About

Building CATALYST exists to help produce better and more cost effective buildings, and to do so through a  more enjoyable and rewarding process.

CATALYST has developed a SYSTEM and a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that applies hard data science and measurable process improvement to eliminate tedius and wasteful effort. CATALYST automates the planning and cost management process through simplification, organization, standardization, and integration. 

CATALYST co-founders are Bruce Carlson, Scott Jasperse, and Mark Sands. Mark is an engineer and data scientist with over forty years of construction experience. Bruce and Scott are full stack software engineers.

Background

The inspiration for Building CATALYST came first from the work of W. Edwards Deming, the physicist and statistician credited with transforming manufacturing. The Toyota Production System is owing to Deming's work. Deming's management philosophy and systems theory, applies to construction as much as it does to manufacturing. Deming says, "Lack of Knowledge - that is the problem."  CATALYST provides contruction's first Deming-based Knowelge System.

The other inspiration for Building CATALYST came from Steelcase, a world leader in building interior systems. Steelcase's attempt at manufacturing-inspired construction, called Workstage, showed how buildings can be systematized and prepared-in-advance. The CATALYST vision takes this principle a step further by systematizing at the space and element level. This makes it possible to design and produce unique or custom buildings from a kit-of-parts stategy.

Here are a few Building CATALSYT principles to transform the building process, starting with planning and preconstruction:

1. As in manufacturing, construction must operate as a SYSTEM rather than SILOS. Today's project delivery methods have not solved our siloed and fragmented state.
2. A Deming-type innovation and transformation in construction applies data-driven quality and process improvement strategies to eliminate many layers of waste from early planning through project completion.
3. Deming-type innovation demands win-win for all parties. Owners will experience measurable value improvement (lower cost, better quality). Architects and builders will earn a higher return-on-effort and experience a significant reduction in supporting services and overhead.
4. Most waste is due to construction's siloed (fragmented) state and mis-aligned compensation structures. CATALYST enables the facility purpose and planning (owner), design (AE), and construction (builder) to work as a system from a common data/technology platform. This is essential to rewiring our compensation structure to optimize the whole system.
5. CATALYST is an engineering and builder-oriented solution to construction’s waste and cost problems. CATALYST, however, has its greatest and most essential impact before the architect and builder are engaged in the project. CATALYST enables top-down (owner-oriented) and bottom-up (production-oriented) processes to work together to acheive optimization.
6. So, while CATALYST’s vision is to achieve optimization (eliminating waste and improving quality), it must first achieve stabilization and certainty of outcomes.
7. CATALYST applies four inter-related and simultaneous innovations based on Deming and the Toyota Production System. They include:
   1. Impartial Value Determination and Analysis - Provides unbiased baseline predictions from market average data across a wide range of sources.
   2. Set-based Planning and Design - Enables multiple rapid set or scenario models from which to make decisions and narrow viable solutions moving forward,
   3. 5S Organizational Excellence - SImplifies and streamlines the building process in five aspects: Sort, Systematize, Shine (declutter), Standardize, and Sustain 
   4. Autonomation - This combines the best balance between what the computer can do, and that of the technical professionals from end-to-end.

In Stage 1 - through over 600 real-world projects - Building CATALYST has proved that a Deming-based Knoweldge System can predict and steer a project to more certain outcomes. In an emerging Stage 2, owners now have a way to seek and encourage architects and builders to bring measurable value improvement.