Despite continuing technological advancement in the construction industry, AEC professionals in every specialty continue to find sharing information across the project lifecycle cumbersome. Systems lack interoperability, information isn’t readily accessible in the field, and manual curation opens the door to costly errors. This traditional workflow stands in the way of team effectiveness and is often at odds with the best interests of the overall project.

When BIM data is siloed across functions and systems its power to drive action is hindered. With an increased pressure resulting from opportunities to reduce cost and improve efficiency, the construction industry needs to unite disparate data sources to enable business intelligence as projects become more complex. 

P. Agnes, Inc., a family-owned Philadelphia Metro-area-based firm with expertise in preconstruction, design/build, construction management and general contracting for the healthcare and higher education sectors, is using Assemble to establish BIM in construction to use model data throughout the entire construction lifecycle. With access to key data in usable views and formats, stakeholders - regardless of BIM expertise - have actionable information at every project phase, saving time, lowering project risk and improving decision making.

The construction industry is one of the most dangerous for workers, with the highest number of deaths of any industry in the United States, according to OSHA. Around 20% - one in every five - of all worker deaths are in the construction industry. For this reason, construction safety is always the number one priority for any contractor on all job sites.

If you have spent any time in construction project management, you have probably heard the term ‘Request for Information’ or more commonly referred to as ‘RFI’ at least once or twice. An RFI is a way the industry has standardized the process of formally asking questions. For example, a General Contractor might have a question about a particular aspect of the drawings. Rather than sending a one off email or verbally asking in passing, the GC team drafts of formal written question and submits this to the design team for a response.  

Founded over 150 years ago, McCarthy Building Companies has never shied from innovation. As technology continues to move faster and faster, savvy construction firms like McCarthy push the limits of technology and construction. With the implementation of tech like virtual reality in construction, the goal is always to find solutions that offer the practical benefit of a higher quality job, completed faster, and for less cost.

Recently, PlanGrid, an Autodesk company and a leader in construction productivity software, introduced PlanGrid BIM, a powerful new product integration with Autodesk Revit that enables users to immediately access Building Information Modeling (BIM) data, in either 2D or 3D, directly within PlanGrid on their mobile devices. 

Since their founding in 1926, Stamhuis has been building on a reputation for quality and dependability. They specialize in retail shop construction and renovations and work closely with their clients to create custom solutions that are tailor-made to help them get the most out of their retail spaces. Stamhuis has been exploring the possibilities offered by construction software in boosting their efficiency and creating added value.

The efficient exchange of construction data and documents is key to managing today’s fast-moving construction projects, and teams use many different authoring softwares when building their design and fabrication models. For example, the Structural Engineer may have added structural detail to the model using Tekla but the Architect originally created the architectural model in Revit. Designers, trades and subcontractors bring a range of data formats to the project. BIM 360 Model Coordination enables multiple file formats from different design applications to be integrated into a single project model for multi-discipline team coordination.

With more than 92 percent of construction workers using smartphones as part of their daily routine, mobile devices are valuable tools for keeping construction teams aligned and moving forward efficiently. In fact, many construction companies are purchasing mobile devices for their employees to use onsite. The industry recognizes that it's more important than ever to give team members access to a construction project management app for iPhone, iPad, or Android.

Dura Vermeer Groep NV is a family-owned Dutch company with more than 160 years of experience in construction, engineering, and related services. The company’s core activities are in residential and non-residential building, infrastructure, industrial construction, renovation, and consultancy. They have approximately 2,500 employees and regularly report over €1 billion in yearly revenue.

Over the past decade, the construction industry has undergone a complete digital transformation. Design and construction workflows from documentation to quality and safety have been digitized, generating an enormous amount of information about all aspects of a project. Accessing and utilizing that information in construction daily reports is critical, as it can help teams reduce risk, increase efficiency, and improve project outcomes both right now and in the future.

We often talk to our customers to understand their pain points and develop solutions to better serve their needs. A key customer pain point we’ve uncovered is managing on-site progress and field handoffs.

On complex projects with a number of trades executing different parts of an installation, it’s easy to lose track of work in progress. This lack of clarity can result in disputes between subcontractors and general contractors about what percentage of work is complete and makes contractor payouts difficult.

Now, with new integrations and connected construction data in Assemble, contractors can quickly track and access the status of objects in the field to alleviate uncertainty and miscommunication.

As labor shortages continue to plague the construction industry, many companies have turned to attracting women into the trades as a potential solution.

“We need more people in this industry,” says Kevin Maitland, Vice President of Corporate Safety at McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., “and one of the best resources for reducing the labor deficit is women.”

None of us got into construction because we love paperwork; we got into it because we love to build things. We like to use our hands, to see a plan come together, and we take pride in doing good work, delivering quality projects. We look forward to the day we can drive our grandchildren around town and show them the buildings that are an integral part of the landscape--buildings that shape the communities we live in.

As construction projects grow more complex and schedules continue to accelerate, it’s more important than ever to have a centralized place to manage, view, and collaborate on all project documents. Team members need to access, update, and share the latest documents at any time and across every platform.

Boasting 21,000 employees and thousands of projects each year, Royal BAM Group is one of Europe’s most successful construction and engineering companies. They pride themselves on close client collaboration, sustainability, and innovative digital construction.

 Few technologies have revolutionized the construction industry quite so quietly and thoroughly as BIM. Used for decades in engineering and architecture, BIM in construction is finally hitting the mainstream, and it’s changing the way GCs do business–for the better.

Construction Cost Management is not a new concept. It is an essential part of the construction process and some may argue, one of the most important. When stats like, only 31% of all construction projects came within 10% of the budget, industry professionals are pressed to find ways to improve project costs. Managing change orders and ensuring project costs stay as close to the budget as possible is critical.

Traditionally, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been viewed as a tool for designers, architects, and engineers. Increasingly, however, its use has been extended into construction and operations.

This transition has raised two important questions: Who exactly is BIM for? And who specifically is BIM in construction for?

Earlier this year we announced the coming integration between Rhumbix and BIM 360’s new Construction Cost Management module. With both companies striving to connect the field and the office with seamless information flow and digitized project data, the integration is a great match to bring field-level data when and where you need it.

Tracking costs and risk and keeping a project on budget can be one of the biggest hurdles in a building project, and finding efficiencies in this area can make all the difference in delivering a project on time and on budget.

Hill Partners is an award-winning, industry-leading house builder in the United Kingdom.

We were hosted on-site by Mike Beckett, MD of Hill Bespoke Ltd., (a specialist division of the company working on complex projects) to check out some of their latest innovations using construction document management in the field. Hill Bespoke is an innovation leader for the Hill business and on the cutting edge of technological change in British construction.

If you’ve found yourself here, you might have recently been wondering, “what is BIM in construction?” Fortunately, we have the answer. 

BIM stands for Building Information Modeling. It’s an intelligent 3D model-based process that gives architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals the insight and tools to more efficiently plan, design, construct, and manage buildings and infrastructure. BIM in construction is the use of digital 3D models during the construction process.

As the number of new construction technologies and applications grows, contractors have more choice than ever before on the collection of tools they employ on their projects. Digitalization of construction processes also generates a broad amount of project data, which can be harnessed to improve project outcomes.

Over the past couple of years, Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost has made it clear that ‘industrializing construction’ is a top priority for Autodesk. According to McKinsey, lagging construction productivity costs the global economy $1.6 trillion a year: a big problem with a big opportunity. To seize this opportunity, Autodesk enlisted Jim Lynch to lead Autodesk Construction Solutions in order to create and deliver products and services that accelerate the construction industry’s transformation from analog-based processes to digital workflows.

The success of a project is often dependent on completing it on time and within budget. The construction phase of the project usually consumes the most resources, and is often where projects can go off track if not monitored correctly. One technique that is instrumental in keeping projects running smoothly is Earned Value Tracking. These EVT Tools, like those from Assemble Systems provide a methodical approach to keeping your projects on track to meet tight deadlines. 

Time savings, reduced rework, fewer delays, fewer RFIs… if these are a few of your favorite things, Stantec Treatment can model how to achieve the same results by utilizing the latest in construction document management software.

Stantec Treatment is an integrated design-build process contractor. They’ve engaged in the engineering, construction, and management of many large, technically advanced projects since their founding in 1820. They focus primarily in water, hydropower, mining, and transportation for municipalities, governments, and multinational private corporations.

The eighth annual AEC Excellence Awards competition, co-sponsored by Autodesk, Construction Dive, SmartCities Dive, Informed Infrastructure, and SMPS is already on its way! The awards are an incredible way to honor those in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry who are pushing boundaries with innovative processes and uses of construction technology, paving the way for the future of design and construction.

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is over 150 years old and is a top 20 Engineering News-Record (ENR) general contractor, top 15 Building Information Modeling (BIM) contractor, and top two healthcare builder. The firm is a leader in innovation, construction technology, and lean construction, leveraging Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) tools and pushing towards the ultimate goal of becoming the “Best Builder in America.”

Although construction projects can have dozens of different drawings or models, teams often find themselves referring back to a specific set more frequently than others. With the Project Design Card in BIM 360, you can embed your favorite 3D models and construction drawings directly onto your Project Home page or Insight dashboards.

Completing construction checklists, whether for construction safety or quality inspections, can often be tedious. In fact, a typical OSHA safety checklist can include over 500 items on one list alone. Navigating through these lengthy checklists is made easier thanks to the recent enhancements to the look and feel of checklist templates and checklists in BIM 360.

The improved interface can save you significant time when managing long item lists and helps streamline the overall checklist workflow allowing teams to spend less time scrolling through endless lists and more time initiating tasks to actually complete checklist items.

The engineering and construction industry is built on bringing new projects and innovations to life, but it has also been one of the most resistant to replacing traditional paper-based tools with advanced technology. According to the  2018 Construction Technology Report, over 33% of respondents cite “employee hesitance” as one of the chief barriers to adopting new technology. And more than38% replied that “lack of staff to support the technology” and educate professionals how to use these new tech tools has also been a hurdle.

Though construction technology can streamline the workflow of projects and allow for instant dissemination of information, it must be intuitive and easy to deploy for construction professionals to adopt it. This is where construction project management apps come into play, with their focus on ease-of-use and implementation across project teams.

 

Robert Mueller is a Senior Technologist at NASA and the co-founder of NASA’s Swamp Works lab. Swamp Works, based out of Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was created to be a lean development environment for innovation within NASA. Mueller realized that in order to keep NASA innovative, it had to carve out an environment that would empower people to innovate, which can often be difficult in a bureaucracy. In order to develop the right tools and the right culture for innovation, Mueller helped create the Swamp Works as a special innovation environment within NASA. By leveraging partnerships across NASA, industry, and academia, and utilizing iterative testing to quickly drive design improvements and rapidly develop towards application, Swamp Works has driven exploration towards using robotics in construction to work and live on the surfaces of other bodies in our solar system.

Few professions are as complex and constantly changing as the construction profession. Every day is a new challenge. On large projects, keeping track of the constant changes in construction data is a full time job.

Modern technology has simplified some aspects of our work, and complicated others. Software like BIM 360 Docs, Design, Build, Glue, and others can make it easy to access what you need and to interact with project data in valuable ways.

More than any industry, the AEC (Architecture, Engineering & Construction) industry has always struggled with content chaos. Members of an AEC project have particular needs based on their particular skills that drive what platforms and applications to help them best do their job.

Founded in Spain in 1956, Eptisa is an international consulting, engineering, architecture, and information technology company with a presence in 55 countries. Eptisa applies their expertise in sustainable development and technical know-how to carry out complex projects in the transportation, infrastructure, energy, industry, health, architecture, IT, and public administration sectors. The company employs more than 1,800 professionals on over 100 projects globally.

For the past 45 years, Tedd Benson and his company Bensonwood have been leading the revival of timber frame home building in the United States. Dedicated to finding a better way to build and inspired by the evocative and durable timber homes and barns throughout New England, Benson has spent his career bringing the old craft timber framing into the 20th century with new technology and equipment, and most recently, robotics in construction.

The increasing adoption of cloud-based software has helped many contractors create, share, and utilize project data with project stakeholder, ushering in a new era of collaboration and construction data. The number of construction apps is also rapidly growing. Contractors are now regularly juggling a variety of solution-specific apps on the jobsite, with new ones coming out all the time.

There are many companies pushing the limits of possibility with robotics in construction. One such company is Construction Robotics. Construction Robotics (CR) was founded in 2007 with the goal of developing affordable, leading-edge robotics and automation equipment for the construction industry. Construction Robotics’ first and flagship product is SAM100 (Semi-Autonomous Mason), a bricklaying robot for onsite and prefabricated masonry construction. SAM is designed to work with a mason, assisting with the repetitive and strenuous task of lifting and placing each brick. The mason continues to own the site setup and final wall quality, but with improved efficiency through the operation of SAM.

NCCRs, or National Centers of Competence in Research, are a research funding initiative of the Swiss government conducted by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Each center is hosted and supported by a Swiss academic institution and focuses on a thematically-limited area of research, with a network of partners in the academic sphere and beyond. These cross-disciplinary research networks focus on high-risk, high-return research of strategic importance for the future of the Swiss economy.