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technology front
The
Engineering Evolution
Bringing high-speed technology to all levels of residential and commercial
construction is a goal worth hitting.
by Frank L. Bennardo, P.E.
Manufacturers
and contractors face many challenges in delivering their products and services
to their customers. After hurdling all the obstacles in starting a business,
obtaining office and work space, hiring employees, ordering stock, paying
rising insurance, taxes and overhead expenses and dealing day in and day
out with your customer, you then come to find out that your construction
product or service has to face your local building department. There you
have to fill out forms, pay permit fees and submit plans that now have to
be designed and certified by a registered professional engineer.
Let’s take a look at your average designing engineer. When the need
suddenly arises for a quick engineering calculation and drawing to allow
you to design and submit your work, chances are you’ll find your way
to a small engineering firm, a part-time engineer who helps you out on the
side, someone approaching retirement that wants to slow down, or someone
with a small office somewhere that stops in from time to time and whose
answering machine has two dozen messages on it waiting for him, unless you
have a relationship with a big engineering firm where they design bridges
and large buildings that can’t afford to work on the little things.
Every engineering experience with these small timers is different: your
project costs for the next job are twice the last, the job took twice as
long as the one they just did, the job looks and is designed completely
different than the last one just like it, and the end result is not what
you wanted to build in the first place. And forget about getting someone
on the phone who can help you, or asking for a rush on the job, an extra
copy or two, or a quick revision on something. I’ve been tackling these
situations as an owner of an engineering firm for almost a decade now, and
the problems are getting worse instead of better with the increase in building
departments’ requirements for engineers to review and seal every detail
of a project, and the increasing importance of product approvals for so
many products.
These engineering needs exist nationwide for commercial and residential
new construction, renovations and additions in all areas of construction
including storefront design, windows, doors, shutters, awnings, decks, pools,
docks, seawalls, aluminum and steel room systems, screen enclosures, patio
covers, carports, fences, railings and countless variations thereof, just
to name a few.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE
The engineering business of these smaller things is kind of like it was
not too long ago in the hardware industry when you worked on a home improvement
project and had to rush to your local hardware store hoping they were open
and had a piece of this, and what they stocked of that, at a big markup.
Forget about doing your bathroom over by yourself or buying your own wood
fence. Then, along comes radical new store concepts like Home Depot and
Lowe’s, open seven days a week from early in the morning until late
at night, offering consistent, reliable stock at reasonable prices. Life
was never the same for the home improver or contractor, or the small office
with stores like Office Depot and Kinko’s.
The Home Depot changed the landscape of the small hardware store, so I have
to be careful how I proceed from here. I can imagine what many engineers
and industry leaders are going to say after reading this. They’ll feel
the integrity of the engineering industry may be compromised, fees will
drop and engineering will fall to lower and lower standards. With hard work,
slow and steady progress, listening, being involved with the community and
our clients and researching both work product and presentation every step
of the way, I find it my duty in our endeavors to fill this engineering
void while ensuring the highest levels of our profession are maintained
in all areas of design and construction, and confidently and greatly improve
the overall engineering process along the way.
Engineering is primarily formulas, wrapped inside procedures, trapped in
drawings. If restaurants like Outback Steakhouse can figure out how to formularize
the food business and create a national chain of steakhouses figuring in
all elements of their trade down to the procedure for ordering salt for
the table, why can’t engineers take their mostly definable formulas
and drawings and create a similar standardized environment?
Ironically, as I write this, I received a call to help design the entrance
to an Outback Steakhouse. What’s wrong with this picture? They have
figured out their industry better then the engineers who created their existence
to begin with. Our need is national and our time is now.
GOOD FOR EVERYONE
I had thought about not letting this idea of ours out just yet, and I also
risk plugging our engineering firm’s services in what is supposed to
be an unbiased article, but then I realized that letting the idea out is
the whole reason of the idea itself.
Our goal is to offer these engineering services to the community in a whole
new way. I welcome those engineers who believe in this idea and invite them
to call on us to discuss how we can synergize and evolve our largely unrecognized
and unappreciated profession for the good of the community, builders, building
departments and homeowners alike. It’s like the Apple vs. IBM computer
philosophy. The open architecture idea eventually meets with more success
than those who keep things to themselves.
The IHPA is an association of people with a common business to come together
as a community, similar to how engineers should handle the growing matrix
of engineering needs of our trade, not the current secretive and competitive
old-time paradigm. That’s what I’d like to accomplish and leave
to the engineering profession: a center where a consortium of engineers
work toward a common goal to help the community and each other achieve their
highest standards and contribution to their land.
With the incredible advancements in computer technology, software calculation,
computerized drafting, high-capacity scanning and storage, digital photography,
unprecedented and blazingly fast connectivity anywhere, anytime and resources
never before affordable to our size firms, isn’t it our inherent responsibility
to bring these technologies, ones that as we as engineers created and should
be the first to promote and utilize, not some coffeehouse chain, to our
profession? That is my passion, my career goal. It’s ultimately good
for everybody, isn’t it?
BECOMING A REALITY
We have already come a long way at achieving this goal. We’re gathering
the best talent and we’re training future talent in the engineering
and technology fields, sparing no expense to implement the latest technology
in our digitized office, creating systems and procedures to engineer, store,
recall and present data using cutting-edge technologies, creating unprecedented
Internet and office management resources where even our clients can view
and share information of a type never before available to them by an engineering
firm.
We have a friendly, capable staff developing our growing electronic library
of calculations and design charts, helpful information and an Internet electronic
ordering system where contractors, manufacturers, architects and homeowners
can logon and be guided through the order process for plans and calculations,
obtain preliminary answers to allow them to price jobs and have the job
fees and project due dates calculated. Clients are able to view each job
status online, view their account history and even pay online in our growing
electronic ordering system. Work can be ordered over the Internet or at
satellite offices all interconnected, which eventually will be owned and
operated by independent engineers sharing and working together toward a
common goal.
This is all becoming a reality, right now, from our engineering office and
with great pride. We seek your comments, support and good will for the concept.
We encourage you to visit us in person or online at www.flbengineering.com
to see our rapidly expanding systemized world, and welcome any ideas you
may have or help you can bring us. We hope to be able to meet and exceed
the engineering needs of our community by the collective minds of our profession.
And thank you to those who have helped us so far and offer their continued
support. Stay tuned . . .
Frank L. Bennardo, P.E.
Frank L. Bennardo, P.E., Inc. |
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