Q. Please provide a bio about yourself.
A. Andy is considered one of the industry leaders in his field with over 16 years’ experience in the BIM environment. Working on large-scale, complex projects for high-profile clients, Andy has gained vast and diverse project experience throughout his career.
From the start of his career in his native Australia Andy has been working alongside Architects, Engineers and Consultancies, developing and incorporating BIM strategies on a number of projects. For the past 10 years, he has been helping clients in the UK to implement BIM processes, workflows and technologies into their business.
As BIM Manager with a leading surveying company, Andy made a name for himself by publishing a BIM Survey Specification, now widely adopted throughout the UK construction industry.
Andy founded Digital Inc. in 2015 with one main objective (passion!) in mind... to bring highly efficient digital workflows, processes and technology (with a superior customer service) to the construction industry -all with BIM at its core. At a relatively young age, Digital Inc. has quickly gained a reputation as the rapid and agile BIM solution. Since founding Digital Inc., Andy has helped clients save both money and time, as well as overcome countless challenges and bottlenecks, whilst consistently delivering the highest standards of quality and service.
As Managing Director of Digital Inc., Andy combines his knowledge and efficiencies of global sourcing with his BIM expertise and management skills. Digital Inc. is now the AEC industry’s ‘one-stop shop’ for quality, trusted experts, and technical support on demand.
Q. Please tell us about DIGITAL Inc.
A. As BIM specialists, we combine cutting-edge technology with highly optimised processes in…
BIM Execution & ManagementDesign & Engineering BIM Services (2D, 3D, 4D, 5D modelling & coordination)BIM Object Creation for Manufacturers3D Measured SurveysImmersive CGI & AnimationsDigital Building & Asset Management Solutions
Our skilled global workforce and strong local knowledge, coupled with our lean and agile business model, enables high-quality deliverables within rapid work programs – at costs far lower than expected.
Local knowledge, global power: We aggregate an agile workforce on a global scale.
Optimisation: With industry-leading expertise, we create highly optimised, fit-for-purpose BIM and project solutions.
Speed: Our large and scalable workforce enables rapid programs and immediate availabilities.
Excellence: Everything we deliver is quality controlled to the highest standard.
Value: We promise revolutionary value and client satisfaction.
Our clients receive a first-class bespoke service, every time, on every project. We provide access to the most talented experts and engineers, enabling increased productivity and quality.
Q. Please tell us about the culture and philosophy for Digital Innovation at DIGITAL Inc?
A. To remain the leading on-demand solution for the AEC industry, we continually review our working practices. We are constantly seeking more efficient ways of delivering the highest quality service in the fastest programs for the lowest costs. Much of this is made possible due to intelligent application of technology and digital innovation, and a significant portion of our revenue is invested in research and development. The core and culture of our business is to provide modern, cutting edge processes, not just within our own workflows but to leverage our clients’ productivity.
With current technology and connectivity, our industry is evolving into a global marketplace of highly skilled individuals and teams with expertise in various sectors. We seek, test and build relationships with the best resource and technology available, maximising potential by joining forces with other experts (local or global) to form the ultimate solution.
We also want to demystify BIM and battle-test glorified technological advancements when possible, delivering simple, elegant solutions to complex problems. We continually monitor all notable innovations within our industry, and as an agile business, we can easily invest and test the most promising ones.
Our team is comprised of specialists and experts in their particular field. They have a solid grasp of the technology and its applications, and can advise on which innovations are worth our investment. Our philosophy is based on continual development, nothing ever considered a waste of time, any work done is always of benefit to the company - be it a success or a lesson! We are continually trialling the latest tech and software to maximise the benefits of each and discover how these could potentially form part of an optimised process.
As a testament to our digital innovation, clients tell us we are their first port of call for innovations and solutions to daily challenges.
Q. Please tell us about DIGITAL Inc’s work on “Echo building, Liverpool”.
A. The client, Trinity Mirror, engaged Corstorphine + Wright as lead architects for their major refurbishment programme. One of the first problems identified was the lack of information on the structural make-up of the building. Corstorphine + Wright approached us to undertake a BIM-ready survey with a full laser scan and a ‘TruView’ 360 photographic record. This gave the project team a vast amount of accurate data on the current condition of the building, allowing them to spot any hazardous areas or anomalies in the structure.
From point cloud data, we created an LOD300 BIM survey of the tower and the podium. With the building having had multiple uses over the years, we uncovered several surprises, including hidden structures in the ceiling and mezzanine levels. These discoveries added to the time pressures on an already tight refurbishment programme, and we had to work closely with the design team, ensuring they had all the information to make swift decisions and keep the project on track.
During the survey and modelling process, we provided the client with regular weekly reports and progressive deliveries. As there were several issues, uncovering hidden rooms and structures, it was important that the client was kept fully up to date and alerted to any possible setbacks.
The Revit model was eventually delivered ahead of schedule due to our rapid production and QC processes. This enabled the Architects to coordinate their design with much greater accuracy and confidence. It also highlighted inaccuracies in the historical information, potentially saving the client vast amounts of time and money on abortive works.
As we carry out more and more of these surveys, our clients are realising the significant impact a thorough 3D measured survey delivered in BIM can have on de-risking their projects. For a relatively small upfront investment, it pays for itself many times over during design and construction.
Q. Please tell us about an interesting project/case study/product where technology is being implemented or has been implemented at DIGITAL Inc?
A. Being a primarily digital business, almost every project we deliver has had developmental technology implemented. Often it is to improve our own internal productivity and speed of quality assurance. However, we regularly implement these technological advancements for our clients’ projects and workflows.
Typically, we utilise various plug-ins for software such as BIM Collab, Enscape, Kinship, etc., combined with in-house automated processes, scripting in python or dynamo and the use of software such as BIM360, Navisworks, Solibri and Revizto. It depends on the type of work we are doing and/or support we are providing.
Tracking tools and information exchange platforms help with communication between suppliers and clients, and we are big users of common technology such as Skype and even Dropbox. The key to utilising technology successfully is finding the balance between something that is cutting-edge but also accessible and affordable to all parties.
We were recently parachuted in to a distressed BIM project on a very large distribution warehouse for a major retailer. The initial project setup and understanding of the BIM deliverables were not correctly executed from the project kick off. Basically, the client’s instruction was to “do BIM” and the supply chain scrambled in their own way to make it work. Unfortunately, this led to targets and technology being utilised without a clear route as to how to achieve the Asset Information Model that was desired. The M&E model was poorly created by a prior BIM consultancy and it was too late in the project schedule to start again. This meant we needed to implement a variety of processes and technologies to repair and continue their model and ensure it was fully coordinated. Using technologies described above, we delivered the model within the very tight program - and helped our immediate client complete the project successfully.
The lessons learned from this mean we now ensure a systematic approach to projects is always implemented on behalf of the client. A clear set of documentation and execution planning will guide the users in providing the client with an efficient and information rich asset model.
We are currently developing our own bespoke technology, an easy-to-use platform to cater for design and building management. This is in response to conversations with our owner-operator clients who are struggling to find appropriate solutions to managing BIM data for their building assets. At this stage, it is still very much work in progress, so watch this space!
Q. Please tell us about DIGITAL Inc’s Digital Building Management process to overcome 21st-Century Challenges.
A. A project – be it refurbishment, new build or digital asset conversion – delivered correctly in a BIM environment gives owners and occupiers full control and visibility of their asset in digital/virtual form. The current challenge we face with this is how to hand over this data rich asset information model and help clients to manage it in a user-friendly way. The FM sector is diverse, and standards are not clear-cut, or well-aligned to the construction sector.
Employers Information Requirements and BIM execution plans are essential for ensuring the correct information is provided at handover. However, ensuring the client/operator is able to easily understand, work with, manage, and update the information is one of the current challenges our industry has yet to conquer.
We are currently developing solutions of our own that will help bridge this gap. There is a wide range of smart management software on the market today, but most requires upskilling, hefty investments and long-term contracts that are not necessarily aligned with BIM. We are building a solution that is lightweight, simple, web-based, and bi-directionally linked with the asset information model. It will empower the operators to maintain and track relevant information within the asset without being locked into specific software or hardware. Updating information in spaces can be as simple as photographic records with interactive tagging all linked to a shared database. We are also looking into integrating smart meters to enhance off-site management capabilities.
The key to all of this is making it as ‘open and flexible’ as possible. Many new solutions coming to the market are quite restrictive and tend to not allow the user/owner to have full access and control of the data. The software must be as bespoke as possible to cater to various requirements and security issues, and most importantly, to make it user-friendly for a diverse sector.
Q. Finally, please share your thoughts on how Integrated Design and Construction will impact the AECOO industry in the next five years?
A. I greatly wish that we see a majorly positive and tangible impact within the next five years. However, our industry is historically a slow-moving beast and radical change is not something welcomed with open arms! That being said, modern communication, collaboration and technological advancements both digitally and physically, are creating new and exciting sub-industries. Once proven, we will see this filtered back up into mainstream design and construction – or perhaps the new agile technology-based systems will become the norm. Whilst the AEC consultancies and contractors are already seeing the benefits during design and build, it is the owners and operators who are set to gain the most - but who are not yet realising or utilising the full benefits.
The manufacturing industry has significantly improved its levels of productivity, quality, and profitability over the past 30 years. In the construction industry, similar levels of improvement have not been achievable. BIM is a technological process that is simply bringing the AECOO industry into the 21st Century, and it has been available to us for over 30 years now. It could be said that the division of the industry’s management structures and processes are the underlying cause of the waste and inefficiencies, keeping costs high and margins low. Integrated Design and Construction would lead to the construction process becoming more like manufacturing, allowing contractors to make similar improvements to those seen in the manufacturing industries.
What we should see within the next five years is the ability to communicate in a more detailed, fluid fashion, whereas previously, markups and email exchanges have been restricted by red tape. When legal and contractual implications are ironed out, current technology allows faster, more efficient and more accurate detailed communication – which ensures more coordinated designs, faster decision making, mitigated construction risks, faster ROI, and verified asset information models (digital twins). This enables better facility management, maintenance forecasting and profitability.
The concept of smart cities and buildings will be the eventual outcome/realisation from the workflows, procedures and libraries built up by the AECOO industry.
Thank you for taking the time to share with us!
