In the concrete construction industry, costs are crucial. To keep costs and processes under control, organizations often rely on enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. These financial management and planning solutions eliminate uncertainty and provide answers to the questions organizations must answer, such as "are we in the black or in the red?" and "are we manufacturing on time or are we facing capacity issues?" When combined with building information modeling (BIM), ERP software is an invaluable part of the workflow.
The role of ERPs in industrialized construction is changing.
ERP software is nothing new. For decades, we've been able to find ERP giants on the market that can do practically anything - even manage your movie or book collection at home, if that's how you want to use it. But when it comes to industrialized construction, a solution that can seemingly do everything may not be the best option, as it may lack important specific functionalities. That's why management systems built especially for this type of construction - sometimes also called manufacturing execution systems (MRP, MES or MIS) - have become increasingly important over the years.
ERP and BIM systems are natural complements and together they can create a truly optimized and profitable workflow. ERP is all about money and numbers, while BIM contributes significantly to overall success by providing the ERP software with the right numbers. Think of it this way: if the ERP is the brain, then the model is the data in the brain. And without that data, you can't calculate the numbers or carry out the manufacturing. One depends on the other.
ERP turns information into numbers
This relationship is quite remarkable, not just in industrialized construction, but throughout the BIM world. Many people who didn't "understand" BIM in the past are now able to clearly understand what all the fuss around BIM is about. The information becomes transparent and makes perfect sense. Someone creates a model and, once he or she adds a part to the model, it has characteristics. These characteristics can then be translated into numbers, which can be used in the commercial department to create a proposal. The information is immediately there to be consumed.
With real-time information on quantities, you can, for example, know in advance how many pieces or how many square meters of welded mesh a project will need. Organizations that understand the importance and benefits of BIM bring their ERP experts to the meeting table so that they can start piecing together the big picture and providing cost estimates as early as possible.
Accurate figures mean higher profits
When it comes to integrating BIM and ERP, things are improving all the time. For example, thanks to the work of the IFC4Precast project, the prefabricated construction industry can obtain a single interoperable file format. This means that we will have both production and ERP in a single set of information - previously, they were always parallel, resulting in separate processes. Grouping this relevant information into a single data stream will greatly benefit the industry. Stakeholders throughout the process will be able to work from the same source of information, eliminating the risk of conflicting information and the costs associated with it.
That's the strength of ERP software: having the numbers at hand to formulate an accurate picture of how much money a project will involve. Sure, you can do it the time-consuming way - by calculating the figures from drawings - but at the end of the day, do you trust those figures? When you have an accurate 3D model, your figures will be precise because you're dealing with reality and not an abstraction. Consequently, there is greater certainty that, at the end of the day, you will leave a project with money in your pocket and your company will be more prosperous.
A complete and safe construction journey
The company Kronan, using the Tekla Structures solution in its projects, confirms that process technology based on models with a high level of detail, which only BIM can provide, offers a huge competitive advantage, as well as offering security to clients and collaboration with environmental preservation. Read the full report here.
