US-20260127549-A1 - GENERATING AN INSTALLATION WORK PACKAGE BASED ON BLOCK BOUNDARIES ESTABLISHED BY A VIRTUAL GRID

US20260127549A1US 20260127549 A1US20260127549 A1US 20260127549A1US-20260127549-A1

Abstract

A method and computer program product may include or cause the performance of various operations. The operations include accessing a construction work package that identifies a plurality of construction drawings that are collectively necessary for physical execution of a construction project covering a construction work area (CWA), wherein each construction drawing includes the design of one or more components and a location within the CWA for each of the components. The operations further include generating a virtual grid overlaying the CWA, wherein the virtual grid divides the CWA into a plurality of blocks having defined boundaries. Still further, the operations include generating, for one or more blocks, an installation work package that includes the construction drawings from the construction work package that are necessary for physical execution of that portion of the construction project within the construction work area that is within the defined boundaries of the block.

Inventors

Darrin C. Jones

Assignees

Darrin C. Jones

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20241107

Claims (20)

1 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium and program instructions embodied therein, the program instructions being configured to be executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform operations comprising: accessing a construction work package that identifies a plurality of construction drawings that are collectively necessary for physical execution of a construction project covering a construction work area, wherein each construction drawing includes the design of one or more components and a location within the construction work area for each of the components; generating a virtual grid overlaying the construction work area, wherein the virtual grid divides the construction work area into a plurality of blocks having boundaries; and generating, for one or more blocks, an installation work package that includes the construction drawings from the construction work package that are necessary for physical execution of that portion of the construction project within the construction work area that is within the boundaries of the block.
2 . The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the virtual grid establishes an x-axis and a y-axis, wherein the boundaries of each block are established by a range of x-coordinates and a range of y-coordinates, and wherein the installation work package includes some or all of the construction drawings that have a location with an x-coordinate within the range of x-coordinates for the block and a y-coordinate within the range of y-coordinates for the block.
3 . The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein each block has the same dimensions along the x-axis and the same dimensions along the y-axis.
4 . The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein generating a virtual grid overlaying the construction work area includes automatically generating the boundaries of each block based on a predetermined origin for the virtual grid and a predetermined block size that is repeated across the construction work area along the x-axis and the y-axis.
5 . The computer program product of claim 1 , further comprising: identifying a monument having a known physical location relative to the construction work area, wherein the origin of the virtual grid has a predetermined location relative to the known physical location of the monument.
6 . The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein each construction drawing is a digital drawing file associated with metadata identifying the x-coordinate and y-coordinate of each of the one or more components included in the drawing.
7 . The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the metadata associated with each construction drawing further identifies the materials necessary to construct the one or more components included in the construction drawing.
8 . The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the metadata associated with each construction drawing further identifies the equipment and/or tools necessary to construct the one or more components included in the construction drawing using the identified materials.
9 . The computer program product of claim 8 , further comprising: verifying, for the one or more blocks, that the identified materials and the identified equipment and/or tools are available prior to generating the installation work package.
10 . The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the metadata associated with each construction drawing further identifies an estimated number of man-hours required to construct the one or more components included in the construction drawing.
11 . The computer program product of claim 10 , further comprising: receiving user input setting a number of man-hours of work to be included in the installation work package for each block; and determining the size of the plurality of blocks based on the input number of man-hours.
12 . The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein, for each of a plurality of trade disciplines, the metadata associated with each construction drawing further identifies an estimated number of man-hours of the trade discipline required to construct the one or more components included in the construction drawing.
13 . The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the operation of generating an installation work package includes identifying, for each of the plurality of trade disciplines, a subset of the construction drawings of the installation work package that require the trade discipline.
14 . The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the metadata associated with each construction drawing further identifies a sequence code that indicates an order in which the one or more components of the construction drawing are to be constructed relative to the one or more components of other construction drawings within the same block.
15 . The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the operation of generating an installation work package includes identifying, for the one or more blocks, a subset of the construction drawings within the block that have a lowest remaining sequence code among the construction drawings within the block.
16 . The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the meta data associated with each construction drawing further identifies an elevation of the one or more components in the construction drawing.
17 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the operation of generating an installation work package includes identifying, for the one or more blocks, a subset of the construction drawings within the block that have a lowest remaining elevation among the construction drawings within the block.
18 . The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the virtual grid is formed by a two-dimensional cartesian coordinate system.
19 . The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the virtual grid includes a plurality of grid areas, wherein each grid area is identified by a grid area column designator and a grid area row designator, and wherein each grid area includes a subset of the blocks identified by a block designator.
20 . The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the installation work package for one or more blocks is generated in response to user input identifying the one or more blocks for which the installation work package is requested.

Description

BACKGROUND The present disclosure relates to construction management, including the use of advanced work packaging software applications to manage and schedule construction work. BACKGROUND OF THE RELATED ART Construction project management is a professional service that includes effective management of a project's schedule, cost, quality, safety, scope and/or function. Essentially, construction project management may include any aspect of oversight over a construction project. A set of best practices for construction project management is known as “Advanced Work Packaging” (AWP). Advanced Work Packaging is the systematic application of proven construction practices that enable productive activity. These practices guide the division of project scope to support the execution of workface planning across the construction work area (CWA). Engineering work packages and procurement work packages are combined to form a construction work package (CWP) that identifies all of the drawings, equipment and materials needed for execution of the construction project. An information manager is responsible for developing procedures that will guide the generation and management of project data. A construction manager or construction team may then divide the construction work package into multiple installation work packages (IWPs). However, workface planning (WFP) is a process performed by a workface planning coordinator to identify the drawings, equipment and materials needed by a construction foreman and their trades people to perform the actual construction of some part of the construction project. Having the necessary drawings (documents/information), equipment (tools) and materials (supplies) available at the appropriate time leads to an increase in productivity and keeps the construction progress on schedule. Evidence suggests that these practices also lead to increased safety performance and higher quality construction. BRIEF SUMMARY Some embodiments provide a computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium and program instructions embodied therein, where the program instructions are configured to be executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform various operations. The operations comprise accessing a construction work package that identifies a plurality of construction drawings that are collectively necessary for physical execution of a construction project covering a construction work area, wherein each construction drawing includes the design of one or more components and a location within the construction work area for each of the components. The operations further comprise generating a virtual grid overlaying the construction work area, wherein the virtual grid divides the construction work area into a plurality of blocks having defined boundaries. Still further, the operations comprise generating, for one or more blocks, an installation work package that includes the construction drawings from the construction work package that are necessary for physical execution of that portion of the construction project within the construction work area that is within the defined boundaries of the block. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system in which a user computer can access and utilize an advanced work packaging (AWP) software application according to some embodiments. FIG. 2 is a diagram of a computer or server according to some embodiments. FIG. 3 is a diagram of a plot plan for a construction project for which a construction work package (CWP) has been prepared using the advanced work packaging software application. FIG. 4 is a diagram of a virtual grid overlaying the plot plan of the construction project according to some embodiments. FIG. 5A is a table representing the content of an installation work package (IWP) that portion of the construction project located with block 3C03 of the virtual grid. FIG. 5B is a construction drawing for a first pipe located within the block 3C03. FIG. 5C is a construction drawing for a second pipe located within the block 3C03. FIG. 5D is a construction drawing for a third pipe located within the block 3C03. FIG. 5E is a construction drawing for a fourth pipe located within the block 3C03. FIG. 5F is a construction drawing for a fifth pipe located within the block 3C03. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Some embodiments provide a computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium and program instructions embodied therein, where the program instructions are configured to be executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform various operations. The operations comprise accessing a construction work package that identifies a plurality of construction drawings that are collectively necessary for physical execution of a construction project covering a construction work area, wherein each construction drawing includes the design of one or more components and a location within the