dcd quality connections - asqasq.org/design/2013/10/dcd-quality-connections-fall-2013.pdf ·...

The ASQ Newsletter for the Design & Construction Division September 2013

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DCD QUALITY CONNECTIONS

In this issue

Message from the Chair

Using Digital Design Data in Construction

Photo Essay: Test Piles on the Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing Project

Do You Have a Recommendation for the ASQ Testimonial Award?

Joint Workshop on Digital Project Delivery between NIBS and TRB

The Design & Construction Division Leadership Would Like Your Feedback

Upcoming Design and Construction and/or Sustainability Related Events

Design and Construction Division Management Council and Committees

Page

Vision: To be the World’s recognized champion and leading authority on all issues related to quality in realizing and maintaining the built environment by the design and construction community and its customers.

Mission: The Design and

Construction Division shall advance individual performance excellence worldwide by providing opportunities to members for learning, quality improvement, and knowledge exchange.

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MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Dear members of ASQ Design and Construction Division, I am enjoying the many benefits that come with being a member leader of ASQ. I am getting to know the regular speakers and leaders. In October, I’ll be participating on an executive panel at the ASQ Audit Conference in Tucson (see below). The panel will be exploring with our audience the new technologies in Design and Construction and which ones are truly adding value. I’m looking forward to seeing the many presentations on auditing and project management. Go to our website for a link to the conference and check out the line-up of DCD presentations. I appreciate the DCD Board and the hard work of our program chairs Catherine Hader and Anita McReynolds-Lindbury who is also our Chair Elect. I hope you can make it out to the Audit conference and meet with us at our ASQ DCD booth. Sincerely,

Celia Gray Celia Gray, CMQ/OE, CQA Chair, Design and Construction Division ASQ Audit Conference Once again, the Design and Construction Division Conference has assembled some of the leading quality professionals with their presentations that will engage you and peak your interest. We have partnered this year with the Audit and Quality Management Division to bring you more variety of topics and speakers your choices are exceptional.

Their presentations will help you with powerful insight to help you stay ahead of the present quality practices and tools. Provide you with a better understanding of quality in such a way that can help improve your organization's competitiveness, quality management systems as well as your personal development.

Our Keynotes will engage you on topics to help organizations realize directions and concepts in the quality field, increase effectiveness, improve customer service, reduce costs, and build both customer loyalty and satisfaction. Join us in Tucson for two days of learning, discovery and an exciting Executive Panel Discussion.

In the keynote program, the speakers have varying backgrounds with different perspectives and deep personal experience which will motivate you with their insights into the critical global business trends, quality directions, innovations, quality management systems and thought provoking ideas that are shaping the future. They will make you a more effective quality professional. You will also have plenty of time for networking so bring your business cards.


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Using Digital Design Data in Construction

Presented at:

The ASCE Joint Conference of the Texas Section and the Construction

Institute

Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, November 9, 2012

Danny L. Kahler, P.E.1

ABSTRACT

Almost all design is done in 2D digital files, yet most activities in construction still rely on analog plans sheets, whether copied directly from mylars or printed from PDF files. This legacy practice results in bottlenecks to schedule and efficiency, loss of value as information in the design files has to be re-created by the contractor from the analog plans, and the introduction of additional errors and omissions as contractors try to reverse-engineer these analog plans back into constructable digital models. While there has been a lot of excitement, most of it hyped, about the potential of delivering fully-integrated 3D models directly to construction, there may be overlooked opportunities to immediately use the 2D information that is already being created by existing design processes. Discovering new technologies and practice methods that can make immediate use of the 2D information created in the typical modern design process can produce faster returns on investment, as well as provide a stronger base for the long-term goal of developing and communicating full blown 3D digital models to construction. Current Situation Virtually all transportation engineering firms today produce digital data for their designs, mostly in the form of 2D files in either Microstation (.dgn) or Autocad (.dwg) format. These files represent the plan layout, in the real world project coordinate system, of each discipline of work: roadway, drainage, structure, electrical, communications, and so on. Some of the digital data represents other views, such as profile, elevation, cross sections, and highly complex digital data contains non-graphic information such as coordinate geometry, templates, and networks. This digital design data isn’t new; it’s been growing in use since the early 80’s and reached critical mass in the early 90’s However, even with all of this digital data being created, the focus of the work is still on producing traditional deliverables in the form of plans (also referred to as drawings) whose format has changed very little since the blueprint was invented in the mid 1800’s.


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Traditional Plans Are Analog Information Traditional plans or drawings are analog information printed by referencing the underlying digital information. The only means of interpreting them is by visual recognition (shape), scaling (approximate distance), or by reading a callout (text and numbers). They are a mimicry of what past technology caused the format of communication to be. However, even though the technology has changed, the mimicry of past form stays the same, in much the same manner as an electronic book mimics the look and feel of a traditional paper book. This legacy format requires manual interpretation. With analog information, there’s no way to ask either the paper, or even the PDF file, to provide any information about the design so it can be constructed. The information has to be visually scanned and interpreted by a human being. This adherence to legacy formats often makes the cosmetic look and feel of the plans sheets as important as the information it contains. In any typical interim plans reviews, the majority of the comments will be on the cosmetics of the presentation, not the design. What Has Changed Our Game? Digital positioning and control technologies on the construction site have created new opportunities for the digital data that design firms are creating. If a contractor from fifteen years ago had been provided with a digital design file, they wouldn’t have known what to do with it. Now many advanced contractors understand the digital data better than the engineers that created it in the first place.

Real Time Positioning – GPS and Robotic Total Station technology allows a single person with a rover to walk to any place on the project and not only get a high accuracy XYZ, but also Stations and Offsets if the design alignments are loaded. Mobile Access To Digital Design Models – Positioning technology on rovers and equipment can compare the current computed location against stored 2D and 3D digital design models and tell the operator how far they are from the final design condition. Vertical distances up or down, horizontal distances in any direction, even angled distances through space. This feedback is as real time as a design engineer moving a cursor around in a design model. Automated Machine Guidance (AMG) – Technology can adjust construction equipment without the intervention of the operator to place the work exactly where the design model specified. Not just confined to bulldozers and graders pushing dirt, AMG can control the placement of pavement, curb, pipe, stripe, markers, wicks, ducts, utilities, or anything else that needs to go in a specific place. Construction Modeling – Advanced contractors are often modeling the project in a finer and more accurate granularity than the original design engineers. Contractors are not only modeling the final surface of the project, but unseen surfaces that are part of the construction process, the materials they’re made of, when they’re going to be built in the schedule, and how much they cost. These are purpose built models, supporting the task of actually building the job, rather than design models, which are often only used as a reference for printing traditional sheets.


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High Construction Tempos – Innovative project delivery methods such as Design-Build, GMCG, and Concession are pushing construction schedules far faster than they have in the past. These fast paced projects almost demand a system of design information that can be changed at a moment’s notice, as opposed to the legacy process of revising drawings, reissuing sheets, voiding out old sheets, and distributing new sheets to everyone. In some cases, parts of the project that are designed right after breakfast are being laid out and constructed right before dinner. Technology-Savvy Contractors – Advanced contractors are often bigger users of technology than the design engineers. One of the things that might be driving this is that contractors aren’t paid by the hour, so any automation that can replace labor usually pays for itself in short order. Engineers who are paid by the hour, or who are constrained to produce legacy deliverables in a legacy process, usually have less financial incentive to innovate.

The New Landscape As more design firms participate in innovative delivery projects, more engineers are getting exposure to the fact that many advanced contractors can not only use, but even prefer, digital design data. In their traditional worldview, the digital files were only for their internal use, and any anomalies in the files were filtered out once referenced into sheets and printed. Most engineers wouldn’t anticipate that the contractors would have access to these files. But even in Design-Bid-Build, the contractors often get these files after the bid, provided by the facility owner who requested a CD of all the engineer’s files before final payment of their fees.

Checking Designs For Errors – Clever contractors are known to take this digital design information, import it into their own construction modeling tools, and look for any conflicts, errors, or things that just don’t fit, then prepare a stack of requests for information for the owner, who turns them over to the design engineer. Most design engineers are at a loss to understand how the contractors even noticed the problems so quickly when they are months or years away from building that part of the project. Checking Plans For Errors – Even if the source design model files are correct, these technology-savvy contractors often use these files to quickly identify any errors in the traditional plans sheets. The contractor’s tools can automatically (and correctly) label the XYZ, or stations, offsets, and elevations, of all critical points in the design files. These are compared to the published analog plans to highlight any callouts that appear incorrect, resulting in an additional flood of requests for information that often buys the contractor additional time with no penalties. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that 90% of the errors are in the sheet callouts and not in the original source files. Digital Signing Of Designs – The conventional thinking of engineers is that only a physical document with a wet seal is a legal deliverable. However, most State practice rules have been updated in the last ten years allowing a digitally signed file to be just as legal and courtroom defendable as ink and mylar. In fact, the digital file might be more secure, because engineering seals of anyone can be created in CAD, and wet signatures can easily be forged. The digital seal would allow any user of the file to check it online and verify that the actual engineer who had the digital code, either in their office or on a personal thumb drive, approved and locked the file.


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What Are The Professional Problems?

Outdated Practice Methods – Civil engineering practice methods have evolved over the last 150 years, in what might be considered the golden age of civil engineering. Civil engineering students were required to learn all of the traditional methods of developing and communicating information, including isometric views, profiles, cross sections, plan views, elevation views, cut sections, borders, legends, north arrows, etc. There has been an expectation that engineers will meticulously fill out calculation sheets, calculation tables, and comment resolution tables. These practice methods are grounded in an analog world, and need to be updated to a digital world. Obsolete Design Quality Management Plans – Design quality management has traditionally focused on two traditional tools: the Checkprint and the Checklist. The checkprint is an analog document control process that grew out of the need to keep tabs on the progress of increasingly complex plans. It relies on a system of multicolored pencils to highlight and communicate information on blueprints or diazoprints make from the original mylars, identifying who created it, who drafted it, who verified it, who backchecked it, and who approved it. The original purpose of the checkprint was to allow the design engineer of record, or any other stakeholders, to review the condition and progress of the developing construction documents, communicate changes to the drafter, and provide an audit trail for all changes, without the unnecessary touching of the original mylars, which will get stains and smudges if handled improperly. The checklist is a function of the fact that many items of information were often left off of the officially published plans, and served as a reminder to show each item to avoid omissions. Document Focused Project Managers – Because of engineering training, and more importantly because of client requirements, the primary focus of design engineering is the production of traditional deliverables in the form of plans sheets. There are empirical and anecdotal estimates that 50% of all the time, labor, and money in the design engineering process goes into the production of these analog, cosmetically-focused documents. In many comment resolution meetings, most of the comments deal with the presentation of the design rather than the design itself. Aversion To Sharing Digital Data – Because practice methods are outdated, and traditional project managers are out of touch with the technology, there is an aversion to sharing the digital data files because of the lack of knowledge about what’s inside them. A significant amount of effort in the plans production process is consumed moving text around, lining it up, masking out certain areas, adjusting fonts , colors, line styles and weights, and fine tuning the visual appeal of patterns. This level of visual control of the deliverable is seen as the primary way of managing design risk. Unless the Engineer In Responsible Charge (EIRC) knows what’s inside the digital data, there is always the fear that they’ll be signing off on information they don’t know about, didn’t check, or even didn’t supervise. Standards Of Communicating Digital Information – There is a tribal standard in the engineering profession about what each item of analog, visual information means. Often this tribal standard is achieved by the “go-by”, which is a set of plans that have been issued on a past project that serves as a guide for the structure, look, and feel of the new


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set. However, in digital data there is neither look nor feel. There’s only the black and white structure of the data. If a digital line is tagged as a 12” reinforced concrete pipe when the intent was really a 24” corrugated steel pipe, then the contractor is going to order and install what the data specifies. While it’s possible, and highly suggested, for a design engineer to carefully structure their design data based on specification or pay items, without a generally accepted standard then it’s up to the judgment of the design engineer. If the descriptions are close an attentive contractor can figure them out, but it’s certainly preferred if the design data is as carefully controlled and measured as contract pay item data.

Possible Solutions

Separation Of Design From Drafting – Since all design should be in the master design files and all drafting should be in the traditional sheet files, separating these two activities can not only help control their respective qualities, but also provide design firms with a more accurate measurement of how much time and money goes into one versus the other. The goal of separating the design from the drafting would be to produce design files with all of the information necessary to successfully build the project even in the absence of the analog plans sheets. If information is on the plans sheets that isn’t in the design files, then one has to ask where the information came from in the first place. Focus On Content, Not Style – Digital data is pure information. It doesn’t have the styles of communication that we’ve seen in plans sheets for over a century. These plans sheets were modeled after maps, because a plans sheet is just a map of something that we haven’t created yet. But digital content should be just enough information to get the job done, rather than additional information and graphics to seem pleasing to the eye and mind. By focusing on the content, the engineer has to determine the minimum amount of information needed to properly construct an element, and then provide only that and no more. Content could communicate position and size, but could also communicate materials, textures, surfaces, temperatures, and strength. Talk To Contractors – Civil engineers are supposed to be part of a learned profession based on applied science. Part of professional responsibility is advancing the art of the practice, which means going out into the world to understand how it really works. If contractors are actively using this digital design data in ways the design engineers don’t know or understand, then this lack of knowledge or understanding will cause increasing levels of problems until some crisis brings it to the forefront of the profession, forcing a solution. The civil engineering profession would benefit by solving these issues before they become major problems. Understand The Technology – Digital design data by itself is useless on a construction project without some type of technology to exploit it. The technologies that make it work are a combination of positioning systems, data collection systems, and control systems. Both design and construction engineers need to learn the fundamentals of how these systems function including the coordinate systems, the data models, the ranges of errors and accuracies, and key things that might go wrong. This understanding will not only help improve design information, but transform construction engineering and inspection (CEI) from a labor and document intensive professional service into a technology and results intensive professional service.


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Summary There are a few key concepts to remember in this transformation of the civil engineering profession from an analog world to a digital world. Design Is Data – There’s a traditional viewpoint that the documents represent the design, but the documents are merely the legacy media that communicates the information of the design in analog fashion. Marshall McLuhan’s expression “the medium is the message” may ring true for entertainment, but not necessarily for engineering. The ultimate fixed work is still the same whether it was built with analog paper documents or digital data, although we assume that a project built with digital data should have fewer mistakes. Design Is Only A Means To An End – The ultimate goal of civil engineering is the delivery of fixed works that serve a useful purpose to society. Design is merely the process of deciding what that fixed work should be, and communicating its requirements to the constructor. It may be true that in past decades we had professional draftsmen that could produce plans that were works of art. In fact there’s even a commercial market that makes poster art from the construction drawings of historical projects like the Brooklyn Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge. However, in our modern age we probably can’t afford the time and expense to make our engineering communication a work of art. The art should be in the final project. The Contractor Is The Customer Of The Design Data – While the client may be the customer of the engineer’s services, the contractor is the customer of the data necessary to build the project. A design engineer should always consider what the needs of contractors are in creating their design data, and take every reasonable means possible to make sure that data is immediately useful to the contractor without any additional review, processing or cleaning up.

1 Danny Kahler – Danny in his own words: “After 25 years of professional practice, I began to feel that mainstream civil engineering was not keeping pace with progress. I saw major construction contractors, in the pursuit of better profitability, taking the lead in the application of technology to reduce costs and improve quality at the same time. Meanwhile, I found myself still practicing with management

methods that were developed when our best technology was ink and Mylar. So I decided to start a new practice with the goal of trying to take the lead, even in a small area, in providing real value in the design and construction process by trying to eliminate activities (which mean costs) that are no longer necessary for the successful delivery of projects. In essence I'm trying to implement, within Civil Engineering, the Lean philosophy that the Japanese developed at Toyota. I can think of no better time to start improving things than deep in a recession where we're particularly motivated to get more efficient.” Danny is a professional civil engineer, currently licensed in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Utah. Danny holds the following ASQ certifications: CMQ/OE, CQA, CQE, CSQE, CRE and CSSGB. His practice areas are planning and design of transportation facilities, construction engineering and inspection, quality auditing of projects, and expert troubleshooting of design and construction problems.


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PHOTO ESSAY

TEST PILES ON THE TAPPAN ZEE HUDSON RIVER CROSSING PROJECT Chuck Kanapicki, PE, CMQ/OE, CQA, CWI

Quality Manager Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC

Approaching the test pile on crew boat. One of the test piles on barge. Note the angles welded to the exterior for instrument protection

Tent for to protect pile welding station. Air chambers for bubble curtain.


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Pile driving hammer. Bubble curtain to protect endangered sturgeon.

Orbital welding set-up for field welding butt splices


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Do You Have a Recommendation for the ASQ Testimonial Award? ASQ encourages recognition for outstanding contributions in the field of quality or the allied sciences through service to the Society. ASQ Design and Construction Division is requesting nominations for the Testimonial Award to present to a member of DCD at the WCQI in 2014. The Testimonial Award is established to express appreciation to Society officers; members of the Board of Directors; Divisions, Sections, Board, and Committee Chairs; or other members who served the Society with distinction for an extended period. (See Policy A 03.00) If you would like to recommend someone for this recognition, please contact Jeff Williams for assistance with your submittal. Submittals are due by November 30th. Joint Workshop on Digital Project Delivery between NIBS and TRB On Saturday, January 11, 2014, the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) will hold a joint workshop on Digital Project Delivery. This workshop has been scheduled to take advantage of the back-to-back conferences of NIBS and TRB in the Marriot Wardman Park in Washington, D.C. Because it’s being held in between two conferences, attendance is open to anyone who is interested. The intent of the workshop is to explore, in a “technology agnostic” setting, the fundamental organizational, professional, practice, and process issues involved in the transition of project delivery, including planning, design, letting, construction, and operations, from analog to digital. The workshop will be informal and pragmatic, and creative involvement is welcomed. Attendance by digitally-capable contractors and bright young professionals is strongly encouraged. http://pressamp.trb.org/conferences/programs/session.asp?event=756&session=28653 The Design & Construction Division Leadership Would Like Your Feedback! We have a brief satisfaction survey we would like all members to take at http://tinyurl.com/DCDsurvey by October 8th. This will assist us in gauging our improvement over the past few years since the last ASQ satisfaction survey. This survey will provide member input to the division’s strategic planning process meeting in October. For questions or any problems with the survey, please contact Peter Stamps, DCD Voice of the Customer Chair, [email protected].


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Upcoming Design and Construction and/or Sustainability Related Events 7th International Symposium on Visualization in Transportation October 23-25, 2013 | Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences Irvine, California http://www.cvent.com/events/7th-international-symposium-on-visualization-in-transportation/event-summary-f2591c7502f34b508b9414a286a7d82c.aspx 2nd T&DI Green Streets, Highways and Development Conference November 3-6, 2013 | Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol | Austin, TX http://content.asce.org/conferences/greenstreets-highways2013/index.html Building Innovation 2014: The National Institute of Building Sciences Second Annual Conference & Expo January 6-10, 2014 | Marriott Wardman Park | Washington, D.C. http://www.nibs.org/?page=conference2014 The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 93rd Annual Meeting January 12-16, 2014 | Marriott Wardman Park, Omni Shoreham, and Washington Hilton Washington, D.C. http://www.trb.org/AnnualMeeting2014/AnnualMeeting2014.aspx


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Design and Construction Division Management Council and Committees

2013/2014

Position Member Name Member Email

Immediate Past Chair Strategic Planning

Charles Kanapicki [email protected]

Chair Celia Gray [email protected]

Chair Elect Anita McReynolds Lidbury [email protected]

Secretary Benjamin Trujillo [email protected]

Treasurer Robert Orkin [email protected]

Vice Chair Social Responsibility Brian Palmquist [email protected]

Vice Chair/Web Liaison Cliff Moser [email protected]

Vice Chair/Conference Sponsors Certification

John Mascaro [email protected]

Vice Chair/VoC Peter Stamps [email protected]

Vice Chair/Awards Jeff Williams [email protected] [email protected]

Audit Chair Certification

Ray Crawford [email protected]

Membership Chair Danny Kahler [email protected]

Nominating Chair Charles Kanapicki [email protected]

Publications Chair Charles Kanapicki [email protected]

(Newsletters)

WCQI Program Chair L. Catherine Hader [email protected]

Audit Conference Program Chair Anita McReynolds-Lindbury [email protected]

Standards Chair John Broomfield [email protected]

LinkedIn Greg Wennerstrom [email protected]

dcd quality connections - asqasq.org/design/2013/10/dcd-quality-connections-fall-2013.pdf ·...

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