Cutting key process time using automation

When Costain wanted to extract spatial details from their CAD drawings, they found that doing it manually was slow and prone to error. They needed a solution that would process the information quickly and accurately.

10 mins to gather data

3 days to create outputs

15 days to deliver solution

The Challenge

When roads are built or updated, geographic information relating to road assets has to be handed over to Highways England, to be added to a central database. Due to the size of carriageways, information is uploaded in “chart segments”.

Costain needed to generate x and y coordinates of assets, as well as the distance of an asset from the start of a chart section (chainage). To ensure accuracy, data is gathered from CAD drawings. From the drawings, users would select each individual asset, copying and pasting it into an excel spreadsheet.

The Solution

Without an automated solution, the process was done manually and took two full-time members of staff 30 weeks to complete. Costain were looking to reduce human interaction on these processes to improve constancy and speed.

Utilising our experience with FME, miso’s consultants created a workspace that was capable of handling the geometries of both linear and point assets.

Considering the number of factors at play in this solution, miso were able to deliver in just 15 days.

Costain save time and money in asset management with innovative FME-based solution.

FME® automates data manipulation and transformation

Data rarely arrives in your environment in a state that’s ready to use. The repetitive tasks required to get it into a usable form are laborious and costly. FME® automates these data manipulation and transformation tasks, leaving you to work much more efficiently with your newly optimised data set.

Here’s the problem; you have lots of data from lots of different internal and external sources, but managing it all can be difficult. You’re faced with a unique set of challenges that have a large impact on the way you work:

Driving value for your organisation by making the most of your business intelligence.
Managing the complex combination of data sources, formats and destinations.
Dealing with evolving data, resources and requirements.