Construction Curiosities #77
Advice for the Burned-out Project Engineer | Robots on the Jobsite
Hey! Happy Saturday! Matt here.
Welcome to the Construction Curiosities newsletter! Especially to the 26 new subscribers!
This weekly Newsletter explores my Curiosities about the Construction Industry. It's meant to make you think, smile, and become a better, more thoughtful Construction Professional.
Summary
This week we will look at:
One Musing: Advice for the Burned-out Project Engineer
One Article: Robots on the Jobsite
One Meme: When the CM says “I Built That”
One Musing
The year is 2023. The world is burned out. It has been 3 long years of everyone dealing with the uncertainties of a Global Pandemic along with the Economic, Political & Industry fallouts.
It's been 3 long years of:
- Public Discourse and Political Fighting.
- The Ever-Pending Recession.
- COVID stress and anxiety.
- Baby Boomer Retirement.
- The Great Resignation.
- Supply Chain Woes.
- Crippling Inflation.
- War in Israel/ Gaza.
- War in Ukraine.
PEOPLE ARE TIRED
On top of all that, companies in the AEC world are struggling to complete the backlog they took on in the 2020 panic.
In 2020-2021, Companies were afraid of where the economy was going so they were building as big of a backlog as possible. Signing up for work that was messy and not in their wheelhouse. Simply booking future work for backlog's sake.
It seems it will still take years to come to shake out the Equipment and Material manufacturers’ bottlenecks and get the lead times back to normal.
I’ve seen equipment manufacturers just straight up threaten to cancel orders, when the orders are months late and when pushed too hard to deliver.
They don’t seem to care anymore.
It may never completely shake out. This may be the new normal.
Last year on Reddit, a new Project Engineer was looking to vent due to frustrations in the industry and about his project team in particular. He was looking for some advice.
Here’s the advice I gave to them that I hope helps a few of you going through the same:
I'll start by saying keep your head up everything sucks right now. Lead times are unpredictable. EVERYONE is burned out.
It sounds like no one is really taking charge of it in your project. The best PEs I've seen take the bull by the horns and do these things:
Create a good agenda and distribute it at least 24-48 hours before the meeting.
Take great meeting notes and Document any decisions made
I can't count how many times, I've been in meetings where we rehash things where a decision was made weeks ago.
Assign someone to be responsible for action items (with due dates)
Follow up on those action items before they become past due
Ensure priority level of Submittals and RFIs. If everything is urgent, nothing is.
For instance, if you submit an RFI on the Pipe label color scheme and Pipe material at the same time. Obviously, you know the actual Pipe Material is way more urgent and affects the critical path right now. I've seen many designers who don't think to prioritize things for construction sequence.
Follow up again. Be a squeaky wheel without being pushy or being a jerk.
Lead times can still change daily right now. Keep an open line of communication with your suppliers to keep delivery dates updated. If something pushes out too far, be prepared to look at alternative options. We are still in unprecedented times. Take unprecedented measures to keep up.
Follow up with everyone again. With empathy. People everywhere are overworked and burned out. Keep them motivated and engaged in your project. They likely are past due on other projects too. Make them want to work on your stuff and blow the other projects off. Instead of vice versa.
I’m sharing this here in hopes it helps you a little if you are in a similar spot. At a minimum, it should help you realize you are not alone. If you have less than 3 years of professional construction experience, you have never seen “normal.”
Realize everyone is in the same situation. Work with understanding and empathy.
But most importantly, keep your head up. It’ll get better.
I dunno when. But it will.
I’m always looking for more Guest Articles!
Want to be featured in an upcoming Newsletter and have your article Gif-ified or your face pasted onto a cartoon character? Shoot me an email at matt@constructionyeti.com. And let’s do it!
One Article
Robots share data, work together on experimental jobsite
by Construction Dive
From the University of British Columbia source article:
Aerial drones fitted with cameras captured details that were then used to create a “digital twin” – a simulation of the site. AI-equipped cranes and forklifts used this information to move construction materials such as beams and columns around the actual site, navigating around obstacles without needing a human operator.
“Our smart construction robots are able to recognize objects, performing detailed scans of structural components for quality assurance. They can precisely place objects on site and check against a computer model to ensure they’re building according to plan. They can make autonomous decisions such as navigating around obstacles or instantly stopping work to protect a worker who is in danger,” explained Dr. Yang.
One Meme
Even as a CM, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. Don’t act like you built that building. Recognize your small role and give the credit where credit it due.
See y’all next week!
