Customer Reviews
Plant construction industry
Utilized in the project that handle thousands of drawings.
Great expectations for further automation in the future!
The case of Chiyoda Corporation
Interviewee
Chiyoda Corporation
Global Environmental Project Division
Life Science Project Department
Advanced Industries Project Section
and Digital Officer, CDO Office
Mr. Satoshi Tanaka
Domestic Energy Environment Project Department
Chemical and Gas Project Section
Mr. Shuhei Sato
From left in the photo: Mr. Sato, Mr. Tanaka
Chiyoda Corporation is a comprehensive engineering company that handles numerous projects worldwide, focusing on the design, procurement, and construction (EPC) of plants in various fields, from energy such as oil and gas, to chemicals, environment, energy saving, industrial facilities, batteries, and life sciences. MIIDEL has been in use for six years since version 3. This time, we asked about how it is being utilized and any requests for the future.
MIIDEL（hereafter referred to as M）：Chiyoda Corporation is involved in planning and constructing large plants both domestically and internationally. Do you also handle a large volume of drawings on a daily basis?
Mr. Tanaka（honorifics omitted）：Depending on the project size, it amounts to about 20 to 40 volumes in king files, which translates to thousands of sheets.
Mr. Sato（honorifics omitted）： In a domestic project I was in charge of, we delivered over 150 king file volumes to the client.
Mr. Tanaka, who first introduced and utilized MIIDEL in his own project.
M：That’s an impressive amount. It’s almost like moving house.
Tanaka：Drawing comparison is a very routine task for each person in charge, such as comparing drawings that come from outside the company with those created in-house and when revision numbers change, but it is very difficult to make it perfect. But it’s too late if you only notice after everything has been completed.
Sato： Even if there is a cloud mark* of change on the drawing received, other parts of the drawing may have changed unintentionally, or there may be parts that are ancestral to the original drawing. It would be nice if we could just check within the cloud marks, but if you’re unsure, we have to look at all of them, which is very time consuming.
M：Moreover considering the sheer number of drawings… I can see the difficulty. Was “more efficient comparison of drawings” an issue that came up within the company?
Tanaka： I first decided to try MIIDEL when I was looking for something new to work on for my own project and learned of its existence from an article in “Nikkei Construction,” as I recall. Unlike the overseas projects worth hundreds of billions of yen, the domestic projects I handle are more flexible, so I could implement it quickly, and if this would make the work easier, I thought it would be a good measure for the digital productivity improvement initiatives that were being developed throughout the company at the time. We introduced it in 2018, and at first, I used it only for my own project, but then we rolled it out across the entire division and even introduced it to our group companies to encourage them to use it as well.
M：How often do you use MIIDEL on a daily basis?
Sato：Rather than using it on a daily basis, it feels more like a peak time of drawing checks arrives at a certain point. When the revision number of a drawing changes, especially it is often used in the first half of the project. This is because the direction of the project can change drastically. In the later stages of the project, the changes will be fewer and fewer, so you will no longer have to start up MIIDEL for one or two change checks.
Tanaka：That’s why we really want to integrate MIIDEL into our business processes. MIIDEL would be integrated into the document management system that we have shared with internal and external staff from usual, and when revision numbers come up, it would automatically compare all documents and even provide reports… That would be ideal. Developing an interface .etc for the management system side would be necessary, so the hurdle is quite high (laughs).
Mr. Sato, who spoke about an example of the use when submitting completed books
M： I see, considering the comprehensiveness of the checks, enhancing automation might be one direction to consider. On the other hand, is there anything that you have used so far that has left a lasting impression on you as being “helpful”?
Sato：The other day, I helped with a government application for a project, and the government agency asked us to mark all the changes ( from the initial application ). This included everything from construction drawings and equipment diagrams to documents. But there are no cloud marks on the drawings of completed books. Moreover, though it’s okay to compare with one or two revision numbers ago, but with the initial application, so we had no idea. The submission deadline was approaching, and if this application was delayed, it would also delay the contract deadline with the client. It was a situation where we absolutely couldn’t afford any delays, so it was very dificult. So, it was really helpful in this situation. I came in as help, so I didn’t know the history of the project, but we were still able to split up and accurately check the project in a short amount of time.
M：That’s a very MIIDEL-like story! We’re glad it could be of help in such a difficult situation. Finally, could you tell us what you expect from MIIDEL in the future?
Sato：It would be really helpful if MIIDEL could read the filenames in the folders where the drawings are stored, match the files to be compared, and automatically provide the comparison results. The method of naming files is roughly determined, so it would be great if it could read and identify different versions.
Tanaka：Related to what I said earlier about automation, I think the key in the future is how to reduce the number of steps to reach MIIDEL. It is about how much you can get to the results report without having to start up the software or be aware of the corrections after the comparison. New features that weren’t available when we first started using it are being added one after another, and with these improvements, I believe we can increase the utilization rate within the company even more. The task of “comparing and checking with previous drawings” will never disappear from our work.
＊Cloud mark＝A mark on architectural drawings, electrical equipment drawings, etc., to indicate the location of changes. It is called a cloud mark because it is surrounded by fuzzy cloud-like lines (right).
＊Completed books＝Documents submitted upon completion of construction. It includes implementation specifications, calculation sheets, construction drawings, equipment drawings, construction management records, and instruction manuals, etc.
This article is a translation of an interview conducted in Japanese.
Please refer to the Japanese page for accurate content.
