在规避风险的商业合同世界中，很少有公司愿意大力投资于开发自己的项目交付软件，甚至更少选择与同行和竞争对手共享这些创新。
But that is precisely what the leaders at PCL Construction Services Inc. decided to do with the company’s new PartsLab software. It’s a bold business strategy that is raising eyebrows across the industry.
PartsLab is an Autodesk Revit add-in that PCL officials say will revolutionize the way the industry creates and manages construction documentation. The software is a native Autodesk Revit feature that is designed to improve collaboration among project teams and diminish downstream re-creation of models by field staff.
具体而言，它通过大幅度减少创建这些零件所需的时间来自动化修订部分的创建，可视化和变化管理，这是一个手动过程，这些零件可以在数千个中进行数字。目标是减少返工并加快时间表。PCL正在提供Partlab的免费下载，并鼓励其用户的详细反馈。
It is too soon to evaluate the technical success of the software, but its launch has been nuanced and complex. “It was not an easy decision to move forward [with it],” says PCL Construction Services President Deron Brown. “But it was the right decision. We want to make things easier for workers in the field, to improve collaboration. The industry needs to connect those dots.”
由虚拟建筑经理Nick Kurth领导的PCL Construction的技术团队与Autodesk合作开发研究与开发。库斯说：“我们的目的是使整个劳动力能够利用[虚拟]模型。”“我们想将其重新利用以进行实际的现场布局和安装。”
Kurth说，PartsLab从方程式中删除了成为一名复杂的建模者的需求，并允许包括潜艇在内的现场人员对BIM模型本身进行更改。他补充说，研发阶段几乎是“众包”。“我们大力依靠该领域的专家。他们引导我们完成了他们的工作流程，我们必须弄清楚如何优化这些效率。它必须先从那里来。”
Executive-level buy-in is paramount in efforts such as this, Kurth says, along with patience and a high tolerance for mistakes. After the company began using Revit Parts, it took nearly two years to develop PartsLab, and the R&D process went through multiple iterations. “Your execs really have to want to raise the bar,” he says.
“We felt the product would eventually be a success.”
- PCL公司发展总监Cathy Orquiola
此外，财务承诺可能是巨大的。PCL领导者不会透露该公司在研发成本上花费了多少，但是随着行业从经济衰退的出现，技术变革的催化剂是出现的，这是大多数公司新利18备用官网登录收入的时代，包括PCL。
布朗说：“当时要求更大的研发预算要求吞咽。”“很难就技术方面的美元进行进展。而且，总是有可能使自己面临其他风险。但是我们认为，企业必须在其行业中采取更积极的方法来帮助倡导变革。”
有一些很难证明该公司虚拟推动的结果。PCL表示，自2011年以来，该公司最近的返工成本以其质量限制的报告衡量，平均降低了65％。
“The biggest hurdle was that we are not a software company. We’re a contractor,” says Cathy Orquiola, director of corporate development at PCL. Some of the firm’s leadership were uneasy about working in a new arena. But PCL has developed a corporate culture “that doesn’t see failure as a bad thing. We felt the product would eventually be a success and help raise the bar for the entire industry,” she adds.
Orquiola说，Partlab软件很复杂，但是对Revit有一般了解的公司应该能够有效地使用它。大部分开发是由PCL的内部团队完成的，该团队与该领域紧密合作，因为该软件旨在对工作现场友好。“这既是自上而下又是自下而上的情况，”奥基奥拉指出。“每一步都要仔细审查。”
“It’s a very selfless thing for PCL and Deron Brown to be offering this as a free service and not as a piece of intellectual property,” says William P. Nassal, a partner in The Nassal Co., Orlando, Fla. His firm works as a fabricator for theme parks, zoos and other entertainment venues around the world and has collaborated with PCL on several theme-park projects. Nassal says the entrepreneurial rewards of the PartsLab launch will likely outweigh its risks.
Partlab是Autodesk商店中的特色应用程序，已超出其早期使用的目标。PCL将该软件于10月4日提供。Kurtz预计第一年将有100次下载。他说，截至1月，有340次下载，“我们希望这个数字会上升。”
