SE Bluebprint

Reprographics: The hub of any project

Reprographics is changing as quickly as the A/E/C industry is changing, and the changes in reprography actually support many of the changes being made in design and construction. “We have seen the reprographic market evolve from paper and pen to the digital revolution,” says Kevin Anderson, president of SE Blueprint in Cleveland and Akron, one of the drivers of this change. “Today, in our 20th year in business, we are still printing plans, but there has been a big reduction in the amount of printing we do. Today, the industry is based on distribution rather than printing; our first goal now is to distribute data, and only then do we print it.”
Digital data give the industry certain efficiencies, he adds, but, all too often, those efficiencies don’t continue on into the workers in the field. “You don’t see laptops on the cranes, though you might see them in the trailers,” he explains. “So the guys in the field are left to make sense of the construction documents on their own. Helping them to do that is SE Blueprint’s niche.”
SE Blueprint helps the works through its Plancycle, an electronic data management software system. “Historically, we have done planrooms on paper, but it is not efficient,” says Anderson. “What we offer the industry now is a digital vault, one which can hold any kind of digital file: video, audio, web-based, plans, specifications.” It is even possible, he adds, to expand that holding to include such things as thumbprint identification, a technology being used to aid security and tracking.

All together
According to Karen Bialosky, SE Blueprint vice president of sales, a large part of the reprographer’s task is streamlining construction data. Through the various phases of a project--from development through design and construction to operations, she says--there is a “brain drain,” which occurs as data shared by traditional means are lost over the process of building. Thus, digital communication can now be used to create a seamless network both across the timespan of project development and across space that allows designers in locations across the country to participate.
The 20-year-old company has evolved over its history to take leadership in the industry. With the complexity of today’s projects and the many players involved, says Anderson, it is essential for projects to have this kind of a communications hub. “In the past, projects have been so disjointed,” he says, “and they still can be sometimes, with all the disciplines involved, working in so many platforms. But SE Blueprint can deliver information digitally, and, even better, deliver it in an integrated fashion.”
This ability, he goes on, supports one of the industry’s emerging movements, integrated project delivery, or IPD, making the veteran firm as current as today. “Our digital technology lends itself to IPD and BIM, building information modeling. It makes sense to try to improve communication between all parts of the design and construction industry,” says Anderson. And though this kind of technology represents a major change in the way we do things, he points out, “they say that if you don’t like change, you will like irrelevancy even less.”

Constant upgrades
“As SE Blueprint moves into the future as a provider of digital data,” says Mike Sutton, vice president of marketing, “we make continual upgrades in our service. For instance, we support emerging technologies such as BIM with a feature that allows users to click on a product mention and pull up the specs.”
One group of too often overlooked members of the building team are the contractors and subcontractors. With a system such as SE Blueprint’s, they can receive automatic notices of any corrections, as well as attached documentation and plans. They can print these at their offices, with SE Blueprint providing the equipment, or the company can print and deliver.
And it’s all in real time. According to Sutton, “It’s possible to call up a drawing in the office, and watch someone else make redline changes to the document. In 2007, it took an average of 21 days for a resolution to an RFI. And construction had to stop while the issue was resolved. Now, with the redline tool, it is possible to get a resolution within 20 seconds.
He adds, “Changes are up to date, so there is no idle time on the site.” Revisions highlight the differences, with color used extensively. This helps to streamline scheduling between two trades, such as plumbing and electrical. “It is the only planroom like this that we know of,” says Sutton. “Color communicates. there are no surprises on bid day, far fewer change orders. He laughs, “We like to say that no project is finished until the litigation is over, and this kind of a system eliminates gray areas and allows for audit trails.”

Adding value
Or consider the post-construction process. SE Blueprint’s support for Facilities Groups allows clients to access as-built drawings, important for operations and maintenance professionals, and preserve changes to those structures that are available for anyone from staff to first responders. So having one single digital version, as SE Blueprint provides, allows everyone access to the most up-to-date drawings. And as changes are made to a structure, accurate information is added. This is just a value-added part of the digital planroom service that can save money, time and even lives.
Other parts of the SE Blueprint service package also add value. It includes a search feature, which works like a very specific Google to give very specific results. Users can access manufacturer websites directly to see specs and get ordering information. Free take-off tools are also included, allowing for quantity counts and calculations.
SE Blueprint also serves the industry by providing onsite equipment that can be leased or bought, depending on a company’s needs. It also brings its considerable printing prowess to the creating of banners, posters, fencing, anything graphic a project may need, and all done in-house. Mounting and laminating are not high tech, but they are highly needful at many job sites. “We can put a graphic anywhere,” says Bialosky, from cloud formations on light covers to trucks.
“We want to be the industry’s one-source answer,” concludes Anderson about future plans. “We are a reprographer that helps all entities on a project communicate through the same planroom SE Blueprint can meet all information needs.” BXM

Blue to green

The digital revolution has long been promised as a key factor in going paperless, with data gathered, collected, accessed and distributed electronically. Nowhere is this better evidenced than at SE Blueprint, a reprographics company based in Cleveland and Akron that uses electronic communication to recreate itself as a sustainability champion.
At SE Blueprint, being green goes far beyond a marketing slogan, with sustainability empowering the basic core of the business: digital communication IS green. It is also a commitment, lived up to by the company and its staff, adhered to by its vendors and welcomed by its clients. With design and construction getting a greener way to share plans and documents, green building and LEED certification gets easier.
What does being green mean in real-life terms? For one thing, SE Blueprint is committed to recycling, and now uses recycled paper exclusively for all its plans and specs. It has reduced its landfill contribution by 90%. The mass of paper that used to go into the dumpster has been reduced from a twice-a-week pickup to every other month, from 16 visits to one. And SE Blueprint will help its customers by picking up and recycling for them. Says Mike Sutton, vice president of marketing, “We don’t do it for the revenue stream. We do it at no additional charge. We believe in it.”
The firm’s interior outlook is also brighter, with more skylighting and energy-efficient lighting, while delivery vehicles are hybrids. Indeed, the ability to electronically link project data anywhere in the country, a benefit of the company’s membership leadership in the Reprographic Services Association’s National Print Network, saves on transportation costs to the plant and the pocketbook by delivering to 175 print locations and same-day service to 400 cities. SE Blueprint is also a member of Entrepreneurs4Sustainability, which helps Northeast Ohio businesses determine how to lighten their impact on the planet. At SE Blueprint, the idea is to think globally, act locally. And that idea is working just fine. BXM