Our customers can spend hundreds of thousands of pounds (possibly millions) per year re-planning their stores. This process is required to match models, update ranging and/or pilots which have been proven to improve customer experience and profitability.

Whilst this is a critical business objective, nearly all of our customers can have this great work undone in a second due to poor in-store compliance at the shelf edge.

There are many reasons why in-store compliance can go wrong and they are all avoidable:

• Plan is incorrect (e.g. fixture is not there / wrong size)
• Fixture is incorrect (e.g. missing shelf)
• Member of staff incorrectly reads the plan / planogram
• Store Manager thinks they know best and decides not to do it as planned

So how can C A Design Services help? 

We have the answer and we are already delivering the solution as part of our StoreSpace® software to our major clients.  The key is to provide plan access at store level, promote 360 degree feedback and update requests and to provide changes that can be made at a ‘click’ of a button. Want to find out more? Call us today and let us demonstrate how StoreSpace® can save time, money and improve efficiencies for your business.

Following recent guidelines released from the Government, it is now not possible to design schools with curves or glass walls.  Instead modular designs are the way to go. This appears to be a bid to reduce spiralling costs of new buildings and standardise school design. While I understand that costs may override aesthetics, surely it’s a step backwards in architectural school design?

With the new ‘austerity’ designs, secondary schools will be on average 15% smaller than those built under the previous Building Schools for the Future (or BSF) scheme, with primaries being 5% smaller. The wide corridors and spacious atriums which aided circulation, pupil behaviour and flexible teaching spaces will have to be reduced in order to fit within these spacial constraints.

Schools are not just about learning the set subjects. Schools help promote thought beyond the classroom. I believe that design is paramount to this. Creativity, innovation, environment and respect – these are all nurtured in a school environment and are surely enhanced by better surroundings.  If there are few ‘ideal’ spaces to bully a fellow student, it’s less likely to happen. If your building promotes a sense of wellbeing and pride, you are less likely to vandalise it.

I am reminded of the schools of the 1960’s and 70’s that were dark concrete boxes:

Not the most inviting and nurturing environments to be in. Oddly, these are what everyone has been trying to replace by building large, glass filled spacious buildings.

The RIBA have expressed their own concerns about the modular designs. Saying:

“The proposed ‘flat pack’ approach is inflexible and will deprive students and teachers of quality environments that are proven to support teaching and learning”

You can read more on this here: www.architecture.com

My own school was a Victorian building that had limited space for flexible teaching methods. The walls were all white with the obligatory tiled bottom section (which was painted white). The only ‘colour’ was the grey lino flooring or the vinyl covered chipboard desks.

Halfway through my school life, a new technology block was built. It would house the new subjects of CDT, sculpture and computing. The interior of this building had un-rendered brick walls and bright red textured vinyl floors. This was futuristic design – well, it seemed that way to a young teenager! It’s not surprising to me that I spent most of my time until the end of my school life in this building. It shaped and cultivated my choices in for college and subsequent career. I am quite sure that had this never been built and my CDT lessons were taught in the white and grey classrooms, I wouldn’t be here now.

Head teachers can opt out of the scheme but their schools must be built within the same budget as the modular ones. The architectural industry could see this as a new and different challenge though.  Can they create the amazing designs they did before on a fraction of the budget? Is this a restriction on creativity or simply a new way of designing?

Another hot topic from the 2012 Supermarkets conference we attended last month was the future of the large format supermarket and its design.

As mentioned in my previous note on the exponential growth of convenience stores, the growth from convenience stores and the discount chains – such as pound shops and discount grocery – is out-stripping the sales increase from ‘big-box’ grocery retailing.

By 2016, Market research forecasts an increase from 13% to 24% of supermarket sales to come from non-supermarket locations.  Put simply, the rise in popularity of e-commerce, convenience stores, pharmacy, travel money, banking, etc. is reducing the growth potential from adding new space through large format openings or extensions, by offering an easier return on investment.

So what does this mean for today’s supermarkets?  Well, the store of the future is likely to be heavily influenced by each retailers ‘clicks and mortar’ strategy.  Putting dark stores in large conurbation areas on one side, more online deliveries (currently only <5% for grocery shopping) will mean less shoppers in store and perhaps a larger back of house area to facilitate home delivery or in-store collections.

Some retailers are already exploring ‘drive through’ collection points in car parks for those customers who might want to order online and collect their shopping on their way home.  Less customers in store might free up more room for complimentary or destination franchise space within store to help drive footfall and make the supermarket feel more like a traditional high street or market all under one roof?  There are lots of options, lots of opportunity and many cul-de-sacs to be explored.

What is clear, is there a changing marketplace with changing consumer habits and it is likely we will all see various trials and future store concepts being rolled out as the supermarkets jockey for the right idea and market position.

1. Who else is using it? Sainsbury’s, ASDA, M&S, Comet to name a few.

2. How much is it? This depends on the individual customer requirements, the number of users, and the level of customisation.

3. What about our existing CAD plans? We can sort out your existing store plans, making sure that they work with StoreSpace, as part of an implementation plan.

4. Will it work with Revit in the future? Yes.

5. What are the benefits to me? Storespace enables faster planning, centralised reporting, better space compliance and more profitability.

For more information on StoreSpace and how it could help with your store planning visit StoreSpace in the products section of our website.

Guy

We also use Microstation Software…

At C A Design Services, we’re big users of Autodesk CAD software, such as AutoCAD and 3D Studio Max, and more recently Revit; but most customers aren’t aware of our Microstation Services.

Microstation Experience:

We are currently working for a major client on a long-term engineering based project,using Microstation.
The work includes maintaining and updating existing drawing records, and creating new drawings as required. This is a varied project, which draws on a number of CAD drafting disciplines, including the use of document control systems, revision of drawings following redline mark-ups, and digitising and redrawing archived hard copy drawings. On top of this, the drawings are necessarily complex, therefore attention to detail and quality control procedures are paramount.

The team have also been involved in various projects for other clients, including:
•    Redrawing a series of P&ID, HVAC and General Arrangement drawings in Microstation format to a very tight deadline
•    Updating a series of construction drawings to client requirements
•    Reworking a series of track and overhead line equipment drawings for a rail operator
•    Clinical Space Planning in an on-site resourcing role

Examples of the types of drawings we have produced are:
•    Schematic Diagrams
•    Wiring Diagrams
•    Single Line Diagrams (SLD)
•    General Arrangement Plans
•    Section and Elevation Drawings
•    Geographic Route Drawings
•    Plant Layout drawings
•    Compressed Air Diagrams
•    Piping & Instrumentation Diagrams (PNID)
•    Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning Drawings (HVAC)
•    Other Mechanical & Electrical Plans
•    Block Diagrams
•    Fire System Plans
•    Space Planning Drawings

We also provide other Microstation based services, such as the cleaning up and updating of your raster files using Bentley I-RAS software, or carrying out Microstation to AutoCAD file conversions.

So if you have any Microstation queries, please do not hesitate to contact Ross Cooper or Mark Johnson in our sales team for further information.

Daniel – CAD Technician

C A Design Services