Contractors as modern Master Builders: Virtual Design and Construction as an enabler of meaningful experiences to project teams for achieving optimized substation management

Abstract

Effective substation management should include engineering and construction costs. While the construction process has to be methodically planned and sequenced to achieve optimized construction costs, substation designers play a vital role for delivering cost-efficient substations. Integrated design and construction has been proposed as a way to achieve effective project management, which historically viewed, was a responsibility of a “master builder”, thus causing Contractors to identify themselves as “master builders”.

As EPC is a highly competitive arena, Contractors are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Some are turning to 3D technologies, while others turn to the design-construction integration. Virtual Master Builder (VMB) supports both 3D technologies and the design-construction integration. Due to a global shortage of worldwide available expertise, Contractors turn to education and training of their employees. While education aims at providing basic skills, training aims to provide the skill necessary to do the job. This paper examines these basic skills as a part of personal mastery before defining organizational learning as a key organizational competence.  

Physical Virtuality realm is seen as a fruitful ground for staging of memorable and transformational experiences leading towards achieving “accelerated learning”, and especially 4D models as representations of a “space-time” environment. The project case of Skopje 4 SS 380/110 kV rehabilitation is given as an example of 4D models usage. Project Engineering is seen as a middle ground between engineering and management in order to achieve goals of effective substation management and cost-efficient substation solutions. Project teams are seen as Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) users to achieve these goals.