1. Digital Revolution -
Driving Construction
Excellence
WHITE PAPER

2. SNC-Lavalin’s digital journey positions
Construction at its core. Our use of key solutions
such as mobile equipment, connected systems,
safety and integrated logistics has proven
to be successful in the delivery of productivity
improvements for Construction; resulting
in +20% productivity gains on projects.
These solutions have enabled better scheduling
and budget management on major projects
in Latin America and in the Middle East.
The nature of digital assets requires constant
evolution. SNC-Lavalin is investing in building
on its demonstrated innovations in Construction
Excellence by continuing to integrate new
technologies with the objective of achieving
greater standardized use of digital solutions
on all projects.

3. With the advent of digital technologies, entire industries
have been revolutionized with new business models
made possible and massive disruption to existing
business models. These have brought about shifts in
how investments are made, customers are served and
work carried out. The world of Construction, however,
has yet to fully ride the digital wave. Mining and
Metallurgy construction projects are no exception.
While digitized solutions, models and platforms exist
that could benefit the Construction industry, few are in
practice today.
Based on SNC-Lavalin’s experience in construction excellence
and the deployment of innovative construction methods, the
adoption of digital ways of working can yield significant gains.
What’s more, these digital solutions can deliver significant value
without requiring large investment. Powerful new technologies
and innovations allow Mining & Metallurgy companies to explore
leaps in construction productivity and constructability with small
step changes to overall project budgets.
With Mining & Metallurgy mega projects, as much as 85% of the
total capital investment associated with a new or expanded mine
site is attributed to construction costs. Any small percentage gain
applied to these can generate a significant impact. As miners look
to optimize their cost structure and drive greater productivity
without extending already tight capital expenditure budgets,
digital solutions can offer a pragmatic and impactful path to
realizing these objectives.
The digital journey
3

4. The state of digital adoption
in construction-heavy industries
With tightening budgets and environmental regulations as well as increased efficiency
expectations from investors, the need to adopt new technologies is great. The adoption of 3D
and information modelling technologies is significant within manufacturing, infrastructure
and energy industries with 17 to 30+% of construction contractors using building information
modeling (BIM) as part of projects (McGraw Hill Construction, 2014). This is not the case
within the Mining and Natural Resource sectors, with only 5% adoption.
It is SNC-Lavalin’s experience
that the challenges that have
traditionally discouraged projects
from considering digital ways
of working can easily be overcome
and can even present significant
opportunities when addressed
with an eye towards pragmatic
value-based applications.
While solutions have been available to digitize
Construction activities within Mining and Metallurgy,
these have raised many questions in Project Directors
and Construction Managers as to how best to leverage
them. In effect, a number of challenges have blocked
projects from considering these as real value
generators:
• There is no one-size-fits-all digital platform
that can easily be applied to every project in the
same way.
• Real benefits are not generated from only one
solution – real gains are captured with a holistic
multi-dimensional digital approach involving
several digital solutions.
• Depending on the digital approach adopted,
benefactors vary across the construction value
chain.
4

5. 1. Delivering Safely – With digital solutions, safety performance is enhanced while minimizing the
onboarding time and training costs required.
2. Creating physical assets digitally – in the digital world, physical assets can be created digitally first
from engineering to operations to maximize constructability while minimizing waste.
3. Enabling construction workers to be efficient – with the democratization of mobile technologies,
workers can be more connected and reduce transcription and re-work to significantly boost
productive hours.
4. Integrated construction platform – the base of any digital construction project, cloud-based platforms
allow projects to work with one common and up-to date source of the truth.
One source of the truth
Creating physical
assets digitally
Enabling the
connected
worker
Construction
Productivity
Digitizing the building blocks of construction excellence
Updated in real-time Common platform
Integrated cloud-based construction platform
4
3
Harvesting the value
of digital construction
THE DIGITAL IMPERATIVE
By looking to accelerate the four main building blocks of construction management,
SNC-Lavalin has adopted a holistic approach to maximize construction productivity while
minimizing the investment required. These four main building blocks are:
2
1
Delivering
safely
5

6. Digital 3D Renderings - Visualizing and Enhancing
Safety on Site
During the Engineering phase of the project, the 3D
drawings created allow engineers to visualize and
properly validate the design. This digital design,
discussed further in section 2. Creating Physical
Assets Digitally brings significant benefits in the
pre-operations phases of the project as well as
throughout operations by enabling not only a better
understanding of the site design, but also ensuring
that the site is as safe as possible. By converting
these 3D drawings into a full site 3D rendering or
site "digital twin", safety managers can:
• Walk through construction sites virtually and
perform security walkthroughs to ensure that
safety protocols are comprehensive and safety
hazards and risks are addressed.
• Better onboard new project team and operations
team members for safety protocols that are
particular to the mine / plant site and known
site hazards.
Wearables and the Internet of Things - Better
Managing Incidents and Productivity
With the growing availability of solutions leveraging
the Internet of Things (IoT), the ability of safety
solutions to track employees and assets has greatly
advanced. While some solutions require large
investment in telecommunication infrastructure,
some are more nimble and require only minimal
infrastructure upgrades by relying on sensors and
tags to transmit information on assets back to the
control room, empowering miners with the ability to
geo-locate assets and people and thus allow for
constant monitoring and enhanced safety of the
overall mine and plant.
Safety is always the first concern. Construction cannot be productive nor efficient without
ensuring that projects are built safely and pave the way for safe operations. By looking to digital
technologies to construct safely, miners can increase safety performance by avoiding and better
responding to incidents. At the same time, these solutions can reduce the ramp-up time of new
employees on safety methods and facilitate the introduction of new processes and standard
operating procedures, contributing to a reduction in safety related training costs.
Delivering safely1.
A 3D rendering of a plant allows safety manager
to perform safety walk throughs in a site "digital twin.
6

7. Delivering safely
A few of the most effective applications including:
• Creating virtual zones in plant and mine to
enable a connected and real-time mine site
map.
• Monitoring dashboards connected to wearable
devices on employees and tags on equipment
create alerts to allow safety personnel to avoid
incidents and respond quickly when an incident
has occurred.
• The use of electronic tag-in / tag-out boards
can allow operators to remotely view who is
physically present in the mine, where they are
presently located and where they have been
through time with the help of breadcrumb
analysis.
SNC-Lavalin and Cyest Corporation have jointly
developed a safety solution that combines 3D site
visualization, geo-tagging and wearables to enhance
safety and maximize worker and contractor
productivity. This solution, while highly effective for
construction projects, also transitions well into
Operations. In effect, throughout operations, it can
be used to improve and maintain safe operations,
especially during important events such as
shutdowns / turnarounds as well as day-to-day
operations.
These types of solutions allow Mining and
Metallurgy companies to better assess, prevent
and learn from incidents and near-misses while
providing the basis to also boost productivity.
Indeed, by leveraging wearables and digital
applications for safety, miners can track the density
of workers and contractors in all work zones for
productivity purposes. In addition, the data collected
from wearable devices, sensors and tags allows for
data to be automatically loaded in the company
database, paving the way for automated, cross-
referenced and comprehensive reporting.
Visualizing safety alerts within a virtual zone on a
simulated mine site map updated in real-time.
The ability to geo-locate assets and people allows for
more effective monitoring and improved safety
performance.
7

8. • Constructability reviews - In the design phase,
constructability reviews can be performed via
discreet simulation. This provides a 3D routing
environment for all disciplines from design to
interference reviews and checking.
• Procurement and Material Management in the
Field – By using tablets and geo-tagging
technology, actual data is collected. Leveraging
a solution such as SmartPlant Suite to collect
spent-hour data by document type based on
progress while also connecting tags to the
solution in order to provide an exhaustive
service around material tracking and
management. Also allowing for bills of
materials validation and tracking of design
changes; which proved to improve productivity
on one of SNC-Lavalin’s Asia Pacific major
projects.
Taking a page from the Manufacturing industry’s digital playbook, miners now have the ability
to simulate designs and drawings from engineering to operations. In recent years, SNC-Lavalin
has used digital solutions to support planning and management when executing construction
projects. While these innovations have been deployed for Mining and Metallurgy projects mainly
in Latin America and the Middle East, SNC-Lavalin is actively integrating these new solutions
and methods across all its active projects with a view to full integration globally. With the
ability to create the physical asset’s digital mirror, project and operations teams have the
ability to visualize, review and validate constructability while augmenting the quality of
constructed facilities and minimizing associated costs. From constructability reviews to
facilitated commissioning and operations, 3D simulations allow for enhanced productivity in
construction as listed below.
• Clash and conflict detection - Before trade
contractors even set foot in the field, clash and
conflict detection can take place within the
structural fabrication model, allowing for
validation of designs against potential conflicts
and clashes between every discipline.
• Comparing and reconciling construction on
site versus design – Digital cloud point
technology can be used with sensors to validate
that construction has been done to design
specifications, allowing for rapid discrepancy
identification and correction. A recent
application of this technology was used to
validate the structural component of a large
infrastructural project. Quickly within the
review, an inverted slope within the plumbing
was identified under the concrete, allowing for
repairs to take place in a timely manner and
without impact to the project schedule.
Creating physical
assets digitally
2.
8

9. Validating that construction is as per design is
facilitated with digital cloud point technology.
Training becomes more effective when delivered
within a simulated 3D model.
• Seamless updates to the as-built by Operations
and Maintenance – Since the various trades and
discipline drawings are all linked to the same
3D model, they can input their updates to the
as-built directly in the 3D model. This allows
engineering to access, review and then upload
changes into the final model for access by all
teams and work crews.
• Connected Logistics – Using sensors to track
materials and equipment on-site and using
solutions such as SmartPlant Material to
quantify which materials were received and / or
consumed to enable better planning of
construction team on site and greater
efficiencies overall. Solutions also enable
vendor quality control as well as GPS tracking
and staging.
• Facilitated Commissioning and Operations –
Since the plant operations and maintenance
software is linked to the 3D model, providing a
3D view of the ‘as built’. Working from this
model, Commissioning and Operations team
members can visualize their work areas and
access real-time information on any equipment
within the simulated environment. Equipped
with mobile devices, workers could, for example,
go to the mechanical room and visualize this
room on their mobile device. They could click on
a pump within the simulated environment on
their mobile device and view information related
to this equipment, such as the serial number,
name tag, guarantee data, maintenance
activities performed, etc.
• Accelerated training – Just as with safety
training, general project and operational training
is enhanced and facilitated by allowing for
trainees to engage with the augmented reality
of the 3D model’s training environment for
virtual installation procedures and groundwork
training. This reduces the amount of ramp-up
time required for new resources and upskilling
on new methods, while increasing standardi-
zation of work executed.
Creating physical assets digitally
9

10. Mobile device usage on the job allows workers
not only to access up-to date information while
in the field, but also feed up-to date databases,
creating opportunities for meaningful analysis of
operations. In effect, analytics solutions plugged
into corporate databases can easily detect trends
and patterns of inefficiencies and safety risks, paving
the road for targeted and effective improvements.
With the availability of low cost mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, construction
teams have access to the latest 3D drawings at all times, allowing all workers to work with the
same version of the plan at all times. As employees interact with drawings, they can redline
these and capture notes and pictures directly from their mobile devices as well as note
deficiencies during site inspection.
With access to the latest 3D model, construction workers
can more easily validate and inspect constructed facilities
Enabling the connected
worker
3.
10

11. On a large infrastructure project with over 300 resources and inspectors, the connected
worker solution was put in place by equipping all with iPads. Workers were able to capture
deficiency pictures and notes directly on their tablets as they inspected the site. This allowed
the project to eliminate the need to have inspectors capture these deficiencies on paper and
via digital camera, re-transcribe notes, download pictures, link them to notes and then upload
all to a database. Overall, PRODUCTIVE HOURS WERE INCREASED BY 20-25% while
facilitating work satisfaction and motivation. The solution, built using SNC-Lavalin tools
currently in use, is low cost to implement, use and maintain, demonstrating that significant
gains are possible without over extending existing budgets. Project controls also have
benefited from these new capabilities. Field engineers using mobile devices can access
information, manage work orders, budget and schedule while sending information that allow
for real-time updates of project control systems. Moreover, such technology allows the
tracking of timecards in the field, using tablets, providing a daily headcount by contractor
and skill type.
On a large construction project, workers
were equipped with mobile devices that
provided them with access to capture
inspection notes and images directly in one
common database.
IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT
IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT
IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT
IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT
IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT
IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT
IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT
IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT
IPIENTI DELICIPIT IPIENTI DELICIPIT
Enabling the connected worker
11

12. Supporting safe delivery of physical assets, the creation of physical assets digitally and the
connected worker is the ability to rely on one common, integrated platform that allows all project
and operations personnel to connect into and update one source of the truth. By integrating
workflows and data for all systems and areas, as shown below, into one common construction
platform, all workers, including vendors and subcontractors, can access and work with the same
version of information. This enables closer collaboration and a better flow of information, by
minimizing multiple entries and risk of errors and maximizing visibility of required information and
better sequencing of activities.
Using a common platform and defining project tools to transition into an asset repository
connecting cost to schedule, plan, material, equipment and status, for one integrated, real-time
view of the project or operation.
Integrated systems - Common platform
Integrated cloud-based
construction platform
4.
Integrated construction platforms present a common system for all relevant workflows and databases
Engineering systems Cost
management
Planning and
scheduling
Project
collaboration
(website)
Contracts
management
Completion /
turnover and
commissioning
progress and
management
ConstructionFinance /
accounting
Field progress
and
performance
Procurement
and materials
management
Document
control
estimating
Engineering /
home office
progress and
performance
12

13. Nathalie Viens
Vice-President, Sustaining Capital
and Consulting Services
nathalie.viens@snclavalin.com
Tel. 514.393.1000
For more information...

14. HEAD OFFICE
455 René-Lévesque Blvd. West
Montreal, QC, H2Z 1Z3, Canada
Telephone: +1 514 393-1000
www.snclavalin.com
Founded in 1911, SNC-Lavalin is one of the leading engineering and construction
groups in the world and a major player in the ownership of infrastructure. From
offices in over 50 countries, SNC-Lavalin’s employees provide EPC and EPCM
services to clients in a variety of industry sectors, including mining and metallurgy,
oil and gas, environment and water, infrastructure and clean power. SNC-Lavalin
canalsocombinetheseserviceswithitsfinancingandoperationsandmaintenance
capabilities to provide complete end-to-end project solutions.
©2016 SNC-Lavalin Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
SCCS No. 0001