CDE: How Information Centralization Supports Efficiency and Projects Value

Representing a project of unprecedented scale and heritage status, with an area of over 160,000 m2, thousands of parts, and complex technical issues, it was necessary to collect, distribute, and centralize project coordination data for the entire production team. This ultimately lead to greater productivity and high quality construction drawings. On a project of this size, access to information presents a challenge to achieving the project objectives. The amount of digital data created monthly by several multi-site contributors is astronomical, signifying a constant flow of information that requires careful monitoring for the project’s success.  Digital data transforms into a significant number of digital models and drawings, continually posing coordination challenges in the context of this project. The design team sought to find a digital solution that would enable quick, simple, and long-term access to the 20 models and thousands of project drawings while still allowing them to change the critical data required to understand the project. Resistance to change was a major obstacle to creating a single source of truth, although it was undervalued and present in all projects. Identifying what the team requires for achieving its objectives and encouraging them to shift from individual approaches to a collaborative group strategy was challenging.

The solution deployed addressed one of the biggest challenges facing any large-scale project, namely the lack of accessibility to critical, up-to-date project information. Acting as a common data environment, Revizto's integration acted as a virtual vault bringing together drawings, digital models and coordination issues. Since the proposed solution met an essential need on the project, and the tool's learning curve was low, the challenge of accessibility was resolved. Centralization helped design teams to increase their efficiency and create project value by maximizing hours worked. It has been found that accessible data encourages collaboration and trust between stakeholders, which in turn ensures better project progress. However, no solution can work without a clear and concise implementation plan. The design team therefore defined roles and responsibilities, set up a training plan, and established a procedure for rapid support by a collaborator. Because of this, the adoption rate of the collaboration platform has been phenomenal! Every member of the design team, from architects to engineers, have been trained and supported in the effective daily use of the tool. In this case, even if the solution deployed doesn't cover all the points linked to the centralization of information, the path travelled by the design team has made it possible to raise awareness of the centralization of information and its importance in ensuring the sector's competitiveness in the short term.