Bentley Case Studies DPR Construction Boosts Alzheimer’s Drug Production with SYNCHRO™ 4D Digital Construction Monitoring
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DPR Construction Boosts Alzheimer’s Drug Production with SYNCHRO™ 4D Digital Construction Monitoring

Bentley
Functional Applications - Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAM)
Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
Cement
Construction & Infrastructure
Facility Management
Logistics & Transportation
Construction Management
Construction Site Monitoring
System Integration
Testing & Certification
DPR Construction was tasked with upgrading a drug production plant in Durham, North Carolina, for a leading neuroscience research and development company. The $32 million project aimed to increase the manufacturing capacity of an innovative Alzheimer’s disease therapy drug. The upgrade required a three-month plant shutdown and involved complex construction work, including the installation of over 7,000 linear feet of stainless-steel piping, 11 miles of new power and data cabling, and over 40 tons of steel platform work. The project also required the removal of existing equipment to make space for larger vessels and new skids. DPR faced significant pressure to keep the project on schedule to meet the client’s commissioning timeline and resume operations as quickly as possible. The company also faced challenges in integrating new and existing assets within the confined space of the plant. The client had frequently modified their 20-year-old drug plant, making it difficult to locate assets. DPR needed a digital solution that could provide a quantitative, visual representation of asset tracking and construction monitoring.
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The customer is a leading neuroscience research and development company based in Durham, North Carolina. They initiated a $32 million project to upgrade their drug production plant to increase the manufacturing capacity of an innovative drug that furthers Alzheimer’s disease therapies. The upgrade required a three-month plant shutdown and involved complex construction work. The company had frequently modified their 20-year-old drug plant, making it difficult to locate assets. They needed a contractor who could not only handle the complex construction work but also provide a digital solution for asset tracking and construction monitoring. They chose DPR Construction for the task.
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DPR chose SYNCHRO 4D for digital asset tracking and virtual construction planning. The application provided an accurate representation of all piping in the factory and the current state of assets throughout all stages of construction, eliminating the guesswork of manual and visual inspections. DPR integrated their 3D models created from various modeling applications and established digital workflows and processes. Bentley’s interoperable technology provided a flexible environment, enabling seamless integration with third-party design software to import their 3D models and point clouds. As the project scope changed, the modifications were modeled and updated in SYNCHRO, providing accurate data to run scripts that helped coordinate crews and labor requirements. DPR established an integrated digital construction and scheduling environment, modeling progress updates in real-time and importing milestone dates, labor, materials, and asset location information. This data improved planning, predictability, and quality. With task and model-based data accessible to all stakeholders through shared dashboards, DPR established collaborative digital workflows that streamlined communication and drove informed decision-making.
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By using SYNCHRO 4D, DPR was able to simulate construction monitoring and asset tracking, streamlining workflows and scheduling. This enabled the client to meet their commissioning timelines and run simultaneous filtration cycles, tripling drug manufacturing capacity. The digital data and information helped coordinate labor resources and promoted data-driven, informed decisions. Working in a virtual, simulated environment helped DPR understand where the project stood at any given moment, accurately predict the duration of works, and efficiently govern project hours and resources. Through advanced construction planning and collaboration, DPR completed the project ahead of schedule, even amid a global pandemic. The use of SYNCHRO also allowed DPR to establish digital workflows and perform advanced work packaging, industrializing the delivery of the cutting-edge drug manufacturing facility.
SYNCHRO 4D provided accurate representation of all new-work factory piping and current state of assets, eliminating guesswork.
Careful scripting prevented the need to assign over 27,000 model objects to 950 resources, saving two weeks of work.
With SYNCHRO 4D’s visualization, DPR completed the 14-week project six days early amid COVID-19.
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