Technology for IPD
April 01, 2009
Integrated project delivery (IPD) continues to gain a lot of attention in the construction market these days. While a formal definition for IPD is still debatable, the underlying concept involves assembling project participants as early as possible to provide a collective expertise to the development and continued collaboration on a project. To incentivize parties, shared risk/shared reward contracts are established upfront with an understanding that all parties are working together for the good of the project.
The use of technology—while not a requirement for IPD—has become a powerful tool in helping bring IPD to fruition more effectively.
For example, Tocci Building Corp., www.tocci.com, Woburn, Mass., is the general contractor for the new headquarters project for Autodesk—a project being delivered using IPD. The company, which provides construction management, design/build services, and site development, used an integrated set of technology that included materials tracking, issues, and punchlist software from Vela Systems, www.velasystems.com, Burlington, Mass., with BIM (building information modeling) technology Navisworks from Autodesk, www.autodesk.com, San Rafael, Calif., to manage the installation and related LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) tracking for FF&E (furniture, fixtures, and equipment).
According to Vela Systems, the Vela Systems Materials Tracker product was used to barcode and track office workstations throughout installation in the project. Each workstation contained more than 50 components and were tracked across all stages using integrated technology from Vela Systems and Autodesk Navisworks.
According to Vela Systems, the model was developed by the team collaboratively using Autodesk Revit, and the model was published to Autodesk Navisworks Manage to help manage details in the field. The Navisworks product was used to publish data related to workstations to the Vela Materials Tracker product using the VIA (Vela Integration Adapter). The Navisworks model and Vela database were synchronized throughout the progression of installation to alert personnel as workstations went from "delivered" to "ready to install" to "installed” throughout the process.
According to Vela Systems, the onsite team scanned workstations at each of the aforementioned stages, and the information was compiled in the Vela Systems database and then translated to the Navisworks model. This allowed for visual representation of the status of furniture installation. By scanning barcodes affixed to the office workstations at the delivery, Tocci field staff was able to understand which components had actually arrived and also respond to changes in deliveries. During the punchlist phase, furniture was scanned again and specific deficiencies tagged to a specific location. These deficiencies were then integrated back into Navisworks using the bi-directional capabilities of VIA, enabling visualization.
"Tying together field data with the BIM creates new opportunities for construction delivery methods and oversight," said Bob Tierney, general superintendent, Tocci Building. “By using Vela Systems on this project, we demonstrated how we can connect the ‘virtually built’ building to the ‘physically built’ one. The model not only helps ensure we’re building correctly, but also gives us better oversight because everyone can instantly see where we are and visualize problem areas as ‘hot spots’ with live data from the field. It is the obvious next step for contractors looking to maximize the value of BIM."