Stone & Webster, Inc.
A Shaw Group Company
Trinity Technologies brings Global Content Management to Stone & Webster Inc., a Shaw Group Company
To help leading engineering and construction firm Stone & Webster conform to NRC and client-specific records retention regulations, Trinity Technologies spearheaded the customization and deployment of Documentum for a major Nuclear Power project in Taiwan. Since that initial 
project four years ago, the system has grown into a corporate program that integrates with vendor document tracking, correspondence tracking, bulk delivery of information to clients, standard work flow templates, and project records management activities. The Documentum system, known internally as ShawDocs at Stone & Webster, is now one of the main project management tools for engineering projects around the globe.
During the design phase, Trinity prepared an overall approach that defined the systems, data models to support the life cycle, key issues, and a development plan—in just one month. Trinity’s Information Asset® System for the station managed all design-basis information, procurement and licensing information in accordance with client and NRC regulatory requirements.
In order to deliver the maximum benefit for Documentum, Trinity performed specific customizations that included a complete correspondence tracking system, a design change control process, and drawing management system. Trinity also provided the methodology for synchronizing the document repositories between the Boston engineering office, the customer’s office in Taipei and the field/site offices in Taiwan. This provided timely synchronization of important data and documents between all the required project participants.
Stone & Webster’s system lets the company deliver not only a physical asset, but also an Information Asset® that can be used for ongoing management, maintenance, retrofits, decommissioning, and operations. Electronic delivery enhances the value for the owner/operator and of Stone & Webster’s own services.
Stone & Webster has deployed the system on a significant number of power and process projects around the globe, including the rollout of secured web
access to the document repositories for their customers, vendors, and remote personnel. They also have implemented and automated an electronic delivery system for the documents; when documents are approved and released, they are automatically distributed to requisite parties via email, ftp upload, or routers.
“There are benefits from the operations and maintenance side that we are beginning to explore, in terms of what we can do for clients by turning over a design basis they can then use to operate and maintain their plant,” says Jim Sabin, Director IT/Boston. “For instance, if changes are required to the plant, the client can quickly go in and assess what documents could be affected by a potential design change. It facilitates determining the scope, the dollars, and the schedule associated with potential changes.”
Sabin explains, “There are a lot of construction documents that go back and forth and sometimes don’t get rolled into formal drawings. Those design change documents would be part of the package. We have a lot of vendor documentation that covers the detail design information and the maintenance required on equipment. These should go hand in hand with the engineering documents that Stone & Webster provides.”
Today, with the use of the latest Documentum technology, all of these documents are incorporated with the ShawDocs system and are accessible to all those that need it via client/server or internet access. According to Sabin, ShawDocs manages the actual lifecycle of a document to handle its offering, review, approval, and release states. Managing scope changes in relation to day-to-day activities—a key concern of the project manager—is another task that ShawDocs addresses. Today, if a piece of correspondence is received that potentially includes a scope change, it is flagged in the system as such. The system will ultimately identify design change activities as real or potential, and factor this back into the overall schedule and cost of the project.
Senior project management has been supportive of ShawDocs, buying into its value from the start. The standardization and automation achieved through the system helps lower the project execution costs as well as the costs for the next job resulting in a competitive edge.
