Ushering in an Intelligent Future and Expanding into New Business Realms

Kuo-Ann Wu, CTCI Group Intelligent Solutions Business CEO

Nowadays, technologies such as 5th generation mobile networks (5G), Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data have gone through rapid evolutions, bringing significant impacts to industries for their future developments. In response to these trends, CTCI Group Intelligent Solutions Business (CTCI GISB) aims to make an innovative progress in smart engineering services by introducing smart technology applications to its existing engineering expertise, maximizing its clientele, and expanding into new business areas.  
  
CTCI has been making constant efforts in the smart industry for years, and now with plans for GISB in place, it is able to leverage the complementary strengths of its three member companies, CTCI Advanced Systems Inc. (CTCI ASI), CTCI Resources Engineering Inc. (CTCI REI), and CTCI Smart Engineering Corp. (CTCI SEC). They are specialized in smart technologies, green engineering, geotechnical engineering, instrumentation & control, and mechanical, electrical & plumbing (MEP). Apart from building solid track records in areas of smart manufacturing, smart transportation, smart buildings, and smart industrial parks, CTCI GISB also enforces intelligent DNA in its existing engineering business, furthering developments in energy management system, structure jacking & movement, shield tunneling, ground freezing, and seven-dimensional building information modelling (7D-BIM) to maximize current business scope by providing value-added services.

In addition to making constant breakthroughs, CTCI GISB is working to expand into new niche businesses. For example, it has undertaken several projects in the power sector, such as solar power, wind power, and nuclear power plant decommissioning. In line with the government’s policy, it has also tapped into long-term care business by combining know-hows from turnkey projects with applications of smart technologies. GISB hopes that by integrating the expertise of CTCI ASI, CTCI REI, and CTCI SEC, it can provide more customized and smarter services, extend its service scopes, and thus strengthening  competitive edge.

An Array of Track Records with Remarkable Quality

In light of fast-developing information technologies, CTCI GISB not only keeps on running its EPC turnkey project services, it is also dedicated to delivering more intelligent services to its clients across various industries. These efforts have helped GISB gain numerous recognitions as well.

Smart technologies can effectively improve the productivity of the manufacturing industry. Thanks to its rich experiences in automation and smart technologies, CTCI GISB has been offering customized services since 2011 to help clients transform their plant operations to become smarter. With abundant professional resources, it delivers smart plant solutions by using software tools, such as AspenTech, which aids process optimization. In terms of energy management services, Mr. Energy, the in-house energy management system, provides visualized data management to help clients effectively boost energy efficiency. These digital solutions have allowed clients from the hydrocarbon, bio-tech and electronics industries in Taiwan to become “smarter” and thereby sharpen their competitive edges, as seen in the CPC Taichung LNG Receiving Terminal project, relocation and automation service for a munition factory, and other system optimization works. 

Smart technologies also play key roles in modern airports. They can enhance the precision and speed of system operations, as well as the transportation efficiencies for passengers and luggage. In recent years, CTCI GISB has carried out various baggage handling system (BHS) and baggage reconciliation system (BRS) projects for Terminal 1 and 2 of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, making baggage handling considerably smarter and more efficient. Besides, the engineering work for Terminal 3’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) system, runway lights, and navigation lighting systems have helped turn it into an intelligent airport.

CTCI GISB also takes pride in being capable of combining its existing technologies with superiority in smart technologies to break limitations, resulting in a series of record-breaking projects. For instance, it carried out China Petroleum Company’s Taichung Plant 26” gas pipeline EPC project using innovative horizontal directional drilling (HDD) method to successfully overcome the challenges in gas pipeline engineering posed by cobble and gravel layer barriers and construction precision. This project is the first HDD project in Taiwan that drills two pilot holes from both ends and meet in the middle. With a length of about 1,500 meters and reaching 50 meters underground, it marks as the longest and deepest submarine HDD natural gas pipeline in Taiwan. The project has received “Excellent Underground Pipeline Engineering Award” from Chinese Taipei Society for Trenchless Technology. 

CTCI GISB has won numerous recognitions for its “most reliable” engineering services. For the past two years, it has received a couple of "Public Construction Golden Quality Awards," the highest honor for domestic public construction projects. These include two high distinction awards for Jia-Shan Air Force Base EPC project alone and four excellence awards for San-Chung Commercial and Industrial Vocational High School/ underground parking EPC project; the planning, design and supervision of the Huaxing Bridge reconstruction project in Chiayi City, and Zhongyang New Village social housing project in Xindian District.

The Strategies to Expand Business Outreach Based on Innovation

To expand the existing business scope, CTCI GISB decides to draw on successful experiences from the past. For example, Mr. Energy, the widely adopted energy management system that helps companies across the nation to improve their energy consumption performances, is now being developed to include more upstream and downstream features as a way to provide better services. Another example is the ground freezing technology. CTCI GISB is the only company in Taiwan, and one of a handful of companies in Asia that provides ground freezing EPC services. It has successfully overcome construction challenges in deep depth and with high underground water pressure by employing vertical and horizontal ground freezing techniques with the aid of proper grouting. Several projects that were successfully completed in Taiwan focused on the tunnel section of Rapid Transit System and Extra High Voltage Power Tunnel System. CTCI GISB will continue to get hold of cutting-edge technologies through industry-academia collaborations and R&D, so that it can remain as major service provider in the market. A third example is the intelligent structure jacking and movement (iSJM). Being the most experienced service provider in Asia in structure jacking and movement, CTCI GISB’s team is now moving on to building- relocation and pressed-in caisson projects by drawing on its past experiences in large storage tank jacking and building jacking-and-movement. Through these projects, it is creating special techniques that can fit to the modern urban environment. The examples cited above are all seeking intelligent upgrade based on its existing technologies, in order to expand the scope and fields of its services.

What CTCI GISB has achieved so far in terms of smart industrial parks and high-tech plants could help it get a big step in the future. Thanks to a couple of projects in southern Taiwan, it is experienced in urban land replotting, planning, and designing biotech parks and industrial parks. By integrating the skill in designing and implementing smart lighting control, smart energy, and park security monitoring in the days to come for green highway construction, it aims to become an EPC contractor for smart industrial park development as well as for the parks’ plant and office building EPC projects. Most recently, the successful cleanroom project at Guangzhou’s Zengcheng District showed that CTCI GISB participated in front-end engineering design (FEED). In the future, it will widen its engagement in FEED as a way to level up its EPC skills. With its practical experiences, it will also join together with other CTCI Group subsidiaries overseas, who know local markets best, in carrying out potential high-tech plant projects.

Open Up New Business Frontiers by Pinpointing the Needs of the Market

When opening new business frontiers, CTCI GISB carries out thorough research on business trends and policies before selecting sectors worthy of development. The preferred businesses include: Smart building EPC, land development and construction, smart solution for airports, long-term aged care business development, as well as offshore wind farm, photovoltaic sector, and nuclear power plant decommissioning (which is a part of the nation’s energy diversification and nuclear-free effort).

Taking smart building as example, the EPC project for CTCI second headquarters marks as one of the key projects featuring CTCI’s advances in smart buildings. Apart from the adoption of in-house smart monitoring applications based on artificial intelligence, CTCI GISB also starts to research and develop comprehensive smart systems, such as ventilation and air conditioning, air quality control, lighting, electric blinds, and electric grids. As to smart airports, it is quite experienced and has good track records, and will continue to enhance professional strengths by integrating baggage handling system and passenger information display system technologies used in Taoyuan International Airport, as well as employing software development and big data analysis. These will allow CTCI GISB to create functions such as passenger tracking, crowd flow monitoring, emergency responses, and airport APPs that cater to the needs of passengers, aviation safety, security protection, and baggage handling. The ultimate goal is to upgrade airports totally through smart services.

As for energy diversification, CTCI GISB’s success in gaining multiple detail design contracts for the submarine cable nearshore HDD package, seismic hazard analysis, and related certification and supervision works for offshore wind power industry owes largely to its previous successful track record in HDD EPC projects. In terms of photovoltaic (PV) business, it will continue to seek new opportunities based on previous PV work at Tainan’s idle landfills and at Port of Kaohsiung. Lastly, in line with the domestic non-nuclear policy, it will leverage its long-term experiences in nuclear power plant projects as well as long-term partnership with foreign consultancy companies to strive for decommissioning opportunities.

Embrace Challenges of the Smart Era as CTCI Sails into the Future

“Innovation” is not just an important part of CTCI’s corporate culture. It is also the best tool to differentiate CTCI from the competitors. To meet the demand of service transformation in this smart era, CTCI GISB on the one hand expands its services upstream and downstream, while on the other hand seeks horizontal development across sectors, so that it may maximize the performances of its current businesses as well as exploring potential goals in new business sectors. CTCI GISB will also keep on integrating Group resources, introducing new technologies and carrying out strategic alliances with key business partners in an effort to increase the scope of smart applications and keep bringing new opportunities in the smart era.