McKinsey and Company have released a report on Australia’s Infrastructure Innovation Imperative, highlighting the upcoming challenges that Construction and Infrastructure related companies are likely to face while meeting the growing infrastructure demand. The report highlights Australia’s challenges in depth, but could also serve value to other economies that are experiencing a similar pace of urban growth and infrastructure demand.

The report can be downloaded from this page, and is recommended read for any construction companies or design firms looking at ways to improve productivity and capacity to service this increasing demand. The report can be summarized into the following 6 chapters;

1. Future proofing infrastructure investment
2. Rethinking project selection and prioritisation
3. Driving value through innovative approaches to project design
4. Innovating the commercial framework
5. Enhancing industry capability and capacity
6. Boosting productivity in project delivery through technology

What does it mean for Structural Engineers?

More projects, less capacity to deliver.

The demand for Structural Engineers is being tested, similar to the labour shortage in construction. Many Structural Engineers are already feeling this pressure, and with the increase in infrastructure demands, this is only going to worsen:

Without a change in the way we approach our design projects, this is going to be difficult to deliver. It is imperative that companies look for an effective way to efficiently deliver results to reduce the burden on the current workforce.

Boost Productivity through Technology

Stagnation in productivity and inefficiencies are costing tax payers and significantly eating into margins of contractors.

McKinsey research indicates that technology is the most promising lever for improving productivity, with an approximate 15 percent impact—47 percent of the work done in construction has automation potential.

This also extends out to reliability. Construction tech and engineering are among the two least digitalised industries, so there’s no surprise that it is also one of the least reliable; with 98 percent of projects incurring cost or schedule overruns.

The bottom line: Technology has a huge capacity to improve the productivity and reliability of projects – a benefit that the Construction Industry is yet to leverage.

Driving Value through Design

Projects are constantly increasing in complexity while clients are expecting more and more from Structural Engineers, creating a need for engineers to be more innovative throughout the project life cycle. Reducing hours spent on design tasks through integration of technological innovations is an obvious step in the right direction.

What can SkyCiv do to help?

SkyCiv was mentioned by McKinsey as one of the solutions being developed to improve productivity in construction. SkyCiv was founded to help bring Structural Engineering software to the 21st Century. Our cloud platform is at the very core of this. Being the only cloud platform for structural analysis and design means:

Automating tasks and improving workflow via API

SkyCiv’s API is capable of automating repeatable tasks and significantly improving productivity. Eliminating redundant work frees up time for Structural Engineers to add value to their projects in more significant ways.

SkyCiv’s Structural Analysis and Design API allows engineers to automate a number of modelling and design tasks. The v3 API is currently in Alpha – please email us at [email protected] if you’d like to learn more about SkyCiv’s API and how it can help your design workflow.

Productivity through the Cloud

According to a study by Harvard Business Review, 74% of businesses feel like cloud computing has given them a competitive advantage. There are a number of ways in which cloud software benefit’s a structural engineer. Including:

1. Accessibility – access from any device at anytime
2. Connectivity – instant collaboration and file sharing with peers
3. Fast, live chat support – get real-time answers to your questions
4. No Maintenance – Automatic product and Design Code updates
5. File Safety – cloud software is backed up daily and less likely to crash your computer

Learn more at Business.com’s article on 8 ways cloud computing can increase productivity.

Integrations and Workflow

Another factor of improving productivity is by reducing the friction between steps in the workflow. SkyCiv is fully integrated with Revit BIM software as well as other file formats (for instance, our DWG importer) to bring CAD and Structural Analysis closer. The regeneration of structural models significantly slows down engineers, who have to rebuild digital assets that have already been created by the Architect. This is effect is magnified when you consider changes from the client and architect need to all be kept in sync.