The Digital Factory

From Concept to Reality

A Bentley Solution Paper for Automobile Manufacturers
Torsten Rohrlack
Factories Solution Executive
Bentley Solutions
September 2008

www.bentley.com
 INTRODUCTION
Bentley Systems is uniquely qualified to offer automobile manufacturers a flexible,
scalable solution for planning, engineering, constructing, operating, and maintaining
their manufacturing facilities. The Bentley solution for factories reduces costs in
pre-production and compresses time to market. Equally important, by preserving the
valuable data generated from planning and making that data accessible to all stake-
holders, the solution optimizes information management for the lifetime of the facility.

The Digital Factory - From Concept to Reality

Advanced automation, precision robotics, just-in-time delivery – these technologies
represent enormous achievements in automotive production. But in today’s global
business climate, with traditional markets stagnating and competition from emerging
economies increasing, automotive manufacturers must look beyond production to main-
tain their position in world markets. Automotive factories represent a huge percentage
of manufacturers’ total assets and annual investments. Maintaining these facilities to
meet the challenges of changing markets, stringent environmental standards, and a
leaner work force has become more crucial to the company’s success and a lot more
costly. Not only must today’s factories be flexible enough to accommodate multiple
product series and short product lifecycles, but periodically a significant design change
may require a complete reconfiguration, or the construction of an entirely new facility.

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 2

 As important as these facilities are to automotive manufacturing companies, until newly
designed vehicles roll off the production line, new structures and plant reconfigurations
are a liability, not an asset. As a result, manufacturers are seeking to shorten every phase
of production planning, including planning related to the facilities that house production
operations. Additional savings could be realized in operating and maintenance costs, but
these opportunities have been difficult to predict due to variables such as the facility’s
design parameters, the building materials used, and the costs associated with construct-
ing and maintaining the supporting infrastructure. Because each of these variables offers
significant potential for savings, manufacturers would benefit from the ability to access
and analyze all relevant data to better understand where costs could be reduced.

As the workflow moves

forward, dependencies
between individual steps
typically require team
members to access
information about previous
or parallel tasks. In
practice, sharing this
information has
been difficult.

Figure 1: The Bentley factories solution consolidates planning, design, construction, and operational data for the
entire factory lifecycle.

Production facilities represent a large percentage of the automobile manufacturer’s

total assets and yearly investments, and they account for a necessary and significant
portion of overall product costs. Therefore, significant cost savings and improved re-
turns on investment can result from the integration of facility planning and production
planning processes, and the consolidation of operational and maintenance information
into a homogeneous, readily accessible environment.
This is where the Bentley solution for factories can help.
Bentley Systems is the world’s leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive
solutions for the infrastructure lifecycle. With so many resources to draw on, Bentley can
offer a flexible, scalable solution to the automotive industry for planning (including site
selection and layout), designing, engineering, constructing, operating, and maintaining
manufacturing facilities. The Bentley factories solution reduces costs in pre-production
and compresses time to market. In addition, by preserving the valuable data generated
in planning and making it accessible to all stakeholders, the Bentley factories solution
optimizes information management for the entire lifecycle of the facility.

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 3

 The Challenges
Factory planners in today’s business climate realize that success often hinges on the
ability to frontload information. An integrated approach that makes data available as
early as the conceptual stage offers a significant potential for savings. For example, by
querying a database, planners might detect free manufacturing space and avoid new
construction altogether by optimizing existing facilities.
If planners decide that a renovation or a new facility is needed, one of the first steps
is to obtain permits from local authorities. This isn’t always an easy task since new
structures often must comply with exacting standards for external appearance and
Beyond construction, environmental impact. Making matters more difficult, 2D paper drawings may be too
automotive manufacturers abstract to convince either regulating agencies or affected residents. More realistic
would benefit from a and appealing representations – such as those created from fully rendered 3D models
– are much more effective.
completely transparent set
of data generated at every As the workflow moves forward, dependencies between individual steps typically re-
phase of the factory quire team members to access information about previous or parallel tasks. In practice,
lifecycle: planning, sharing this information has been difficult. Though specialists are each working to
construction, operation, achieve the same objective, their individual contributions may be unavailable to other
maintenance, and renewal. team members or, at best, difficult to access in the latest versions. Such information
isolation can result in increased rework, more time and cost for the whole project, and
lower quality. For example, if all members of the design team do not have an accurate
view of the total project, interferences between different systems and structures may
bring about costly field changes during construction.
The 2D approach allows only limited information exchange and results in extensive
changes and rework. Review processes, including those with contractors and fabricators,
require multiple iterations of expensive printed documents. In contrast, the 3D digital pro-
cess enables online reviews and improved communications for the entire team, thereby
minimizing changes and rework. Design team members can work on their assigned areas
concurrently because they have access to the same 3D model. Most importantly, they can
perform design analyses on the master model and discover problem areas before they re-
sult in costly field changes. Further, with engineers, contractors, and fabricators all having
access to the model, the review process is faster, leading to earlier production starts.
Beyond construction, automotive manufacturers would benefit from a completely
transparent set of data generated at every phase of the factory lifecycle: planning,
construction, operation, maintenance, and renewal. They would be able to query a
common repository at any point to improve the quality and economy of their operations.
Manufacturers with multiple locations could compare data among their separate facili-
ties and use it for future planning and improvements.
The factory lifecycle is a combination of discrete processes that demand high integra-
tion and collaboration across various internal departments and external parties. Broadly
speaking, the workflow stages for planning, designing, constructing, operating, and
maintaining a factory are similar throughout the automotive industry; however, each

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 4

 company has its own specific requirements and each project its own set of challenges.
Therefore, solutions must be flexible enough to adapt to each case.

The Bentley Factories Solution

Manufacturers have coined the phrase “digital factory” to designate a network of digi-
tal models, methodologies, and applications used to integrate the planning and design
of manufacturing facilities with the manufacturing process itself. Companies such
as Daimler, General Motors, Volkswagen, and Toyota have made significant progress
toward realizing this vision. Using Bentley’s factories solution, they have designed and
The factory lifecycle starts constructed facilities with fewer delays and cost overruns and achieved a faster start
of production than was possible using previous methods. In fact, Bentley’s factories
with the site planning,
solution has become the de facto standard for most members of the Verband der Auto-
design of the facilities and
mobilindustrie (Association of the Automotive Industry) in Europe.
infrastructure, followed
by the construction
phase, the installation of
machinery, and finally the
start of production.

Figure 2: Digital Factory Planning includes process planning, logistic planning, factory planning and ERP planning.

The factory planning process is central because it typically brings together all the
available as-built information, determines the basic constraints of the complete factory
before detailed planning is undertaken, consolidates information in the final planning
phases, and provides information for manufacturing operations. To create a detailed
factory layout that can be used to construct and operate a manufacturing facility, all
previously created information must be integrated and analyzed. This is the only way to
arrive at an optimal factory layout that supports the manufacturing process, optimizes
space, production, and logistic requirements, links with enterprise resource planning
systems (ERP), and guarantees a high maintainability and profitability.

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 5

 The digital factory concept today focuses on an integrated planning process that in-
cludes product design, process planning, and planning of the manufacturing operation.
Integration shortens the time and delay between these steps and unites the different
planning groups. It offers dedicated tools and makes accurate and up-to-date informa-
tion available to all of the project team members right at the beginning of the planning
phase and throughout operations until the facility is renewed.
Bentley’s goal is full realization of the digital factory vision: to unite planners, designers,
architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, and owner/operators throughout the en-
tire facility lifecycle. This means ensuring that everyone always has accurate information to
Design teams using the make the best decisions for their tasks, regardless of their location, time zone, or discipline.
Bentley factories solution
have been spared With all planning intelligence unified in an accessible form, factory planning becomes
countless hours deciphering a central, enterprise-wide information source instead of an event-driven planning tool.
Factory planning also provides the starting point of factory construction and operations.
abstract 2D drawings, not to
mention weeks and months
of iterative review cycles. How Does the Bentley System Help Factory Planners?
Factory planning normally starts with a decision to produce a new product, move into
a new market, or expand production. A team of specialists defines the required size
and capacity to determine the framework of the new project. Then the factory-planning
team is asked to use these calculations to quickly produce a draft and a realistic esti-
mate of the size of the project, location of the new or renewed facility, and the related
costs. Based on this data, executives will make decisions about whether to build on a
greenfield, reuse existing facilities, buy a facility, or replace an existing one. Then the
detailed planning starts. Two parallel processes are initiated: product and process plan-
ning and factory planning. The related financial and logistic studies are begun as well.
The factory lifecycle starts with the site planning, design of the facilities and infra-
structure, followed by the construction phase, the installation of machinery, and finally
the start of production (SOP), when the factory goes into operation and is supported by
maintenance. Planners have to consider all aspects of the facility, which is much more
than a set of walls housing production. It is a multi-building campus with an infrastructure
as complex as that of a small city. It includes buildings for business offices, equipment
maintenance, and possibly a cafeteria for the workers. Planning needs to cover land to
be surveyed and mapped, terrain to be engineered, roads and often a railroad spur to
be constructed, and a utility infrastructure that must exist in harmony with all the other
systems that support production and factory personnel.

Planning the Factory Site

Multiple disciplines are involved in planning the factory building site. The Bentley
factories solution allows factory planners to study photographs and aerial views and
to integrate maps of the building site and adjacent land into the planning workflow.

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 6

 Bentley supplies tools for demographic studies to determine the impact of the facility
on the environment. Terrain modeling helps the civil engineers on the team make
decisions about grading the land, such as how much dirt to cut or fill and whether
retention ponds will be needed for storm drainage control. Bentley also provides prod-
ucts for placing the utility infrastructure on the site and in alignment with the building
footprint. Since automotive manufacturing requires the capacity to move large quanti-
ties of heavy materials and to transfer finished products to transportation hubs, Bentley
provides applications for designing and maintaining roads and railroads on the site and
connecting them with area transportation networks.

MicroStation is also the Planning the Factory Building

basis of applications for
For designing the factory structure and internal systems − mechanical, HVAC, plumb-
designing the factory site: ing, electric, and communications − the Bentley factories solution offers a full range
imaging, mapping, terrain of architectural and engineering tools for design and analysis. These applications are
modeling, road and railroad scalable and appropriate for projects ranging from renovating a small facility to design-
design, and design of ing a multi-building complex.
utility networks.
Even when designing a simple structure such as a private residence, architects use
automated design tools to detect interferences among water and sewer pipes, steel
beams, gas lines, and electrical networks. Designers using the Bentley factories solu-
tion design structural and utility systems to support the largest and most automated
production lines in the industrial world, where vehicles ranging from golf carts to
eighteen-wheelers are assembled largely by robots. Working with a 3D master model,
project teams can view the facility design on multiple levels and analyze its compo-
nents in relation to the whole. Changes made in one area are reflected throughout the
model and in the supporting documents.
Design teams using the Bentley factories solution have been spared countless hours
deciphering abstract 2D drawings, not to mention weeks and months of iterative
review cycles. They also have avoided the skyrocketing costs of errors discovered
during construction by being able to detect interferences during the design stage.
And they benefited from faster order placement and more just-in-time deliveries to
construction sites as a result of their ability to exchange 3D shop drawings with steel
mills, preformed concrete manufacturers, and other suppliers.

Planning for Ongoing Factory Maintenance

For ongoing operations and maintenance, the Bentley factories solution allows access to
facility-related data from many sources, including the documents, models, and drawings
created in the planning workflow. CAD drawings can be enriched with facilities manage-
ment information, such as cost-center and occupant data, and then used for automatic
area calculation based on a variety of industry standards. Data from other corporate resources
in databases, spreadsheets, and other types of documents can also be integrated into
the data model. Analysts looking to improve operational efficiency are able to query their

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 7

 databases at any point. For example, with access to the calculations used to determine
the type of windows to install, they can confirm that the added expense for more efficient
windows was justified by lower heating and air conditioning costs. In addition, companies
with multiple locations can compare operational costs among facilities and use the infor-
mation for future planning and improvements. And accountants are better able to assign
expenses to particular products, processes and facilities for tax purposes.

What Does Bentley Bring to the Digital Factory?

The Bentley factories solution includes:
The Bentley factories • A large portfolio of applications serving the many design and engineering disciplines
solution provides the in factory planning
framework that enables
• State-of-the-art data management for the entire factory lifecycle
design teams to visualize
the whole automotive • Visualization capabilities for the whole team, including internal reviewers, external
assembly line in the contractors, and regulatory agencies
context of a real-scale
digital factory. Design, Engineering and 3D Modeling
Bentley design and engineering products are based on MicroStation®, Bentley’s flag-
ship product for the design of all types of infrastructure and buildings. Because Micro-
Station is a superb computer-aided design product supporting industry standards and
structured workflows, it is an ideal platform on which to base the many applications
and toolsets required to create a facility as complex as an automotive factory.
MicroStation-based products include applications for architecture, structural and mechan-
ical engineering, electrical engineering, communications, piping, HVAC, and many more
areas for the planning, layout, and construction of the factory building itself. The intel-
ligent 3D modeling capabilities of the MicroStation-based applications allow the project
team to work from a single master model so that team members can see their individual
contributions in relation to the whole and, thus, more easily identify design flaws.
MicroStation is also the basis of applications for designing the factory site: imaging, map-
ping, terrain modeling, road and railroad design, and design of utility networks. MicroStation
applications are used at all stages of the manufacturing facility lifecycle, and can be inte-
grated with other industry-standard applications in the business area, such as SAP.

Information Management
To achieve communications throughout the workflow, the Bentley factories solution
includes ProjectWise, an engineering project team collaboration system. The system
includes server software for caching data in multiple locations, thereby making available
the latest versions of project drawings and documents to all project team members,
including those in remote offices. Changes are automatically reflected in associated
drawings and documents such as bills of materials.

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 8

 ProjectWise allows all team members to view the model as a whole or to isolate spe-
cific components for viewing individually, for example, the separate systems of pipes
carrying the fluids for the production process. Team members can perform individual or
collective reviews, analyze their structures for interferences, and share design com-
ponents throughout the process. ProjectWise can assemble 2D and 3D project content
from hundreds of architectural, engineering, construction, and infrastructure design
applications. It supports multiple industry-standard file formats, including DGN and
DWG, PDF, JPEG, and TIFF, as well as IGES, STEP, and 3DS. In addition, shop drawings
automatically generated in 2D or 3D can be digitally exchanged with contractors and
off-site fabricators, speeding up the approval process and providing more accurate and
comprehensible drawings at the construction site.

An inability to cooperate
with professionals in other Visualization
fields resulted in more time The Bentley factories solution provides the framework that enables design teams to
and costs for the whole visualize the whole automotive assembly line in the context of a real-scale digital
project and contributed to factory. All the accurate geometry information of the assembly line equipment, the
lower quality. complex production processes, and adjustments to the product line can be simulated in
exact 3D models of factory facilities, which are much better than 2D schema. Provided
with rich information from the digital factory model, planners can ensure that all is
correct when the factory is realized, and that no surprises materialize afterward. For
example, Daimler’s Power Wall system, where the design team projected their model
at weekly design review meetings, helped Daimler reduce the interference points from
1,500 to 15 before its new Van Technology Center in Stuttgart was built. It helped them
deliver the project on time and on budget.
The visualization component of the factories solution provides:
• 3D visualization of space efficiency
• 3D real-scale simulation of the assembly process
• Interference (both dynamic and static) detection beforehand
• A decrease in rework, leading to substantial cost savings
• Shortened duration of product line reconfiguration and modification
• Access to accumulated design information for later maintenance

Factories Solution Data Flow

A goal of the Bentley factories solution is to eliminate information isolation. In yester-
day’s design environment, the information for which individual team members were
responsible was very specific, and their focus was on their own needs. An inability to
cooperate with professionals in other fields resulted in more time and costs for the
whole project and contributed to lower quality. For decision makers, the asymmetry
between the information provision and the need to make early decisions brought

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 9

 about painful dilemmas. Inescapably, important decisions having a crucial impact on
later project stages had to be based on insufficient information. The Bentley factories
solution addresses the need for accurate, timely, and accessible data at all planning
stages, including:
• Model creation: Bentley’s factories solution can integrate data from different
sources and use it in the creation of the factory model. So, even at the start of the plan-
ning process, documents and drawings are readily available to decision makers. About
75 percent of today’s engineering data is created as MicroStation DGN or AutoCAD
DWG files. The unique capability of MicroStation to natively read and write both file
formats provides easy access to this data and allows designers to use pre-existing
Shorter meetings and drawings as a starting point. As the various disciplines make their contributions to the
approval cycles and the project, their designs are combined in a single model. MicroStation plus dedicated
ability to work on separate tools and applications – civil engineering, architecture, structural, piping systems, and
design segments HVAC – are used to support the planning team in the creation of the facilities design
and in the layout and planning of the infrastructure. They are also used to create the
concurrently are just some
drawings that may be needed for external and internal reviews.
of the advantages that the
Bentley factories solution
has delivered.

Figure 3: How Bentley supports the data workflow in the factory-planning process.

• Collaboration: ProjectWise, the backbone of the factories solution, offers a system

platform on which all the participants can exchange ideas, supply requested informa-
tion, negotiate design conflicts, and freely engage in other collaborative activities.
Designers can share components of each other’s drawings: structural beams, walls,
columns, HVAC, and piping, for example. Also, the review process is accelerated.
When a drawing is ready for review, the designer sends a notice to the reviewers.
With both designers and reviewers having access to ProjectWise, a reviewer can open
the drawing, make comments, and notify the designer, who then makes the changes.
The updated drawing is immediately available to all team members. Contractors and
construction supervisors can also be notified of last-minute changes – before valuable
skilled labor and materials are committed.

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 10

 • Reporting: The solution uses the information in the project model to generate many
types of reports, including bills of materials and scheduling – all of which are automati-
cally updated to reflect design changes.
• Publishing: The solution includes all the required software for printing and plot-
ting drawings and models. Publishing provides the tools to make the printed drawings
available for the project participants in planning and on the construction site and, at
the same time, available for controlling or reviewing through management. The integra-
tion of these processes and consolidated information in a homogeneous, accessible
environment constitutes a large return and cost-saving potential. The risk of planning
mistakes is lower when more project participants have access to the actual informa-
Only with a complete 3D tion, and the iterations can be faster.
digital building model was The Bentley factories solution creates a collaborative environment that includes not only
the team able to adapt the the project design team but also construction crews, suppliers, and fabricators. Direct
new building to the interior data exchange across the design/fabrication/construction supply chain enables direct 3D
production facilities and modeling data transfer, which can cut weeks from the time-consuming process of order-
match the subterranean ing supplies and off-site fabrication. Later, after the facility is completed, the design and
infrastructure. construction data becomes a valuable asset for the remainder of the factory lifecycle.

Bentley Digital Factory Successes

With support from Bentley, world-renowned automotive companies are making signifi-
cant progress toward realizing the digital factory vision. Daimler, General Motors, and
Toyota, together with their architects, engineers, suppliers and fabricators, have met
compressed schedules, controlled costs, resolved complex renovation challenges and
achieved faster production starts. These implementations demonstrate the benefits
that the Bentley factories solution can bring to the manufacturing facility design work-
flow today, and show that Bentley technology provides a solid foundation for a fully
integrated future.
These are some of the benefits that Bentley users have realized:
• Informed early decisions: The signature characteristics of Bentley’s solution – a
holistic, comprehensible view of the model even in the project’s early stages; the ability
to generate documents and realistic representations; and compatible data accessible to
all team members – help planners make sound design decisions, provide information to
regulatory agencies, and issue reports based on integrated information that is updated
with every design change.
• Meeting compressed design schedules: Automotive manufacturers must use
every means available to squeeze wasted time out of their workflows. Shorter meetings
and approval cycles and the ability to work on separate design segments concurrently
are just some of the advantages that the Bentley factories solution has delivered.
• Optimizing factory layout for production efficiency: Automotive factories,
among the most complex of all manufacturing facilities, pose unique design challenges.

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 11

 The toolsets allowed the
design staff to depict all
elements in their true Figure 4: Building No. 60 for Daimler Gaggenau. Kohlbecker Architekten & Ingenieure developed the working model with
Bentley’s MicroStation, Bentley speedikon Architectural, and InRoads. From this model the construction drawings were
magnitude, removing the easily derived for printing.
abstraction of traditional
drafting practices. Working from a master 3D model helps team members establish compatibility among
the different systems that constitute the structure and avoid costly design errors.
• Faster fabrication and construction: Being able to exchange intelligent 3D
models with suppliers and fabricators allows the design team to compress the approval
process for ordering materials and off-site fabrication. Construction crews working
from detailed 3D models waste less time and make fewer errors than they did when
interpreting multilayered 2D drawings.

Daimler
In 2001 Daimler decided that “all new buildings would be modeled completely in 3D in
order to create the conditions for the process planning vision.” Its target was to reduce
the time for bringing a new or renovated facility online. In planning the Daimler Van
Technology Center, the design team worked from a MicroStation 3D master model rep-
resenting the actual detailing of their project. At biweekly meetings, the participants
reviewed each other’s 3D models displayed on a projection wall and then received their
“homework,” an electronic printout with the coordinates of the clashes and other nec-
essary modifications to be made before the next meeting. Thus, the planners avoided
misunderstandings and the resulting lost time. The 3D views made the results clear
and understandable, and meetings were shorter and more effective.
In 2004 Daimler engaged Kohlbecker Architekten & Ingenieure to design a new
car manufacturing facility at Gaggenau for the manual production of gear boxes for
valuable antique Mercedes-Benz cars. One of their challenges was integrating the
appearance of the building with the existing surroundings. Kohlbecker found that
photorealistic visualizations of the building were “enormously helpful in obtaining
authorities’ approval and to fulfill nearby residents’ aesthetic requirements.” These
presentations were produced from early versions of their 3D models.

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 12

 Figure 5: Daimler’s car manufacturing plant in Gaggenau. The project met three major challenges: planning the two-story
production building, matching existing, subterranean infrastructure equipment within the plant, and the aesthetical
integration of the building into the surrounding townscape.
Use of the ProjectWise
servers was a key factor in Another challenge was designing for production on two levels due to limited space. Only
the success of the project. with a complete 3D digital building model was the team able to adapt the new building to
The team was able to share the interior production facilities and match the subterranean infrastructure. The exist-
the latest information and ing plant had grown for several decades and the area was packed with older buildings.
to minimize the chances Underground, there was a complex infrastructure network with which every new building
of re-work due to the use had to be compatible. A particular difficulty involved the drainage pipes, which ran on
of obsolete versions of the several levels and were not constructed in a simple rectangular grid. Compatibility and
design documents. clash-free construction could not have been established with conventional, 2D drawings,
but were guaranteed by the 3D model in the Bentley factories solution.
Daimler made further strides by integrating its proprietary Factory Planning and
Information System (FAPLIS), based on Bentley’s MicroStation, with its process plan-
ning system, Delmia Process Engineer. Previously, to create a representative layout in
FAPLIS, engineers had to place the planning objects such as robot cells or assembly
stations – already placed in Delmia – a second time. On the planning side, necessary
architectural elements such as walls, columns, HVAC, and so on, had to be acquired or
created even though they already existed in FAPLIS. This duplication of work occurred
several times with each change in planning.
The solution was a productively applicable bidirectional connection between the
systems, both on the geometrical and the structural level. The technical realization
came via the development of a simplified structured tree representation of the Product
Process Resource hub within MicroStation as well as multilevel translation from
geometry between MicroStation and CATIA.

Toyota Motor Corporation

Toyota’s motor manufacturing assembly plant in San Antonio will be one of Toyota’s lat-
est North American manufacturing facilities. When completed, this facility will produce
150,000 full-sized Tundra pickup trucks per year. SSOE, Inc., the architect/engineering
firm for this project, used Bentley’s factories solution to complete the contract documents
for the manufacturing shops and the central plant.
The routing of the utility distribution networks imposed a critical design constraint.
The ducts needed to be placed in specific locations to avoid interferences with the

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 13

 manufacturing process, both of which needed to exist in harmony with the struc-
tural steel systems. Compounding the task of designing these relationships was an
extremely aggressive design schedule, which mandated that decisions about utility
routing be made as early as possible. Bentley’s Building Information Modeling tools
were instrumental in making these decisions. The toolsets allowed the design staff
to depict all elements in their true magnitude, removing the abstraction of traditional
drafting practices. The design team could insure that large diameter pipes, air ducts,
and electrical cable trays were routed in harmony with one another. Using the model-
ing tools as true design tools, designers and engineers were able to resolve conflicts
at both the “micro” and the “macro” level. They completed the contract documents for
manufacturing shops and the central plant in just 60 days.

General Motors
Using the modeling tools In 2004 General Motors selected GHAFARI Associates, LLC to plan and engineer a
as true design tools, series of projects. Its first project was the 4 million-square-foot Lansing Delta Township
designers and engineers Assembly Complex. Its second was the General Motors Flint Global V6 Engine Plant.
were able to resolve The third project, scheduled to be in production in late 2008, is an expansion of the
conflicts at both the “micro” General Motors Toledo Ohio transmission plant. In all of these projects, GHAFARI was
and the “macro” level. able to build on an existing Bentley factories solution to meet new challenges.
Before it could begin planning for the Lansing Delta Township Assembly Complex, GHAFARI
Associates had to establish communications for its team at the firm’s headquarters in
Dearborn, Mich. It faced a two-fold problem: how to provide the non-GHAFARI team
members with access to its home office networks while enabling them to work with
GHAFARI employees on the same DGN files. To meet the inherent logistical and secu-
rity problems of such a system, GHAFARI deployed Bentley’s ProjectWise collaboration
system. An application server in Dearborn served as the main access point for all teams,
and a series of remote file storage, connection, and web servers hosted project files in
remote locations. Use of the ProjectWise servers was a key factor in the success of the
project. The team was able to share the latest information and to minimize the chances of
re-work due to the use of obsolete versions of the design documents.
For the General Motors Flint Global V6 Engine Plant project, GHAFARI Associates faced
a deadline that couldn’t slip. The steel mill order for 4,500 tons of steel had to be placed
only three weeks after the start of design; otherwise, the project would have missed
the mill rolling cycle, delaying the steel delivery by six weeks. The design team and the
fabricator agreed to utilize intelligent 3D model exchange. GHAFARI’s 3D analysis model,
produced with Bentley’s RAM Structural System and RAM Advanse, was transmitted
directly to the steel fabricator. The steel mill order was placed in record time and without
conventional 2D drawings. The key mill order date of three weeks from the start of design
was met, and the fabricator was able to start the detailing process early.
Additionally, the design/build team agreed that it would not be possible to adequately
support the engine plant construction schedule if conventional 2D steel shop drawings
review was used. Instead, they opted for a 3D-enabled shop drawing review process,

The Digital Factory From Concept to Reality 14

 The conventional wisdom
of “first in takes the space”
did not apply, as the 3D
model took into account
space requirements
of systems that were Figure 6: The General Motors Flint Global V6 engine plant designed by GHAFARI Associates. Design and construction
of the 417,000-square-foot facility was completed almost five weeks early and with zero change orders, due to
yet to be installed. increased coordination.

where GHAFARI would receive detailed 3D models from the steel detailers and
electronically review and approve the models. The review comments were recorded on
the 3D detailed steel members and transmitted back to the detailers to automatically
incorporate into the steel detailed models. This process allowed the team to detail,
review, and approve the steel 3D models in record time, with less than a two-day turn-
around for each submittal. The team avoided producing and handling thousands of 2D
steel shop drawings and relied entirely on the 3D model exchange. The final 3D models
were fully detailed to installation level, which allowed the subcontractors to maximize
the benefits of off-site fabrication and preassembly. By delivering just-in-time to the
construction site, the time spent at the construction site was significantly reduced.
Field crews were instructed to install all systems according to the 3D models and
associated construction documents. At times during installation, crews had to trust the
model, as they were required to install systems with many offsets when there were no
other systems around. The conventional wisdom of “first in takes the space” did not
apply, as the 3D model took into account space requirements of systems that were yet
to be installed. The project was delivered almost five weeks ahead of schedule with
virtually no field overtime.

The Bentley Factories Solution Going Forward

Today, Bentley’s factories solution users employ a combination of Bentley’s own 3D
modeling tools and third-party applications. Conveying systems, for example, are

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 planned with MicroStation plus an application from another developer. For the future,
Bentley envisions a full suite of applications specifically dedicated to the design and
engineering of automotive manufacturing facilities. To close the gaps in the factories
solution, Bentley plans to integrate the systems for planning and maintaining the fac-
tory itself with the systems used to plan and maintain the manufacturing processes.
This will make it possible for planners in these now-separate workflows to avoid work
duplication by sharing objects, models, and other content common to both. Bentley’s
ultimate objective is to assure that the data created throughout the planning and
construction phases becomes an asset throughout the facility lifecycle.
The Bentley factories solution includes a comprehensive set of modeling and engineering
applications for creating and maintaining a 3D model of the complete factory building
project. The use of a common foundation technology and intelligent interfaces unites
the planning and construction workflow, enables team collaboration, and automates
The Bentley factories the publication of drawings and documents at all stages of the project. Thus, planners
solution includes a are able to complete the design phases of their projects faster and with optimized
comprehensive set of quality. Construction can proceed on or even ahead of schedule, without costly delays
modeling and engineering due to errors in design, delivery of the wrong supplies, or inadequately informed
applications for creating construction crews. The sooner the facility is completed, the sooner a liability – the
and maintaining a 3D model unfinished facility – becomes a profit-generating asset.
of the complete factory Time to market and construction costs can be further reduced though the use of
building project. ConstructSim software for construction simulation. ConstructSim models the construction
process and provides a construction management environment that links data from
design deliverables, schematics, project management, materials, and resource man-
agement systems in a virtual and visual model. This linked model allows users to
create and track work packages that closely match the actual construction workflow,
enabling project managers to more quickly identify issues with time-critical activities or
incorrect materials and avoid costly mistakes, schedule overruns, and change orders.
This unique “work-facing” orientation of ConstructSim provides an ideal tool for the
construction project superintendent or field crew supervisor to organize, manage,
schedule, and record the progress of actual installation processes and tasks.
In the near future, Bentley will integrate ConstructSim with ProjectWise Navigator
platform and comprehensive portfolio of applications and collaboration servers. This
will accelerate integrated project delivery for infrastructure projects by closing gaps
between design, construction, and operations.
As their experience illustrates, Bentley’s automotive manufacturing clients have imple-
mented the digital factory solution with notable success, demonstrating that Bentley’s
vision is grounded on solid technical achievements. Bentley’s factories solution of the
future will be capable of handling every possible workflow variation, including many
different subtasks linked into a workflow that covers the lifecycle of the factory.
Bentley is delivering on the automotive industry’s vision with its factories solution.

© 2008 Bentley Systems Incorporated. Bentley, the ‘B’ logo, ProjectWise Navigator, and ProjectWise Lifecycle Server are either registered or unregistered
trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated, or one of its direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are
trademarks of their respective owners. DAA037670-1/0002

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