2012 No. 49

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Going Mobile

Burns & McDonnell is adding value to the planning, design and construction of some of the most steadfast and sedentary projects on the planet — by going mobile.

Wireless devices empower the efficient and effective delivery of new power plants, transmission and distribution lines, military installations, data centers, highways, sewers, processing plants, refineries and dozens of other projects.

Tablets, iPhones, iPads and other devices serve as vehicles driving increased safety, accuracy, speed and overall value for planners, engineers, inspectors and others on the job, as professional services build upon conveniences and upgrades that are popular among consumers.

“Everyone expects that everything they can do on their phones, they can do in other realms of their lives,” says Steve Santovasi, a senior GIS specialist in the New England office of

Peter Lockwood, field environmental compliance manager in the New England office, uses an iPad to document installation of overhead transmission lines. “We can take pictures, upload them and send them right back into the office in a matter of minutes for them to review,” he says. This fall, Burns & McDonnell deployed nearly 100 iPads with field personnel working on four projects in the region.

Burns & McDonnell. “In the business realm, people expect all the same functionality.”

They’re getting it, too.

Touch-Screen TechnologyCommon applications that enable mapping, directions, data tables, calendars, photos, discussions and comments — all immediately at hand, with the touch of a screen — no longer are limited to the personal lives of seemingly everyone everywhere.

Burns & McDonnell is at the forefront of applying new and upgraded applications at work. Mobile devices increasingly are used on projects to track timetables, trace tasks and tackle matters ranging from the technical to the tabular, all with a focus on the overall mission: making clients successful.

Clients and their consultants rely so heavily upon the high-speed and ultra-accurate results that they can’t imagine turning back.

“The technology becomes quickly ingrained,” says David Smith, who oversaw use of pen tablets by more than 100 monitors working on environmental compliance for the Sunrise Powerlink project in Southern California. “It’s almost addictive.”

Inspectors, technicians, public involvement personnel and others at project sites find themselves free from physical limitations. They no longer need to haul around printed maps, binders of property-owner data, or boxes of contracts, notebooks or other project documents.

They’re all in the palms of their hands.

“Tablets provide the user with a fully functioning, lightweight PC that can store gigabytes of data to support the field effort,” says Bryan Claxton, an associate project manager at Burns & McDonnell. “Users would never be able to carry that amount of hardcopy information to the field,

Wireless Devices Help Trace, Track and Tabulate Work — Faster and More Accurately Than Ever

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but the tablets put that key project data at their fingertips.”

Real-Time AccessibilityBy combining devices with an Internet connection, or even just GPS coordinates, users can turn their work — what previously had been hours of first-hand notes, observations and contacts — into readily accessible information for all those who need it, as quickly as possible.

No more transcriptions. No more conversions. No more sitting up in a hotel room until after midnight entering data into a laptop for future use.

That’s because the information already is in the system, uploaded either as soon as it was saved in the field or once the device can connect to the Internet.

“That saves an hour to two hours per day,” says Don Draper, senior information management specialist in the New England office, where he’s responsible for research-and-development efforts on mobile devices.

“And we can’t overestimate the value of the quality of the information,” says Chris O’Grady, department manager for the Information Management Group in New England. “We’re able to save time out in the field, as well as provide more accurate data.”

And provide access. For a project with AltaLink — in an area with limited Internet connectivity in Calgary, Alberta — Burns & McDonnell created a mobile constructability application that includes electronic maps loaded onto iPads. The images allow field personnel to pinpoint their locations, document field conditions and guide rights-of-way surveys by helicopter.

On the Sunrise Powerlink project, data from on-site observations went directly into a database owned by San Diego Gas & Electric and administered by Burns & McDonnell.

From there, project decision makers and other key participants shared data on a web map, thanks to a secure network deployed by Burns & McDonnell.

The mobile-driven system kept hundreds of project participants informed, with all data shared within 24 hours of initial observation.

“The ‘old’ method of sending information to GIS for new map production had a lag time of one to two weeks, depending on the urgency of the request and the GIS workload,” says Smith, department manager for the Information Management Group in the Southern California office of Burns & McDonnell. “In fact, we just about put the GIS support on the project out of business because they stopped getting map requests for routine work. Everybody had embraced the electronic tools and was creating their own maps.”

Looking into the Future

“Things are escalating and accelerating. Within three years, you’ll see the demise of things like laptops. It’ll be very, very specialized. Everyone will have a mobile device. Certainly, within our company, everyone will need one.”

Chris O’Grady, department manager for the Information Management Group in the New England region

“Access to the network, to the Internet, is an issue. I think in a few years that issue may go away as cellular service becomes more widespread or other communication protocols become more available, but I don’t see the form factor changing a whole lot. Most people are not accustomed to typing on small devices in the field. I don’t see the form factor getting much smaller and still being useful for field work.”

Don Draper, senior information management specialist, New England

“Decision-makers come to expect highly responsive data-collection tools and 24/7 access to up-to-date information. Many people seem to forget that not so long ago we lived in the Paper Age, when field visits required rolls of printed maps and binders full of spreadsheets. This portends a growing dependency on technology, as well as a growing expectation of data speed and efficiency.”

David Smith, department manager for the Information Management Group in the Southern California region

Tools of Technology Examples of uses at Burns & McDonnell for mobile-application tools: • Pavement assessments • Environmental monitoring • Transmission line routing • NERC compliance • Airport fueling system audits

• Encroachment/stakeholder management • Public meetings • Construction safety tracking

and monitoring • Punch listing/commissioning • Environmental cleanup • Construction status tracking

• Facility audits

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Such overwhelming familiarity helps folks like Ryan Boyce, a senior programmer and analyst at Burns & McDonnell. He combined existing products with client-specific needs to create a new iPad app for use on a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: tracking, documenting and reporting data associated with missile launch and alert sites in line for decommissioning and demolition.

The app, dubbed iSilo, gives crews visiting the contract’s 113 targeted facilities in Montana, Wyoming and California a handheld vehicle for gathering and communicating information. Crews use iPads to take photos, gather observations and note site conditions — all to be combined, automatically, into site-specific reports for later examination by potential demolition contractors.

That may sound complicated, Boyce says, but the app is anything but.

“You don’t have to sell users on a technology that’s new. You don’t have to sell them on something that they already like carrying around with them,” says Boyce, who spent less than a week writing the app and refining its features. “They’re already sold on it, because they already have it and they already know how to use it. We’re just building upon that.”

For more information, contact Robert Wolfe, 203-949-2333.

Such technology indeed is becoming pervasive at work, with 97 percent of general contractors nationwide employing mobile devices at their work sites, according to an August survey conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction’s Industry Insights group. The survey found that 87 percent of subcontractors use mobile devices on site, a share that subs expect to be 91 percent by 2015.

Technology on TargetAside from their increasing usefulness — in addressing problems, enabling communication and sharing important documents and revisions, according to the survey — the devices carry another persuasive reason for use on the job: They’re familiar.

Not only does the number of wireless devices in the country now outnumber the actual number of people, but nearly seven of every eight firms surveyed by Industry Insights report that they allow their employees to bring their own personal devices to job sites. Turns out those personal iPhones, Androids and tablets can provide a welcome boost in productivity at minimal cost, managed through proper procedures and protocols.

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Chain link fences, antennas and modest buildings scattered across the barren landscapes of Montana, Wyoming and California only hinted at the latent Armageddon below: dozens of nuclear warheads and the massive intercontinental ballistic missiles equipped to carry them, at 15,000 mph, to assigned coordinates for detonation up to 6,000 miles away.

For decades the massive concrete silos and missile alert facilities would stand ready during the Cold War, steadfastly deflecting scans from overhead satellites and rebuffing spies anxious to peer underground.

Such caverns containing secure computers, fail-safe doomsday systems and the steadiest of personnel — all tirelessly trained to carry out the most grave of orders — would be all but off-limits to the outside world and its mounting threats, protected every minute of every day by a 110-ton launch door capable of absorbing a direct missile strike.

Turns out they’re no match for an iPad empowered with a new information-absorbing app.

“It can be pretty powerful,” says Perry Ryan, a project manager in Aviation & Facilities at Burns & McDonnell.

iSilo

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Mobile Advantages

The top nine ways that mobile devices

boost productivity on job sites, according

to a survey of general contractors

conducted in August by McGraw-Hill

Construction’s Industry Insights group:

1. Address site problems efficiently

2. Improve communication by main office

3. Increase collaboration

4. Share project documents and revisions

5. Communicate with owners

6. Gather real-time field data

7. Work with specialty trade contractors

8. Improve ability to manage workforce

9. Improve project schedule

“The technology becomes quickly ingrained. It’s almost addictive.”

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Ryan relies on such mobile technology as he leads the company’s assigned mission to prepare for, document and design the decommissioning and demolition of 103 launch facilities and 10 missile alert facilities — bastions that had spent decades as part of the United States’ nuclear arsenal.

The sites — 50 in Montana, 50 in Wyoming and three in California — are part of an extensive package being developed by Burns & McDonnell for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which plans to seek bids from demolition contractors in early 2013.

Documenting for DestructionHelping document the specifications, site conditions and others factors is iSilo, a proprietary iPad app developed by Burns & McDonnell. Its purpose: Arm the company’s on-site personnel with a simple and seamless system for compiling easy-to-understand information about what once had been some of the most sensitive operational data in the U.S. military.

To chart access roads and document gate conditions, erosion-control features and everything else still waiting below ground, Burns & McDonnell personnel simply follow instructions on their iPads — checking boxes here, snapping photos there, adding notes when necessary.

The app assigns GPS coordinates to every photo, drawing or notation regarding pumps, switches, pipes, cables, wires and anything else a demolition contractor might be interested in. That way, a prospective bidder will be able visit a few sites to see things firsthand, then review reports containing detailed observations for the others before making a solid proposal.

“Say a dozen contractors are looking at it,” says Ryan, whose colleagues Jennifer Ross and Jason Picka typically spent an hour gathering information at each site. “The contractors can’t all go drive out and look at more than 100 sites to see all the structures, to see all the access points, to see all the conditions of all the sites.”

But they can see all the fresh, up-to-date and comprehensive reports for each and every site, telling potential contractors just what they need to know, Ryan says. Such disclosures will be expected to lead to better proposals, better schedules and, ultimately, better project execution.

Work by Day, Upload Overnight“We can remove a lot of the unknowns on the project,” he says. “This is good for the government. This is good for the taxpayer.”

The app also proves effective for professionals putting the documents together. Instead of writing notes by hand, shooting photos with a separate camera or relying on personal memory for noting site-to-site differences, the iSilo app makes it easy on the user, Ryan says: Just follow the prompts, shoot the pictures, fill in the blanks and upload the data automatically overnight.

Wake up the next day, and the information is waiting in a Word document for each site, detailing everything in a common format that both invites and enables easy comprehension and comparison.

The hard data, gathered on site and in person, is available at the touch of a button.

“It’s a great tool,” Ryan says.

For more information, contact Perry Ryan, 952-656-3644.

‘iSilo’ App Mobilizes Data for Missile Sites’ Demise3, 2, 1 …

Perry Ryan examines a missile silo with its launch door retracted at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.