftsmen and reviewers and speed up drawing. At the same time, keep the changed flowchart, which can provide original data for future audit and review.
4 service circle
Compared with traditional domestic architectural design units, many American architectural firms undertake a wider range of services, greater capital and more detailed division of labor and cooperation. Their service scope includes: 1) pre-construction scheme beyond preliminary design, expansion of construction drawing and construction supervision; 2) Project cost evaluation and control before construction; 3) Apply for all necessary construction permits in this area; 4) Post-evaluation after project composition.
4. 1 Pre-construction plan
Completed by architects and developers. The development plan of American developers must be approved by the local government and the public. The first step is to make a master plan and submit it to the Construction Bureau for approval. The competent functional departments include: municipal engineering, municipal planning, laws and regulations, regional planning, environmental and historical protection, etc. The procedure is as follows:
(1) proposal pre-application meeting; (2) Formal proposal application; (3) proposal review: (4) public hearing; (5) Final decision
The competent functional departments of the local government act in strict accordance with the law, and the provisions of laws and regulations are very detailed, with few human intervention factors. The purpose of government departments is to actively help developers understand policies and regulations and achieve development goals without harming public health, safety and property. The developer's development plan is mainly completed with the participation of architects.
4.2 Control the project cost
American architects' firms play an important role in controlling project cost. The average net interest rate of the real estate industry in the United States is 5%, so the project leader must carefully control the cost, and the error between legal settlement and budget should not exceed 7%, which requires architects not only to know the prices of various building parts and local construction market, but also to cooperate closely with valuation consultants, construction manufacturers and material suppliers at every stage of the project.
4.3 Help customers to apply for building permits
The building codes followed in the design are divided into federal, state, county and community design codes according to the grade. Construction must apply for a building permit. Building permits in the United States are divided into counties and residential areas according to grades, and must be applied separately. However, their terms sometimes conflict or overlap. Many buildings also require a hearing in their area to discuss its feasibility. All these require close cooperation among architects, clients and government departments.
4.4 Late evaluation
The post-evaluation is mainly completed by the entrusting party, the construction party and the architect.
5 market positioning, development and promotion
Many design companies in the United States have marketing departments or employ professional market development researchers or consulting companies. Professional marketers have a very systematic analysis and understanding of various media and customer groups, and master first-hand statistical data, which will provide useful credit and suggestions for enterprise market development. Our company's market developers are mainly responsible for the following work:
1) Bidding assistance: drafting design scheme, company introduction materials (resume), bidding negotiation with company management, etc.
2) Corporate image promotion: corporate Logo, website, brochures, souvenirs, etc.
3) Social activities: organize gift exchange with customers on holidays, assist the company to participate in social activities, hold lectures, provide free training, contact the media to participate in seminars, and collect news events and information related to the firm's business.
The importance of social welfare activities lies in developing potential customers: some architects of our company volunteered to help students in several public middle schools in the city to carry out extracurricular interest activities, taught them to be familiar with some drawing software and understand the general situation of the work of architects' offices, and later helped the company get many projects from these middle schools. The company also provides fixed internship places for the architecture departments of several universities in this city every year, so it has become one of the designated architectural design institutions of these universities. Facts have proved that social activities are one of the most effective means to expand business.
6 new technologies and concepts
Domestic architects have long given up drawing boards and replaced them with computers and large printers. However, many architects only stay in the concept of "high technology" on the basis of AutoGAD computer drawing, and have little contact with office automation and computer-aided manufacturing.
The revolution brought by new technology to architectural firms is not only reflected in the field of drawing, but also in office automation, project management, project budget and other links. It helps us to reduce our dependence on personal experience, help us to deal with heavy forms and documents, and improve accuracy and work efficiency. At present, the Project managers of American architects mainly rely on Microsoft's office series, Project series, Adobe's image processing series and other software to effectively organize resources and track tasks, so as to ensure that the project meets the personnel and budget.
Other companies have begun to use 3D printers to expand designers' imagination. Domestic architects are generally lazy to make a grass model exhibition scheme, and the introduction of new technology and equipment is helpful to improve the design quality.
Aside from the new concept that many developers are pure commercial speculation, green building is a new concept that really affects the development of our future architectural model in recent years, and LEED (leadership in energy &; LEED literally translates into English: leading the design of energy and environment.
Different from many previous studies, LEED has clear articles of association, norms and a complete rating system. It can grade buildings according to their layout, materials and construction methods, and those who take measures to save energy and protect the environment will get higher scores. In order to make the building meet some LEED standards, certified engineers and technicians must guide the design. LEED Association provides qualification certification and training for all kinds of technicians. In order to keep up with the changes of the times in the future 10 competition, architectural firms have organized personnel to participate. For architects, LEED certificate has become another important professional certificate besides architect certificate. Although it has not been enforced by law, this scoring system has gradually been accepted and applied by people of insight in American society and government. For example, some counties and cities stipulate that all government-funded projects, such as libraries, hospitals, schools, government agencies, etc. , must meet the corresponding LEED standards (that is, scores), and give corresponding subsidies and financial support to the buildings that meet the standards.
Many domestic researches and articles on green buildings also refer to the LEED standard of the United States, but it needs to be promoted and implemented from the perspective of the government, so as to urge the real estate and design circles to get rid of the hype of business ideas and pragmatically invest human, financial and technical capital. At the same time, the government should introduce relevant preferential and incentive policies to guide the construction industry in China to develop in a positive and sustainable direction.
7 Some suggestions
At present, many large design institutes in China are facing the moment of decoupling and restructuring. The author thinks that domestic architectural design enterprises can take this opportunity to complete resource reorganization, and the purpose of resource reorganization is to realize the most reasonable allocation of social resources. Firstly, the disadvantages of the current resource allocation system (resource disadvantage) are analyzed, then resource advantages (scale effect, strong alliance) are generated by concentrating resources, and finally resource advantages are transformed into competitive advantages (gain benefits). It should be pointed out that from the business characteristics of architectural firms, resource advantages do not necessarily need to form competitive advantages through scale advantages. Foster's firm, which ranks third in the world in annual turnover, has almost the same turnover as the first two firms, but the number of employees is only 1/4- 1/5 of the first two firms. Employees in construction companies strive for perfection, not for more.
At the same time of resource reorganization, design institutions should not pay too much attention to immediate interests, but should seize all available opportunities to participate in major projects at home and abroad and increase their understanding of the operation mode and development process of large-scale international projects of real estate development institutions (investment banks, regional development organizations, real estate companies, multinational engineering contracting companies, etc.) in the international market. ), learn from the strengths of overseas counterparts, maximize the market share and viability of enterprises, and lay a good foundation for joining the competition and long-term development.
The evaluation of Liu Bang and Han Xin in history is that "Han Xinshan used soldiers, and Pei Gong was good at directing the stage." Leadership is the most important ability of a manager. Many domestic management systems still follow the experience of "making the best use of the best", and the management is mostly selected from the technical backbone. The disadvantage of this move is that it is easy to pay too much attention to technical ability and ignore management ability. The interior manager of my company is not an architect, but a senior manager of a hospital. In an architectural firm, he is responsible for human resources, allocating and deploying all staff, and comprehensively evaluating the performance of employees: the big boss just talks about projects outside, and she is in charge of everything in the office. His rigorous and scientific management methods and excellent interpersonal coordination skills make the whole firm relaxed and efficient, and have been growing steadily and rapidly in recent years. Therefore, excellent management talents are very important for architectural design firms.
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