Beca Business Improvement Mem Final Project Report

Abstract

Structural engineering is a fast paced and ever-changing industry. It was only 20 years ago when computational analysis was used solely for university research purposes. Computational analysis has now become an everyday task in the office, a key building block in any successful practice. We can now see how this fast-changing workspace environment and discipline has direct effects on other issues, such as consistency, quality and verification/ validation.

This project aimed to review everyday business within the Beca organization, identify disruptors, and then develop practical solutions to address the specific problems. We strove to increase simplicity to the workplace, while also allowing for an increase in accessibility to design tools. In doing so, this improved consistency of output throughout the organisation, as well as increasing labor efficiency. The solution to these disruptors, and the focus of this project, accumulated in the designing of both the Design Manual and Structural Dashboard. The Design Manual will be used primarily for design verification/validation and conservative design, while the Structural Dashboard will contain and provide ease of accessibility to consistent design tools. Additional to the project, two weeks of structural inspections were conducted following the Kaikoura earthquake. At this stage of the project there are promising signs indicating that it will succeed in contributing to effective business improvement.