Stable Growth in Concrete, Steel and Glazing Construction: UPB Increases Efficiency Every Year

Meet UPB Holding, a forward-looking company that operates in engineering, production and construction. The successful leading Latvian industrial enterprise group has 25 years of experience in domestic and export markets.

Arturs Neiburgs is the Head of R&D, Engineering Department at UPB. He is responsible for Research & Development, software development projects for design, academic collaboration and new products. From his experience Neiburgs knows that when software is clever and functions smoothly it inevitably allows time and room for users to develop working processes. When processes are carefully planned time will be saved. Such good processes have grown efficiency at UBP each year.

BIM helps win and plan projects better

UPB mainly designs load-bearing structures for buildings. They also handle decorative elements and model many precast elements, and design and produce precast and steel structures.

“At tendering stage, we use Tekla models for the material list and of course for customer presentations,” says Arturs Neiburgs. “Our sales departments use 3D models at an early stage. They design the geometry of the building, and can get the total amounts of the elements, so the estimated prices are more precise.”

“And of course there is the other benefit: we find the best solutions for the client at a very early stage of the project,” Neiburgs says. “Sales personnel look for the best solutions in cooperation with our engineering department, so the 3D model is essential at this part of the project phase.”

After the project has been sold, UPB starts the design process in cooperation with production and assembly teams. Detailing is usually done by several offices. Production and construction data and drawings are created. Documents include workshop drawings, general arrangement 

drawings and some data files for the automated machinery, project documentation with work descriptions and quality checks. “We have also made our own custom attributes to monitor the design process in the model,” Neiburgs says.

When the design and detailing process is finished, or nearly finished, production, delivery and assembling  structure elements begin. Model information is essential for material ordering, and the model is used for scheduling production planning and for optimization.

New flexibility in collaboration and communication

Tekla Model Sharing allows Tekla Structures project teams to work efficiently together regardless of their location. It stores data safely and transfers it encrypted: The model data is stored locally on each team member’s computer and synchronized with latest changes globally via the cloud-based Tekla Model Sharing. The users access the service directly from Tekla Structures so there is no additional download.

“We find Model Sharing very useful for outsourcing designers or sharing work internally with subsidiaries in different countries”, says Neiburgs.

With Tekla Model Sharing, the teams can work on the same model but they never get in each other’s way. “In most of our projects there are many different stages modeled at the same time. With Tekla Model Sharing I can do some numbering on my computer while other people can also number, generate drawings etc. at the same time,” Neiburgs describes.

Another practical example of UPB saving time is precast concrete workshop drawing creation with Tekla Model Sharing: Creating precast wall cast unit drawing is now 10-20% faster than before.  

“One thing that our designers like are the Model Sharing packages because these work as backups for the project,” Neiburgs says. “Designers also like the report of changes when they download a new package for a new model.”

“And we can bring in as many people as needed to speed up designing process,” says Arturs Neiburgs. “With Tekla Model Sharing we are now more flexible. We can deal with much more information which gives us many more possibilities.”

No more frustrating delays

The benefits of Tekla Model Sharing grow with the project size. While it is very convenient to use Tekla Model Sharing in projects involving five to seven engineers, the benefits become enormous in large projects.

“At the end of the working day, 15 engineers can be online saving their work for the project. And when you make and save some urgent changes while someone is numbering, there are no conflicting issues with Model Sharing,” Neiburgs continues.

For UPB these benefits are very important when the Latvian office is working with the Belarus office hundreds of kilometers away. Tekla Model Sharing has made close collaboration much faster and more effective. Designers and engineers do not need to bother with the quality of internet connections any longer because only the changes are synced, not the entire model, which makes sharing fast. Tekla Model Sharing is the only sharing technology that allows work without an internet connection.

UPB has been able to increase efficiency with Tekla Model Sharing, since it enables continuous, simultaneous work on the same Tekla Structures model. “There are considerable time savings, because saving, drawing creation or numbering do not affect other users so they can work more effectively,” explains Neiburgs. The efficiency includes write in and write out process, too.

Effective tools equal effective business

“Tekla Model Sharing allows us to use our engineering resources more efficiently. Our engineers are now able to concentrate on their core duties and spend less time on less valuable processes.”

We’re finding the best solutions for the client at a very early stage of the project,” Neiburgs adds: “And one thing is sure, it is the software that allows us to grow our efficiency every year.”

“We benefit a lot from sharing the project workload and helping out between the business units. Different product groups, like precast, concrete, steel, or glazed structures are closely linked together, straight from tendering phase to assembly. This allows us to exchange information much faster and as a result we are able to build better solutions for the client. We can execute projects more efficiently using less time,” Neiburgs elaborates.

“We already use Tekla models for all our projects. Now we plan to increase the model use on the assembly level,” Arturs Neiburgs concludes.

Read more about Tekla solutions for precast