This case study has been taken from the Spatial Information in the New Zealand Economy - Realising Productivity Gains report, August 2009.

Fulton Hogan (FH) is a large trans-Tasman infrastructure construction, road works and aggregate supplier. In 2007 the company reported an annual operating profit of $92.93 million, from revenue of $1.61 billion and employed over 4,800 people. Fulton Hogan is beginning to see value in GIS/spatial information but is probably still at an initial stage along the GIS learning curve - in particular with regard to the enterprise-wide benefits that can potentially be reaped from the technology.

At present, advanced spatial technology is only used on specific FH projects or in specific applications. Some FH vehicles are GPS enabled and much data are in fact captured (but not necessarily utilised). GPS units are currently being used by some FH crews who report a 50 per cent productivity increase but there are only a small number of crews using them.

Other applications of GIS at FH include:

• Feilding Open Space Mgt - GPS to assist in reporting
• Waikanae sweeper, sweeper activity plotted on Google Earth map for client
• Navman technology on around 100 vehicles but not well used
• Crews use aerial photos for location of assets
• Mobile devices, estimate 70 per cent uptake in roading asset mgt area (Works, Transfield. Auckland Motorway alliance is leading uptake)
• FH consultants use LiDAR - no physical surveyor required
• use free imagery/info
• GPS enabled equipment enables shifting machinery around worksite when problems are encountered with no need for re-survey worksite when returning to half completed work.
• Improved scheduling and routing of crews and ensuring that the right people are directed to the right jobs.
  • Fulton Hogan are working towards using existing data of vehicle/crew location to optimise scheduling of jobs (right crew for each job, who is in the vicinity when 'emergency' jobs arise) and track performance.  The estimate is that this will save 30 per cent on traditional methods of scheduling and managing maintenance activities (based on experience in the UK).  This is largely about using existing data in new ways rather than collecting new data.  Existing data includes information about the location of crews (GPS enabled vehicles), information about the location of assets (GPS, imagery) and data with a spatial component such as quarry records (when vehicles are weighed out there is a data point for vehicles at a location - the weighbridge - at a point in time).

Figure 16: Roads contractor using handheld RAMM device

FH use GPS enabled equipment for all major projects but not as yet in maintenance. This avoids pegging out sites and is used for generating as-built drawings. This completely changes the management of the site as staff are able to assess progress using GPS data rather tracking against pegged out worksite. GPS use on a typical job would save four engineers due to pegless construction. FH is a fast follower in this space and estimates its uptake to be 100 per cent.

Barriers to GIS uptake and future plans for Fulton Hogan

Data can be expensive and understanding the cost/benefits for particular jobs remains important. Ideally the company would avoid maintaining systems for clients and instead link into clients' data - but this presents challenges regarding formats/standards. The large number of clients means that data linkage is challenging due to the lack of consistency in software and various formats.

As mentioned earlier, FH has not as yet moved into regular use of GIS and spatial technology for maintenance work; it was mentioned that the degree of accuracy required becomes very important in the maintenance field. Variations in GPS accuracy make periodic work over time more challenging. Discrete projects continue to be more amenable to GIS integration.

The cost of GIS will also continue to be relevant. Contractors are cost focussed and want to know the benefits of paying for the technology. FH have outlined the following strategy to incorporate GIS more fully:

• working with leaders in the use of GIS/GPS within the company
• workshops on strategy led by FH region that need GIS/GPS capability for a contract.

In conclusion, FH is using modern spatial information technology with some tangible benefits but its uptake is not as yet widespread through the company. Given that FH collects a vast amount of location based data (in excel, SQL, Oracle programs) which is currently used in a limited way there appears to be clear potential for using a GIS as a portal to access these data. The future of GIS at FH will depend on education, demonstrating cost/time savings and the adoption of standardised data formats and accuracy controls.