Skip to content
ENR 3 D Model
Article |

ENR: "Optimizing Project Success through 3D Design-for-Fabrication"

ENR: "Optimizing Project Success through 3D Design-for-Fabrication"

A column written by Samir Emdanat, Ghafari’s Director of Management Services, recently appeared in Engineering News-Record. Titled “Optimizing Project Success through 3D Design-for-Fabrication”, the article discusses the critical elements for a successful 3D design-for-fabrication process that allows project owners to achieve their schedule, cost, and quality goals. A 3D design-for-fabrication approach synthesizes the project process with the specific objective of fabricating the design directly from the 3D model (as opposed to 2D drawings derived from the 3D model), requiring careful strategic planning and a more integrated form of contracting.

As Samir writes, the key elements for success include:

  • Assembling a core integrator group as a subset of the project team
  • Identifying a core-group champion from the owner level who is responsible for aligning the project team with the owner’s vision
  • Optimizing the project process through collaborative planning that aims to ensure clarity in the content and timing of task handoffs
  • Training the project team in the process and its supporting technology
  • Developing relational contracts that maximize collaboration

“Using the design-for-fabrication concept in conjunction with collaborative planning and other lean methodologies, owners win,” he says. “They get what they want, for the price they are willing to pay, and within the time frame they have defined. Under conventional methods, at best, they might get two of these. The team wins as well. Its resources are freed from performing many non-value-added activities traditionally required to deliver or exchange information…with less time spent on non-value-adding activities, the team can use its limited resources to explore more options, do more analysis, and use its resources more effectively to deliver value to the owner.”

Read the full article here.