Benchmarking Best Practice IT:

Improving CAD Producitivty

IIt has long been recognised that many of the problems at the construction phase could be attributed to ambiguity and shortcomings at the design stage. To this end, the communication of design information at both requirement capture and production phases has played a significant role. Subsequently, the introduction of CAD was welcomed by all parties and since late 1980s there has been widespread use of CAD in all areas of AEC. The increasing use of CAD has given rise to issues such as measuring CAD productivity and assessing CAD skills. However, despite numerous reports on the subject, there has been shortage of a consistent effort by which CAD productivity could be benchmarked and best practices are shared. This report highlights the result of the examination of the experience of several CAD users in four formidable design and engineering organisations and their comparison with the national average, with the view to make recommendations on best practices to improve CAD productivity. The report is the product of collaboration between Construct IT and CADtest and forms part of Construct IT’s objectives to disseminate best practices through publication of benchmarking reports and “How to …” guides.

The report demonstrates that the current level of skills is somewhat diverse and despite widespread use of CAD the potential for improvement is significant. The results are supported with quantitative measures as to the level of productivity increase and its wider financial impact. It raises awareness about the need for continuous evaluation of best practices and their dissemination. It also argues that productivity could be increased significantly by replacing the current ad-hoc approach to CAD training with a more consistent and systematic training programme. This includes augmenting the level of tuition in educational establishments.