Becoming a big player in Southeast Asia thanks to BIM

The company PT PP (Persero) Tbk – founded in 1953 by the Indonesian government under the name NV Pembangunan Perumahan – became the country’s first state-owned construction company in 1971. PP held its initial public offering in 2010 and since 2016, PP has been diversified its business lines into 7 pillars grouped into 3 categories. While the upstream business consists of PP Property, PP Energy, and PP Infrastructure, PP Construction and PP EPC represent the midstream business. The third category is downstream business, with PP Urban and PP Equipment. Diversification has considerably strengthened PP as a company beside the positive development of stock trading. The value of the subsidiary PP Property stock has also significantly increased since going public in 2015. In addition, the PP brand, compared to other stock companies in the construction industry, enjoys great recognition in Indonesia and an excellent reputation among the public.

Indonesia: one of the
largest growth markets

Indonesia is one of the largest and fastest-growing construction markets in Asia. AECOM, the multinational engineering and consultancy firm, predicts that by 2020, the country will have achieved the highest growth rate in its market segment in the region.

The Indonesian government is investing billions in large-scale infrastructure projects, which is the most important catalyst for medium-term growth by the construction industry. Around 30 infrastructure projects – among them toll roads, ports, public transport networks, and new railway links worth over USD 68 billion – are scheduled for completion by 2019. As a state-owned company, PP has a vital role in supporting government plan to boost infrastructure.

The demand for more-­efficient ­systems is growing

The demand for more efficient system, such as precast systems is also growing, due to the need for more efficient and fast construction: especially for high-rise buildings and large-scale infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, and ports. State-of-the art technologies such as BIM will be implemented.

TeklaStructures and Trimble SketchUp are important ­instruments

The first PP project implemented with the support of TeklaStructures began at the end of May in 2015, with St. Moritz Panakkukang, a mixed-use development on South Sulawesi. According to company management, TeklaStructures is more powerful with regard to visualization for presentations and for reinforcement detailing compared to other software solutions. A special collision detection function for generating erection plans and drawings is available. The company also uses Trimble SketchUp for applications such as time-saving conversion of architect model into a 3D TeklaStructures native model and generation of the 3D cuts.

An outstanding reference example for this application is the construction of 1.3-km suspension bridge between Kendari Old City and Kendari New City, Sulawesi since 2016. The bridge, commissioned by the project owner Dirjen Bina Marga, was designed by PT PP and PT Nindya Karya and contains, among other construction materials, around 75,000 m3 of concrete. Thanks to the use of Tekla Structures, the bridge design was created by four detailers within one month only. The 3D-model informs the construction companies about the most suitable erection method and enables them to calculate the precise position and quantities of rebars. In each case, a BIM leader, an engineer and a detailer are involved.

The most complex structures modeled without difficulty

Another advantage of the software is that rebar design and erection at the construction site are greatly facilitated. In addition, the quantities can be re-calculated quickly and simply if changes are made to the design. The engineers at PP especially praise the flexibility and simplicity of TeklaStructures – which, for example, is capable of creating the production drawings, bending plans, and other documentation in models with large data volumes. Better visualization improves instructions at the construction site, accelerate conflict detection, and limits human errors to a minimum. Even the largest and most complex structures can be easily modelled, with the result that the use of Tekla will be even more vigorously pushed in the company.

BIM as a driver for achieving company’s vision

By 2021, PT PP aims to become one of the leading and most sustainable construction and investment companies in South East Asia region. With that vision, PT PP strives to have the competitive advantage among the other construction companies. BIM is definitely one of the strategies to streamline business process and will directly Impact Company’s bottom line.