The ESPRIT project TOCEE has developed a client server system for concurrent engineering in the construction industry, which supports co-operative, collaborative and simultaneous work in a distributed, heterogeneous network environment. It consists of several specialised servers.

It is designed to support any kind of distributed, extended or virtual enterprises for design, construction planning, construction management and facility management. It follows the STEP methodology and it is based on IFC (Industry Foundation Classes). Technical, business, product and process models are considered together and integrated by a common object-oriented meta model.

Its main novelty is an information logistics system that links the servers together. It is comparable to an information broker, like CORBA, but is vertically extended towards the workflow, project and enterprise level. Together with the contract model and other servers, it provides the necessary enterprise and project knowledge to manage information on a project level. Players are no longer bothered with repeated requests concerning administrative information. The information logistics system is based on an activity model, which is comparable with a project management tool for scheduling. This extends the otherwise static workflow system to a flexible project-planning tool, where the workflow can be refined, modified and extended on demand at any time.

TOCEE is designed for highly concurrent engineering processes, where a one-off product is designed and manufactured, like a building or engineering structure and where the design and construction is carried out by a virtual enterprise, e.g. co-operation between the architect, the structural, HVAC and geotechnical engineers. TOCEE supports distributed working on the Internet, shielding the engineer from data management, data exchange and system handling problems. TOCEE provides a workplace environment where the interactive window to the system is the user's individual work list. TOCEE also provides the tools to schedule tasks and activities and monitor the design and construction process in order to detect very early the potential bottlenecks and pending tasks, before they impact the whole working process.

The system consists of several servers, each designated to a specific task like document management, product data management, conflict management, providing codes, activity management and contract, persons and responsibility management. Each server can act as a server as well as a client of another server.

The document management server has been used by is used at Obermeyer Planen + Beraten (OPB), a 1000 person consultancy company in Munich, for their daily work to manage drawings and other documents for their various design projects. OPB has more than 20 locations, mainly in Germany, but also in Greece, Turkey and China. The first large scale project, where the server was successfully applied to all drawing documents (i.e. for those of the subcontractors, too) was the New Munich Fair, the second largest project in Germany in recent years after the Potsdamer Platz at Berlin. "Both design time and design errors are valuably reduced", said the OPB project manager.

Contact Details: rudolf.juli@opb.de.

The Ground Work Simulation Module ­ GWM was successfully used by D'Appolonia S.p.A (DAP), a big consultant company in Genoa, for their daily business. It was used to optimse the earthworks on several construction sites and managed unforeseen events during construction successfully in a very short time. This led to big savings for the contractor and increased the reputation of the consultancy.

Contact Details: dappolonia@pn.itnet.it.

The project partners are continuing to develop the prototype system and market the individual modules.

For further information contact matti.hannus@vtt.fi at VTT.