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Building and Site Management
News Release from: Autodesk | Subject: Autodesk Buzzsaw
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 March 2006
Autodesk Buzzsaw helps halve design time
Autodesk Buzzsaw helps halve design time on CFE's Care Home Project
How does a building and civil engineering contractor, such as the Brussels-based firm CFE, manage to stay competitive? Often the answer is by investing in the right technology - for example, easy to use practical solutions that provide fast return on investment and, at the same time, help the team produce better and more accurate designs When CFE project manager, Patrick Sebatigita, began overseeing a $4 million project for a 100-room care home in Charleroi, Belgium, he identified that communication could be a problem
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 29 May 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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The project management team consisted of just him and another colleague plus sub-contractors, collaborating with a team of architects, structural engineers and building services engineers.
In total there were around 45 people working on the project, almost all in different locations.
"We knew that to make the project run efficiently, we had to get the workflow right from the start," says Sebatigita.
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"And we also needed a stable and robust way to share documents".
At this time, CFE was working on several large projects in Brussels and using a variety of project management and collaboration tools.
However, the feedback was that none of these was really effective and they were costly to buy and to run.
"We then looked at Autodesk Buzzsaw, an online collaborative and project management solution and immediately saw that this was the answer.
At first we were attracted to it because it was at the right price - but we could soon see that it could also give us exactly the right functionality too.
"But the main thing was that it was easy to use; we couldn't afford a long learning curve.
However, Buzzsaw is very simple, if you are used to a Windows environment - and of course, most people are these days.
The decision was made and the software implemented in time for the first phase of the care home project which included a new, 3,500 square metre building.
"The benefits of using Buzzsaw became very apparent early on in this phase of the project.
The new building used a lot of concrete construction using many pre-formed elements.
As we had four sub-contractors working on this concurrently, we could have had many problems connected with version control," Sebatigita explains.
Buzzsaw stores drawings and other project documents securely on an online site that is easy to access at any time by all authorised team members.
All actions are logged, providing a complete audit of who has accessed what and when.
In addition, automatic email notifications keep appropriate team members informed of important changes and updates.
"In previous projects we have sent changes by post and this can take up to four days.
If during this time other team members were working on their versions of the drawings, it could become chaotic with nobody quite sure which one is the latest version.
"Using Buzzsaw the changes are instantly posted so someone else can start working on the totally updated version straight away.
I would say that using Buzzsaw helped at least halve the time of the design phase of the project." Sebatigita also points out that part of this time saving comes from not having to photocopy drawings to send by mail - or having to work from faxed drawings that really aren't very clear.
He also likes the way that Buzzsaw allows any member of the team to access drawings and documents at any time.
"On this project I would often take my laptop to meetings and could then call up any document or drawing I wanted to talk about.
I could be sure it was the latest version too".
Buzzsaw enables those who need to review and approve drawings to mark them up on screen.
This can then be accessed online by the originator of the drawing and changes made.
"This has entailed a change of habits and there was some preliminary resistance.
However, when people see how much quicker it can be, they are won over," says Sebatigita.
"You also have the advantage of being able to trace who has done what and when, giving the project complete transparency," he says.
Moving on to the next phase of the project - the renovation of an existing part of the care home - Buzzsaw is now completely integrated into work processes.
"Thanks to Buzzsaw, we have a strong sharing agenda," Sebatigita adds.
"I believe that it will easily have paid for itself by the end of the project because of the way that it dramatically speeds up processes and at the same time eliminates printing and courier costs".
So will CFE now use Buzzsaw on any of their other projects? "I think people would be very surprised how cost effective it can be.
Even though CFE would be paying, we would always need the "buy-in" from the architects and other engineers too.
However, I think that once they can see how it works, the benefits and also how user-friendly it is, this shouldn't be a problem.
"In fact, we do have two larger projects just starting up at CFE and I know they are looking into using Buzzsaw.
"It does require a change in working habits, but I predict that soon our industry will see using Buzzsaw as the norm - just like using Windows.
It's just that some us have to be the first and I'm glad I'm one of them". Request a free brochure from Autodesk ...
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