COST BASED ENGINEERING AND PRODUCTION OF STEEL

CONSTRUCTIONS

H.G.A. EVERS, ICCS bv The Netherlands

IR. F. MAATJE, ICCS bv The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

In the last years Steel construction companies in Northern Europe have mainly invested in
production machines in the factory: Sawing and drilling machines, punching and shearing
machines and Robot flame-cutting. Investments, which reduce the production costs of the Steel
structure, looking at the complete development of a building quite at the end of the whole
process. We as ICCS bv state that there are more savings possible if investments are done in
the engineering and design, at the start of a project. This will be the subject of our lecture. To
know what the possible savings are, the engineer needs to have good knowledge about costs of
Steel constructions and software that helps him to make costs clear. In our lecture we will
present the state of art of software tools available for the steel construction industry.
WHERE ARE COSTS IN STEEL CONSTRUCTION

In order to be able to reduce costs, it is necessary to know how the costs of creating a steel
structure are build up. In regard to this we would like to make the following statement:
Approximately 50% of the total costs in a steel structure can be redirected to the connections in
the structure.

Roughly, the following cost items in a steel structure can be identified:

1) Design 13%
2) Material 38%
3) Production 27%
4) Coating 10%
5) Erection 12%

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Looking at a standard Steel structure with a price of € 1.14/kg the percentages of the costs are
shown in the figure below.

Total in € % % related to connections

Total 1) Design costs € 0.15 2% x 33% = 0.7

13% 3% x 55% = 1.7 8.6%
8% x 77% = 6.2
2) Material costs € 0.43 38% 40% 15.2%
3) Production costs € 0.31 27% 63% 17.0%
4) Coating costs € 0.11 10% 35% 3.5%
5) Erection costs € 0.14 12% 45% 5.4%
100% Ļ 49.7%
% Connections

COSTS RELATED TO THE CONNECTIONS

The costs in the connections are made visible in the next figure. Each part is divided into a light
and a dark area: the light area is the part that is attributed to the connections, the darker area is
attributed the other costs.

Design costs: These can be divided in:

1) Pre-design
2) Detailed design
3) Detailing and work preparation

1) Pre-design: 33% of costs related to connections:

In the pre-design most of the time is spent on main frame design and the stability of the
structure. In the pre-design the engineer only has to consider connections that influence the
global behaviour of the structure: The so called rigid or semi-rigid connections. Simple
calculation rules are available (SG-TCA10a).

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2) Detailed design: 55% of costs related to connections:
In this phase the engineer has to detail all the connections that influence the behaviour of the
structure in detail. When semi-rigid connections are used the behaviour of the steel frame is
influenced by these connections.

3) Detailing and work preparation: 77% of costs related to connections:

The draftsman spends nearly all his time on detailing connections in the steel structure. Using
StruCad, the draftsman spends 10% of the time to set up the steel frame. The rest of the time is
spent on detailing the connections and printing and plotting the drawings.

Material costs: 40% of costs related to connections:

In normal Steel structure plates contributed approximately 5% of the total weight. Using rigid
connections, the field moment will be reduced. The amount of used material can is less. So
there is a strong relationship between the type of connection and the amount of material in the
structure.

Production costs: 63% of costs related to connections:

Nearly all the work in the shop is related to the connections of the steel structure: Prefabricating
plates and cleats, the tack welding of the plates to the beams and columns and welding.

Coating costs: 38% of costs related to the connections:

The coating of the small parts like plates and cleats of the steel construction takes more time
than coating the main beams and columns relatively.

Erection costs: 45% of costs related to the connections:

It is clear that on the erection site the connections are fitted together. Easy connections will be
less time consuming then difficult connections

This means that approximately 50% of the costs are directly related to the connections in a steel
structure. In order to reduce costs in the total process it is of great importance to look at the
connections at an early stage. In Dutch practice there are a lot of examples of projects that
ended in court due to severe problems with the connections. In frame analysis packages it is
very easy to analyze a structure in which all frame elements are rigidly connected. However, in
practice, it is (almost) impossible to connect frame elements fully rigid. If it possible, then the
costs of that particular connection will be very high.

As many costs are related to the connections, it is fair to say that at the end of the detailing the
final price of the structure is determined for approximately 88%. The connections determine the
material and hence the production in the shop and on site.

The next figure illustrates this.

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 100
100 %
%
90
The Net her lands 88 % 88 %
© 1993 - 2000 ECCS bv

80

73 %
70

63 %
60
75 %
52 %
50
47 %

40 40 %
37 %

TOTAL WAGES 52 %
30

20

13 %
10 DEF. O F CO ST
MATERIAL + WAGESL
5%
3% WAGES
0
Predesign Def. Detailing Production Coating Erection
Design

How are the costs built up?

On the horizontal axis the progress in the project is shown.

The percentages of costs are given along the vertical axis.

The continuous line represents the costs of the wages made during the project.
The middle dashed line represents the total costs made during the project.
The left dashed line shows the amount of costs that is fixed.

As in the design and detailing phase many costs are fixed. It is very important for an engineer to
have a tool with which he can estimate what the financial consequences of his decisions during
the design will be.
ICCS bv developed this tool: a software package called ICCS-TVC. The software package is
able to estimate the cost of steel structure based on the specific infrastructure and production
facilities of a specific steel fabricator.

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ICCS-TVC TECHNICAL ESTIMATING

This software package has been developed in co-operation with several steelwork companies.
Hence, ICCS-TVC is a package for the daily practice of steelwork companies.

The first version of ICCS-TVC was launched in 1988, being a DOS application based upon an
Oracle database. At the end of 1997 a whole new version of TVC was brought to completion.
This version is full Windows based and includes links with MS Excel and MS Word. ICCS-TVC
uses a graphical input.

The ICCS-TVC contains four modules:

1) Simple “manual” estimating
2) 3D graphical input of steel construction (GET)
3) Connection generator
4) Production cost engine

These modules will be explained in more detail:

1) Simple “manual” estimating

Appropriating and inserting of material, possibly with hours or h/ton.

2) 3D graphical input of Steel construction

Using 3D for detailing Steel structures has become the standard. The benefits of this system are
clear and are used widely in the Steel industry. In the past 10 years software for the 3D systems
has become mature and hardware has become cheap and fast. At this moment these systems
are mainly used for the detailing and not for estimating. But for an estimator the system can also
be very powerful if the system is adjusted to his working method. The following advantages are
present:
1) The contractor gets a clear overview of what is estimated (What You See Is What You
GET) (Graphical Estimating Tool)
2) 2D and 3D hidden line drawing can be generated for the customer, possibly in AutoCAD
size (clarity for the customer).
3) Changes can easily be done

Important note: For the estimator isn’t it necessary to put the beams and columns on the
exact position, for example TOS.

In practice graphical estimating is as fast as manual input

3) Connection generator
In the beginning of this manuscript it was made clear that 50% of the costs are related to the
connections. This means that for an estimator it is very important to know what kind of
connections are used and what roughly the dimensions of the connections are. At this stage not
many connections are already detailed, but in order to make an accurate estimate more
information is required. For this, ICCS bv developed “estimate connections” which can be
assigned to the members in the 3D model.

The aim of the estimate is not to detail all the connections but to get a rough idea of the number
of plates, bolts and welds are required to build the steel construction.

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 Within the estimation-program there are nine types of connections.
Each type of connection generates the required connection parts
(plates, welds, bolts, notches etc.), taking the connections into
account.

The dimensions of the connection parts are determined by user definable formulas that describe
the relationship between the sizes of the sections that are connected, and the dimensions of the
connection. See figure.

End plate thickness Pth=[range] or Pf

End plate width Pw=Sw
End plate length Pl =Sh

Weld size a = 0,5 x Pth = 0,5 x Pf

Weld length l = 4 x Sw + 2 x Sl

Sw = section width
Sh = section size

Number of bolts depends on Sh

Number of sizes depends on Sh

Sizes endplate connection

Just by selecting the end types all the needed information about the connections will be
generated automatically.

When the sizes of the connections have been determined, production costs can be estimated.

4) Production cost engine

The production costs are determined in two steps: First, for every part the program determines
which labour-places need to be visited to produce the part. Secondly, the program calculates
the exact time on the all the labour-places the part will visit.

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The following basic labour-types are considered:
1) Shortening
2) Generating holes
3) Tack-welding
4) Welding
5) Other (notching, curving, blasting etc.)

Both shortening and generating holes can be executed in several ways:

Shortening: Sawing, shearing, burning or purchasing on length
Generating holes: Drilling, punching and burning

Basic labour-types are being chosen judging several criteria.

The normal logistic order of the production process is also very important in order to estimate
production time. Within ICCS-TVC, the logistic order of the production process can be described
in detail.

The estimation is being generated based upon the standard logistics within
the Company’s parameters .

The following issues are known:

1) Dimensions of the connection parts
2) Necessary labour methods

Using specific formulas that describe the relation between the parts of the connection parts, the
section and the company-dependant parameters, the production times are estimated fully
automatically. These production times can be into part-production-times. For each labour
method a specific formula has been programmed.
The summarized time for each labour method is in fact a summation of the following six part-
production-times:

- Net production time

- Machine logistics
- Geographical logistics
- Information
- Measurement
- Non productive time

Entering
labour place data

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EXAMPLE OF COST BASED ENGINEERING AND PRODUCTION OF STEEL STRUCTURES

In the worked out example it is illustrated how an engineer can design a cost efficient portal
frame with the following software tools:

StruCad Engineer: Graphical input

STAAD/Pro: Frame design according to EC3
CoP: Connection design according to EC3 annex J
ICCS-TVC: Estimate

Braced portal frame: three types: Pinned connections

Semi rigid connections
Rigid connections

The frame is setup in StruCad Engineer, and imported frame into STAAD/Pro. With CoP the
stiffness of the semi-rigid connections and the rigid connections are calculated. Then these are
implemented in the frame analysis.

Pinned Semi-Rigid Rigid

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Results of ICCS-TVC with the parameters of an average steel fabricator from the Netherlands,
the following table can be extracted:

Weight [kg] 2818.0 2445.0 2572.0.

Costs Item in € Pinned Semi-Rigid Rigid

Material 38.3% 934.8 34.6% 785.0 33.4% 829.1

Details 3.6% 87.6 3.6% 82.6 3.6% 87.6
Production 26.0% 634.8 29.3% 658.4 32.5% 805.5
Coating 11.2% 274.5 11.3% 257.3 10.8% 267.7
Erection/Transport 20.9% 510.5 21.4% 484.2 19.8% 492.4
Total 100.0% 2442.2 100.0% 2267.5 100.0% 2482.2
€
€ / kg 0.867 0.923 0.967
% of the total 107.7% 100.0% 109.5%
price

(All units are € unless noted otherwise)

In this case the construction with semi-rigid connections gives the most cost effective
construction. The Simple Endplate connection already gives a high stiffness

CONCLUSION:
Using the latest technology in steel design makes the steel fabricator more competitive. Using
benefits of the latest technology an integrated design is necessary: 3D-Modelling, 3D-Analysis,
Connection Design and Estimating in the design.

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