PROJECT MANAGEMENT
and some other industries.
The idea has long been a staple of science fi ction, but the rise in tablet devices has sparked a boom in potential applications – and project management on construction schemes is certainly one of them.
Imagine yourself standing on piece of empty brownfi eld land, looking at where a new viaduct or station building will be built. Using a tablet device and augmented reality, you will be able to see what will be there on your screen as you move it around in front of you, linked to the central 3D models and designs, which are all tagged geospatially.
Malone said: “Using that software, we can overlay – or underlay – our 3D models on the reality of what you’re seeing on your vid- eo screen, so you can hold up your iPad, look through it and it will bring in the models.
“You wouldn’t just be seeing a fl at image, you could walk around it, see the underside – and then perhaps see part of the model going straight through the real-life manhole next to you and alter the design accordingly.
“We’ve been asked to test this for buried
lot of form-fi lling and documentation.
services to begin with, but we want to expand that remit. This is something we’re very keen on.”
The team says they have heard of the technology being used on a building construction projects as a marketing tool, with potential investors taken up in a helicopter to ‘see’ a proposed building using augmented reality. It proved a useful tool in that case – and quite the money- spinner. It could tie in especially well with a planned roll-out of iPads to maintenance teams, and Malone sees particular uses with snag detection and close-out, and in asset management.
Snags – those items of work still outstanding at the end of the project that need to be done before hand-back – traditionally involve a
Above: A concept design of the Reading viaduct,
showing how augmented reality could work.
But Malone said: “I was in charge of assessing snagging data on the WCML project at Rugby. One of the things we always wanted to have was photographic evidence of snags being undertaken and closed out. By using augmented reality, each of the snags can be tagged in a geo- spatial location. The man out on site can look through his viewer, see where it is in the distance, and the tag will tell him which way to go and which of three location cabinets to go to for example. It saves him time, and perhaps prevents him crossing more lines than necessary, for example. Once he’s done the work that closes that snag, he takes a photograph of it, sends that straight back to the server, and that snag is closed out, with photographic evidence: no need to sign lots of forms.”
Malone says this is just one of about a dozen potential uses of the technology in project management he has in mind.
He added: “Augmented reality could change the way everybody works on the railways. It’s that important.”
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Simon Pitt of TXM Projects explains why the company chose to work using Concerto Projects.
has implemented Concerto Projects to help its team of project managers control mul- tiple projects at any one time, encompass- ing all areas of on-site installation and rail vehicle care activities for around 50 global customers.
T
Simon Pitt, projects director at TXM Pro- jects Ltd, said: “Concerto Projects allows project managers to keep a ‘passport’ record for each of the engineers available to be as- signed to projects. We currently have sev- eral hundred engineers in the Concerto sys- tem, which integrates into our Competency Management System, ensuring we have the right engineers for the right project.
“We can more easily match the skill sets of our engineers to the requirements for each project from the passport system; every- thing from CVs, apprenticeship papers, training records and a photograph ID. The information is held in one place and can be easily assembled into one document to send to our customers.”
XM Projects, the provider of turnkey project solutions to the rail industry,
Delivering around 20 projects at any one time for train operators (TOCs), train leas- ing companies (ROSCOs) and OEMs (sup- pliers to the industry) on a global scale in countries including Australia, China and across Europe means that a web-based project management system is imperative.
Pitt explained: “The thing that we love the most about Concerto Projects is that it holds all the information we need in one place pertaining to the projects we are working on and it’s web-based, which makes it accessible from anywhere in the world.
“More often than not we’re out of the of- fi ce in client depots and that means that we needed to be able to easily access informa- tion from remote locations – Concerto Pro- jects allows this.
“The project management system holds all the time sheet information relating to time spent by the engineers on the projects which allows us to monitor whether we’re on schedule and also on budget, and allows us to more accurately monitor the project in real time as it progresses, giving us the ability to respond quickly should a project be slipping. It also means we can look at the ‘profi t and loss’ of each project at any point in time rather than periodically.
“Approvals and reviews are also speeded up and business reporting for clients is easy to assemble from Concerto Projects. We’ve also been given the option to grant access to the system for clients, so they can monitor the project being delivered in real time.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit
www.concertosupport.co.uk rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 12 | 31
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