Collaboration is a cornerstone of the construction industry. Time and time again, we’ve seen that the most successful teams and projects are the ones with solid communication and collaboration practices.
If you’re looking to improve collaboration within your teams, Autodesk University has what you need. Taking place in Las Vegas from November 13-15, AU 2023 offers insightful workshops, expert-led sessions, and networking opportunities to foster team collaboration and elevate your project outcomes.
Study after study has shown that teams who work well together see better results.
For starters, strong collaboration practices lead to less rework. Research shows that nearly half (48%) of all rework in the US are a result of miscommunication and poor project data, so by prioritizing communication and collaboration, teams can avoid costly and unnecessary rework.
Collaboration has also been shown to improve employee retention. And with the construction industry grappling with labor shortages, retaining your key team members is more critical than ever.
This is something we fully recognize at Autodesk, which is why AU 2023 has several talks and workshops created specifically to help teams boost collaboration.
Below, we’ve handpicked a few sessions focusing on team collaboration and communication.
The construction industry is undergoing a major digital transformation due to rapid industrialization, which brings pressing challenges, including workforce adaptation, lack of standardization, and skill gaps. As change accelerates, professionals struggle to keep up, and vulnerabilities become exposed, threatening project integrity and widening industry disparities. This panel discussion offers a timely platform for experts to share insights, experiences, and best practices for navigating the industrialization of construction. By addressing the urgent need to adapt to new technologies and methodologies and manage risks, this panel will foster dialog and collaboration among industry professionals. As a result, you will learn about the knowledge and tools needed to thrive in the industrialization era, bridging gaps and maximizing opportunities presented by advanced technologies. Professionals will be empowered to overcome challenges and maximize sustainability, efficiency, and innovation.
After the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the U.S. military launched Operation Allies Welcome to provide housing for 15,000+ Afghan allies in 200+ military barracks in the United States. The program concluded successfully in February 2022, following the departure of the Afghan guests. These bases had been in service for decades, so wear and tear on the barracks was significant and required expedited remediation to return to military service in 2023. This is where APTIM—a global provider of services to the government, commercial, industrial, and energy and utility markets—came in and restored the buildings for use. This presentation highlights how APTIM used the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform to win the job and collaborate seamlessly. Through the implementation of Autodesk Build, SiteSense, and Esri ArcGIS Field Maps, APTIM’s multidisciplinary team captured 25,000+ issues, quantified them as recommended repairs in its estimate, and converted those issues into 25,000+ successfully completed work items.
Projects today need one or several persons to ensure that digitalization, data flow, collaboration, and intelligent models are set up and working. This session will discuss the most-common roles—digital collaboration manager, building information modeling (BIM) manager, and BIM coordinator—and the expectations and responsibilities of these different roles. In addition, we’ll look at how Fornebubanen Metro has standardized how nine different BIM coordinators work, how we’ve managed their different personalities to fit with the standardization, and how they’ve advanced in practice through a project that has lasted for 12 years and has 10,000 models in BIM 360 and 12 federated models in Navisworks software. We’ll see how their work has ensured a model-based project from start to finished construction, and how important their roles are to connect the design to construction. Their work has taken model-based construction to a new level, ensuring more value for all parts of the project.
The building and construction industry is feeling the effects of change more than most. This strong and rather conventional economic sector is being digitized at an accelerated pace. The Germany-based construction company BREMER SE is in the middle of a digital transformation process and has digitized its value chain. BREMER is aiming to be completely digitized within three years, re-evaluating its processes. After all, even processes that have stood the test of time for decades have to meet the increasingly demanding requirements of digitization. There are three phases of digital transformation: 1) Implementation of a common data environment (CDE) and communication. 2) Data evaluation and site management. 3) Model coordination and collaboration. With this approach, BREMER has brought together 2,500 project participants—internal and external—on a CDE within a short period of time, and the firm has since recorded steady growth in the number of users and projects.
It’s no secret: To successfully complete complex construction projects, all stakeholders must collaborate effectively. Companies need to share the right data and information. Learn how project teams can maximize Bridge in Autodesk Construction Cloud to meet company standards, reduce rework, and improve cross-team collaboration. General Motors (GM) has invested $1 billion into building new battery plants, and to do this, the firm asked Barton Malow (general contractor) and Ghafari (architecture engineering firm) to partner together to deliver this massive undertaking. GM knew that traditional construction methods would not meet the timeline and demands of the project, so the firm opted for an integrated project delivery (IPD) method to deliver a project on such a large scale. As an IPD, the partners of GM, Barton Mallow, and Ghafari all share the risk of the project and its rewards. Join Liz Fox from Barton Malow and John Raad from GM to see how Bridge in Autodesk Construction Cloud is a critical component of this massive project.
Copachisa is a general contractor of projects ranging from 100,000 sq. ft. to 1 million sq. ft. from schematic design to as-built documentation. In this session, we will share our experience moving forward working in a collaborative environment using Autodesk Construction Cloud. Before the pandemic, we usually worked with our information in a physical server. Due the necessity of working remotely, we decided to use BIM 360 software. The challenge was to move 40+ subcontractors and about 42 active projects very quickly (roughly two weeks). The most relevant part was first training the design teams, and then the whole organization. In a short time, we noticed the benefits of working in a web-based environment—for instance, extracting project data to conduct analytics—so we decided to expand our design workflows to precon and construction teams covering the entire project lifecycle. In 2023, we’re redefining our internal processes, and by the beginning of 2024, the complete project cycle will be running in this environment.
GitHub has revolutionized collaboration among programmers, enabling efficient project development through collaborative contributions. Imagine applying this ideology to the design and construction industry, where all project data can be collected, integrated, and used collaboratively. We can use digital twins as the GitHub of project data by eliminating the traditional turnover process and validating data during construction. This presentation will explore the transformative potential of the digital twin as a collaborative environment for gathering, validating, analyzing, and delivering project data. By embracing this innovative approach, we can enhance project efficiency, streamline data management, and drive successful project outcomes. Join us to discover how digital twins can revolutionize project data collaboration and propel the construction industry forward.
AU 2023 offers construction pros some of the best opportunities to level up their careers and businesses. Whether you’re looking for knowledge and tools to help you and your teams work together or you’re interested in connecting with like-minded individuals, Autodesk University has something for you.
Register today and start planning your AU 2023 experience. See you there!
