The world of construction engineering has changed during my coming-up-on 40 years in the business. What used to be done strictly using pencils, paper and field books has morphed into all sorts of technological advancements.
And because you know me, you probably could anticipate how I feel about all the new-fangled bells & whistles that are available in our line of work.
This episode asks more questions than it answers. Here’s the rub: I really want to know what you think. I really want your opinion on the questions I pose.
- What is working for you in your role as a construction engineer?
- What is not working?
- What benefits is technology providing for you?
And most importantly
- Technology can make you more efficient – But is it making you better?
I’m posing the questions to you – I’d love to get your feedback.
Leave me a comment. Find me at my website. Let’s make this a conversation.
Show Transcript
0:16
All right, what’s up, team by the Branski Instruction Engineering Show podcast.
Good to be with you again.
Little windshield debrief.
This is usually the time at the end of the day.
So in the morning, sometimes mine is mine is running depending on what I’m doing in the morning.
0:32
If I, if I read, depend on praying, getting myself going.
If I’m going through a journal, making a little journal entry gets the juices full.
But usually by the end of the day, which is what it is right now for me, driving home, kind of debriefing little after actions of what what has transpired either today on shift during the week, what’s going on and what am I thinking about?
0:54
So I’m in that mode right now.
So this is going to be a little short episode, which is totally fine because it’s my podcast.
I can make it long, I can make it short, right?
Today is just going to be a short 1.
And really I thought about I, I have questions, I have questions and I have questions for you because I’m thinking to myself, the questions that I want to ask are the things that are on my mind.
1:16
Sometimes we, we need to just kind of hear from those who are built like us, do what we do in a, in a small fraternity.
Hopefully people with the same kind of mindset, Hopefully through at least, you know, hearing what I talk about and reading what I write about and those sort of things.
1:33
You kind of got a little make up of it is, is Bob the kind of guy that I would want to hang with?
Is Bob the kind of guy that I would want to work for or with?
Are there things that I could emulate?
And we do that with everybody, right?
We take we take those characteristics and qualities from the people who are around us and we we hopefully we mold them in what is it the year we are, we are the product of the influence of the five people that we hang around with the most and hanging around could be in person or now in this virtual world we get to hang out with, with different kinds of people.
2:03
So, so it within that community, I’m trying to find those who fit that bill for me.
And I hopefully by you being a listener here, that’s you’re, you’re in that club.
So I want to know and, and I’m going to pose a few questions to you.
2:20
And I want you to, to take a little bit of time and actually just spend some time thinking about it, dwelling on it, journaling on it, if you’re so inclined, inspired and willing to actually put in some effort.
But I, I really want to know from the, from the group, so kind of having a lot of discussions within the last week or so on how things are going out in the field.
2:43
How are they going for you in your, in your construction crew?
And you’re everybody’s all in a different places, right?
We, we got residents, we got RES, we got project managers in this group.
We’ve got mid level senior men and senior senior girls that are out running jobs.
2:59
And we got what you know, entry level inspectors, we got engineers, we got a whole smattering.
So wherever you’re at inside of your, the little microcosm that is your construction crew, your field office, your team, how are things going?
And, and really what I’d like to drill into is where are you in 2026?
3:18
Where are, where are you?
How is how effective is your team operationally?
How do you like the operations?
What are, what are you doing with your team that’s working well?
What is it?
And and even if you were to take a cross section of let’s just say the last, I mean, if your entry level, this is all kind of new to you.
3:37
So you’re kind of getting your getting your feet under you last last couple years, last five years.
What transitions in operational tactics that you guys have in your crew are working?
What do you see as being things that you guys are doing, maybe have changed or have implemented that you find are making you, and I’m just going to say this better at the job because I could say what are things that are making you more efficient at the job?
4:10
OK, efficiency and and being good, being good at the job, being good at the tactics that you have to carry out every day are two different things because I think you’re we’re constantly trying to improve ourselves.
We’re looking for ways to be able to get a little better.
4:26
Efficiency to me doesn’t necessarily mean better.
And the discussion points that I’ve just kind of been having dwelling on talking to people about this week is where are we in 2026 as an industry, as new technologies, new ways of administering your contract, your documents, your accessing data, all of those different things that are out there.
4:57
How many of those do you think are making you better, not more efficient?
How many are making you better?
You can hit pause right now.
You can think about it or you can just keep listening to me go because what I want to know is, and, and it’s a gut level feel that I have right now understanding.
5:19
Let’s take a step back.
So a little storytelling here coming up in the late 80’s, the early 90s, before technology was even a thing, an SDR 33 was a data collector that worked with a set 3 total station.
5:35
That was about as high tech as we had.
It was a, maybe I’ll put a picture of it in a, in a show note or something.
But this giant box that could take data from the, the set 3, the total station.
And actually, so we could use it, we could turn angles.
You had that capacity.
5:51
That was about it.
Everything else that we did was paper and pencil, paper, pencil and a copy machine.
And we, we were good at what we did using those implements.
I’d say I’d go so far as to say we were really good.
6:09
And that level of, of technology, it’s not even technology.
That level of administration got the job done and it allowed us to be able to document.
We needed the document.
We were efficient.
We met the protocols and procedures.
6:25
Our audits always went well in the past.
So, so taking a cross section from the 80s through the 90s and you know, years, that’s the, those are the systems that have worked.
And in the late 2000 and 2000 and zeros, 20 tens in the teens started to now at least began.
6:44
Maybe it was earlier than that where it was earlier than that, you know, electronic project management software systems in the mid 90s.
Expedition, anybody who knows me is going to grin when I say that word.
But Expedition was one of the first to be able to manage a project using a computer.
7:04
And I was RFI’s and some metals and logs and letters.
You had capacities and it was early onset.
And I’ll be the first to say I was an early adapter.
You know, when you’re young, you want to find new tools that can make you better, make you more efficient.
There, I’m going to use those two words.
7:20
And I gravitated to it and learn how to learn how to make it sing and dance.
Did a lot of cool things with it.
But at the same time, it was a system.
And any of those systems require effort, right?
It requires time behind the keyboard to get the data in and out and formatted in the manner that you want so that you can use it right.
7:42
And I think back to learning those systems, developing those systems and the time that it took the time that it took to be able to work those systems to make it do what we needed it to do and produce output that was then serviceable for updating open issues, staying with project meetings, keeping the keeping the agency, keeping our RE our state RE informed, you know, good, good, good efforts.
8:08
So still use field books, still use paper.
All of that stuff was still part of the job.
All right, so jump ahead now jump ahead to where we are at.
And I think this is the one, this is the at least the place that maybe I’m starting to kind of lose a little of that tactical spirit is there’s so much now we have so many different ways of using technology in the field, in our operations.
8:37
So I’ll go back to my original question now that that’s where we’re at right now.
So that was my story.
I I have, I keep my opinion to myself, even though, yeah, I will because I don’t want to.
I don’t want to.
I don’t want to cloud the water right now.
I want you to answer that question.
When you look at what you currently have in your truck, on site, in your office, in terms of technology and systems that are there that you are using and implementing, how are they working for you?
9:06
Are they, do they streamline things?
Do you think that they make you as a team and a squad better at what you do?
Certainly they hopefully are making things efficient for what you’re doing.
But but where are you?
Are they helping you be a better field engineer?
9:24
Are they, are they allowing you to have more time in the field to be able to, let’s say, troubleshoot problems, to look ahead, to look at quality issues, to think, think 3 steps down the road.
What is the contractor going to need?
9:40
Today’s Monday, By Thursday, they’re going to be here and here.
So I need to make sure that I have these two things checked out, that I’m ready to go because here here’s what I think.
Here’s my hypothesis.
My hypothesis is software companies, technology companies, we are getting bombarded.
10:02
At least I am bombarded by everybody’s got some sort of new data mining system that is supposed to make me better at what I do.
I can do this thing with AI and I can harvest this date and we can scrape it and it can give me the XY and Z and it will make you, it’ll make you do your job better.
10:26
Is that the case?
Is that really happening?
Is it working for you?
And that’s really ultimately what I want to know is are we overburdened?
Are we swamped?
Are we spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with data and data processing and data management that we should be spending with our boots on the ground kicking dirt, looking for problems, looking for issues, troubleshooting, thinking ahead, anticipating schedules, mentoring each other, being together in the field, actually working and looking and solving problems and and maybe even dry running problems, maybe creating little scenarios where you get to do a little a little a tactical game.
11:14
Hey, what?
What happens if we ended up with a bad load of concrete right here?
How would you react to that?
You know, if I was with you as a young engineer in the field and we were at a paving pore, you can sure as heck know that I’m probably going to be asking you, are you thinking ahead?
11:31
What kind of things are you seeing and observing?
How are we doing?
How are, if you’re a young engineer, how are your senior engineers engaging with you on site?
How are they doing?
Are they doing a good job at schooling you, bringing you up, sharing their experience so that you’re better at what you’re doing?
11:50
Those are the kind of things I want to know because ultimately my hypothesis is this.
There’s there’s too much administration, there’s too much overburden that’s electronically based, system based, process based, that takes away from making the boat go faster.
12:08
So it’s a book that I haven’t read yet, but just the theme of that I, I think the book’s title is it doesn’t make the boat go fast, something like that.
But it was about, it’s a if if you know, put it in the show notes or send me a comment or something.
It’s a book about the 1976, I think Great Britain, it was England’s Great Britain, their canoe team or crew team.
12:30
And they said when they set out to win the gold medal, which they ultimately did, the build up to that and said they said nobody’s going to be able you, you’re not going to win a gold medal.
They they are training philosophy.
Everything that they did was if it doesn’t make the boat go faster, we’re not going to do it.
12:47
It’s not worth it.
And that’s, that’s the theme.
That’s what I wonder is what you’re doing making the boat go faster or is what you’re doing just adding weight to the boat?
All right, I thought this was going to be a fast podcast, but it’s not Now it’s 10 minutes anyway, flesh that out, flesh the stories out.
13:06
Look at history.
I would like you to somehow reach back to me.
Reach back and honestly, I anything that I’m gleaning after this, These are all anonymous.
I’d never but I, I would love to hear your opinions, your thoughts.
How, how is it going for you and your crews?
Let me know you can find me you could you guys can find me anywhere.
13:24
Hopefully certainly I don’t I don’t have to tell you just Google the last name and find a channel to be able to reach to me.
Would love to hear your thoughts.
I would like this to be a Part 1 of a of a Part 2 because I’d love to follow up on this after I get some input from y’all and be able to kind of share what I’m hearing and see is my philosophy.
13:42
How correct am I in in what I think what I think.
So all right, I’m going to leave it at that.
So I pulling in my driveway and getting into the house, go and have a little bit of have a little bit of suffer and see the wife and debrief on the day with her.
So anyway, thanks for tuning in.
13:57
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for spending 1010 minutes with me.
Let’s keep building the community.
However we can do that.
So spread the message, let people know if this is a show that you like, tell a friend, tell a tell a compatriot.
Get him on board here and let’s do this.
OK, All right, till next time, peace out.
14:12
See you.
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