2018 is the year when digital technology will increasingly change how engineers in the UK construction and infrastructure sector work, increasing productivity and quality in the process.
Many are asking what it will really be like to adopt and adapt to new ways of working, will they cope and will customers really be able to quantify the benefits?
By the middle of 2018 all of Mabey Hire’s engineers, based in 8 offices across the UK, will be wholly working digitally. In a series of articles, we will share the highs and lows of this transformation.
How readily will experienced engineers accept the new tools, language and ways of working? People say that digital engineering drives collaboration, but what does that really mean in practice?
In sharing our expertise and experiences this way, our aim is that fellow engineers can benefit by learning and adapting their own transformation programmes.
Six months seems a long time to embed digital engineering,” said Mabey Hire’s Director of Engineering Dave Holland, “but when you are designing and delivering thousands of schemes at the same time it’s a bit like changing the wheels on a moving car."
"The transition to digital is underway now, with training delivered by Mabey Hire’s dedicated digital engineering team to some of its regional engineers this month. Its approach is truly transformational; redefining the engineers’ day to day processes to deliver engineering schemes as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible. Geographically dispersed engineering teams across the UK are now able to collaborate effectively within a shared virtual environment, and visually demonstrate to customers how Mabey Hire products will be used on a project."
Billy McCormick, who heads up the Regional Engineering team, was involved in the initial round of training, is enthused and welcomes the change. “As a huge fan of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and its benefits, it was fantastic to be chosen as the first region to get the Revit training. The digital engineering team have grown into a strong force in this field and the training provided was excellent. By the end of the week, the full team of regional engineers were using Revit on live projects”.
Billy continued: "We know it will take time to develop our proficiency in Revit compared to CAD, but we have already realised some great benefits by adopting this in core engineering."
