Sweden’s Construction Standards

Innovation and cooperation joined forces to find a sustainable solution to construction efficiency in Sweden. In the Bluebeam video titled Sweden Gets Serious About Construction Standards, Jimmy Forsberg, the Development Leader of the GoMobile Program at Skanska Sweden, discusses the necessity of defining standards for construction in Sweden. Before such standards were in place, the processes of development and design were burdened with errors and issues. “With a paper-based workflow, everybody has their own unique version of the same drawing,” Forsberg offers as an example. “It creates confusion, of course, and confusion is never good.” Taking the time to figure out the differences between drawings can be incredibly time-consuming or even “a huge risk later on,” he adds. And those risks are not just in time wasted—they can also be in money, health and the safety of workers.  

In order to solidify construction standards in Sweden, Skanska had to team up with its competitors and brainstorm ideas. “We got approached…and they asked us if we would be interested in making a Swedish standard for design and review,” says Forsberg. “The processes are more or less the same for everybody. We all use the same type of design softwares, so if this is a problem for [one company], this is a problem for all.” Skanska and its competitors decided to “take the competitive bit aside” for the sake of standardization and, as Forsberg says, “look for it later on.”

Thanks to the workflow improvements made possible by Bluebeam Revu, Forsberg mentions that efficiency has increased greatly since Skanska’s days of paper-based work. “It makes it easier for everybody, because we have one outlet now that everybody is working with,” he says. If it were not for Bluebeam, he adds that Skanska and many other companies in Sweden would “still be struggling…instead of making this a group effort.”

For the moment, the future is clear. As of the video’s recording in June 2018, Skanska was still in the implementation processes with Sweden’s new construction standards. Forsberg believes that it is on the right path and will have a great deal of success moving forward. “We have had great success in getting the work spread and in getting feedback from everybody,” he says. “It’s only good feedback that we’re getting.” The design review standards project that Skanska Sweden and its competitors worked on received the construction industry’s organization for research and development – SBUF – Innovation of the Year award.

The Skanska website describes the company as “one of the world’s leading project development and construction groups.” It is active in Europe and North America. Skanska “provides innovative and sustainable solutions to create a sustainable future for its people, customers and communities.” This certainly is proving true in Sweden.

If you’d like to explore first-hand the ways Bluebeam Revu can give your company a time advantage in its collaborative workflow, try it for yourself. You can download a full working version of Revu Standard, Revu CAD or Revu eXtreme on a 30-day free trial. When it’s time to convert that 30-day trial to a subscription or perpetual license, contact Applied Software and talk to a Bluebeam expert about your firm’s specific needs. Applied will help you champion innovation at your company.