We sent two people back to Italy to do some additional training on the Planet and the CamPLUS software. They are due to return next week. From the emails and discussions we had while they were there, I’m very excited about some of the things they have learned. Emmegi will be out to our plant the first week of November to help implement the new items. Many of them are just small problems that we have been dealing with over the last couple of years. The equipment has been great and the American support has also been very good but you just can’t replace learning the equipment from the guys who built it. I’ll post our progress on this item in the next couple of weeks.
I posted that I will be at AU in December. I should have clarified that AU is Autodesk University. This is a conference held annually (usually in Las Vegas) for all of the Autodesk software. Lots of BIM discussions and classes. Classes on Revit, Inventor, Autocad and Navisworks also.
Archives for October 2010
Emmegi Training
Engineering Changes
Started our new fiscal year and my goal is to get our engineering process dialed in. We’ve got our implementation of V6 mostly complete but how people use it and the process they go through to be successful still needs to be finalized. So, I’m practicing my lean techniques and going to the Gemba. For the next couple of months I will be sitting with our draftsmen and watching and updating our processes.My first project is Kaiser San Mateo. We had built our elevations in V6 and used these to create our shop drawings. There were numerous changes to the project. So we had to update all of the V6 elevations, create the glass takeoff, molded corner gasket takeoff and miscellaneous takeoff as well as fabrication drawings for 2 different systems.
We started last week. It took about 1.5 days to update all of the elevations. Almost every dimension had changed as well as some of the parts and some captured mullions are now structurally glazed. We then completed the glass, gasket and misc. takeoffs in 2 days. We started on fabrication drawings for the first system on Monday and we should be complete tomorrow.
What I’m finding is that while you can do everything inside of V6, it may not be the most productive thing. Adding milling ops, butt lines and job specific items to the assemblies can be complex and time consuming. Some of these things can be done faster outside of the program. We’re making great progress on this project and I’m learning a lot. I’m hoping to get involved in a new project next so we can work through all of the process.
BIM and V6
When you read the articles and look at the Autodesk information, it leads you to the conclusion that BIM will be a centralized model where all of your information will flow from. Build the model and create your shop drawings. Build the model and get your takeoffs. Build the model and get your CNC information.Our testing with V6 on our first few projects has lead me to a different conclusion. If we were providing standard systems, or electrical systems, or HVAC systems, where the components are predesigned and you are building a model from these components, then the BIM model probably works. Since on most jobs, and especially on the projects that are asking for BIM models, we are providing custom systems, this model doesn’t really work.
We need to be able to create drawings quickly for review. We need to be able to draw out our concepts and get buy-in. If you try to build all of the custom assemblies, build the elevations, then create some drawings to show your customer and then they want to change it or don’t like it, you are wasting a huge amount of time.
Our new paradigm is an Autocad to SoftTech approach. We draw out our profile drawings in Autocad. 2d is much faster to create concepts than 3d. Draw some typical elevations, key in some 2d details and create your profile drawings. Meet with the customer and massage the design until you have exactly what they are looking for. Now build the model.
Most of our customers are expecting that our shop drawings will be a direct result of the model. Instead, we will use the wireframes from the shop drawings to create the model. Shop drawings first, then V6 model, then BIM model in Navisworks. It’s a different direction than they are expecting but it really makes more sense for the type of work we do. We killed ourselves trying to create the models before the shop drawings or at the same time as the shop drawings. It takes time to update the whole model because they want the horizontal body to look different. Oh, and when you submit the changes, they decide they want it different again. Better to work out your ideas in Autocad and then build your V6 model after.
Heading to AU this year. Anyone else going? It would be interesting to meet up and talk about V6. Drop me a line at swatts at waltersandwolf dot com if you’ll be there.
More Progress
Lots of progress in the last couple of weeks! I met with Phil at the glass show. He was kind enough to offer to send out one of his technicians to help us finish our implementation. So I went back to the group and had them generate a list of all items we need from SoftTech. This includes bugs, minor annoyances, and enhancements. There are only 11 items on our list. This week SoftTech killed 5 of them. By this time next week we may be down to just the enhancements.I pulled the whole group together and we went back through our workflow. With the input from the group, we have been able to document most of our process and simplify it down to some pretty basic steps. We have since implemented this on two projects and they are having significant gains in productivity. The last workflow issue to resolve is with BIM projects. The BIM models are required early in the process (around the time the shop drawings are being submitted for the first time). On a custom system project, it requires that you import all of the extrusions and create all of the assemblies before you can build the elevations and then export the model. The difficulty is with the milling ops. It is not easy to anticipate all of the required milling ops if you are working from the estimating takeoff or architectural drawings. If you wait to add the milling ops, then you may have to go back to all of your elevations and substitute the assemblies to get them to show up. We’re still working on how to address this.
Lessons Learned
Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned over the last couple of years working in V6:1. Be sure you have the right people. We’re in the construction industry. Do you have the technical people to do the implementation? You need people who like to customize software. People who are already writing Autocad code or excel macros. People who understand what is possible.
2. Allow enough time. I allowed 1 year to fully understand how we wanted to implement the software. It took 2 years. You can probably shorten this time period by hiring someone who knows your business to help with the implementation. At the time, no one was using the program for what we were doing. There was a huge learning curve.
3. Start small. Work on one department at a time. You will have issues and it is harder to get a lot of people to buy in when things go wrong. Your technical people will understand you are in beta and stay the course, but less technical people will have no patience for software with bugs. And they will be vocal. And you’ll have your boss or peers asking you lots of questions. Not everyone wants you to succeed. Sorry, it’s true.
