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Massive civil engineering projects in the past 20-30 years
have transformed Hong Kong into a major metropolitan city in
the world. Despite the outlook of these amazing engineering
products, these projects also triggered tremendous economic
growth in the area of transportation and logistics.
It is not difficult to imagine how these projects involve millions
of documentation in terms of correspondence, drawings and submissions.
And this is where eProjectDM comes into place to help organization
to better organize and manage their documents.
Document handling in construction projects in Hong Kong
Competition in construction industry is quite intense; corporation
not only competes with each other in terms of cost, but also
competing with tight project timelines. Any miscalculation or
miscommunication induces latency, which translates into unpredictable
loss. Therefore, each document transmission and its approval
play a key part.
According to T3 Road Works Senior Resident Engineer Mr. David
Kwan of Maunsell Consultants Asia Ltd., for every design and
project submission, it involves a good number of managers to
review and sign in order to be approved. Traditionally, a submission
circulation and approval could take more than three weeks, and
in many occasion, submissions can lose track which then induces
delay and loss.
IT application to improve efficiency
In order to improve efficiency in document handling, T3 project
has employed the eProjectDM Document Management System built on
IBM Domino technology. eProjectDM utilize an proficient OCR (Optical
Character Recognition) engine to speedily identify and recognize
the document. Document will then be neatly organized into corresponding
folders for easy retrieval. Users can then use a typical Internet
browser such as Internet Explorer to search and retrieve such
document. eProjectDM also provides a universal viewer which enable
users to conveniently view technical drawings, project timeline
and any kinds of submission instantly anytime, anywhere.
Mr. Kwan also described, users now views, comments and approves
the submission using the system, drastically reduced the approval
cycle time to 2-3 days. The system has also massively reduced
paper usage, which reduces cost and improves environmental protection
in Hong Kong
Mr. Kwan further added, the eProjectDM implementation took
no more than 1 month from installation to system up and running.
Mr. Kwan addressed that Wincas had sent a number of qualified
technician to fine tune the system and conducted meticulous
training before the implementation was called complete.
When asked about the bottle neck of the system implementation,
Mr. Kwan pointed out that the system basically fulfilled all
the requirements, it is the matter of how staff can effectively
adapt to the new system. As in this project, staff ages from
20 to 60, some staffs, especially the younger staffs, can more
effectively adapt to the new system, and older staff usually
takes a longer interval to adapt. Basically, the system has
been adjusted to most employees and the turn around time for
each submission has been drastically reduced.
In Summary
Proven IT solution such as eProjectDM can effective aid traditional
civil engineering projects to better manage not only documents
but also project cost. It would be a practical trend for many
or most construction projects in Hong Kong to employ such system.
Before and After Comparison Table
| |
Before |
After |
| Submission handling method |
Physical folders and cabinets |
eProjectDM Document Management System |
| Submission handling time |
2-3 weeks |
2-3 days |
| Submission handling tools |
Folders, Copiers |
Computers, Server and Scanners |
| Submission storage and archiving |
Gigantic cabinets |
Centralize digital storage |
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