Engineering Inc. - September/October 2015 - (Page 46)

Guest Column BY ALLEN PREGER Digital Technology for Enhanced Quality Management System Performance B uilding information modeling, email, mobile computing and other technologies are flooding engineering firms with data. Unless it's managed well, that information runs the risk of derailing existing quality management systems. For example, thousands of twodimensional construction drawings can be generated in minutes with Revit compared to the hours or days it took with CAD systems. How are companies ensuring that revision management procedures keep up with this increased flow of sheet sets, especially since each revision is still a contract document that needs to be logged and qualitychecked prior to issuance? Allen Preger Quality management is critical to firms maintaining ISO 9001 credentials. Michael O'Toole, an associate in the Building CAD/BIM Design Services group at WSP Global, is part of a team that audits quality control processes and trains groups to become ISO certified. Not content with legacy quality and risk management procedures that relied on manually maintained lists in spreadsheets, his team years ago adopted dedicated project information management software to manage meeting notes, drawing revisions and submittals. "As far as the document controls we work with, we've come a long way, but I still think we're only scratching the surface on the possibilities," O'Toole says. Such software offers potential for managing, tracking and logging project delivery processes. "We used to have about 20 procedures" for some quality systems, O'Toole says, but they cut down to nine by identifying unnecessary complexity. New ISO 9001 standards going into effect in 2015 require even more risk management integration across a company's quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) management systems. Because ISO standards are by definition international (the letters come from "International Organization for Standardization"), American firms can get compliance ideas from offshore companies. United Kingdom-based BDP, for instance, uses a dedicated project information management system to maintain its ISO 9001 certification. Alistair Kell, BDP's director of information and technology, explains: "Our standard project setup automatically generates 46 QA action items that link to the relevant BDP procedures." The 46 audit 46 ENGINEERING INC. SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2015 points include assignments and completion dates defined and monitored through BDP's project information management software. Based on the same software, the firm's Project Handbook provides a quality control "health check" across all the firm's projects, with simple green, amber or red color-coding to signify QA compliance. "It's a live view that allows project directors to proactively address quality concerns before they turn critical," Kell says. As for BIM quality management, Shive-Hattery, a U.S.-based architectural and engineering firm, uses a dedicated project information management system to manage Revit sheet sets. "We publish PDFs of our sheets and synchronize sheet information into the document control area of our software, so the drawing information is current and accurate as we prepare project deliverables," says Mitchell Kelchen, project delivery specialist at Shive-Hattery. Kelchen gives an example of one way the system reduces the risk of overlooking a detail. "The software enables us to predefine lists of bid package recipients. It's a simple matter to generate a package of drawings from Revit and issue it to all the right people, without risk of someone being omitted." The software-driven process improves quality while saving time. "What once took maybe 30 minutes now takes five," Kelchen says. "Across multiple teams, those time savings add up." Shive-Hattery's project information management software links functions of the document quality control process, so there's no opportunity for tasks to slip through the cracks. "Our staff can quickly make adjustments to sheet and model information with more accuracy than managing multiple lists manually in separate software," Kelchen says. The software also includes an app for viewing plans on iPads, which extends quality control into the field. Everyone is working from the latest versions. Email is a prolific source of digital information, and BergerABAM President and CEO M. Lee Marsh wants to be sure his employees can quickly sift through thousands of emails to find answers. "For many years our firm has been concerned that email could be a source of business risk if we were unable to find that one critical email that could resolve a dispute," Marsh says. "Now our project information management software provides a powerful tool that helps mitigate that risk." Managed well, digital information contributes to more successful projects. But digital data also invites an information overload that can contribute to problems. As a result, engineering firms are responding by using digital technology to make their quality control and risk management systems more effective. Allen Preger is a co-founder and vice president of global accounts for Newforma, a U.S.-based developer of software for building and infrastructure project information management. Follow Allen on Twitter @allenpreger or his posts on Newforma's blog at http://www.newforma.com/blog/. http://www.newforma.com/blog/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc. - September/October 2015

Engineering Inc. - September/October 2015
Contents
From ACEC to You
Market Watch
Legislative Action
Unlocking the Ocean’s Secrets
Positive Impressions
Low Water, High Hopes
International Corruption
Leading the Way, Lending a Hand
Guest Column
2015 Fall Conference
Guest Column
Guest Column
Business Insights
Members in the News
Mergers and Acquisitions

Engineering Inc. - September/October 2015