*FIATECH 2008*

Creating Sustainable Business Value the "Big Easy" Way: Deploying Innovative Technologies

Specifications Automation - Transforming Engineering Specifications from Static Documents into Intelligent, Electronic Resources

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Leon J. Gorbaty, S&B Engineers and Constructors, Ltd.

Who is S&B?

S&B Engineers and Constructors, Ltd., is a privately held and fully diversified EPC company with an outstanding experience base.

We are a “flat” organization with an ability to react quickly to our customers’ needs.

Headquartered in Houston, minutes from the Houston Ship Channel and Gulf coast industrial complexes.

Commitment to safety, integrity, and superior engineering and project execution.

Technology at S&B

Developing Innovative Technologies...

At the forefront of Information ManagementiPIMS®

At the forefront of Construction AutomationiPIMS®-3D

At the dawn of Engineering Workflow AutomationSpecifications Automation

internet Project Information Management System

Document and Data ManagementDrawings, Specs, P&ID’s, etc.

Vendor Data, Meeting Notes, Action Items, etc.

Data Books, Equipment Lookup, Equipment Datasheets, etc.

Project ManagementControl Lists, Schedules, Equipment Status, Project Status, etc.

Estimates vs. Actuals - Costs & Schedules

Uniform Web access for ALL StakeholdersInternal, Clients, Contractors, Vendors - all use exactly the same system!

iPIMS®

iPIMS® + Your Project = Cost Effective

Easy – Near zero learning curve, intuitive Internet Browsing.

Scalable – Learn and use only the modules required.

Project-specific Customizations are simple.

iPIMS® is not a Stand-Alone Product:We DO NOT sell iPIMS®.We sell Engineering and Construction services.We implement iPIMS® on your Engineering and Construction Projects.

iPIMS® is state-of-the-art in EPC Information Management!

iPIMS®-3DUsed by Construction personnel to plan and create work packages and to “see” the plant in ‘real-time’.

iPIMS®-3D“Right click” on a graphics object to see associated data and documents.

Interfaces with scheduling tools, with visual schedule playback.

Simplified ‘view only’ version available for non-specialists.

3D Model “Walkthroughs” are available.

iPIMS® + iPIMS®-3D

The best of “Graphics” with the best of “Data” - synergizing the best of both worlds.

No one else in the industry has this capability!

Specifications Automation

Proposed New FIATECH Project:

http://www.fiatech.org/projects/proposals.html

Current Situation

Technical specifications form the basis for most plants and engineered equipment.

Creating, maintaining, distributing, and implementing specifications is often a large component of projects and demands the majority of engineering time.

Following specification requirements throughout the plant lifecycle to ensure compliance is often a manual task at best, and an impossible task at worst.

Current Situation (Cont’d)

There are many ‘lineages’ or ‘families’ of technical specifications:

Widely recognized industry standards (API, ISO, ASME...)

Major oil companies, major chemical companies.

Discipline specific.

Contractor specific.

Site specific.

Job specific.

Vendor specific.

Product specific.

Specifications Automation

...The Plant Lifecycle...

Engineering

Procurement

Construction

Operations

Manufacturing

Specs

Codes

StandardsPreferences

Challenges

**!! Specs are Cumbersome !!**

Technical specifications are cumbersome to create, maintain, distribute, and verify.

Clauses reference each other, reference other specifications, supersede other clauses, and sometimes conflict with other clauses.

Preferences and deviations are frequently the most important clauses but are especially hard to track because they are outside of ‘business as usual’.

Some specifications families have grown vast and historically complex.

In rare cases, specification families have become a tangled web of cross-referenced and conflicting information that has to be resolved each time.

Solutions

Technology, tools, applications, and data structures today are sufficiently robust for enabling the “Intelligent Specifications of Tomorrow”.

Specs, by definition, are intended for communicating technical information between organizations.

Let’s collaborate to do this more effectively and more efficiently.

Specifications Automation

Let’s create a harmonized environment for authoring and managing engineering codes, standards, and specifications.

Based on XML and other leading standards.Common, dedicated, and recognizable file type, e.g. “*.spec”.Dedicated ‘spec-smart’ Text Editor.Programmability, Extensibility, and Interoperability tools...

...i.e. “The Automation”...

Uniform look-and-feel for enhanced usability, enhanced readability, and therefore enhanced adherence to technical specifications.

Why Automate Specs?

Making spec information re-usable has tremendous value...

Many concepts that are already being automated today are actually ‘subsets’ of specifications:

Electronic DatasheetsVendor Information RequirementsDesign calculations, limits, and constraints.Test and Inspection Requirements.Installation and Operation Requirements.

All of the above are either chapters or appendices of specs, or are ‘implied’ by spec paragraphs.

Automation at the specifying-document level is the logical superset, i.e. the single-point starting point for all of the above!

How to Automate Specs?

The core concept is that specs become XML documents and spec paragraphs (and charts, equations, etc. etc.) become XmlElements.

Therefore, specification clauses become software objects with attribution and relational capabilities.

Therefore specs become electronically extractable and programmatically accessible.

The implications and applications are infinite!

Example... “If it fits – Wear it”

New Industry Standard For Publishing Specs

The specification for specifications...

XML based on published XML Schema.

Must be a widely accepted, industry-standard schema,, potentially based on AEX cfiXML and/or ISO 15926.

...BUT...

Must be simple, light-weight, and dedicated to specifications automation.

New File Format

XML is text-based - needs supporting resources alongside:

A single “container” file (e.g. “*.spec”) composed of:●

The primary XML payload (text), with:●

Pictures ●

Equations ●

Charts ●

Tables

Similar file-size to typical specs of today (Word, PDF), so that they can be email attachments, printed documents, etc.

Text Editor

In order to perpetuate a new standard we must provide user-friendly tools to help adopt and implement it:

Create a familiar and uniform user interface application for thereading, writing, printing, comparing, and annotating specifications.

Must be a state-of-the art word processor, but “spec-smart” (e.g. automatic paragraph numbering, etc).

Parser and/or other utilities for converting legacy documents from all of the popular file formats.

Support for third-party plug-ins and extension modules.

API / SDK

Application Programming Interface and/or Standard Development Toolkit:

Programmatic interfaces, including but not limited to: Java, C/C++, Visual Basic, and C#.

Enable specifications content to interoperate with other computer applications, databases, and workflows.

Programmability, Extensibility, and Interoperability tools......i.e. “The Automation”...

Programming Examples

foreach (specPara in activeSpec)getInspectionRequirements();

forall specs in activeProjectgetElementsAssociatedWith(“Welding”);

Array allRelatedClauses = activePara.getRelatedParas(recursive = true);

Direct BenefitsUniformity of technical documents.

Interoperability of technical information.

Automatic and accurate revision control.

Tracking and history on an item-level granularity.

Automatic, side-by-side comparisons of revisions and overlays.

Improved familiarity with specifications content.

Resolve/rewrite/optimize complex and interrelated specification families – the more entangled, the greater the benefit!

Derived Benefits

Improved accuracy throughout the plant lifecycle...

Automatic synchronization of related information (e.g. if a spec is revised, resultant inspection plans, datasheets, etc., update automatically).

Improved automation for procurement cycles (specification review, deviations, preferences, agreements...and subsequent follow-through becomes uniform and repeatable).

Improved automation for project management (defining and applying the applicable specs to a project becomes easier).

Imagine that simply declaring a main spec would automatically “pull-in” all specs that it references, and “link-up all related clauses”!!

Specifications Automation

...Deploying Innovative Technologies

...Screen shots of Specifications Automation application under development...

Specifications Editor

Specifications Parser

Linking of Spec Paragraphs

Comparing Specifications Side-by-Side

Linking Datasheets to Direct and Related Specs

Bottom Line

It is to everyone’s advantage to come up with a more robust mechanism for handling technical specifications.

The major standards bodies and large oil/petrochemical companieswill be the most to benefit and should be encouraged to take thelead in publishing “The intelligent technical specifications of tomorrow”.

Let’s Automate...let’s collaborate...

Proposed New FIATECH Project “Specifications Automation” –check it out - get involved.

The automation of technical specifications is a mountain that can be moved ... one XML Object at a time…