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Architectural Engineering & Construction
PLM Benefits
Benefits can be seen in the following areas:
Digital Manufacture
Project planning can be improved by the simulation and validation of the construction process to ensure feasibility of a planned sequence of activities and the optimum use of available resources. Digital Manufacturing provides customers with the technology and the collaborative environment to digitally define the way projects are constructed by enabling the continuous creation and validation of the manufacturing processes in the context of the project throughout the lifecycle.
Digital manufacturing allows the virtual creation of a build schedule, defining the best sequence for construction, managing limited access on a site, managing the complex dependencies of activities by optimising a theoretical build. The construction process can be arranged against a project plan where any changes that occur due to onsite problems, can be re-optimised if required giving potential contractors an exact definition of the work and time scales they need to quote for.
Traffic Flow can be a very important part of building design. Whether it’s to determine if there are enough emergency exits, getting customers through a turn style, or even to find out if there is enough office space.
Knowledgeware and re-use
Knowledgeware is the capture of company best practice and the deployment across future projects. The use of standard catalogue parts reduces the design time and provides cost savings through the use of standardisation, allowing architects to spend more time in the creativity phase by automation of the detail design.
Communication and Collaboration
Within a project the communication links can be immense and the information flow complex, controlling these communication channels is vital along with managing the flow of information and re-using the data in subsequent projects. Visualisation tools provide a mechanism to aid collaboration and reduce the time taken for supplier / client buy-in.
Programme Management
The success of a project often relates to the achievements of programme management. With activities carried out across a number of sites, using numerous software tools, the challenge is to ensure that activities occur in the correct sequence, at the correct time, to the correct standard, all within budget.
Data Management
On a project, the management of all data flowing throughout an organisation and its partners presents a major challenge. Design changes can often trigger complete reworking of a project creating downstream implications for everyone in the supply chain. As this data evolves over time then a further complication is introduced, controlling the revision of the data. Essentially the task is “getting the right information, to the right person, at the right time.”
Workflow
Within a project there are various actions which are dependant on other activities. These dependencies become critical to the success of the programme and failure to meet an objective, target or milestone will often have an enormous effect on the overall project.
Providing a parent/child link for these dependencies is vital so that subsequent actions can be initiated automatically when a previous task is complete. Often as important is the need to highlight the failure to meet timescales so that the impact on subsequent activities can be flagged up in advance.
> Project Lifecycle Management (PLM)
> Building Information Management (BIMan)
> Business Pressures
> PLM “Push or Pull”
> Can AEC benefit from lessons learnt in Auto and Aero?
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