The Advantages of IPD

There are various vertical systems for the purpose of project integration. Each has its own capabilities and may fit the needs of a particular company depending on the tasks that need to be completed. For example, some firms prefer a highly secure environment with strict permissions granted only to employees. Other firms who may have experience with collaboration tools may be willing to work with their clients directly on documents and files specific to project engineering and architecture.

IPD tools allow people to find the exact document version they are looking for; find the right person to contact in reference to the document, and then find out the best way to reach them (via email, phone, etc.) in order to get the information needed. With all versions of a project on the delivery system, teams can make better use of historical intellectual capital, allowing a better end result, fully satisfied teams and more importantly, satisfied clients.

Building Information Modeling. Within IPD is a class of vertical technology called building-information modeling, or BIM. These systems provide a three-dimensional, data-rich view of a building project that is valuable during design and construction as well as in the building's operations phase. Sections of work can be isolated and viewed in order to fully understand the building or its components; everything can also be shown at a variety of scales. A single BIM model may be used for a small project or a portion of a large project may utilize a single model. For projects of greater scope or scale, on the other hand, many interconnected models may be needed to fully describe the project, some of which are created by specialty consultants and contractors.

The benefits of BIM include improved designs, less time spent in creating construction documents, and a reduction in errors and change orders during the construction phase. The BIM model helps to make estimating and scheduling more accurate and can be use for staging and scheduling the project, all far in advance of the actual construction start. For IPD, BIM tools provide for project information storage as well as convenient visualization purposes. Major fabricator models may interact with a design model to produce fabrication information directly and to coordinate conflicts as the design and purchasing proceed simultaneously.

On the other hand, BIM is an evolving tool that is used in various ways throughout the AEC industry. BIM is not a delivery method, but rather a way to organize building information. It is also limited to describing the project itself, not tracking communications or storing process documentation and best practices. For that reason, it remains a subset, albeit an important one, of IPD practice.

And BIM works very well when incorporated into a firm-wide or project-specific IPD scheme. IPD process methods work hand in hand with BIM and leverage the tool's capabilities. What is crucial to the process, say experts in IPD and BIM, is that firm or project teams resolve carefully how the model will be organized and utilized.

Case Study: A Global Engineering Firm

With or without BIM, new IPD tools are being deployed by construction companies around the world. One useful example is Golder Associates, a 6,000-person geotechnical and environmental engineering firm with 150 offices internationally. The employee-owned firm, which was established in 1960, includes such professionals as engineers, scientists, project managers and other technical specialists for a range of project types.  Noted for its enduring client relationships and long-term organizational stability, Golder has experienced steady growth over the years.

Yet, like many large engineering operations, Golder Associates was facing scattered storage of critical information. Multiple document versions were spread worldwide. "The time that it took to find and verify information could be frustrating," says Bryan Rawson, the firm's chief information officer. "For one thing, version control breaks down the minute anyone makes a copy from a shared site or attaches a copy to an e-mail message. E-mail attachments were our most used method of collaborating."

Rawson and other executives at Golder Associates contemplated a faster way to identify the most recent information and to locate relevant, but dispersed, documents. One anticipated benefit of this change would be in sharing knowledge and establishing best practices. "When you have such separated data, you risk duplication of effort," Rawson explains. "People would get together and describe what they had been working on only to discover that other staff had been working on similar projects elsewhere in the firm."

After reviewing a number of approaches, the firm implemented a global collaboration-and-search solution based on an integrated suite of server capabilities. Part hardware and part software, the technology was expected to improve efficiency and knowledge-sharing by:

• Coordinating all firm content and project information
• Allowing enterprise-wide search
• Accelerating shared business processes
• Facilitating information-sharing across disciplinary and work-unit boundaries

The integrated solution employs a server that supports all intranet, extranet, and Web applications on a single, integrated platform. IT professionals at Golder also use the solution as a platform for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.

What does this mean for an AEC firm? According to Golder Associates principals, the server allows engineers and project managers to locate documents, templates, and e-mail correspondence. Work teams can establish project/proposal workspaces for use by any Golder Associates office. Similarly, professionals in each of the firm's core disciplines can set up their own "collaboration workspaces" to exchange and post best practices and new ideas on civil engineering methods.