AECOM saves money, improves decision-making with construction software

The use of the BIM 360 construction software on AECOM's incredibly complex project resulted in cost savings, better decision making and real time collaboration between the office and the field. This speed and accuracy could not have happened without using cloud-based construction software, which enables teams to share the right information, at the right time, in the right place. These tools aren’t just intended for large companies; contractors of all sizes can benefit.

Here’s how AECOM did it.

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Adoption of cloud-based technology is one of the many ways that AECOM, a fully-integrated professional and technical services firm with 87,000 employees across 150 countries, is able to successfully bid, manage and deliver some of the most complex, high-visibility and schedule-driven projects in the world.

“We feel like Autodesk tools, consulting and smarts puts us ahead of the industry. We have the field-level expertise, and Autodesk has the technology expertise. Marrying those two together, very quickly, we were able to solve a lot of problems.” – John Kizior, Global Director, Project Technologies, AECOM

AECOM deployed BIM 360 cloud-based construction software for two high-profile projects: the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, NY and the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, FL. Here are some of the benefits they saw: 

• Significant cost savings from a reduction in unresolved field issues
• Dramatically reduced the number of change orders
• Improved coordination with fabrication shops and other subcontractors by providing instant access to more than 1TB of laser scan data
• Kept complex multi-discipline project teams working smoothly together via a single data repository

Barclays Center – managing a complex team and staying on a tight schedule

AECOM built this this 19,000-seat, entertainment and sports facility as a design-build project, adding speed and schedule pressures to a complex project team makeup that included government agencies, an outside architect for the building façade and upwards of 20 subcontractors.  Keeping each of these stakeholders informed and up-to-speed was critical to keeping the project on track. 

BIM 360 Field was deployed to manage quality and to ensure that the whole team was following a common process for work performed and checked on the project site. According to John Kizior, Global Director, Project Technologies, AECOM, “Typically a project of this size would have upwards of 9-11% of the project in unresolved field issues that could result in change orders. Because of our utilization of BIM 360 Field, we were able to hold that to only five major conflicts.”

Hard Rock Stadium – better decision making through accessibility to data

Success of this three-phase project – including renovations, new suites, bars and clubs, and a new canopy superstructure – relied heavily on consistent, up-to-date access to data. For example, as a renovation, the entire stadium was laser scanned – generating over 1 TB of data. When the project started, this data was being shared back and forth between project team by mailing hard drives – leading to potential cost and time delays.

After deploying BIM 360 Glue, all of this data was moved to the cloud and became accessible on mobile devices – meaning that the data could be more easily shared with fabrication shops and other project team members all at the same time. This helped to eliminate discrepancies and allowed the project team to make decisions much faster.

“Prior to BIM 360, the sharing of data was a full-time job. Not only are we able to have anytime, anywhere access to one data repository, but everyone knows that’s the latest data. Everyone comes to BIM 360 to make decisions.” – Russ Dalton, Global BIM Director, Americas, AECOM

Autodesk & AECOM – Partnering for success

Based on the success of BIM 360 Field & Glue, BIM 360 is now deployed by AECOM on 100 active projects.

John Kizior summarized, “Having an Enterprise Business Agreement (EBA) with Autodesk allows us to bring the pipeline of innovation and knowledge back to AECOM, and visa versa.  We know that Autodesk is really looking to us to help them understand better how we are using the tools in the industry. And what we’re doing to be innovative. And we’re seeing that being brought back into their tools."

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