WUHAN UNIVERSITY STREAMLINES DRAWING AND DATA CONSOLIDATION FOR 900+ BUILDINGS

THE CHALLENGE

Wuhan University is among China’s Top Ten universities, both academically and in their extensive property and building assets.

With an enrollment of 55,000 undergraduate and graduate students, the school comprises 38 colleges, 900+ buildings, and approximately 26 million square feet of teaching, administrative and residential properties.

The university’s extensive portfolio resulted from the merger of Wuhan University with three other institutions: the University of Hydraulic & Electric Engineering; Hubei Medical University; and Wuhan University of Survey & Mapping.

With the formerly separate campuses taking sometimes different approaches to tracking their real estate and facilities management data – and with paper-based, or sometimes CAD drawings, scattered across campuses and departments – it was difficult for Wuhan University to acquire and consolidate the space data and drawing information needed to document and effectively manage the new combined institution.

To collect and consolidate their facility information, Wuhan University chose Web-based ARCHIBUS Space Inventory & Performance and Service Desk applications.

with 960 of our 991 buildings now in our database, we’re looking forward to capturing the data on the final 31 buildings in our portfolio to create a single, unified campus.

ARCHIBUS Solution Centers-Beijing
Sarina Xue, President

LOCALIZATION, LOCALIZATION, LOCALIZATION

“A deep understanding of end-user requirements, complete localization and reporting, and quick deployment were considered keys to success in the implementation of the space management function,” says Sarina Xue, President of ARCHIBUS Solution Centers-Beijing.

“For a space management implementation to succeed, one must speak to these users in their own national and professional language. This is as true in education as it is in any other industry,and it was a policy that was followed in the extensive space management implementation at Wuhan University.”

That development project had multiple goals, starting with capturing drawings of all buildings and collecting basic information on all rooms. It also included standardizing room categories and types, associating land parcels with properties, managing university-wide space standards, and handling space assignments and a wide range of reporting requirements.



FAST 6-MONTH ROLL-OUT IMPROVES DATA ACCESS, REPORTING

Prior to the implementation of ARCHIBUS, a survey was conducted on all university buildings to get a more accurate inventory of the institutions’ holdings and related challenges. The effort, performed by students from Wuhan University of Survey and Mapping, included room surveys and the creation of facilities drawings made with CorelDRAW.

Following this initial attempt at capturing all building drawing and room information, the university realized it needed a more versatile, technology-forward solution for its purposes. It was at that point that the ARCHIBUS solution was rolled out in only six months to create a single space data repository that was more accessible to a wider audience. A key element of this transition to improved technology included the importing of the old CorelDRAW drawings into AutoCAD, which allowed them be viewed and modified using the University’s newly acquired ARCHIBUS Overlay with Design Management for AutoCAD & Revit application.

With survey and drawing information centralized in ARCHIBUS, Wuhan University finally has an accurate set of building drawings that are easily accessed. In addition, the university was also able to standardize definitions of room category and type, in alignment with Ministry of Education initiatives, and standardize space management practices in such areas as usable area analysis, space assignments and reporting. ARCHIBUS was instrumental, for example, in helping the university establish the Space Standard Area (SSA) measurement to calculate college and departmental space chargebacks.

“ARCHIBUS also enabled the kind of fixed-format reporting that was needed for the annual report submitted to the Ministry of Education,” explains Xue. “It used open source iReport which was seamlessly integrated with ARCHIBUS Web Central.”

And just as seamlessly for that report and other needs, the university’s facilities management department was able to use Web Central and the campus intranet to access and share information from its various colleges, IT department, property management department and other users.

“The Wuhan University implementation,” Xue reports, “is demonstrating the importance of establishing room and drawing standards for efficient facility management and of constantly refining the system to improve functionality.

“It will also help us with our future goals of integrating ARCHIBUS with the university’s legacy Human Resources management system. And with 960 of our 991 buildings now in our database, we’re looking forward to capturing the data on the final 31 buildings in our portfolio to create a single, unified campus.”