Finding answers to engineering document management challenges
Written by Gianluca Ricozzi
Posted on September 04, 2023
I have witnessed firsthand the complexities and challenges in managing the vast number of documents associated with engineering projects. Document management practically never goes smoothly. In the worst-case scenario, employees spend 30% of their working time looking for design drawings, purchase orders, site and safety documents, or quality control plans, to name a few, and are unsure whether they can trust what they find.
There is hope, however – A recent project undertaken by our customer Bonatti S.p.A. shows that interfacing engineering document management (EDM) applications with digital twin software can deliver remarkable efficiency gains by simplifying the document storage and retrieval process.
Understanding engineering document management challenges
Engineering projects generate thousands of documents that require meticulous management, including storage, regular updates, and sharing between clients, suppliers, and construction sites. Project managers, design engineers, procurement managers, construction site managers, and handover staff all rely heavily on the ability to access and manage documentation at various project stages.
Real-time tracking of project progress and maintaining consistent quality standards is crucial for project success while a standardized document structure across all projects and departments within an organization helps to streamline navigation and document management processes. Our customers often site the lack of easy and intuitive access to documentation as another key challenge.
A digital twin solution
A solution that tackles these challenges head-on is interfacing EDMs with the digital twin platform CADMATIC eShare. It provides a single interface that seamlessly combines 3D models and project documentation: we simplify the document retrieval process and improve operational efficiency.
The digital twin can be used to visualize the progress of installations and quality control within the 3D models of the project, allowing for real-time monitoring. This integration also facilitates efficient sharing of up-to-date documents between stakeholders, while standardizing document structures across projects and departments.
Our customer, Bonatti S.p.A., recently successfully interfaced their engineering document management system (EDM by Errevi System) with CADMATIC eShare with excellent results.
As a result of this integration, their employees have direct access to the latest versions of documents, have reduced document consultation times, and have eliminated the need for continuous updating of external repositories. This highlights the power of combining a digital twin solution with your engineering document management system. It has immense potential to streamline your document management processes, enhance collaboration, and optimize project execution.
So what is the catch?
I know several readers have already started asking how long it will take to start using such a solution. In short, you can forget about previous experiences and thinking that a digital twin project will take anything from 12 months up to 2 years! You can literally see the first results of an integration with CADMATIC eShare in days once the documentation and 3D model have been received from the customer. I always love it when my customers are surprised by how quickly I get back to them ready to present the solution.
If you find engineering document management a challenge, get in touch to see whether the CADMATIC eShare digital twin platform may be the answer you’ve been looking for.
