Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Elena Kolosova, Victoria Vinogradova and Alexander Ladygin
The speakers of the BIMAC plenary session considered information modeling technologies (IMT) as a driving force for the integration of technologies, data, organizations and specialists. The moderators – General Director of Roseko-Stroyproekt Alexander Ladygin and Deputy Director of the Center for Digital Competences of SPbGASU Denis Nizhegorodtsev noted: this topic is in the center of attention of all industry participants and specialized educational institutions, since everyone understands that this integration is necessary.
TIM as a pattern
Advisor to the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russia, Deputy General Director of Renga Software (part of the company “ASCON”) Maxim Nechiporenko recalled that the company, together with the market, studied and automated everyday tasks for a quarter of a century and assessed the prospects in the construction sector. Therefore, it was ready for digitalization.
“From process automation, software creation to mechanisms that allowed integrating three-dimensional models, we approached the development of new products, so there was no doubt about the need for TIM. After the departure of foreign vendors, there were quite a lot of companies developing various software on the domestic market. We had a whole set of products with different functionality, implementation methods, so we began to study with partners how these products can interact with each other, how the customer will use them. But in practice, nuances still arise, and our task is to adapt them at customer enterprises taking into account their activities, planned deadlines for the implementation of production work, assigned resources, and existing competencies. We agree with developers on a more complex technological meaning and simpler interaction for users,” noted Maksim Nechiporenko.
He added that there is a need to improve the system of design documentation for construction (SPDS). During the study, ASCON analysts found that its founder is the temporary instruction on the composition and design of construction working drawings of 1974. The expert believes that it would be good to return to it as a laconic and simple document that helped in work better than modern regulations.
Operational data is the key to success on construction sites
Elena Kolosova, Development Director of K4 LLC, noted that the entire construction process can be stopped due to documentation that is not prepared on time and is late for the construction site, or materials are not delivered on time. Due to such nuances, downtime occurs, and as a result, maintaining one worker at the construction site costs the company up to a million rubles per month. “TIM will be widely used when builders appreciate its advantages, efficiency, and want to implement it. While they are hesitating, designers are torn apart, processes are delayed, and the builders themselves do not receive value from the implementation. As a result, the situation is: the data has not reached the construction site, and the team is idle. How to avoid this? Provide the construction site with complete data. The designer can give the builder almost all the information. Therefore, the designer can either organize the construction or kill it. In order to prevent the latter, he must provide the construction in advance. With the highest organization of processes, this requires at least a quarter.
Designing “on the fly” leads to failure. What prevents us from building a data system in which everyone will use the same information collected from different sources? We need to encode information so as not to re-enter data, rewriting it from documents sent in different formats, for example, PDF. As a result, documentation takes more time than production work. All these problems are solved by an information model, in which all participants in the construction process see the information in real time. Models do not operate with words, so the encoding system is important here,” said Elena Kolosova.
Reference books, classification, identification
Kira Besprozvannaya, Head of the BIM Department at ASCON-North-West LLC and a graduate of St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, agreed that TIM is, first and foremost, information, and for it to bring value, the entire process needs to be automated: competencies, interaction with other information systems, libraries, and model export settings are important.
“It is important to implement technologies not by obligation, but by choice. We begin our work with the customer by finding out what software products they work with, with whom and how they exchange data, we are interested in the scenario and goals of implementation, we study the standards of their activities. Then the technologies are adapted, and the implementation is effective. Then we provide training and support to the customer. This approach leads us to the creation of successful cases,” said Kira Besprozvannaya.
Kirill Voytyuk, Development Director of Aibim LLC, confirmed that when implementing information systems, it is necessary to bring reference books to a common form, and the company is doing this successfully.
“TIM should be implemented to solve specific problems. Today, there are planning tools, but the construction schedule printed on wallpaper still lives on. It’s strange. We work out the model with clients before construction, conduct scenario analysis, thus we conduct optimization, which, in turn, can be absolutely different, and its effectiveness is confirmed in practice. We have a product that allows you to check all collisions,” said Kirill Voytyuk.
Technical expert of Tangle LLC Alla Zemlyanskaya reminded that data is a connecting component of processes, people, regulations, rules and technologies themselves. But here it is necessary to differentiate the concept of data and information.
“Data is a set of facts, observations, numbers, presented in raw form. Information is processed structured data that is useful. To identify data, you need to designate its specific characteristics and purpose. Automation is needed to process it faster. We do this for specific requests for specific specialists, so that the data is a working tool. Throughout their life cycle, they must be handled correctly, so we are working on integration,” Alla Zemlyanskaya clarified.
She cited real cases as examples that have proven their effectiveness in practice.
Estimators advocate for innovation
Maxim Gorinsky, President of the Association for the Development of Digital Solutions in Cost Engineering, Pricing and Information Modeling Technologies, Vice President of the Union of Cost Engineers for Regional Development, Director of Galaktika IT LLC, Editor-in-Chief of the Telegram channel “Just about Estimates,” clarified that today in our country there are three areas of the industry: the register of requirements, digitalization, and pricing. “The interest of experts and banks in this will help spur the transition to TIM, since we are talking about transparency and volumes. The more companies start working on TIM, the more feedback there will be and the faster these digital products will develop. Today, everyone wants to do it cheaply first, and then well and quickly. Meanwhile, process automation is an aid in decision making. If an estimator picks up standards with his eyes from morning to night or recalculates a project in a rush, then obviously there will be no increase in personnel. We need to try to transform the industry, including by changing processes innovatively, in order to attract young people who prefer to work where there are projects that are interesting to them,” noted Maxim Gorinsky.
According to him, an Association for the Development of Information Modeling Technologies will be created, and a practical course with assignments for teachers will be launched, which can be used for teaching students.
Interaction between industry and education
Director of programs for developing interaction with educational and scientific organizations of Nanosoft Development LLC Oleg Egorychev emphasized that any software or toolkit during digitalization is impossible without specialists with the relevant competencies. Therefore, the interaction of educational organizations and vendors is the basis for the transition to the use of TIM.
“Our company’s interaction with educational institutions is based on one main goal – to prepare and attract highly qualified personnel with modern competencies to the industry. For our part, we provide educational institutions with licenses for our products to conduct educational activities in any quantity, conduct training for faculty, help in developing educational programs for academic disciplines, integrate our products as tools and provide teaching aids for them. We provide all this free of charge. The integration and implementation of TIM in the first and second years of basic education is going well, but there is still a lot of work to do in this direction at graduating and specialized departments,” Oleg Egorychev noted.
According to him, free online courses, advanced training, and student project competitions in which winning students and their mentors are awarded prizes are in demand.
Maksym Nechyporenko confirmed that interaction with universities is a good example of combining efforts to promote TIM. Future and already working designers need to be given knowledge on how to use these tools, how to achieve maximum effect.
“Summer schools are proving their effectiveness in this area. An important synergistic effect occurs when developers, users and educational institutions unite,” concluded Maksym Nechyporenko.
Vice-Rector for Continuing Education at SPbGASU Victoria Vinogradova reported that given the digital transformation of the construction industry, it is important to develop digital competencies, including in TIM technologies and artificial intelligence, at all levels of education, so the university launched TIM classes in schools. The project is aimed at attracting motivated applicants who will subsequently grow into highly qualified specialists.
“The educational organization is the contractor, it fulfills industry orders. In order to minimize the difference between the requirements of the labor market and educational programs, our university has created an Educational and Methodological Council, which also includes experts from the industry community. All our educational programs and projects are practice-oriented. TIM classes opened in schools have proven their demand: the growth of students has doubled. Next year, we plan to transform them into digital classes, since, in addition to TIM, we will include classes on artificial intelligence. We also plan to expand the geography through regional operators, which can be any organization. We will provide everything necessary. The educational process is based on two points: we impart knowledge and test it in practice. The school TIM championship, the digital GTO show the demand for all projects in this area, and the projects themselves are organized in close cooperation with industry companies,” noted Victoria Vinogradova.
She also noted the demand for additional education programs implemented by the university.
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