How Content Management Solution Helps Save the Planet

Harvey’s Plumbing and Heating’s slogan is “saving the planet one job at a time”.  That’s an ambitious goal for the Montana-based firm who provides a variety of eco-friendly mechanical and plumbing services to businesses across the state.  In order to achieve this mission, Harvey’s has a library of over 26,000 unique design assets ranging from complex prefabricated assemblies to basic generic objects.  Harvey’s employees have the skills to do the jobs, but they struggled with how to organize, access and manage their overflowing treasure trove of data.

Finding Content Shouldn’t Be a Treasure Hunt

Prior to UNIFI, Harvey’s used a Windows-based file folder system that was clunky and hard to locate data. The folder structures were very deep which made searching for and finding information a bit like a treasure hunt.  Displaying objects was another issue.  Harvey’s needed certain views of images that weren’t available through Windows Explorer.  Access to the data was available only at the office and not in the field, which further limited productivity, plus the search process was very slow.  When a file needed to appear in two places, it created a maintenance nightmare.  Harvey’s needed a solution that structured their information in a logical, easy to search format with sophisticated display capabilities that could be accessed from anywhere.

Mission Accomplished with UNIFI – 10X Productivity Increase

Harvey’s mechanical designer, Brian Nickel, came across UNIFI and knew he found the solution to solve the company’s content management needs.  Under Brian’s leadership, Harvey’s created a single source library for its thousands of design assets and now, “search is a snap”.  Information is organized in a logical, intuitive structure, making it easy to search for any object including those already installed at a job site or reusing objects for future projects.  And, engineers are able to access the information from anywhere – in the office, field, or home – thanks to the cloud.

In the past, many of Harvey’s pre-fabricated objects didn’t display well – but in UNIFI, they do.  Using UNIFI’s display features, engineers are able to easily visualize the pre-fabricated content outside of the Revit environment and convey the design component requirements directly to the design staff.   The ability to store, visualize and retrieve Revit groups has not only accelerated the design process but also allows Harvey’s to coordinate prefabrication and installation activities.  By having these groups stored and represented as custom preview images, UNIFI solves a key problem that Harvey’s struggled with previously.

Since deploying UNIFI, Harvey’s has enjoyed a 10X productivity increase due to workflow efficiencies. “The UNIFI solution works seamlessly with Revit and doesn’t slow us down,” says Brian.  The rapid access to design assets frees up the Harvey’s team to focus on their biggest mission, doing even more jobs to save the planet.