Dan Peticila
In the world of precast concrete, “excellence through efficiency” is what most industry players would say is the guiding principle. And it is what made Autodesk and Progress Group work together to find innovative ways of actually delivering new benefits to the precast industry and nurture the evergreen nature of this concept.
Progress Group specializes in providing comprehensive solutions for the precast concrete manufacturing and rebar industries. Its offerings cater to precast concrete manufacturers, utilizing long beds, stationary production, carousel plants, and rebar shops. With its unique position encompassing machine automation, a dedicated rebar shop, a precast concrete division, and an in-house software development company, Progress Group delivers a complete package of support and expertise, making them a trusted partner and industry expert advisor to Autodesk.
To find out how Revit and Progress Group’s software helps optimize the entire design to fabrication and construction workflow, we will explore the story of Taracon Precast, a leading innovator in the U.S. precast concrete fabrication industry.
Taracon Precast reduces time spent in design and planning by 75%
Using Progress Group’s plug-in for Autodesk Revit, BIMpro, Taracon Precast was able to maximize the efficiency of the end-to-end planning process involving architects, structural engineers, and production teams. According to Paul Nelson, Vice President of Taracon Precast, a big advantage of BIMpro is the possibility to map data from multiple engineering sources and streamline the process of data generation.
By significantly cutting down data import times, Revit and BIMpro also improved the collaboration process, trimming planning durations to just two hours from the previous eight hours. This real-time data transfer extended to production beds and plotters as well, enabling Taracon Precast to swiftly adapt to project changes. They benefited from precise management of project phases, schedules, and bed layouts, leading to enhanced resource utilization and real-time project status updates.
Progress Group is a true digital transformation innovator, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the precast concrete and rebar industries. The company seamlessly blends advanced machine automation solutions into the very fabric of its projects, ensuring every step of the journey — from the drawing board to the final brick — is enhanced by the latest in mobile technology, IoT, digital twins, robotics, cloud computing, and AI.
The glowing testimonial from their leadership team says it all. Alan Cartwright, Taracon Precast’s TQM Director, says, “All in all, I think Progress Group and Autodesk are the only companies we could have partnered with due to their shared vision of the future and how they can incorporate work instructions into machine data files to eliminate human error along the way.”
The proof is in the tangible gains. The use of Revit as a leading BIM platform for precast concrete and Progress Group’s software solutions helped Taracon Precast reduce the time spent in design and planning by 75% for some of their recent projects, thanks to features that allow for the transformation of architectural models into producible precast models with a couple of clicks. This streamlines reinforcement processes and facilitates the generation of producible data as PXML files for direct machine use.
Taracon Precast takes advantage of aheadAPS
Taracon Precast benefited from the integration of another product, the aheadAPS system, a hub platform that bridges BIM, ERP and MES systems. This integration facilitated seamless planning of project phases, erection sequences, deliveries, and bed layouts with extended benefits to the detailed planning of kitting, bed labor, and finishing operations.
Highlighting its benefits, Paul Nelson notes, “The efficiency and economy brought to our precast layout by the software not only saved considerable costs over the project’s lifespan but enabled us to keep projects on track and be able to adapt to changes swiftly manage rapid changes effectively.”
Benefits of Progress Group’s capabilities and services
Progress Group’s unique mix of in-house capabilities makes this possible. With its own rebar shop and precast concrete division, augmented by a cutting-edge software development team, Progress Group brings a holistic vision to life. Its solutions are built on three critical pillars: BIM for unparalleled design accuracy, ERP for seamless resource planning, and MES for flawless manufacturing execution. Capturing its essence in its rich product portfolio, BIMpro, erpbos, aheadAPS, ebos, profit, and stabos, Progress Group ensures every aspect of business and production processes interlocks perfectly from a single, trusted source of data with the Revit BIM model, unlocking the digital delivery of precast concrete projects.
Before any software product reaches the market, it’s rigorously tested within the company’s precast plant, ensuring every solution is not just innovative but business-proven and ready to meet real-world demands.
Precast concrete construction is also known to bring dramatic reductions in labor costs by as much as 75 percent, compared to cast-in-place concrete methods. Ensuring the precast concrete elements are producible is a critical part of this workflow, and Progress Group software verifies precast elements modelled in Revit are fully producible with automated carousels. Additionally, Progress Group mentions their strategic planning capabilities extend those savings even further by enhancing machine availability by 15 percent, optimizing machine utilization and maximizing production capacity.
For Autodesk and Progress Group, helping customers working on precast concrete projects is more than a commitment. It’s a mission to innovate and create technology that improves energy efficiency, material productivity, and optimized designs to help our customers design and make a better world for all.
