Documentation and creation of drawings is simply ... a big pain.To build and maintain control, communication and various systems connected in a facility, documentation and related information must be generated, maintained and be readily available during the lifecycle of the related assets.
The classic approach is that such information is created and stored in CAD drawings and documents. Even "smart CAD drawings" though may now be as smart versus new approaches that can result into savings of millions of dollars, especially in the case of large capital projects.
In addition, as information is repeated on several drawings and documents in order to relate various devices to each other, consistency is even more challenging, and with the classic CAD - based approach, the preparation of documentation is slow and inconsistencies appear between documents.
One example - scenario that is that if engineering represents as much as 20% of a large capital project with about 50% of that related to drawings and documentation, then we there is so much room for cost savings. Take a capital project of say 10 million USD, with these practices capital investment and asset lifecycle management costs can be huge as systems grow in size and complexity over time.
A data model - based design can eliminate the pains that a CAD based approach creates, since this approach can deliver.
1. cost savings between 50 and 90% of classic approach over the entire cost of ownership timeline
2. zero documentation errors
3. instant access to all relevant information
4. an auditable history for the complete model
The data model - based approach is applicable to all industries and sector cover documentation of electrical and wiring systems, interconnected assets in telecommunications and networks, data centers, etc.
Comments and questions are welcome.
