What If... Convergence of Desktop, Collaboration, Data, and Digitization

JAROD SCHULTZ: Hi, everybody. I'm Jarod Schultz. I'm Director of Strategy looking over Industrialized Construction at Team D3. We're an Autodesk Platinum Partner and an Esri Partner. And I have 30 years of multiple discipline experience, being architecture, engineering, construction, owner, and manufacturing.

Along that journey, I've gone through multiple transitions of technology acceptance, change management, and all of this at an ever increasing pace. At Team D3, we're a business consultant that has three brands. MG that looks over AECO Industries, and D3 Technologies that looks over the manufacturing industries, and then ECAD that looks over the process power and plant industries.

I work with multiple teams that work within all three of those brands to help our clients achieve innovative solutions, along with business strategies. Our motto is, if our clients are successful, then we are successful. So jumping in, so looking at this Venn diagram, we at Team D3 are starting to see a convergence of different industries and disciplines like we've never seen before.

Some of you are experiencing the convergence of construction and manufacturing, and what a lot of us are calling industrialized construction. We see construction taking on the mindset of manufacturing around fabrication of assemblies, and then taking those assemble components out to the job site for their final install. From this convergence of construction and manufacturing, we're seeing more and more modular construction, along with building product manufacturing, coming further into this playing field.

And then from this industrialized construction movement, we're starting to see this bleed over into the process and power industries, seeing plant owners using these same methodologies to help meet deadlines and set quality standards. Now, talking further on the owner side and looking at Digital Twin and Integrated Factory Modeling initiatives, we're seeing production lines being digitized along the entire factory as a series of BIM models. As new products are being rolled out, there's a need for new and improved production lines, which means, the factory floor, or the building itself, needs to be enhanced.

The current method of 2D drawings, they don't really work any longer. The factory needs to be really a series of BIM models so that the owner works with-- as the owner works with architects, engineers, general contractors, everything can be coordinated and follow the owners BIM standards and their guidelines. As an owner of these same building standards, or BIM standards and guidelines would be used in the horizontal construction, or infrastructure side, anything and everything below or above ground needs to be tracked because of the different kinds of fluids going in and out of the facility.

Along with this conversion, it's GIS mapping. Some of these owners are in the retail industry, or they might own thousands of stores or facilities having the ability to explore those locations events and trends so stakeholders can be better informed, or create awareness of the environment. So let's explore further on this convergence across these industries and disciplines.

So building upon this Venn diagram, we're now including the convergence of design and data into these different industries and disciplines. With this convergence of design and data, we're seeing Autodesk Construction Cloud having really a dramatic effect on the AECO Industries on being the common data environment. The same effect is happening on the manufacturing side with Fusion 360 cloud.

Now, I will say one of the smartest moves that Autodesk did when they started developing these cloud environments is put a bottom layer to this cloud platform called Autodesk Forge. Autodesk knew that they couldn't produce every solution under the sun that could fit for everyone. So Autodesk Forge is the application programming interface, or API platform, where if a client comes to us and says, hey, man, certain features, or abilities, aren't being met, then we, as a system integrator, or for you as your own company, you might have a developer on staff, can help develop a solution that does fit those needs.

But it doesn't stop just there. If we go further out in this Venn diagram, we see all kinds of other software vendors that clients are using today to get their projects done. This is just a few of over 200 software companies that connect with Autodesk cloud solutions.

In other words, they're also recognizing this convergence of design and data using Autodesk cloud solutions as a common data environment. If we go back to the center of the Venn diagram, Autodesk is also building relationships with what we call middleware software solutions. And, really, there's two partnerships right now.

One partnership is with Jitterbit, which we work with them quite a lot on the manufacturing side. So if you're dealing with Fusion 360, Jitterbit is the tool set. On the architect, engineering, construction, and owner side, we see Workato, which Autodesk labels as ACC Connect.

Both of these software solutions have what we call recipe tools to help us bring in additional connection points with all of these other software vendors into this common data environment. This is really-- I mean, talking to a lot of our clients, this is really bringing the art of possible to our clients to a level that we really haven't ever seen before. And think about it, what we're seeing here has been really stuck on a lot of file servers and really siloed in a lot of siloed databases.

Now, building upon this and looking at this Venn diagram a little bit more and progressing through this conversation about this convergence of design and data, we're seeing the ability to have multiple connection points to different software solutions, and having the ability to look at that data through dashboards, reports. But we need to expand on this a little bit further.

We also need to look at a convergence of communication into this environment. As we work with any of these industry projects and the many disciplines that come with it, there's a ton of communication going on. Now, a lot of us might use Microsoft Teams and Outlook, some of us use Slack. Whatever the tool might be, we need help in tracking communication through these processes and workflows.

Designs change, issues arise, RFIs are needed. All these things happen on our projects. My point is these types of software tools also have connection points into the common data environment.

Autodesk has been really addressing quite a lot of this using the Autodesk Construction Cloud on tracking these types of problems. But again, another software solution might be better when it comes to, let's say, fleet tracking and the communication that goes with that. As we get better at tracking this type of data across the platform, then our dashboards and reports will continue to improve.

One of the last things is all of the design software that we use during the day, the week, the month, to get our projects done. A mix of desktop solutions, cloud solutions, all continuing to feed this common data environment with updated information. A question to ask yourself, I mean, really, how many applications do you think you might have open at one given time when working in such an environment?

For myself, when I'm dealing with stuff like this on a weekly, daily, I typically have Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, Revit, Inventor, Navisworks, Chrome with at least 10 tabs open. Let's not forget about Snagit, got to have Snagit, and Slack, all right? So we're all multitasking. I mean, that's just the norm anymore.

So think about how taxing that is on our current workstation. And then on top of that, how many of you working with gigabyte Revit files, or massive Navisworks collaboration models, or Inventor, or Fusion assembly models that make up, I don't know, hundreds or thousands of parts-- or a huge infrastructure model showing a new layout design of thousands of solar panels, let's say, or a map showing all the retail stores across the United States. All this data being pushed and pulled through the common data environment, helping us solve the one source of truth.

So everyone can see and view these data streams in real time, being able to red line, check, revise so, really, all the stakeholders are informed, able to see progress, or bottlenecks. Whatever the need is, whatever the outcome is, every day this is becoming more interconnected, hence, the conversions that we're seeing. Today's tools are only going to get better and better, really, when you start adding machine-learning and AI, you start adding those to the mix to help us facilitate, automate the tasks, better understand issues, or to even alert us before something goes into the ditch.

Talking about automation, we all wish we could just post a job these days, right, and 50 billion people would show up for the job, right? But that's just not reality these days. So we have these shortcomings, right, these gaps.

And so the only thing we could do to help fill in these gaps is to automate the process, or tasks. And some of these tasks or processes are tedious. So to be honest with you, best to automate it so that person, who's ever doing that, could be doing something a lot more productive, or doing a much more valuable task.

Honestly, it's amazing to see all this convergence happening in front of us. It's incredibly-- it's incredible to look back in the last three years and see what has all changed and where we are today. I can't wait to see what the future is going to be in the next three years as this convergence continues even further.

So I said a lot, I've shown a lot. I want to bring a little bit of reality to this, also. So let's look at a convergence example focused on manufacturing data solutions to the AECO Industries.

So at a high level, a typical, let's say, design/bid/build, or design-build, or IP business model, it has different processes illustrating different phases. And some of these phases might combine, or shift, depending on what those business models are. I understand that. This is not all perfect, right? Some of these get merged.

We would agree that most of these phases have siloed software systems and data that's really not connected. It's not shared. It's not being tracked. So everything looks so clean until we layer on what is really happening between all these workflows and processes, right?

I love how it just comes in and starts hammering this, right? Because I think some of us feel that, right? So now, we see all this communication, right, the design data, the collaboration, that's needed to drive these workflows and processes from the design team, to bidding phase, the planning phase, to construction documentation, to materials being ordered, to constructability phase, to construction phase-- does it ever end-- to prefab phase and, finally, to deliver phase for the finish line. So a lot going on, right?

So this is where, really, over in the construction business, this is where we start need to think about bringing manufacturing and data management processes to, really, bring all the siloed software systems together, something that the manufacturing industry has been doing now for the last 30 years. Connecting these siloed software systems in the manufacturing industry, really, is a tried and true process. It can be adopted to the construction industry.

What I'm showing you today is something that we already do, right, that's already happening in the manufacturing. We just need to bring some of these processes across. So surrounding this data management is supply chain management, new product or project introduction, change management, quality management system, and bills of materials. So, really, having a connected data management system helps companies reuse, modify, track, and search all of their data.

So these types of activities from a manufacturer perspective are a way to introduce a new product. Or think about a product that's already in there. Now, we're looking at a new feature to an existing product.

The example would be, let's say, a head wall for a hospital room. Most are being preassembled today, but might not be considered really a product. We can begin to analyze that type of assembled wall system to create a new product, and then create the types of documents that are required to assemble it.

I'm sure people in this room have done this before, and I'm sure there were lessons learned. So starting today, we could start to gather all that data and knowledge which, sadly, we know is not happening and is scattered, typically, everywhere. Think of it as a file folder and being able to organize everything related to a product, including how you might introduce that to the market.

From a supply chain standpoint, you can now show that types-- show the types of products that you have and have certain inputs already configured, hence, pre-engineered, ready to go for a general contractor, for bidding or cost purposes. This is what we mean by bringing certainty and productivity to this timeline and process. Change management is also a big piece.

At the end of the project, you could never identify who was liable for what. Was it a change from us, an owner, an architect, another subcontractor? This gives us the ability to start tracking who is the owner of that change.

Might be something you might want to get a handle on. Change management will do that for us. And lastly, being able to gather information from the field and would be a big plus, right, adding the data from fabrication, or superintendents, or installers, or MEP field staff, to help them with tracking issues and errors, and developing new and then better products, and better solutions.

So reinstating what was shown before, Autodesk Construction Cloud offers, really, a really robust ecosystem. It's really the CDE, right, for teams to integrate their software and streamline the workflows. So in the beauty, and like I mentioned before, there's 200 native integrations to other construction applications.

And these are typically either done through partner cards, or APIs, or Autodesk Forge, or Workato, or Jitterbit, right? Those are the custom workflows that can be brought in to get these things connected to each other. And then don't forget about the manufacturing side, right?

We've got Fusion 360. We're talking about Autodesk Construction Cloud, but Fusion 360 on the manufacturing side, they use Jitterbit, and it offers the same types of workflow. So all of this can start being connected and interconnected.

And using these middleware cloud tools can help connect hundreds of different software applications together. I mean, each list-- I think, every lease, that list gets updated every month. More and more companies are starting to realize this. And any one of you can start utilizing these solutions to complete, really, a complex business data management solution.

I think, really, at the end of the day, the life cycle data management process, this is critical. This process includes a collection of business processes used to plan, define, build, support, and improve those products and services. Really, at the end of the day, if you talk to a manufacturer, this is really the lifeblood of their company and directly impacts their growth and profitability.

The same thing can be happening over in the AECO side. Of course, the data lifecycle management, nearly everyone in the enterprise, including external customers, suppliers, and partners, play a distinct role in this. It's impossible to overstate the importance of these processes to the overall health of a company.

So let's look at another example of this convergence, and let's look at BIM solutions to manufacture owners. So this is what we call integrated factory modeling. It's really becoming a standard, like, Digital Twin or Industry 4.0. It is a base, or a foundation, for clients who need to digitize their production and their factory.

With an integrated factory model, you can take the next step in complexity. It's whether it's virtual commissioning, or digitizing your production line, all of that can be done after this first step, and that's integrated factory modeling. That's your first step.

We need an integrated data platform that allows continuous steps, or sprints, and all this along the factory lifecycle. Look at all the different players. I mean, this is kind of a hot mess at sitting down with a manufacturer that owns their factories.

This is a little bit of a hot mess. And this is, I think, a really good slide that kind of shows that you look at that last slide, and then you add the communication on top of this, there's a lot of teams that need to be in the know when something needs to be updated or modify it when it comes to the production line or, really, the factory itself. We are all familiar with communication by email, which we exchange data using a wide variety of tools, or to put it negatively, push it back and forth between all of us.

The tractability of that data reaches its limits pretty quick. And as we all know, pretty sure errors are going to happen fairly quickly after that. So in factory planning, a wide variety of trades must be coordinated, and all the people involved must be supplied with the latest data.

With production, planning, media supply-- now, that's being like ventilation, lighting, water, electricity-- that goes back to the fluids going in and out of the building, right? And all course of the building planning, we see only a small piece of the parties that are involved. But we can all start understanding how this convergence of all these things that I mentioned earlier are coming into play, which gets us back to where we originally started.

The layout designer can see-- can create their layout and factory design utilities in Inventor, import and export models between Revit and Inventor. That's really gotten very clean and much better in the last releases. Both models can be managed in Vault.

And the Revit project is synchronized in Vault with the Autodesk Construction Cloud. This creates a cloud-based one source of truth model that all project stakeholders can access at any time. Again, the one source of truth.

This next image shows the progression of taking a point cloud scan and then creating a Revit model. I'm sure quite a few of you in this room have done this, doing this today. More of you are adding to this, right?

Using Autodesk Construction Cloud, internal staff and external AEC firm can then start to populate the model with additional detail that mimics what is happening in the factory today. What does that factory look like today from that data being able to extract the data to reports, dashboards and, of course, to mobile devices. All of that data collection from the field, while updating the data in the data lake, along with the BIM models.

The ability to track data as internal or external teams as they make changes, being able to check those changes against our BIM standards and guidelines, and then having a dashboard, or report, to show where those issues are happening, and how they need to be resolved. All of this is, again, being interconnected and in real time. These are happening today.

So along with that, of course, there's many benefits for an integrated factory modeling BIM process. Coordinating and sharing information between design teams, being internal or external, reducing errors and rework, breaking down the data silos, setting those BIM standards and guidelines, this creates the foundation to bring additional data like IoT and asset management into the integrated factory modeling process.

This one source of truth foundation is always being updated in real time. And then by adding a GIS into the mix, we can start thinking about surrounding infrastructure, bringing additional data to this foundation. As mentioned before, this helps companies establish BIM standards and guidelines, just like airports and hospitals do today.

You know, when their building needs to be updated, they're coordinating all of that with their BIM models. Without these standards and guidelines, then the model and the data becomes just a wild, wild West and, ultimately, breaks the one source of truth foundation. So, again, it's really hindered about using BIM standards and guidelines when you're doing all of this.

So let's look at one last conversion, one real convergence, about focusing on automation platforms that are changing fabrication workflows. So let's walk through this diagram. On the left side is a building product manufacturer, or a self-performing contractor that's created products of their assemblies.

Let's use system hangers as an example. Using a web-based configurator that's established on their website, it's fully searchable by using Google, architects and engineers can find this robust hanger systems so they can use them for their Revit projects. Now, they could use a simple, simple to use interface, they could easily find all the unique Revit family types, and put them into a cart system to easily download exactly what they need for their project.

The architect and engineer that imports those families into a project to start placing them where they need it. The bonus, really, for the BPM and the self-performing contractors, their products are now being specked on the project. In a future state, if a building project manufacturer or self-performing contractor has a close relationship with an architect or an engineer, they could request the Revit model and start using it as a digital take-off and automate the process for manufacturing.

The key piece of this workflow is the Revit families, are lightweight in file size, only use the parameters that are truly needed. The architect and engineer has exactly what they need, instead downloading a huge zip file and going through this whole drudgery of searching through, who knows, hundreds of families, really wasting everybody's time.

This workflow really impacts many different people for the better because it brings certainty and productivity. The current processes have been manual and broken for the last 20 years. It's time for a change. And the new future, we might even look at how to automate the layouts of the hangars in a project to help order, processing, shipping, and placing the correct palettes in the right location within the building when delivered.

So looking at the technology side, you can see that Autodesk Forge is part of the platform technology. Autodesk Forge offers everyone the automation piece. For Team D3 offers us the platform to automate the creation of the part models for manufacturing purposes, automation to create the Revit families, automation for the bills of materials, the automation for creating the shop drawings and, finally, the automation for the user documentation. Again, all this helps bring certainty to everyone involved in the AECO Industries.

Now, I have to, of course, show an example of how not to do it, right? This is a 12 meg-- remember the family hangar. It's got 184 instant base parameters. This is really a total nightmare for scheduling, or even trying to match two hangers to each other to be the same.

Unfortunately, this is not unique in the building manufacturing industry so-- but we all know we can fix this, right? And I think as this convergence continues, as building product manufacturers come into play, as self-performing contractors start to do more, or start thinking more about products like a manufacturer, I think a lot of this will go away. As mentioned before, the web-based configurator is a template.

It has inputs, it's rule-based, has constraints, define the hanger product. Everything is pre-engineered, hence, all the analysis is being heat, cold, structure, specification, cost. Those things are all done. There's no such thing as an estimate.

This hanger costs this much. And then not all, but maybe some of this data, is loaded into the Revit family for, again, purposes downwind from this, for fabrication or for manufacturing. But that can be loaded in your project, and then that can be fed out from there.

So just to give you an example, just talking about this platform for a little bit, let me just show you a video of some of the solutions that we've done. So jumping in, what we're seeing here is an example of a rule-based configurator for a tank. If someone changes the rules, the visual of the tank automatically updates.

Once the design is neat, is satisfied, it automatically produces the shop drawings. As mentioned before, this is using Autodesk Forge in Inventor to produce the part models for manufacturing purposes. It's all CAD neutral, so it can work with other CAD platforms when needed.

Here's an example of whopping 30 lines of code to develop the shop drawings. Our platform works with other solutions when needed. Obviously, we're Autodesk-centric, but wanted a platform that could work with other design software.

Everyone's looking for automation these days to help in fill in gaps, help relieve staff from manual tasks, and get those tasks done faster. So we can either float down the river relaxing, or have a fruity drink at the pool, or the lake, and our dinosaur, too, right? That would be cool.

So, again, looking at some of the benefits, you know, BIM models can now be used for building product manufacturing and self-performing contractors for digital takeoffs to automate and drive manufacturing processes. That's happening today. Automation tools help BPMs and fabricators build BIM ready models for architects and engineers, and construction professionals, to start using those in their Revit models.

This helps BIM building product manufacturers and fabricators get their product spec done BIM products. So those are added bonuses, right? But everybody's got certainty because those are all been pre-engineered, right?

And then automation kicks in, right, automation to create all the needed models for fabrication, or manufacturing, all the bills of materials are thought out. So we can think about supply chain purposes.

All the shop drawings are ready, so if we need to have those things down on the shop floor we have those available to us. This is all just a real big game changer for the AECO Industries.

I want to thank everybody. I hope you enjoyed what you saw today, you learned a few new things. The bonus of all this technology lives today. It's just taking advantage of this and building a strategy and start moving forward. Thanks, everybody.