Price Optimization in Real Time

Food is a commodity and we treat it that way at the wholesale level, and since free market economics are all about 'Supply and Demand' shouldn't we take that whole concept and philosophy down to the street level? Well, we kind of do that now right? I mean when supplies are abundant and a particular fruit or vegetable is in season, the prices becomes stunningly low, and then at the end of the season it rises up again.

Why? Supply and Demand, and somewhere there is a climate where such fruit or vegetables can grow in the off-season, South America and Australia for instance - opposite seasons right? Yes, but figure the cost to transport and hazards of perishables being shipped across the planet and every crop competes for field space, water, and farmers plant what's most profitable or what they think will be at the end of its growing season.

If this all sounds like the type of writings Adam Smith put forth in the Wealth of Nations or a Milton Friedman economics speech (still available on YouTube by the way) that's because all of these things are the basics and fundamentals of free markets and supply and demand dictates. Okay so, about the street level, what if the supply and demand in the store were to take all that into mind?

You see, there was an interesting article in Grocery Retail Online News on August 14, 2014 titled; "KSS Retail Introduces New Automation Solution To Enable Real-Time Price Optimization," and I wonder if they might take this even further, let's talk.

What if the cash registers were connected to the produce 'electronic price' sign guaranteeing that price for one-hour if you hold a little tag or have an app on your iPhone synchronizing that price until you get to the register where you scan your phone for the 'special price' even if that price is less than the advertised price you received in your junk mail coupon flayer?


Lastly, I wonder if people will complain of price gouging were this to be taken to its Free Market limits? And would it cause people to come to the grocery store every day to see what was on sale? What if something isn't in the mailer coupon flayer and yet, when you run to the store to get that item for your recipe you see there are only a few left and the price is now $5.00 per pound? Time to think on all this, because it seems others already are and they are ready to implement these real-time systems for pricing at the consumer level.

Building Information Modelling 3D (BIM) Real Needs

The concept of building information modelling (BIM) has received universal acceptance from the building services, structural engineering and architectural fraternity mainly due to its need for lean construction and also its cross-disciplinary usability. 3D BIM modeling has existed for a number of years now and the industry is aggressively adapting itself to embrace the new work flows of the BIM process; however, there is still a lack of clarity amongst the owners (the clients) as to what exactly they can achieve from these models, what they need to achieve and how they can make optimum use of this concept.

This article seeks to explore some beliefs related to the use of BIM and sheds light on when it should be used and to what extent. For the sake of clarity, it is important to know the difference between non-BIM 3D CAD models and a parametric BIM models.

3D CAD models are virtual representations of a facility that provide only visual details. Applications such as AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP are used to create 3D CAD models that can be used for design, development, construction and pre-fabrication. On the other hand, BIM models are intelligent models embedded with parametric details that are extremely important for design, development, construction, pre-fabrication, assembly, analysing energy performance and facility management of the built environment. For BIM projects, the details can be effectively shared between different project stakeholders: facility owners, designers/architects, MEP (M&E) engineers, fabricators, consultants and contractors. Revit Architecture and Revit MEP are applications used for BIM modelling whilst Navisworks is employed to detect clashes between different system models. 

One of the most crucial aspects that helps decide whether BIM is actually required or not is gaining an in-depth understanding of the model's purpose. More often than not, there is so much difference between client's 'stated' needs and his/her 'real' needs. In a lot of cases, clients state that they require a BIM model but actually what they require is a smart clash-free 3D model which can be used to extract respective construction drawings. In such scenarios, AutoCAD MEP or AutoCAD Architecture could easily be used to provide a 3D model that meets this need. Alternatively, a BIM software tool could be used to provide a 3D model without providing additional elements such as data rich 'information'.

In other cases, a BIM model may actually be the basis to plan, design, construct, and manage a particular facility. These scenarios require multidisciplinary project stakeholders to access the BIM model at different stages in the project life cycle. As a result, the most important factor that dictates the success of any project employing BIM is the richness of 'information' embedded into the models.

 So, depending on the project's scope, a full-fledged BIM model may contain valuable information, such as dimensions of building elements, quantity take-off data, material requirements, time scheduling, costing, prefabrication data, activity simulation, and energy performance. Other important factors that contribute to success of BIM include the data-sharing and interoperability standards to allow smooth multidisciplinary collaboration between key disciplines.

Irrespective of whether the client actually requires BIM or non-BIM CAD model, the BIM wave that has spread across the AEC industry has forced the agenda to adopt a more progressive approach to planning, designing and coordinating models and drawings. 

The industry continues to transition from non-BIM 2D approaches to collaborative BIM work flows and 3D CAD work flows and even that is a huge shift for the industry. This change is more often than not influenced by the demand side i.e. the clients.