Office and construction site work together seamlessly through online cloud platform

For years, Byldis has been the player when it comes to precast concrete projects at home and abroad. The company's projects include London City Island (ten residential towers) and Hourglass on Amsterdam's Zuidas, as well as the entire engineering, calculation and production of the precast concrete structure and facade for the Zalmhaven Tower in Rotterdam, the largest precast residential tower in the world. "The world is becoming increasingly digital," says Stefan Kauffeld, information manager at Byldis. "Sharing and reusing information is becoming increasingly important. That's why we looked at the best solutions in terms of BIM, cloud collaboration and the use of new techniques, such as Augmented Reality."

That Byldis operates at the top of the market as a precast builder is evident from the projects in which the company is involved. Kauffeld: "To stay involved in complex precast concrete projects, we have been testing all kinds of innovations for years. We are also engaged in daily pilots to improve the way we do our work. Take BIM as an example: every construction project is different and has its own challenges, which requires close cooperation and good communication. It remains human work, but the software helps to organize the process efficiently and to automate it intelligently where possible. For our precast concrete projects, we therefore design and engineer with Tekla Structures. In our factory, we wanted to digitize and further use Tekla's output. That's how we came into contact with Trimble Connect."

Trimble Connect is a low-threshold cloud platform that allows easy sharing of information on BIM projects. This offers benefits for both internal and external use. Kauffeld: "We place the 3D models that the engineering department creates in Tekla Structures in the Trimble Connect platform. That way, the models and associated information and data are available to anyone we give access to. This means we can also make the 3D models available in the factory. On the shop floor, we have placed workstations with extra-large screens on which we have Trimble Connect running. On the screens, employees can see all the 3D project information from the models, as well as request drawings or combine them into a hybrid model. It is immediately visible how a model or element is constructed, which prevents errors and allows us to work faster and more efficiently than before."

"Colleagues can quickly look up information, get additional insights and can easily share information," Kauffeld explains. "We also ask project partners to participate and share files so that everyone has the latest version and information is not fragmented. In addition, we use the platform as a project portal. This makes information accessible and up-to-date everywhere: in the office, on the project site and even at home or on the road."

Trimble Connect has opened the doors at Byldis when it comes to digitization and automation. "We are now exploring what steps we can take to use Augmented and Mixed Reality to improve our process," says Kauffeld. "Supplier Construsoft offers great solutions for this. For example, we were able to test the XR10, a construction helmet with integrated HoloLens. This shows a 3D model as a hologram. We think we can improve our production process with the XR10 and Augmented Reality on the tablet. Before something is made, we can virtually check whether all elements are in the right place and whether they have been made as intended. In doing so, we raise our quality level and have better documented all phases toward the final product."

The ultimate goal of Byldis is to work paperless and arm without drawings. Kauffeld: "With the new software we will ensure that information is up to date for everyone, is always comprehensible and that the quality of the work and the final product will improve."