Experts report on their experiences with electronic reinforcing data

Digitalisation could be so simple

07.04.2022

From software houses to contractors – six experts provide insight into why the digital data transfer of rebar lists makes their daily work easier.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) increases the efficiency of construction measures – this realisation has arrived in the industry, but in daily work the digitalisation push seems to have failed to materialise so far. Individual pioneers, including Sülzle Stahlpartner GmbH, Ed. Züblin AG and Brendebach Ingenieure GmbH, are using digital and standardised solutions. Database files in ABS format (Absolute Database Software) enable them to exchange rebar lists securely and quickly.

“We first have to learn to think in terms of digital data streams, and that across departmental and company boundaries,” says Reinhold Wittenberg, who, as head of the Construction Management Working Group of the Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaft e.V., knows what makes the industry go. “The decisive advantage is that the entire workflow from the structural engineer to the bending shop can be mapped digitally. The bending shops can easily import the ABS data into their programmes. Time-consuming and ultimately error-prone manual data entry work is eliminated for everyone involved,” adds Wittenberg.

Uniform processes

As a construction company, ZÜBLIN is pursuing the goal of standardising processes such as rebar order. For Dr. Jan Niklas Franzius, Group Manager in the Construction and Technology Department at Ed. Züblin AG, the advantages of ABS data are obvious:

The ABS format offers the possibility to import data from the reinforcement planning directly into a database system and to standardise the reinforcement call-off for the construction sites through this.

Dr. Jan Niklas Franzius, Group Leader Construction and Technology, Ed. Züblin AG, Directorate Stuttgart

Another advantage is the data feedback in the form of digital delivery notes, as provided by Sülzle Stahlpartner GmbH in real time. Not only site managers benefit from the use of the digital reinforcement call-off. Project managers and business people as well as the costing department also experience added value, as construction projects can be better evaluated with it.

Great time saving

Benjamin Rummel, site manager at Ed. Züblin AG, can use the ABS data to transfer all the information he needs into the digital reinforcement call-off: “Endless Excel tables and possible data losses are now a thing of the past. The same goes for the time-consuming process of sending partial call-offs.”

Better quality management

As a structural engineer, Ingenieurbüro Brendebach has been using ABS data for a long time: “We provide our customers with the ABS files with each reinforcement plan. This is no extra work for us, on the contrary: we can even use it for our quality management by evaluating the steel tonnage,” explains Senior Project Manager Michael Hermes.

Accelerated delivery times

SÜLZLE Stahlpartner in Lübeck has already set an example with its Bending Shop 4.0, which opened in 2019. In line with the sustainability strategy of the entire group of companies, work is being done every day to digitalise business processes and use sustainable solutions and simplified interfaces. Instead of manually entering the bending plans as a PDF file in the system, as it used to be the case, they can simply be read in via ABS file. The time saved is put into checking the data and testing its feasibility in the bending shop.

By saving time, in many cases I can offer our customers shorter delivery times. I am pleased that digitalisation is now being tackled jointly by all those involved.

Martin Vestring, Location Manager SÜLZLE Stahlpartner in Lübeck.

Interfaces save resources

ISBCAD is a CAD software for creating 2D plans in structural engineering and specialises in the creation of position, formwork and reinforcement plans.

Andreas Schaprian, authorised signatory at GLASER Programmsysteme, explains: “For us, the BVBS interface for exporting digital bending instructions as ABS files has been a standard feature for many years. Our BVBS QuickView visualises ABS data for comparison with the plan and bending list. In this way, we effectively support digitalisation in the construction industry and reduce the susceptibility to errors in communication.”