16 Role of Automation for Fabrication in VDC MEP Industry

1.0 Introduction

This chapter attempts to demonstrate the role of automation for fabrication tasks in Virtual, Design and Construction (VDC) of Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) industry. A case study approach is undertaken for this purpose, hence the study employed a qualitative research methodology. An interview is conducted with an industry expert having fifteen years of experience in the MEP industry and currently working as a VDC Manager (would be referred to as VDC MEP Manager in the chapter). Organization of the VDC MEP Manager is working in Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Piping trades, thereby encompassing all MEP trades. Automation in the MEP industry can be regarded as tools and software that can make work easier, better, and faster. A good starting point for the industry is to automate repetitive tasks in their workflow using APIs, coding, scripts, customized in-house and/or off-the-shelf software. In-house software development capabilities can bring in many opportunities for the industry as it can yield specific solutions that the industry is struggling with and that are not being solved by prevailing big software developers. Additionally, interoperability issues of technology are one of the biggest challenges for the adoption of technology. In-house development capabilities can be utilized to configure interoperability issues to make different software and systems talk to each other in a seamless manner. One of the differentiating factors between low level of automation and high level of automation is human’s involvement in terms of thinking and performance i.e. low level of automation requires higher human thinking and performance, and vice versa. Lastly, the MEP industry should think, pair and share with each other to solve industry wide problems like reducing waste, and learn from each other with a collaborative mindset rather than competitive approach to bring about a positive change for the society.

2.0 Rationale for studying the case

Rationale for studying the role of automation for fabrication tasks in VDC MEP industry stems from a larger research work about VDC Time Study for MEP industry (click to read more). The larger study is to identify consistency and variability in VDC tasks, job roles, their responsibilities, time spent on these responsibilities and development of national benchmarking metrics for the VDC MEP industry. This chapter is only limited to the role of automation for fabrication support in the VDC MEP industry. The main reason to study the role of automation for fabrication support tasks in the VDC of MEP industry is that there is variability in time being spent for fabrication support tasks and in the roles and responsibilities undertaken for fabrication support in MEP industry. These variabilities lead to the study of the role of automation for fabrication support tasks. It might be the case that the variability of roles, responsibilities and time spent for fabrication support tasks is due to the role of automation for fabrication.

3.0 Motivation

The motivation to undertake this study is to understand current practices of the VDC MEP industry related to automation for fabrication tasks.

4.0 Purpose

The purpose of this study is to find out the role of automation for fabrication support tasks in the VDC MEP industry.

5.0 Focus

The focus of this chapter is to identify automation of tasks in the workflow for fabrication, challenges related to automation, and the way forward for the VDC MEP industry.

6.0 Data Collection

This chapter presents a case study about the role of automation in the VDC MEP industry. The collection of data for this case study is done through a qualitative method i.e. an interview with an industry expert having 15 years of MEP industry experience and working as a VDC Manager. The interview was structured in nature and lasted for about an hour. The interview questions were shared before conducting the interview on the request of the interviewee. The interview was conducted online and recorded with the consent of the interviewee for the purpose of making a transcript, further analysis and reporting out findings. Transcription of the interview is analyzed and findings are given in the later section. The unit of analysis for this case study is an MEP organization. The organization undertakes Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Piping work encompassing all trades of the MEP industry. Thus, this case study can be projected as an analytical generalization for VDC in the MEP industry ^[1].

7.0 Case Study Facts

Automation can be a broad term and it may mean different things to different industries. In the case of the VDC MEP industry, it is regarded as tools and software that can help to perform work better with ease and speed. The VDC MEP manager defined automation as ‘tools and software that help us perform the work easier, faster, better’. While further explaining automation the VDC MEP manager gave an example ‘going from AutoCAD to Revit, I think that’s a big leap in automation as far as you don’t have to go back and fix every single sheet. Your sheets are all attached to views and when you can change a view and it changes all the sheets or you can change schedules and that will update things. So I think that’s a level of automation’. So, in a way tools and software that can enhance efficient working practices by reducing re-work and time can be categorized as automation.

The VDC MEP manager revealed that automation is embedded in every step of fabrication support tasks in their organization. He stated ‘I think in most of the steps we’re using some form of it or another. Whether it’s add-ons to Revit that help create multiple sheets and duplicate things, or it’s a stratus that’s helping us give more visibility to the shop. I think just about in every step we’re doing that’. In his opinion the organization is constantly innovating as he mentioned ‘so I think in every step we’re trying to automate the process. We’re not gonna stand back and just use Revit out-of-the-box and hope that it works out. We’re constantly trying to innovate that.’

They develop 3D models for drawings and documentations that include shop drawings, spool drawings, spool sheets, material list, bill of materials, fabrication drawings, field drawings and as-built drawings. The 3D models developed in Revit are embedded with customized software called Stratus to have greater details for the fabrication shop. Additionally, they have automated extraction and preparation of bill of materials and procurement like ordering of parts and using an SQL server so that information is available to everyone. Furthermore, their whole process is a 3D model based workflow in a way that information is kept on adding to the model by the responsible units sequentially so that redundancy and re-doing of work is eliminated and the information is accurate, up-to-date and available to everyone.

Moreover, if any task is taking longer than expected time and it can be automated, they will automate that task. The VDC MEP Manager expressed ‘And when we find things that are taking longer than they should, I mean it’s my job and our leadership’s job to help fix that and streamline the process.’ Additionally, he gave an example of an issue that is automated using script lately, ‘there is an issue with a model that we have is very big right now and it takes 30 minutes to sync and save and to export in NWC file, so I wrote a script that automatically syncs and saves and actually it closes all the views except for one, so the project stays open, it unloads all of the heavy linked files that are causing it to take forever. It syncs and saves it. It exports it. It uploads it, it reloads all the links and it syncs and saves and it takes like cutting the process time from an hour or so down to maybe like 10 minutes.’

Interoperability is a well known challenge related to technology. VDC MEP Manager affirms that interoperability is an issue and automation is not seamless until it is managed. He expressed it as ‘Nothing’s ever seamless unless we manage it to work with our system…like actually fabricating the parts in real life now each one of those steps required an immense amount of back end APIs and software development to get everything to talk correctly and to report correctly and done a decent trial period with debugging. And trying to break it and then when we finally go into actual use, it’s a decent amount of bugs that we’ll find throughout that process too…it’s so many parts and pieces to get the automation to work. It’s not just one thing.’ There is a fairly good time being spent configuring the automation by using more customized automation to make these systems work with each other that don’t natively work with each other ‘so we’re trying to get systems to talk that don’t necessarily natively talk’.

One-size-fits-all solutions of automation have failed to produce necessary results. The industry requires in-depth solutions from technology developers to address specific issues of the industry. For instance, as VDC MEP manager pointed out ‘so Revit’s not just for MEP subcontractors, Revit is for Architects and engineers and detailing everybody’s using it for something different, but it’d be really nice if they would look at those different end users instead of just as an overall tool’. Additionally, developers should provide customized support to a particular niche market in a way to address their pressing problems. Like, ‘the software developers that make the parent software either need to address the items or open the door wider to allow more customization and allow that to happen easier than just issuing a development kit with API tools’. On the other hand, the industry can also move forward with in-house software developers to build customized tools to address their specific problems.

Parsing out differences between higher/lower levels of automation, the VDC MEP Manager is of the view that one of the differentiating factors between a higher level of automation and a lower level of automation is the extent of human input. In the case of a lower level of automation more human input is required and that can lead to human errors as well. So the risk factor can be high for this lower level of automation. Conversely, for the higher level of automation less human input would be required and less risk of human errors.

When asked about the way forward for the MEP industry, the VDC MEP Manager pointed out that the industry needs to think, pair and share so that everyone in the industry learns from each other. As he stated ‘We need to share and be open about what we have because I don’t think I’m gonna give a secret away that’s gonna make our competitor twice as good. But if we’re both sharing and we’re both able to learn together. I think that’s how we get there. But that’s not everybody’s mindset, though. I’m not a big believer in competition. I’m a big believer in collaboration’. The industry working and learning from each other would help to stop huge detrimental mistakes i.e. waste, carbon footprints, and abandoning of buildings. He highlighted ‘I mean, construction’s got one of the highest levels of waste, of all the different kinds of industries. Carbon footprint’s are huge mistakes. There’s abandoned buildings all over just because of small little issues or errors that add up. And I think as a society, that’s something that we should be tackling together’. The industry is encouraged to have a collaborative approach to these industry wide issues so that everyone can grow together and the industry as a whole becomes progressive. He explained ‘So I would say yeah, just sharing information and working together more. I mean I’ve always had a collaborative mindset…that could be peer groups where they’re not in your direct competition, but if you’re afraid of giving away your secret sauce to your neighbor, I don’t believe in that though’.

8.0 Patterns/Theories

This chapter is based on ‘practice to theory’ as the author is interested to find out the current practices in the VDC MEP industry regarding automation and its role for the fabrication support tasks. An interview is conducted to capture the current state of practice in the industry and subsequently theory would be developed keeping in view the prevailing practices.

For the MEP industry automation is any tool and technology that would make work easier, faster, and better. General impression of automation is that it is a savior of all problems ^[2]. The industry just needs to deploy technology and it will take care of the rest, yet the industry is lagging behind to adopt the technology ^[3]. Conversely, deployment of technology requires a lot of changes at different levels i.e. technological, social, intra-organizational and inter-organizational ^[4]. Additionally, there is no one-size-fits-all solution like the VDC MEP manager highlighted that Revit doesn’t offer in-depth detailed information for fabrication and specialized software like Stratus, plug-in, APIs, scripts and/or coding are needed to achieve specific information and/or outcome from the 3D models. Furthermore, these specific problems of the MEP industry require software developer’s technical support but that is not usually the case.

Customization is required to solve specific problems of the MEP industry like the example given about a big model which is brought down from an hour to ten minutes to sync, save, close, export, and upload using customized script. The MEP industry may develop in-house tool palettes that enhance efficiency of work as per their needs. These in-house tools would be specific to their needs and can be a best fit for the purpose solution as contrary to the one-size-fits-all solutions.

Interoperability issue of technology is challenging and requires a lot of beta testing, debugging, APIs, coding, scripts and customized tweaking to make different pieces of software and systems work together in harmony with each other. As mentioned by the VDC MEP manager, a lot of effort was put in integrating different software and systems to work with each other. So, this is probably one of the biggest challenges of the technology. Additionally, the technology is ever changing, having new versions most often per year. This upgrade also requires constant improvement when it comes to integration as a new version of the software, or a coding language may not be compatible with the other languages and even the previous versions. Thus, although automation might save time and improve working efficiency, there is a fairly good amount of effort to configure automation systems to integrate with each other and work seamlessly.

The MEP industry can benefit from in-house software development capabilities to have tailored solutions for their problems. As VDC MEP manager explained that his organization has an in-house software developer that produces customized tools to solve their specific issues. These customized solutions enable the organization to enhance the technological capability to perform functions as they need. Furthermore, a customized tool palette is developed to do repetitive and time consuming tasks faster. Moreover, integration of technology and systems became possible that created an ecosystem for automatic bill of materials, procurement and ordering of parts, and reduction of RFIs. Model based workflow removed redundancy in the workflow. These things happen due to in-house software development capability of the organization, thus there is an opportunity for the MEP industry.

Repetitive tasks in the workflow can be a starting point to automate so as to reduce redundancy and improve efficiency. These tasks are low hanging fruit to initiate and employ automation in the workflow. MEP trades can identify repetitive tasks in their workflow for fabrication, be it small or large, and automate those tasks using customized scripts, coding and software. These slight changes in the workflow add up together to support a higher level of automation. For instance, these repetitive tasks can be automation of tasks like populating 3D views on the sheets, dimensioning, tagging, bill of materials, and ordering of parts.

Models based workflow is another way of bringing improvement and efficiency by eliminating redundancy, re-work, RFIs and human errors. The VDC MEP manager revealed an end to end model based workflow in which drawings (shop drawings, spool drawings, spool maps, fabrication drawings, field drawings, as-built drawings) and documentations (bill of materials) are produced using 3D models. The model is developed by the architect and/or engineers depending on the case to case basis, passed to a detailer that adds more detail to prepare fabrication drawings and move it to the fabrication shop. The 3D model is also available to anyone using an SQL server so as to make available the right information at the right time to the right person. This reduces the RFIs and waiting time to get access to the right information needed to act. Additionally, this model is integration with in-house customized tools to automatically produce bills of materials, conduct procurement by ordering parts, and enabling fabrication shop to do fabrication. This 3D model based workflow eliminates re-building models from the drawings, adding information on to the previous information in the model so potentially less human errors in the process, reducing redundancy in the workflow, thus bringing in efficiency and productivity.

One of the ways to bifurcate low level of automation from the higher level of automation is that low level of automation requires more human in-put in terms of thinking and processing so may be more likely to have errors and that is a high risk. Whereas, a high level of automation requires less human in-put and processing, having less human errors and less risk. Nonetheless, automation would be an assistance to enhance performance of work in terms of ease and speed and not an autonomous system. Automation requires someone to instruct and check to produce the right output as per needs of the industry. Thus, it can’t be an autonomous system or at least as yet in the preview of the prevailing technology.

Think, pair and share with a collaborative mindset to grow together as a whole industry so that huge industry wide issues like waste, redundant buildings and carbon footprint can be solved. The industry needs to have a collaborative mindset rather than competitive approach to collectively tackle industry wide problems. Brainstorming sessions can be conducted with industry peers to share lessons learnt and best practices to support each other and to avoid costly mistakes. This collaboration among industry peers would ultimately benefit the growth of the industry as a whole and reduce the detrimental effects of the industry.

9.0 Connection to larger scheme of things

This study is connected to the larger research work called VDC Time Study for MEP industry (click to read more), where tasks, roles and responsibilities are investigated and uncovered to make a case for the standard tasks schema and roles for the VDC department and figure out the consistencies and variabilities in the comprehension of responsibilities of the roles in relation to those tasks. This industry wide consolidation of VDC tasks, roles (detailer, manager and coordinator) and their responsibilities (performing, consulted and overseeing) will be a stepping stone towards the development of national benchmarking metrics for the VDC MEP industry.

10.0 References

About the author

name: Muhammad Abu Bakar Tariq

institution: Construction Management Department, College of Built Environment, University of Washington

Muhammad Abu Bakar Tariq is pursuing his PhD in the Built Environment program. His research interest lies in the integration of technologies like BIM and organizational management to improve the construction industry. He obtained his Masters in Construction Management from the University of Manchester UK with distinction and achieved 2nd prize in his cohort. He has nearly a decade of academic experience and is a Registered Engineer (RE) in Pakistan. He is also PRINCE2 (Foundation) Certified.