Swinburne University
Construction & Facilities Management in the Education Sector
Client
Swinburne University has a strong reputation in Australia and overseas as a provider of career orientated education and as a university with a commitment to research. Swinburne’s operations are conducted at six campuses located across the state of Victoria and at Sarawak, Malaysia. These campuses are continuously being maintained and upgraded, and new facilities and extensions are being constructed. As a result, members of the Project Team are routinely involved with multiple projects at any one time.
Vince Persi, Senior Project Officer at Swinburne, said, “I’m currently working on six projects, each will be approximately six months in construction. This is a typical workload for me which is only going to increase due to the University’s commitment to growth in the short to medium term. Previously the capital and works budget has been around US$30m however in 2008 several major capital projects will be under construction one of which has a budget of over US$80m.”
Challenges
In managing their assets, Swinburne experienced three main challenges which stemmed from their information management practices:
1. Finding and retrieving information
2. Meeting standards for their bi-annual audit
3. Collaborating with suppliers
These areas were difficult to manage and a drain on resources, costing time and money. One of the primary contributing factors was that Swinburne’s document management was primarily paper-based. The volume of hard copy records made filing and storage a time consuming and difficult task for tracking and retrieving documentation. As Kathie Crellin, Executive Officer, Major Projects Team at Swinburne, explains:
“Prior to Aconex, project files were scattered around between the Project Officers, in a library and in remote storage. Everything was paper. There would be so many folders for each building project and finding anything took a long time. When a project was complete it would be kept in the compactus in the office. Anything over five years would be kept offsite in storage. To get a file we would have to put in a request.”
The issue was not just finding files, but also making sure the latest version of each document was being used.
“Any project is only as good as the documentation that’s being produced and updated,” says Crellin. “In the past there have been occasions where different people have been working on different versions of a drawing. I have been involved in projects where you get to a certain point and you realize that someone’s been working on old drawings. This costs time and money because, if they’re a consultant, you’ve got to pay for reworking. Timing is always a huge issue for us, and that’s when it comes back to bite you. Delays due to reworking directly impact on your timeline.”
In addition to day-to-day operations, Swinburne’s need for effective control over data is increased by having a requirement to meet standards for auditing. Major audits occur about every two years and are highly detailed. The auditors provide a list of all the projects they will be examining, they require to sight all the documentation relevant to the tendering process for the builders and the selection process for appointment of architects and other consultants.
This was a significant drain on time and resources. The Project Officer who worked on the specific project would have to go through the documentation, which would typically take up to three weeks. Because of the number of projects they are involved in, the whole process could span months.
Because of the volume of paper documents being stored, there were occasions when Swinburne couldn’t locate documents that had been requested.
“It’s not as easy to keep that volume of paper because we don’t have the luxury of staff numbers to keep up to date with filing,” Crellin commented. “Also it’s a lot of time in chasing down hard copies, actually going through all your files and finding hard copies of documentation. Project Team members have obviously got their project files all set up with dividers and that sort of thing but you can ‘bet your bottom dollar’ that what you’re after doesn’t happen to be there in two years time, or it takes some time to find it. It’s just a very time-consuming process.”
Swinburne also had problems maintaining the large volume of data they were required to maintain for the audit.
Crellin said, “We were having difficulty in managing our documentation – the plans, drawings and associated documents were just clogging up our system. With the amount of documentation we’re required to hold, we just didn’t have the capacity.”
In summary, just some of the issues Swinburne encountered that were impacting on cost and productivity included:
- Not being able to readily access project files
- Misfiling of important documents
- Working from out of date drawings
- Not being able to readily access documents required by auditors
- Spending weeks preparing for bi-annual audit
Solution
Swinburne implemented the Aconex web-based collaboration solution to manage all their project and facility information. The system allows team members to manage their drawings, documents and related correspondence online using one central platform. This enables all authorized parties – internal and external – to view, distribute and track their files electronically at any time and from any location. To support implementation, unlimited training and helpdesk support was given to all project participants.
Results
Finding & Retrieving Information
To facilitate the switch to electronic information management and ensure that all of Swinburne’s data was centrally archived, Aconex worked with Swinburne to capture all past and current documentation onto the system.
“Over the last year we’ve had all our old drawings scanned and we are working with Aconex to be able to have them registered on the system. Since adopting Aconex all new documents have been loaded onto the system, meaning everything is captured together. Now to get a document all I do is log in. It takes a matter of seconds and the unlimited capacity means we don’t have to worry about the volume of information.”
Through archiving and managing all information electronically, Swinburne was able to significantly cut back on the amount of paper documents they were printing and storing. This means there were fewer documents to control which has environmental benefits as well.
“We print about 40% of what we used to print. Obviously there are times where we need hard copy paperwork and need plans to work off. Information we have to keep includes some of the specifications, forms, procurement and tender documents. Now, when we want to find these items, we just go into Aconex, click on the project and we know it’s going to be there,” said Crellin.
The Audit
On implementing Aconex, Swinburne felt that having a comprehensive, easily searchable archive of all project information would streamline the auditing process and reduce the burden internally.
“When the next audit comes along, we’ll be able to give the auditor's access to Aconex, arrange training for them then leave them to get on with their job. They will easily be able to look at what they want and disregard what they don’t, and if they have a question we’ll just be able to go into Aconex and quickly find the information they require.”
Crellin added, “For us, this is good practice risk management. Universities have to be very careful with all their procurement and tendering practices for construction, so we take the responsibilities very seriously.”
Collaboration with External Parties
A key feature of Aconex is its trail that keeps a record of document revisions and who did what and when on a project.
Senior Project Officer, Vince Persi, said: “Prior to Aconex, meetings with consultants would often be finger-pointing; people would blame each other for things not having been done, received or sent. Now everyone can check each other. I’ve been in a situation where an architect has said they didn’t receive something, so I logged straight into Aconex and there it was – the proof that they did receive it. We’ve definitely got more control of the project now because all the documentation is on Aconex.”
The trail also provides a secure archive of every transaction since the beginning of the project including every document revision, effectively eliminating the risk of losing important data. When a document is superseded, a transmittal is sent out to all parties that have earlier document versions and the latest version is made available as the default version on the system, with earlier versions archived for reference.
“Working from outdated documents has certainly happened before – not regularly, but the potential was there for it to happen. One of the contractors might not be vigilant enough to check the dates on his drawings. With Aconex, it’s not only that we’re now confident that we’re all working from the latest version of each drawing, but everyone has to be responsible for what they do. If the latest version is there and they don’t use it, that’s their error. So if there are any cost implications there’s no argument – it’s there on the system and that’s why we’re using it.”
Aconex is managing project information for more than 50 Swinburne projects ranging from small fit-outs to construction of new facilities. Within 18 months, Swinburne and its project partners had used Aconex to store and manage more than 30,000 documents and 40,000 pieces of correspondence relating to their projects.
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