Centralized Physical Planning System Enhances Workflow Throughout Olympic
Games Enterprise

System Boosts Quality, Promotes Innovation, Controls Costs

June 6, 1995 -- When opening ceremonies kick off the 1996 Olympic Summer
Games, travel routes to Atlanta's new 85,000-seat stadium, spectator
access points, athlete assembly areas, TV camera placements -- and many
other things affecting the logistics of people and equipment -- will
result from plans generated by an IBM-based computer-aided design (CAD)
system. And, during the 17 days of the Centennial Olympic Games, an
estimated 2 million attendees and 3.5 billion television viewers will
notice a similarity in the use of graphics and decorations for all
facilities -- also made possible by the IBM-based system developed by The
Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG).

A team of architects, engineers and facilities planners under the direction
of Curtis Palmer, ACOG's manager of CAD Systems/Physical Planning, use the
system to provide and distribute information to several dozen "client"
organizations across the ACOG enterprise. By year end, the number of CAD
"users" is expected to grow from 50 to more than 100. Their diverse use of
physical planning information will range from staging the opening
ceremonies and torch run, to placing TV cameras, to identifying
transportation drop-off locations for bus traffic.

The centralized physical planning CAD system will utilize a token-ring
local area network with an IBM RISC System/6000 server linked to IBM
personal computer and RS/6000 clients. In addition to AIX, IBM's
industrial strength UNIX operating system, Network Management/6000 and
DB2/6000 software products, IBM's ProductManager and application software
such as AutoCAD reside on the server. The physical planning CAD system
will be a component of ACOG's enterprise-wide client/server implementation
via a link to an IBM System/390, the master repository and enterprise
server.

A primary reason for the system's encompassing scope is Palmer's philosophy
that "CAD is a communications tool to promote and enhance enterprise
workflow; it is not just a drafting or design tool," he emphasizes. "When
used as a centralized physical planning system, CAD allows various
departments to communicate their planning requirements more cohesively
than they can in memos and meetings. In a dynamic organization like ACOG
-- or any other large enterprise -this communication drives consistency,
quality and innovation up while it helps keep costs down."

At ACOG there are two groups of existing and potential "clients" for
Palmer's department: (1) Users, who operate their own CAD systems and
require direction and support; and (2) Clients, who do not have their own
systems but require CAD services.

Users

- Atlanta Olympic Broadcasting (AOB): Major user, for
  positioning cameras, platforms and broadcast compounds. AOB
  also is designing the temporary International Broadcast
  Center in-house.

- Technical Services: Planning technical facilities, e.g.
  cabling, radios, computer networking, closed circuit
  television, TV monitor placement, copiers -- any
  technology item in a venue that needs to be supported.

- Village Department: Logistical planning, space
  allocation, Olympic Village building assignments (with
  Georgia Tech) and other remote villages.

- Construction Division: Managing construction process.
  Collects requirements and contracts with outside design
  firms for CAD drawings and blueprints.  Formats these
  drawings then transfers them to the CAD Systems department
  for standards processing and dissemination to the ACOG
  enterprise.

- Office of Facility Management: Planning and management
  of ACOG office space.

- Security: Planning safety, flow and access control of
  various attendee groups, as well as security zone
  planning.

- Logistics: Space planning, furniture and equipment
  allocation and placement in venues and warehouses.

Clients

- Venue Planning & Management: Physical Planning
  department's major "customer." Negotiations among
  interested parties such as broadcasters, logistics,
  spectator services, medical and sports regarding
  requirements and locations provide proposed changes to CAD
  Systems official plan of record. Venue managers and
  Construction Division determine if these alterations are
  feasible. The resulting CAD drawing becomes a plan for the
  actual operation of the venue.

- Transportation: Routing between venues, staging areas
  for buses and taxis, access to remote park-and-ride lots.

- Mapping: Mapping for the Atlanta Olympic Ring, an
  imaginary circle with a radius of 2.75 km, extending from
  the southern tip of the new Centennial Olympic Park.

- ACOG Marketing: Locating signs, billboards and
  businesses in relation to transportation routes and
  accommodations to control "ambush marketing."

IBM ProductManager

Key to the physical planning CAD system's continuing effectiveness is the
planned installation of IBM's ProductManager, a product data management
tool used in industry to shorten product cycle times, reduce costs and
improve quality. The program will be used by ACOG primarily for its change
management attributes.

Change management is a critical issue for ACOG, with numerous entities such
as television, ticket sales and visiting dignitaries vying for space and
seats at more than 30 competition venues. "We have so many people working
on these drawings that we segmented the functional departments into their
own working space on the server," Palmer says. "We have a separate
directory tree structure for all venues, so we maintain control of the
plan of record, but CAD users can make a copy of it to work on their own
requirements. If changes are made that affect other users, the updated CAD
files must go through a review procedure before my staff will alter the
base plan. Ultimately, the manager for each venue is responsible for
deciding the outcome of negotiations and disputes among users."

Bob Stiles, Olympic Stadium venue manager, says he interfaces with "every
single functional area in ACOG," including the Sports Competition
department, Press Operations and Public Information, Lost and Found,
Ushering, Security and Medical, Ticket Taking, the Olympic Family and
Technology. "We try to gather the total picture of who needs to do what,
when, where, why and how at a venue, then integrate all of that
information into a meaningful space and function plan that works -- given
realistic budgetary and physical limitations."

An example of the process in operation was the request of ACOG's
broadcasting group for relocating a major operational facility in the
stadium closer to their work space. One possible location didn't work
because it blocked a major corridor. A section of the planned Olympic
Family lounge was more feasible. "I took that proposal to the Olympic
Family group and asked how they felt if we gave 1,000 square feet to the
broadcasters without impacting the Family's operational needs," Stiles
recalls. "They looked at the proposal on CAD and agreed that the new plan
was acceptable."

The broadcasting organization can alter placements of cameras, panels,
platforms -- anything related to their own operation -- in directories
referencing CAD Systems' base plan. Then, as long as the changes affect
only their allotted space, the broadcasters can affect the main database.
If other groups are affected, they and the venue planner must approve the
proposed alterations, and the Construction department must agree to any
budget impact. Only then does CAD Systems change a venue's base plan.

Innovation and Collaboration

Palmer points out that ACOG's centralized physical planning CAD system
makes use of pre-existing files containing the best available industry
standards, then innovates to improve these files and meet new
requirements. "Innovation comes from seeing what everyone else has seen
and thinking what no one else has thought," he says. Collaboration enables
and fosters cooperation among ACOG and its volunteer force, combined with
academia, government and corporate organizations, Palmer adds.
"Collaboration and reuse of existing data is critical to the success of a
project employing finite resources, meeting unanticipated and/or
unbudgeted needs and operating on a schedule with a definitive completion
date. The Centennial Olympic Games must begin as scheduled on July 19th,"
he says. "There is no relief in this schedule." Several core applications
are being developed for the 1996 Olympic Summer Games by Palmer and his
staff of a half dozen architects, engineers and facilities planners:

- Physical plans for the 30-plus sports venues, such as
  space planning, furniture allocation, equipment fit and
  placement, field of play proximity, medal storage, etc.

- Architectural design services through in-house designers.

- Three-dimensional field of play visualization to show
  what the venues will look like.

- Automated mapping via geographical information systems.

- Technology support to ACOG organizations that do their
  own planning, such as the  Olympic Village department and
  the Security department.

Physical Planning

One of the major services provided to ACOG's CAD users is the sharing and
centralization of core data. This enables different departments to see not
only what their own operations look like, but also how they relate to each
other. "We provide base plans for their competition venues," Palmer notes,
"and our philosophy here is that these plans should be easily understood
by facilities planners and nontechnical staff. We've also standardized
naming conventions so each group's drawings fit into a cohesive,
enterprise package. This consistency is significant right now for our 50
CAD users, but it will be even more important as new requirements expand
that number to probably more than 100."

The CAD Systems group employs local contractors to provide computer graphic
designs for new venues, then they convert this data to ACOG's CAD
standards. For some existing venues such as Atlanta's 30-year-old baseball
stadium where only manual drawings were available, CAD Systems architects
collected a set of blueprints that described the building. They then hired
an outside firm to re-draft the blueprints into CAD from scratch. "We
don't allow contractors to scan the drawings, because we need a little
more accuracy than that," Palmer remarks.

The CAD Systems team also uses the approved construction CAD files,
according to Palmer, then "sanitizes" them. "We strip the construction
documents of their dimensions, removing complicated engineering notations
that would confuse the average lay person. This makes the documents look
less like blueprints than CAD drawings, so they can be used as planning
tools for all of ACOG. CAD drawings look better than blueprints, and
they're much easier to understand by the average employee."

Architectural Design Services

Additional services offered by Palmer's group include acquisition of
existing drawings and in-house architectural designs and layouts for
various ACOG departments. CAD Systems contributed space layouts and
exhibit designs for the Association of National Olympic Committees review
meeting late last year in Atlanta. They have mapped world and United
States routes for the 1996 Torch Run, and assist with special events such
as groundbreakings and grand openings.

3D Visualization Projects

CAD Systems provides dynamic venue "tours" with the aid of a new virtual
reality product -- the IBM 3D Interaction Accelerator (3DIX). This new
browsing software package enables interested parties to "walk through"
models of the various venues. For example, when 500 officials from nearly
200 National Organizing Committees (NOCs) traveled to Atlanta recently for
a mandated progress report, their understandable desire to tour the new
Olympic Stadium posed a problem. "The stadium is under construction and on
a tight schedule, so we couldn't shut down the site -- even for these
distinguished guests," Palmer explains. "Instead, we prepared a 3D video
animation from the CAD base plan, then translated that into the IBM 3DIX
system for a guided tour. This actually provided the NOC officials with
more detail -and a better perspective -- than they could have gotten on an
actual physical tour."

Robb Axton, an ACOG consulting architect who develops three dimensional
visualizations of Olympic venues, says 3DIX presents "a huge leap forward
in technology. Our 60 second stadium video required about 12 hours to
complete; it would have taken at least 600 hours -- which we didn't have
-- if we had been forced to use conventional PC-based animation
techniques."

IBM's 3DIX is operator interactive, thus the only walk through path that is
pre-defined or scripted is one the user has chosen to program. As an
example, for the 500 dignitaries from the National Organizing Committees
-- too many people and too little time for individual interactivity -- a
3D overview "tour" targeted to a large group was programmed, then
videotaped. This allowed ACOG's guests to take away the animated
walk-through of the stadium as part of a more comprehensive video
presenting the status of various elements for the 1996 Olympic Games -- to
share with their colleagues at home.

Palmer explains that the field visualization application is especially
significant for several new venues that have been constructed. "It's very
important to be able to place camera views into a 3D model to show what
will appear on the screen from different venue positions. These
visualizations take into account potential obstructions, such as
scoreboards, banners, signage, seating that could block a camera's
vertical or horizontal sweep," he says.

Automated Mapping/ Geographical Information Systems

In addition to 3D visualization, the CAD Systems department uses
geographical information systems (GIS) software to provide automated
mapping. "We're doing typical mapping functions -- planning for road
blocks, transportation corridors, placement of elements outside the
fences," Palmer says. "We're also concerned about where a fence is located
around a venue or group of venues and how and where you drop off different
groups of people such as spectators, dignitaries, officials, or
athletes."

Technology Support

Palmer defines his department's technology offerings as "the software,
hardware and network necessary to deliver CAD to end users and to the CAD
Systems staff." Included are: IBM RS/6000 and desktop and portable
personal computer workstations; a central repository of CAD data for all
users; a Xerox large format color electrostatic plotter; IBM and Xerox
small format printers; a customable CAD interface based on application
needs and user requirements.

Central to the department's technology support are IBM Database 2 (DB2)
linkages to Local and Wide Area Network users. In addition to change
management coordination, this "client" networking enables the CAD Systems
department to provide online technical assistance with engineering design
hardware, software and process problems.

As the worldwide information technology sponsor, IBM is providing systems
and people to help plan, manage and run the Olympic Games through the year
2000. For more about IBM's integrated information solutions, browse its
home page at http://www.ibm.com on the Internet World-Wide Web. In its
role as the Official Internet Information Systems provider for ACOG, IBM
also supplies information on the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games at
http://www.atlanta.olympic.org on the WWW.

  ProductManager: IBM's Premier PDM Solution

Product Data Management (PDM) systems help companies organize, store and
manage design and development data. ProductManager, IBM's premier
application solution for PDM, incorporates leading-edge object oriented
technology and includes the change management features that are critical
to ACOG's CAD operation. Change management and other components of
ProductManager, when combined, enable business operations to function in a
concurrent engineering environment.

The ProductManager system helps businesses plan, document, distribute, and
track the release of new products and engineering changes while
controlling the flow of product and process information throughout the
enterprise. ACOG will use the system's Document Control Manager component
for collecting, storing and delivering 1996 Olympic Games CAD
documentation. The program product is designed to manage data created from
a variety of applications and tools working in an open systems environment
of personal computers, workstations and mainframes.

Document Control Manager enables users to: establish a central database;
maintain a centralized "vault" for critical business documents such as CAD
drawings; establish document-to-document associations and formats; provide
administration capabilities such as document registration,
check-in/check-out, security, versioning and change control; manage the
ability to view and "redline" documents using native tools directly from
Document Control Manager screens; create a history of events file for
document creation and approval.

Other ProductManager components are:

- Application Services Manager -- An IBM application
  enabler. Provides the ability to customize
  ProductManager, manage the system, access and share
  information in a distributed environment, extend
  functions as business requirements grow.

- Product Change Manager -- Manages the engineering design and release
  process. Allows implementation of structured, electronic product
  change and release processes within an enterprise. Helps
  create, maintain and release engineering changes for new
  or existing products. Helps establish an automated
  engineering change review process that supports automated
  creation, distribution, review and approval of documents.

- Product Structure Manager -- Manages the product
  definition and configuration process. For creation,
  maintenance and retrieval of product definition data within
  an enterprise; generation of on-line reports; conversion of
  non-EC-controlled product data to EC control.

IBM recently announced version 2 release 3 of ProductManager for AIX-based
systems. The new release offers interfaces to both OS/2 and Windows and
adds industry leading integration functions for CAD and enterprise
resource planning (ERP). Also announced were two optional features -- a 3D
Configuration Assistant and ProductManager for AVALON.

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