Utilising the Autodesk Construction Cloud to improve the preconstruction phase
Sustainability & efficiency are at the core of each of Morgan Sindall Construction's projects, so they needed to align their business objectives with the needs and expectations of their people, customers, supply chain partners and wider stakeholders.
One of the key items in the UK Government construction strategy is to reduce time during preconstruction which the Autodesk Construction Cloud is helping them achieve.
Meet Morgan Sindall Construction
Morgan Sindall Construction is a UK business with a network of local offices. Project capabilities cover the entire range of construction activities, from special works and repair and maintenance, to major landmark schemes delivered as standalone projects or as part of larger multiple project frameworks. The company operates across the public and private sectors to deliver the social infrastructure around us – from schools, universities and hospitals to retail, office and leisure environments.
Morgan Sindall Construction is part of Morgan Sindall Group plc, a leading UK construction and regeneration group with revenue of £3.2 billion and which operates through six divisions of Construction & Infrastructure, Fit Out, Property Services, Partnership Housing, Urban Regeneration and Investments.
Automating traditional processes
Sustainability & efficiency are at the core of each of Morgan Sindall Construction's projects, and with goals of becoming the most sought-after and sustainable business in the industry, they needed to align their business objectives with the needs and expectations of their people, customers, supply chain partners and wider stakeholders. This involves ensuring that their projects are 100% safe, on-time and of quality.
Morgan Sindall Construction align their strategy to the UK's Digital Construction goals. Having delivered various digital projects since the UK Government Construction Strategy was published in 2016, their commitment to Digital Construction underpinned by their company philosophy of Perfect Delivery, has connected people, process and technology; improved consistency; enhanced decision making; and reduced risk at the design, construction and operation stages of their projects.
Improving design management and model coordination
Complementing this strategy is their recent implementation of Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC), a portfolio of construction management software products supporting workflows across all phases of construction—from design, to planning, to building, to operations.
“Management of design is complex, involving multiple stakeholder interests, external approvals and consents, but it’s very important to us as a contractor. It is during the design and preconstruction phase where the DNA of the project will be confirmed, which is fundamental to our success in winning work and delivery. Reduction of time is also critical during the preconstruction phase so that we can reduce our internal staff costs and design team fees, which is one of the key items in the UK Government construction strategy,” says Lee.
Find out how Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) is helping with this process below.
Challenges
- Clash detection process could take up to 3 weeks.
- Review processes taking too long.
- Too many errors being produced on 2D outputs.
- Synchronisation of models and uploading and downloading of models.
- Team accountability.
Solutions
- Autodesk Construction Cloud provides automated detecting and grouping of clashes in minutes.
- It allows all parties to see the design as it develops in almost real time which has reduced abortive design work.
- The model comparison tool has allowed the design team to see a 50% time saving in the identification of change as everything is made visible.
- The change analysis feature helps reduce risk on projects.
Benefits
- Time taken to review information has reduced, resulting in a 20% reduction in the preconstruction phase.
- The team have been taking ownership for their own information before being issued to others and the quality of the output has increased due to the transparency.
- The identification of changes and issues has significantly improved resulting in a 62% time saving as people have been resolving and controlling their own work.
- 20% improvement in time taken to update model to co-ordinate with other disciplines.
- The design team meeting time has been reduced by 67% as there has been a lot less comments when reviewing the 2D outputs and issues are being addressed at source in the 3D model.
- The traditional clash detection process was taking 3 weeks. With Autodesk Construction Cloud, it is now taking minutes.
