Design Process Improvement Initiative For Stratford Homes

After years of using dependable but older design and production processes, Stratford Homes Limited Partnership decided to make significant changes to their design tools while enhancing information-sharing capability among corporate departments and move from Autodesk AutoCAD to Autodesk Revit as their primary design tool.

Stratford Homes had a focused set of goals for this project intended to improve their design process and related workflows and create a portal for project information that fed into various related business areas, including production. Their expanded goals include the desired expectation that the solution will lead to improved transparency and interfaces with their customers, business partners, financial systems, and more.

Stratford Homes products are highly customizable, and Team D3 was asked to create an additional component to their baseline of traditional construction "component families" using Autodesk Revit, which is a dynamic component that are tailored to their customer's unique specifications through automated means. Finally, Stratford Homes had an over-arching goal to minimize steps in the pre-construction/construction processes, including other elements of their procedures that transition between design and constructability.

The multi-faceted solution was carefully sculpted to create a seamless collection of technology and legacy data for importation into Stratford Homes' new design tools. The solution addressed, in all aspects, their migration from a historical design tool of 2D Autodesk AutoCAD to a Autodesk Revit 3D modeling environment from which a consolidated collection of design and process data was developed and assimilated into their other departments and business systems.  

Stratford Homes’ desired goal of creating a library of both traditional baseline component families and adaptable "component families" was accomplished through the combined efforts of the Team D3 solution architects and Stratford Homes' input from their years of tribal knowledge. Where possible, Team D3 focused on “data values” or “inputs” to transfer specifics to minimize the creation of component families. Production information is now included as part of each component family. Content is strategically planned and organized to efficiently transition to production and field construction, with their priority to focus on the development of content for a wider disbursement of information across corporate departments and stakeholders. 

Work and training sessions were performed remotely, while weekly meetings were staged to accommodate Stratford Homes’ specific needs in deliverables and training. 

This initial solution creates a foundation to launch their new design tool, Autodesk Revit and sets the stage for ongoing development and refinement of the resulting design process and related workflows. The migration of their legacy design data was and will continue to be an organic process as they discover what of their legacy data is needed, outdated, or is replaced by the features and functionality of Autodesk Revit. With Autodesk Revit, they now have a central source of cooperative data and project information that can be shared throughout their company for better project management. 

Finally, Stratford Homes fully expects to see a measurable benefit in their “design to production to field construction” progression that will be significantly shortened with fewer steps needed to move through project stage gates. 

Stratford Homes is now on a calculated and strategic path with cutting-edge design and production methodologies that will allow them to innovate efficiently, design, and produce a superior product. They are committed to adopting and optimizing their new design and production tools. Production information will be included as part of each “component family.” It will be strategically planned and ordered to transition from design to production and field construction efficiently while staying true to Stratford Homes’ prioritization and focus on effectively developing data content in all models created with Autodesk Revit. 

Stratford Homes and Team D3, while dedicated in their partnership to this Design Process Improvement Initiative, are also looking to the subsequent project phases for opportunities to enhance further the design, development, and production aspects of their business. A final project wrap-up meeting was held covering the following topics: Original Goals, Results, What Did We Learn, What Changed, Recommendations Moving Forward, and Project Summation Discussion followed by Next Steps and Action Items. 

Delivery Date

Project Duration

Autodesk Solutions

• BIM Collaborate
• Revit

Services Provided

• API/Script Support
• BIM/CAD Standards
• Forge
• Migration
• Assessment of Needs
• Implementation
• Pipeline Development
• Process Automation
• Strategy & Planning
• Workflow Optimization
• Optimize Accelerator Delivery
• 3D Modeling
• AEC
• Lean Construction
• Software Development & Customization
• Installation
• Configuration & Deployment
• System & Software Maintenance
• System Integration
• Updates & Upgrades
• Training

Customer Industry

• Architecture
• MEP Engineering