Digital Engineering Drives Change in the Construction Industry
AUCKLAND, New Zealand. Friday 3rd May, 2019. The New Zealand building industry is undergoing significant change; Major construction companies are going under;
Directors are being sued and building compliance is not being met. The recent agreement to the Construction Sector
Accord, signed by Government and the Construction Industry in April 2019, aims to address these issues and bring
efficiency to one of the oldest industries in New Zealand. There is still the question of how this change will be
brought about to create a high performing construction sector for a better New Zealand.
Major construction companies are beginning to adopt Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques as a pathway to
higher performance. BIM is a Digital Construction technique that combine’s information from stages across the
construction and building lifecycle into one single information model. asBUILT Ltd specialise in Digitising construction and are behind many of New Zealand’s major construction projects using these
solutions, including their work on the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC).
Gus Smith, Construction Director NZICC, Fletcher Construction Company Ltd, explains the NZICC as a complex construction
site and “the Biggest vertical construction site in New Zealand with 600-700 workers on site daily”. asBUILT were
brought onto the project to coordinate across the trades, from a digital environment and “to manage the model and
deliver the model” notes Smith.
David Burton, Managing Director of asBUILT comments “Digital construction delivers the opportunity to transform the
Construction sector, by delivering costs savings, speeding up the construction program and enabling major construction
sequences to be digitally simulated”. This approach, using cutting edge technology to digitally build an asset prior to
construction enables key stakeholders to learn in a digital environment and adds Burton, “avoid the costly expense of
mistakes and changes on site”.
Prashanth Ravichelvan, asBUILT’s BIM Manger on the NZICC project explains the Digital Construction process on site,
“asBUILT were able to manage the coordination of multiple subtrades across hundreds of staff on the convention centre”,
adding that “Education of the main-contractors and sub-contractors about the [digital] tools available ensured a great
construction outcome”.
asBUILT combine the latest innovations in Immersive Group Virtual reality, 3D modelling and digital simulation to
coordinate the various different trades in construction from a single information model. asBUILT are demonstrating their
solutions to Industry through New Zealand, in New Zealand’s first Group Immersion Studio, in May and June, to help bring
the change needed to create a higher performing construction sector.
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