Innovation at Mace: Truly integrated digital workflows 

Innovation at Mace is a new series of case studies from Mace that will explore a number of cutting edge practises, materials or technologies we are delivering for – or on behalf of – our clients. 

In the first of the new series, we explore the impact of the introduction of new digital workflows on our flagship datacentre project in Ireland. 

What? 

The adoption of lean, ‘real-time’ digital workflows in construction management. By creating truly integrated workflows that allow our systems to speak to each other, we’ve improved productivity and reduced the number of hours spent by our staff on low-value data input tasks. 

Where? 

Clonee Data Centre in County Meath, Ireland. 

What’s the impact? 

Significant time savings across the entire project life cycle, reducing time spent on document control, model management and other tasks. 

The details: 

We refined our complex commissioning and quality assurance/quality control processes into lean digital workflows, and by integrating them with Autodesk’s BIM 360 ‘Field’ and ‘Glue’ platforms, wehave established more visual and efficient ways of working.

Visible certainty was the aim – with a single cloud database, all stakeholders have instant access to project documentation and up-to-the-minute models from any device, anywhere, anytime.

We introduced Bluebeam’s ability to manage version history and collaborator mark-ups to provide multiple disciplines with access to the latest models and drawings. 

Contributors can make, consolidate and share changes daily from any location, whilst viewing others’ mark-ups as they occur, a process that previously took a week. 

Our client agreed that this means of real-time collaboration significantly sped up the review process. 

We also integrated useful applications from the latest visualisation tools to assess constructability and demonstrate progress, including laser scanned models of in-field works and virtual reality walkthroughs for clients.

The system turns a project’s real-life components into digital assets that are connected to our integrated processes and gateways, creating interdependencies and eliminating the risk of incomplete tasks. 

As users follow the workflow and use QR codes to connect to assets, they provide real-time project data, giving accurate visibility of the project’s progress. 

On the receiving end, our client praised the dashboard we designed as an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

The results? 

Each week: 

• Managers on the project are saving more than 13 hours of work, and are 35% more productive overall
• Typical site users are saving 12 hours on document control and 14 hours on quality assurance and quality control.
• BIM contributors are saving 8 hours and are 21% more productive overall.