Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Construction Cos need to grab opportunities to benefit from new technologies: KPMG report

Despite substantial investments, the construction industry is struggling to gain the full benefits of technologies including advanced data and analytics, mobility, automation and robotics. That's the key finding from Building a technology advantage - Global Construction Survey 2016 ,the annual state-of-the-industry report from KPMG International.
Of the 200-plus senior construction executives taking part in the survey, just 8% of their companies rank as "cutting edge technology visionaries," while 64% of contractors and 73% of project owners rank as "industry followers" or "behind the curve" when it comes to technology.
"The survey responses reflect the industry's innate conservatism towards technologies, with most firms content to follow rather than lead" says Geno Armstrong, International Sector Leader, Engineering & Construction, KPMG in the US. "Many lack a clear technology strategy, and either adopt it in a piecemeal fashion, or not at all."
Two-thirds of survey respondents believe project risks are increasing. According to Armstrong, this is an industry ripe for disruption, yet less than 20% of respondents say they are aggressively disrupting their business models.
"Projects around the world are becoming bigger, bolder and more complex -- and with complexity comes risk," notes Armstrong. "Innovations like remote monitoring, automation and visualization have enormous potential to speed up project progress, improve accuracy and safety."
Lagging use of data, mobility and integrated project management technologiesAccording to the survey, engineering and construction firms, and project owners, are not taking full advantage of the volumes of data at their fingertips -- almost two-thirds of those surveyed don't use advanced data analytics for project-related estimation and performance monitoring. Moreover, only a quarter of respondents say they're able to 'push one button' to get all their project information. And even fewer claim to have single, integrated project management information system (PMIS) across the enterprise.
"Integrated, real-time project reporting is still a myth, rather than a reality for most" according to KPMG's Armstrong. "That's largely because firms tend to use multiple software platforms that are manually monitored and disconnected, which severely compromises their effectiveness."

Mobility is another technology with huge potential to analyze and track performance via hand-held devices t for large construction projects. A significant majority of respondents employ remote monitoring for projects sites, yet less than 30% say they make use of mobile devices routinely on all their projects, while a similar proportion don't use mobile platforms at all.
Similarly, only a third say they're employing robotics and automation.
Project controls - room for improvement The fact that more than two-thirds of the survey respondents believe their project controls are either "optimized" or "monitored" suggests processes are in place - but not necessarily delivering the required results. Only 27% of respondents believe their controls are truly globally consistent.
The survey also finds less than a majority are realizing the full benefits of Earned Value Management (EVM) to measure cost and schedule performance - with over 40% saying they do not use EVM at all.
Getting the most from technology Harnessing the true potential of technology requires construction companies and project owners to get clearer about their technology vision and strategy.
In Armstrong's view, "The rapidly evolving infrastructure challenges of the next decade demands both owners and engineering and construction firms embrace technology more strategically and at a far more rapid pace than in the past."
About the paper Building a technology advantage - Global Construction Survey2016 highlights the views of over 200 senior executives from major project owners and engineering and construction companies. The report looks at how the industry is embracing a range of technologies including data and analytics, robotics, drones, remote monitoring and visualization. The survey, now in its 10 th year, includes both private companies and government agencies, with project owners from many industries including energy and natural resources, technology and healthcare.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Improve Construction by BIM 360 Layout


This uses Revit model, Addin Point layout, Ipad & Topcon LN-100(Total station).



Autodesk brings BIM 360 Plan for BIM in Construction

Introducing BIM 360 Plan for Lean Construction Production Planning

BIM 360 Plan brings order to the chaos of managing weekly work plans with spreadsheets and print-outs. The new solution takes advantage of Lean construction principles, and supports the Last Planner® System to create reliable and predictable work plans while reducing waste associated with labor, materials, and processes.
And like other BIM 360 products, BIM 360 Plan is comprised of a web service--accessible through a web browser as well as a companion iOS mobile app for iPad.
BIM_360_plan_marquee
Leading with Lean Construction
Some may be wondering why we delivered a product focused on the production planning process that leverages Lean construction principles. Why? It is quite simple. Autodesk believes in Lean and the benefits it can bring the industry.We will continue to invest in products, training, people and resources that help our customers maximize the potential that Lean Construction can help deliver. BIM 360 Plan is our latest installment on the Autodesk investment in Lean.
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So why is the process of Lean in our industry so significant? Before we answer that, it may be beneficial to understand the history of Lean (click here to read the evolution of “Just In Time” production beginning back in the late 1800’s). Simply stated, our industry is behind (when compared to other industries), and we need to catch-up. The graph above depicts the production output of US manufacturing from 1964 – 2003 as compared to US construction production.
A Simple, But Powerful Tool
Talk to any superintendent and one of the most valuable aspects of adhering to the project schedule is delivering a continuous flow of labor, materials and processes on the job site. Therefore, when we designed BIM 360 Plan, our goal was to create a solution that mimicked familiar views and representations of planning information where the project team could build the work plan in the trailer and easily update onsite using their iPad. This ubiquitous access and intuitive input of tasks, roadblocks and commitments provides a streamlined environment to better maintain that flow.
Visualize
Web Gantt
At its most basic level, BIM 360 Plan helps users to quickly build their work plans in either List, Gantt, or Swimlane modes.  Teams that do pull planning with sticky notes can transfer those notes to a spreadsheet template to import a group of activities all at once.  From there, users can filter their construction tasks by date, work breakdown, company, location, or status. 
Activity Form
Time is a precious resource on construction projects and BIM 360 Plan is designed to help teams enter and update their work plan data rapidly. Add individual tasks within any of the view modes mentioned above and take advantage of the “Add Another” option to create a string of activities in just seconds. Additionally, users can take advantage of Group Actions to copy an entire work sequence, which can be useful on projects that have repetitive floor plans.
Tracking commitment status is also a snap with BIM 360 Plan. Plan’s “Accountability Workflow” reinforces Lean best practices, guiding team members to “commit” in weekly planning meetings and set complete or incomplete status in daily huddles. Users can change individual activity status, or update a group all at once – on the web, or on the iPad mobile app.
Oh, and what if you want to print your List, Gantt or Swimlane views of your work plan to mark-up before your weekly planning meeting? We’ve got you covered. Each view allows you to print your plan with the simple click of your mouse.
PPC Measurement, Activity Reporting and More
Using Lean principles to manage your production planning means you are reviewing team performance regularly to identify opportunities to improve. As the team tracks the outcome of commitments each week, you are capturing a detailed history of the project. This information should be used as insight into the reliability and productivity of each member of the team. Better yet, the data could be used in aggregate to assist with future planning and bidding opportunities for new projects.
Reports Home Page
We understand the power that this data can provide.  That’s why the backbone of BIM 360 Plan contains a reporting engine that is always working—aggregating your data in the background automatically so you can spot trends and take corrective actions throughout your project. Reports help keep everyone focused on what’s important and reinforce a culture of accountability.
Snapshot Report
One of the metrics that BIM 360 Plan tracks is Planned Percent Complete (PPC).The Lean Construction Institute defines Planned Percent Complete as “A basic measure of how well the planning system is working – calculated as the number of assignments completed on the day stated divided by the total number of assignments made for the day.”
If you have already implemented Lean, then you most likely have been tracking this metric in spreadsheets using a formula that calculates a percentage based on the total number of tasks and the tasks that have been marked “complete”.
BIM 360 Plan calculates PPC automatically, without the risk of spreadsheet errors that can generate erroneous results. Plus, you can filter the reports to show PPC for a specific date range, or by company, location or a specific work breakdown. And because the data is accessible in the cloud, anyone on the project team can view the data at any time. How’s that for transparency!
Root Cause Report
Another feature within the BIM 360 Plan reporting engine is the Root Cause report.  BIM 360 Plan requires users to select a root cause when an activity is not completed as planned.  These reasons can be due to underestimated effort, a safety concern, labor not available, and many more that the project team establishes up-front in the project settings.  This information is then automatically aggregated and available for you to view and filter based on date range, company, type, and work breakdown.
Taking Your Work Plan To The Field
Being mobile with project data is becoming a must-have for keeping pace with the demands of the modern jobsite. Such is the case with the tasks associated with your work plan. Each week you meet in the trailer, reviewing what was done, what has to be done, and optimizing the plan. Foremen leave the meeting with handwritten notes, or they wait for the superintendent to send out an email with the updated tasks. Wouldn't it be nice if each trade foreman could instead take the actual work plan onsite for reference and make updates as they occur?
Main_ipad
That’s now possible with BIM 360 Plan. Each subscription includes access to the companion iPad app which allows the user to login and download their designated project plan. The app uses the Swimlane view to display all of the activity details on your iPad. Now you can leave a planning meeting, sync the app and head out to the jobsite with the most up-to-date information. And what about updating tasks in the app? The BIM 360 Plan iPad app allows you to drag-and-drop tasks within the work plan timeline as well as update the task status while in the field. Once you re-connect to the internet, you can sync your edits to the cloud and update the entire project team instantly.

Autodesk BIM 360 Plan is available via an Enterprise or Project Based subscription. You can contact here.
If you are looking for additional information regarding BIM 360 Plan, be sure to check out the following resources:
  • Click here to download the BIM 360 Plan iOS app for iPad (requires subscription)
  • Click here to download a glossary of Lean construction terms (courtesy of the Lean construction Institute)
  • Click here to interact with Autodesk community of BIM 360 users