Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
YUGEN REALTY, SURAT
Imagine it is a scorching summer afternoon and you are standing on the 10th floor of a multi-storey building under construction.
Work for slab shuttering for tomorrow’s concrete pouring is in full swing, and you suddenly have an urgent need for the MEP Plan of that floor to place plumbing and AC sleeves.
You search through WhatsApp chats in your mobile, check emails, but that specific file is not found anywhere.
You call the office, and find out that the person who has the drawing is currently on a lunch break and will only be able to send you the file after an hour. This is a situation that every engineer, architect, or contractor working on-site must have faced at some point or another.
Due to the lack of just one small drawing, laborers sit idle for hours and the project deadline gets disrupted. Often it even happens that the designer says they sent the drawing prints to the site two days ago, but no one knows where it disappeared to on the site.
Identifying The ‘Latest’ Drawing
Moreover, the problem is not just about not finding the drawing, but also about identifying which drawing is the ‘latest’. In our office system or on our laptop, there lies a hoard of files with names like :
- “10th Floor MEP Layout Updated”
- “10th Floor MEP Layout Final”
- “10th Floor MEP Layout Finally Final”
The funny thing is that all these files claim to be ‘final’!. As a result, you have to open every file one by one to see it, check the dimensions inside, and compare them with old drawings.
In this mental struggle and searching, precious hours are wasted and, in the end, a doubt remains in the mind : “Is this really the latest version?”.
Furthermore, when you go to check brickwork on-site, you open the same file named ‘final’ with confidence that you just barely found and get the work done according to it, and later suddenly realize that the drawing you trusted to get the work done was a month-old version!.
Changes were made in the beam depth or the wall location had shifted, but you were deceived in tracking that design change. Due to this small searching laziness or confusion, the entire hard work, time, and material go to waste.
Centralization of Information : Single Source of Truth
All these difficulties are created due to the lack of immediate coordination or Real Time Integration.
Can we really not create an arrangement where every person associated with the project always has the correct and latest drawing available?.
To increase efficiency in the construction industry, this issue is worth considering very seriously.
And that is when the need arises for information reliability : “Data Reliability, Data Authenticity, and Data Accuracy”. In short, “Centralization of Information” or “Single Source of Truth”.
‘Single Source of Truth’ means SSOT. Understand it as a registrar office for these drawing-like documents; when you need a copy, you can get a guaranteed correct copy from there.
Similarly, this is a platform where all project details, drawings, and documents are stored in a single central place.
In today’s digital age, when we can do banking or shopping from anywhere, then why should we wait for someone’s phone or email for a drawing on-site?.
An effective cloud-based platform gives you this facility so that whether you are on-site, in the office, or in a meeting, the latest project details are available right on the phone or tablet in your hand.
Rooting Out Version Confusion
The biggest enemy in the construction sector is – ‘Version Confusion’. Seeing the way files with names like ‘Final’, ‘Very Final’, or ‘Final 1‘ are filled in our system, finding the correct drawing is like chewing iron chickpeas (an uphill task).
The SSOT platform roots out this problem from its foundation. Here, every drawing has a clear history.
If a change occurs in a design, the system automatically archives old versions and keeps only the newest drawing in front. This ensures the engineer that the drawing they are looking at is indeed the correct and final one.
Modern Technology : QR Codes and Filtering
Modern technology has now made it possible to verify drawings through ‘QR Codes’. Imagine you have a printed drawing on-site, but you have a doubt whether it is the latest or not.
You just scan the QR code on it and an alert immediately appears on your mobile screen saying “This is not the latest version, please see the new version”. This technology not only saves time but also prevents mistakes worth lakhs of rupees.
Additionally, through the advanced filter facility, you can find a file of a specific floor or a specific discipline (such as architecture or structure) from thousands of files in seconds.
However, just having the drawing available is not enough; it is also just as necessary to know why that change was made.
Often at the end of the project, a client or auditor asks why the size of a certain beam was changed. At that time, we do not have any specific proof.
In the SSOT platform, along with every change, its ‘Changelog’, meaning the reason and time of the change, is recorded.
This transparency increases trust among all parties associated with the project – the designer, client, and site team – and prevents unnecessary arguments or fights.
Project Handover and Digital Preparedness
Entire project documentation at just one click. The biggest challenge after the completion of construction is ‘Project Handover’.
When the client asks for a complete set or binder of all ‘As-Built’ drawings and documents after the project is finished, engineers have to spend hours and days searching for the latest versions from thousands of files.
Often it happens that old drawings are given in a hurry, which creates difficulties during maintenance in the future.
The Single Source of Truth platform changes this process in just ‘one click’. You can prepare a compiled data set of the entire project at any time, which adds a feather to your professional working style.
Not just for sharing drawings, these platforms are also indispensable for professional communication.
Instead of sending files on WhatsApp, when you send a formatted email with organized tables, links, and a changelog to any consultant or team member, the specific purpose and history of every file are clearly understood by the person opposite.
This kind of transparent information exchange makes misunderstandings in the project negligible.
Customer Satisfaction and Future Ready
In the modern age, customer satisfaction now means not just handing over the building, but also equipping it for the future.
Today’s smart developers provide small QR codes on handover files or on the walls of the house, so that the customer can scan with their mobile to see where the piping is behind the wall or from which drawing their house was built.
This technology generates trust among customers and creates a modern impression of your brand.
The construction sector is now on the verge of change. Old and chaotic filing systems are now becoming a thing of the past.
Now platforms like ‘Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC)’, ‘Civil QR’, and ‘Bricsys 24-7’ are available which provide all these facilities.
Using these platforms is now not just a luxury but a demand of the time.
If we want to complete the project on time, within budget, and with minimum mistakes, there is no choice but to adopt ‘Single Source of Truth’.
This harmony with technology will establish us as an efficient engineer or developer.
Would you like me to create a summary table comparing traditional drawing management with the SSOT approach mentioned in the text?
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Disclaimer : This information has been collected through secondary research and Yugen Realty Newspaper is not responsible for any errors in the same.
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