0:27

Welcome to Future Construct . I'm Mark Oden

0:29

, the CEO of Ben Designs Inc and guest host

0:31

of Future Construct . Today I'm hosting

0:33

Kelly Lubili , construction technology manager

0:35

at Cupertino Electric Inc . Welcome

0:38

, kelly . Thank you for making the time to join me . Thanks

0:41

, I'm excited to be here . As

0:43

you've moved into the AEC industry , you've serendipitously

0:46

discovered unique opportunities that ignited

0:48

your passion for standards and consistency

0:50

, particularly in how they enhance the

0:52

user experience . Over the years

0:55

, you've embraced these opportunities and even carved

0:57

out new ones for yourself , transforming your passion

0:59

into a fulfilling career . During

1:01

your career , you've had many notable accomplishments . You've

1:04

reduced BIM related expenses , revitalizing

1:06

project workflows for a $750,000

1:09

annual cost savings . You've implemented

1:12

cutting-edge data management systems across

1:14

20-plus technologies , developing robust

1:16

technical standards . You've achieved

1:18

a 20% reduction in total project man-hours

1:21

, resulting in cost savings while increasing deliverable

1:24

value by 50% . And

1:26

you've also improved job satisfaction and streamlined

1:29

technical processes , reducing average user

1:31

downtime by 40% . Those

1:33

are amazing accomplishments and I'm very proud of you , kelly

1:35

. Over

1:37

the course of our conversation , I'd love to take a deeper

1:39

dive into those accomplishments to understand how

1:41

they've impacted your career . With

1:44

so much experience , you're continually and positively

1:46

influencing the digital construction market . Thank

1:48

you for all your many contributions in the AEC

1:51

space , kelly . To

1:55

get started with your extensive experience

1:57

in the AEC industry , I'd

1:59

first love to learn more of your story and what

2:01

led you to the industry and ultimately to where you are

2:03

today at Cupertino Electric .

2:06

Yeah , absolutely . I really

2:08

got my initial introduction in high

2:10

school when my school offered

2:12

a hand-drafting class as

2:16

kind of just an elective and I really really enjoyed it . It

2:19

ended up taking all the electives that they had available

2:21

. We didn't have had

2:24

technology in place yet , but it did

2:26

exist at the time and

2:28

I ended up taking a different path

2:30

out of high school and came back

2:32

around in my mid-20s

2:34

to see what AutoCAD was

2:36

about , take a couple of CAD classes and see if that

2:38

was a path that I would be interested

2:40

in . And my very first job

2:43

immediately working as an architectural

2:45

drafter , I just absolutely

2:47

found that it

2:49

felt easier for my work . I felt more

2:51

organized , like I could help

2:53

and be more effective if I provided

2:56

myself some structure around what I was doing . And

2:59

the architect I worked for at the time

3:02

allowed me to kind of step into

3:04

that space and create

3:06

standards , create some kind

3:08

of formal processes for our company , and

3:11

it really just absolutely became

3:14

this passion that I found , which

3:17

I enjoyed . I didn't even realize it was really an

3:19

option as a career or anything like that , but

3:23

I did get to move from

3:25

there into learning

3:27

Revit just actually as a originally

3:32

marketed , as a vision excuse

3:35

me

3:37

, a review tool , a way to look

3:39

at the model and sort of analyze

3:42

the model , and

3:44

I jumped at the chance because it looked like

3:46

a lot of fun and it turned

3:48

out that a lot of higher education was starting

3:50

to move that direction . So the community

3:52

college where I had taken my classes

3:55

asked me to write some curriculum so

3:57

that they could propose teaching it . When

4:00

they did , they actually came back and asked me to teach

4:02

the course . So I got into

4:04

doing training that way and I found that that

4:06

was very , very rewarding . And

4:09

after having been a trainer or technically

4:11

a teacher at the community college , having

4:14

done some Revit work , I was asked

4:16

to be a BIM manager and

4:19

I didn't know it until I was asked

4:21

. But I realized this is what I want

4:23

to do , this is kind of what I want to

4:25

be when I grow up and it's

4:27

just sort of kind of continually advanced

4:30

from there where , okay , what are other things that I

4:32

can do ? That kind of help

4:35

people and put things in place

4:37

that make the job easier ? So I made the leap

4:39

from working design the

4:41

manager over to construction

4:44

. I worked for GC for a while and

4:46

then Cupertino asked

4:48

me to come work for them . I

4:50

actually started working on a couple of projects

4:52

so that I could get familiar with the

4:55

kind of construction side of the world and

4:57

just kind of the electrical

4:59

too , because my background was in architecture

5:02

and BIM and now

5:04

my current role is BIM program

5:06

manager . The majority of my

5:08

duties revolve around standards

5:11

, processes , documentation and

5:14

training for a BIM department , and

5:16

I also work outside

5:19

of my official title . I do a lot

5:21

of construction technology management within the company

5:23

where especially

5:25

things that I'm quite familiar with , familiar with like project

5:27

management and document management tools , I

5:29

will work with

5:32

another department that wants to implement a

5:34

process , bring in a new technology

5:36

, things like that , to just help

5:38

advance the users in other areas as well .

5:43

I love it . Thank you so much , Kelly . How's speaking

5:45

of serendipitously finding

5:47

your way ? It's so true , and

5:49

I love how it also came full circle , too , where you're

5:52

again focused on standards and processes , and

5:54

that seems to be your true calling .

5:56

It is . I really love it , so

5:59

, so much . It's a true passion of mine

6:01

that I would have never known existed

6:03

if I didn't get start , start to work in

6:05

the industry too and experience the frustrations

6:07

of of others . You know

6:09

, I went through the same thing that they did when I first

6:11

started and I think to me

6:13

that's that's what drives me to do it and

6:16

it's I joke a lot with people but I say

6:18

you know , I don't do what I love

6:20

, we , everybody's just do what you love , and you won't

6:23

work a day in your life . I'm like there's a lot of things I love . I

6:25

love pet , I love my pets , I love

6:27

my hobbies . You know , I love my

6:29

partner , all sorts of things , but those

6:31

things don't translate into work very well

6:33

. But what I am passionate about , what I will argue

6:35

with somebody every day , no matter how frustrated

6:37

I get about my job , is how

6:40

important it is to help

6:42

other people be successful at their

6:44

jobs . And

6:46

so that's how I knew , kind of what to do and

6:48

the direction that I wanted my

6:51

career to go , and so far has fairly

6:53

successfully gone that way .

6:55

So cool . The other thing I , the other

6:57

thing I really value is that you've you've

7:00

got your hands dirty when joining Cupertino and

7:02

said , hey , let me work on those , those electrical

7:04

projects , so I can , you know , I can really learn

7:06

the tools of the trade , if you will , or the trade

7:08

itself .

7:10

Yeah , absolutely . I mean , I think a critical part of

7:12

being on any team , honestly is epistemic

7:16

humility . It's a big fancy

7:18

word , I learned it from an NPR ?

7:20

Yeah , help me understand that one . You learned it from

7:22

what ?

7:23

I learned it from an NPR episode . Oh

7:25

cool , but it was . It was a great show

7:27

and it's went through and

7:29

to me it had just really resonated because it's something

7:31

I think our industry struggles with a lot , which

7:34

is acknowledging

7:36

that you don't know what you don't know and

7:40

being able to work with that , because it

7:42

takes a lot of confidence

7:45

to get done what we need to get done in the

7:47

construction world , and a lot of times that also translates

7:49

into ego , which is where we start to struggle

7:52

, right when we say

7:54

I can do something or I know enough about this to get it done

7:56

, when maybe we don't . And

8:00

that's where you know . The area that

8:02

I like to work in is hey , I know this part

8:04

, like I'm

8:07

not going to pretend to know exactly what a project manager goes

8:10

through every day or exactly what a superintendent or an superintendent

8:13

or even an installer goes

8:15

through every day , but

8:17

I've done work on projects to get a better idea

8:19

and

8:22

I want you to tell me , as a user

8:24

, in whatever role I'm working with at that

8:26

time . You tell me what it takes to be

8:28

a project manager and what is going to make your

8:30

life easier , and I'll

8:32

work with technology and standards and

8:35

training to help you be more

8:37

successful in that , and

8:39

that's , I think , one of the bonuses

8:42

of my job , but also one of the challenges

8:44

of the type of work that I do

8:46

and where we run into

8:48

how we get to the future

8:51

of construction in the industry is

8:53

getting someone who's maybe

8:55

a C-suite or a site superintendent

8:58

versus the foreman to

9:00

acknowledge that they're not as familiar

9:02

with the

9:19

experience of another person or a

9:21

different area of the industry that they

9:23

haven't worked in and bring in

9:25

an expert or someone who has

9:28

that experience to assist , as opposed

9:30

to attempting to kind of fumble through

9:32

it or confidence their way

9:34

through it .

9:36

Yeah , thank you for sharing that . Kelly , appreciate your

9:38

focus and you call that epistemic

9:41

humility . Epistemic humility yes

9:43

, great , that's something for me to

9:45

research . I love that . So

9:49

I really want to talk

9:51

about your accomplishments and your stories

9:53

behind those accomplishments , and I'm

9:55

really excited to talk about the love of the hobbies

9:57

that you have . From

10:00

the pre-show research , I know that you've taken

10:02

up gardening and that you

10:04

see this as a big science experiment , including

10:06

, which creates that unique perspective . How

10:09

do you see the principles of experimentation , continuous

10:11

learning and your gardening hobby translating into

10:13

your approach of tackling technological

10:16

challenges and industry challenges ?

10:19

You know that's an excellent question and I think

10:21

it translates over

10:23

extremely well . And it's humbling for me , in both

10:25

my professional career and as

10:27

a hobby gardener , that you

10:29

know we can always try something different . But

10:32

if you're not careful about how you try something different

10:34

, you can't be confident

10:37

with the results and make those repeatable

10:39

. Because you know I

10:41

can go in to a project

10:44

and I can change out the technology that they're using

10:46

and

10:49

they do it successfully . But

10:51

I also change the standards and

10:54

I changed the people that were

10:56

interacting with it at a rudimentary

10:58

level and I changed the

11:00

process right . And

11:03

so I go to another project and I try to repeat that and it

11:05

doesn't always work Because I changed

11:07

too many variables . And gardening

11:09

frequently reminds me of that , because you know , maybe

11:14

I didn't get a good crop of tomatoes this year . I

11:16

actually didn't . My tomato struggled this year and

11:20

tomatoes are interesting

11:22

. They're

11:24

always abundant , but you also get a lot of varied results . And

11:28

you know , I realized that last

11:30

year they grew really well , but I changed too many things . So

11:33

now I'm not sure why they didn't grow

11:36

well , because I changed which of my

11:38

raised beds that they were in , which is a recommendation

11:40

to cycle your beds . I

11:42

also changed what other plants

11:44

were around them , which also has an effect

11:46

on how well the individual plants grow . I

11:51

added more pets to my household , which

11:53

of course you know pets that go outside

11:55

tend to be a little bit nosy and kind of get into

11:57

things and they make it a little bit more challenging

12:00

. And then I

12:02

also changed

12:05

my watering habits that I had to because of the drought that we had

12:07

this year , and

12:10

so it just became too many things

12:12

that changed from this year to last year to be able

12:14

to say , oh , the problem is this , and

12:16

now I can move forward and have better results . When I plant my

12:18

tomatoes , it's

12:20

coming here , and that

12:22

is a constant back and forth to me as much as I do that in gardening

12:24

it's

12:27

. You know , if I want to see a difference , if

12:29

I want to see growing , I have to limit my variables , and

12:32

it's the same thing when we

12:34

take changes into the workplace right , any kind

12:36

of change management . I

12:39

know we usually talk about that in terms of change orders and project changes , but

12:41

to me change management also applies

12:44

at that corporate level or that program

12:46

level where if I change the

12:48

technology and I change the process

12:51

and I change the people , well

12:54

, there's no way to know what was the , either

12:57

the factor that caused , you know , the success or the lack of success

12:59

. So

13:01

that I can then make improvements moving

13:03

forward .

13:04

Beautiful . Thank you so much for sharing

13:06

that . I love the correlation . I'm

13:09

also excited to get into a second major

13:11

hobby of yours , which is which is rock hunting . So tell

13:13

me about rock hunting . I've never heard of it

13:15

, I don't know about it . I'm super excited to hear

13:18

about this . This

13:20

this .

13:20

I feel like this is pinnacle nerdness right here

13:22

. So this has been a family tradition

13:25

of mine since my grandparents started , when they started

13:27

dating , and it was much bigger back in the 30s , 40s

13:29

and 50s . We're

13:32

a very nature loving family , and

13:36

rock hunting is literally going

13:38

out into nature and finding interesting rocks and minerals . So

13:43

you know , a lot of people enjoy

13:47

the beauty , the

13:49

math , the you know

13:51

beliefs that can be placed on different

13:53

types of minerals , how they're formed , things like that . So

13:57

that is what I do . I actually just

14:00

took a trip over New Year's out to

14:02

West Texas to a one of the largest ranches in the world I believe it's

14:04

half a million acres and they they have a small group of people that they

14:06

work with to pick up agates . And

14:08

you know I'm just constantly

14:11

fascinated by all of the , the geometry that goes into how different

14:13

types of minerals are formed , all

14:19

the colors that can show up based on the conditions

14:21

that happen , things like that . And

14:29

then I also , extending

14:32

it into an even crazier hobby will

14:35

take those rocks and minerals sometimes

14:37

and cut and polish them to be used in jewelry Beautiful , very cool

14:39

. So have you made jewelry out

14:42

?

14:42

of it .

14:45

I have about three pieces so far that I've made . I'm still

14:48

learning the silver smithing part . That parts a

14:51

little bit more in depth . But the , the rockhounding is where I've pretty much been

14:53

doing that my whole life and

14:56

sometimes it's , you know , just a

14:59

half hour drive . Other times it's , you know

15:01

, hours in a weekend out somewhere

15:03

picking up you know , fluorite or

15:05

quartz in Arkansas or , like

15:07

said , agate in West Texas . So

15:10

there's a lot of different kinds of different minerals that are that

15:12

are interesting and beautiful to me

15:14

Very cool and

15:16

you mentioned the math behind it .

15:17

So I imagine there's repeated geometric structures

15:20

and things like that . Have you , have you dug

15:22

into further the math or the structure

15:24

of ?

15:26

Oh , there is so many different structures and there's a lot

15:28

behind the chemistry and

15:30

the physics of what happens with

15:33

with the different minerals as they form . Manel

15:36

, my favorite mineral , is fluorite . It

15:39

most commonly forms in kind of cubes , and so

15:41

I think it looks very starting , startlingly

15:43

geometric and not really something that a lot

15:46

of us assume we would

15:48

see in nature . Right Rocks are kind of these

15:50

rounded boulders or these really jagged edges , and these

15:52

are a bunch of cubes that are kind

15:54

of like stacked up and overlapping and there's

15:57

very obvious math done to where it almost looks

15:59

like it couldn't be done by nature

16:01

, but it is , and

16:04

I just find that so fascinating that

16:06

you can get different size cubes

16:08

slightly different . There's what's called etching , that

16:10

kind of shows the different lines of how things are rode

16:12

over time , and then you get

16:14

the whole spectrum of colors based on

16:16

what other minerals may have been seeping in at

16:18

the time while those crystals were forming . So

16:21

it's a lot , yeah

16:23

, and there's definitely some math and

16:25

some science to dive into with it as

16:27

well .

16:28

Sure , and I'm starting to see the tie-in back to the

16:30

start of your career in architectural design . That's

16:33

so cool . Yes , absolutely . How

16:36

do you feel like this hobby ties

16:40

into your perspective on sustainability

16:42

and environmental considerations within the AEC

16:44

industry , especially with

16:46

the excitement of treasure hunting as a

16:48

metaphor for discovering innovative solutions

16:50

?

16:51

Yeah , I mean , and honestly , when people ask

16:53

me what rock-counting is like , I usually describe it as treasure

16:56

hunting or hiking with a backpack

16:58

or with a hiking

17:00

and adding weight to your backpack .

17:03

You can't just pick it up heavier and heavier rocks until

17:05

you can't carry anymore .

17:07

But yeah , it is a lot like treasure

17:09

hunting , where you find a place where you think there's

17:11

going to be minerals . You go out to that area , you search

17:13

around . Sometimes you find what you're looking for and sometimes

17:15

you don't . To me , the benefit

17:17

along the way is

17:20

the actual journey itself , and

17:23

I know that that sounds so cheesy and

17:25

trite , but it's

17:28

really true , and I think that applies to

17:30

how we decide to make things

17:32

better for the

17:34

users in the industry is

17:36

. I may start with a journey to

17:38

implement a particular tool

17:41

, a

17:43

document management tool , for our

17:46

field team , and along

17:48

that journey what I find is that

17:50

document management maybe isn't what suits them , or

17:53

the tool that they had in mind isn't the best

17:55

tool for the job , and

17:58

so to me it's very similar in

18:00

that looking for that

18:02

perfect treasure , that perfect mineral

18:04

or specimen that I would love to have at

18:06

home is the same as finding

18:09

that thing that fits just perfect with

18:12

the technology that we need , or the tweak to the

18:14

process to fit in to help

18:16

the users that are getting

18:18

the jobs done , that are working on the projects

18:21

.

18:22

Very cool . Yeah , thanks for sharing . And

18:24

then also , I know that I've introduced you as the construction

18:26

technology manager at Cooper-Tino Electric and

18:28

you mentioned that is a part of your responsibilities

18:31

and your proper role title is BIM

18:34

Program Manager . In

18:36

the context of acting as construction

18:39

technology manager or

18:41

BIM Program Manager , you successfully

18:43

mentored and trained over a thousand users , which

18:46

is an incredible career feat , and

18:48

you mentioned earlier your passion for training and

18:51

helping others grow in their

18:53

industry and in their field . Can

18:55

you share a particularly challenging training

18:57

scenario that you've encountered and how you

18:59

successfully enhance the team capabilities and streamline

19:01

workflows through mentorship ?

19:04

Ooh boy , I

19:06

think you know I actually

19:08

ended up having some very similar experiences

19:10

. But I had one particular project where

19:13

we were implementing just some basic

19:15

standards as far

19:17

as kind of the data points

19:19

that were being entered and how we wanted to format the data

19:22

. And I had one particular

19:24

user on the project who was

19:27

just not used to using technology . Their

19:30

age kind of put them out of , kind

19:33

of that natural introduction or immersion

19:35

into technology , and so there

19:37

was , you know , initially a lot of

19:40

resistance to the idea of making

19:42

the change , and I think that's

19:44

very typical , right ? We have all different types

19:47

of personalities , all different kinds of experiences

19:49

and skill sets . When

19:52

I worked with this individual person

19:54

, what I did was I spent a lot of time outside

19:58

of our actual

20:00

training sessions . I would do group training sessions

20:02

. I told the

20:04

individual like you can attain a chain , excuse

20:07

me , attend the training sessions if you would like , but

20:10

let's do this instead . I said you know , I think

20:12

what might be helpful is for us to have someone on one

20:14

time together , because you're

20:16

, you know the training session

20:18

overall , you're just gonna have really different questions and

20:20

you know , what do you think of that ? He

20:22

was particularly . He said no , I think that

20:25

would be really helpful , and

20:27

so he did not attend

20:29

the training sessions . We did that with

20:31

the group overall and then I met with him individually

20:34

to kind of slow the

20:36

training down a little bit and focus on different things , because

20:39

he understood the content and how to get

20:41

his job done , but it was literally

20:43

a matter of more of understanding the

20:45

true picks and clicks right . Why do I click on this

20:47

? Things that we don't think about too much

20:50

anymore , like what is

20:52

a tap versus a click , what is a right

20:54

click versus a left click we don't talk

20:56

in those terms anymore . But there are still

20:58

people that need that type

21:00

of training and I

21:02

think also we

21:04

didn't discuss it directly . But I think , especially

21:07

for people that struggle with technology and

21:09

get put into a situation where they kind of feel forced

21:12

into it , there's a level

21:14

of pride that's attached to it and

21:17

a level of dignity

21:19

that

21:22

needs to be preserved for them to make

21:25

sure that they feel like people are still acknowledging

21:27

their expertise and

21:30

not dismissing that because they

21:32

happen to not be familiar with how

21:35

to use an iPad or where to

21:37

go on an Android phone

21:39

to find a setting , things like that . So

21:41

that's what I try and find

21:44

ways to get to that and I think that

21:46

was one time where it actually worked pretty well was

21:49

reducing the challenges that that

21:51

person was experiencing , but also being able

21:54

to get them the training they needed to be

21:56

successful .

21:57

I love that so much , kelly , as you were sharing that

21:59

story . I thought in multiple instances in my life

22:01

where the teacher stepped out of the

22:04

classroom to help me one-on-one and really

22:06

spent probably much of their own personal

22:08

time to make sure that I understood

22:10

the topic at hand and moved past it , and

22:13

each one of those moments in my life were

22:15

pivotal for the life that I've led , and

22:18

so I really commend you and all the teachers out there that

22:20

understand the challenges of

22:22

each individual and really focus in to

22:24

help each person outside

22:26

of a group setting if that's needed .

22:29

Thanks . I actually was just sharing with

22:31

a friend yesterday . I aspire

22:33

to always be a teacher . I

22:36

used to be married to a high school teacher and

22:39

had a lot of friends that teach high school

22:41

, grade school et cetera , and

22:43

I still think , as much as I do corporate

22:45

training , that that's another level that

22:47

I haven't hit yet of being able to do that . And

22:50

teaching being a true

22:52

teacher is about

22:54

focusing on each student and getting

22:56

the student what it is they need to succeed

22:58

, not about how much you know about

23:00

the topic or what someone

23:03

expects of you or this nice

23:05

universal idea that everybody

23:07

is at this exact benchmark

23:09

. It's setting the student up for

23:11

success and in most

23:13

cases that means doing some individual

23:16

work with them , because everybody's different

23:18

.

23:20

Yeah , beautiful words that can be applied at

23:22

the journeyman level teaching an apprentice or

23:25

at the manager level , at

23:27

the executive level , and certainly for

23:30

teachers . Yeah , thank you for that

23:32

contribution . Additionally

23:34

, I understand that you've been

23:36

able to reduce BIM related expenses

23:38

by $750,000 annually

23:41

. That's an astounding number . I

23:43

don't know what the super set budget was , but

23:46

sign me up in any case . Could

23:49

you walk us through the specific strategies

23:51

or initiatives you implemented to revitalize

23:53

project workflows and achieve such significant

23:56

cost savings ?

23:57

Absolutely , and so

23:59

that particular number comes from

24:01

actually one implementation . That was done .

24:04

Oh incredible .

24:05

That was a single technology that was introduced

24:07

for the BIM

24:09

modelers , and

24:13

I think one of the things that we struggle with a lot is

24:15

we constantly get little

24:17

, tiny things added to our plate

24:20

. We don't always realize

24:22

that , oh , hey , could you throw this on the drawings

24:24

? Or oh , while you're installing this

24:26

, could you just do this part real quick

24:28

. And we

24:30

do that a lot because we wanna be team players . Most

24:32

people are there for it to get the job

24:34

done , but it starts to add

24:36

up after a while , and one of

24:39

the challenges that we've seen , especially over the last few

24:41

years , is that those

24:43

little things have gotten individually

24:45

bigger and there's gotten to be more of them

24:47

as we have this exponential

24:50

growth in technology in

24:52

the industry . And so now , instead of , oh

24:54

, hey , could you give me a little bit more information

24:56

about these racks that we're gonna install so that I can

24:59

make sure I get them built correctly ? Now

25:01

it's gone from that to about 10

25:03

different levels of these questions for just a little

25:05

bit more that now we're saying , hey , I need

25:08

a full-on prefabrication deliverable

25:10

that I can give to my shop guys , and

25:12

then I need the install deliverable that I can give

25:14

to the guys out in the field to

25:16

take the assemblies and install them out in the field

25:18

. But we don't always realize that step

25:21

one and step 10 is

25:24

really one big implementation that we

25:26

need to do because we're getting asked these little questions

25:28

along the way and

25:30

I recently had the opportunity

25:32

to sit down and look at kind

25:35

of those steps that we had been asked and when and where

25:37

we had been asked . Lots of projects were asking

25:39

for different things based on the project needs

25:41

and location and type of construction

25:43

, and so what

25:45

we did was we made a

25:47

large investment in an

25:50

add-in that specifically helps with

25:52

our prefabrication effort , and

25:55

then I also brought in our prefabrication manager

25:57

and our

25:59

senior manager that sits over

26:02

BIM , prefabrication and pre-con to

26:04

sit down and create formal

26:07

, structured deliverables

26:09

to provide to our prefab department that come

26:11

out of our Revit model . And so

26:14

by doing that , what we did was

26:16

reduced all of the unexpected

26:18

asks that were happening on every

26:20

single project into

26:22

this . You can

26:24

tell me up front do you want prefab deliverables

26:26

from us or are you guys gonna kind of do

26:29

your own thing outside of BIM and

26:31

all they have to do is say , yes , we would love those deliverables

26:34

and we have a plan in place that immediately tells

26:36

them exactly what to do every step along the way

26:38

. And by doing

26:40

that , we've reduced the amount of time

26:42

that we spend on placing hangers , updating

26:45

hangers , working with trench

26:47

card supports , things like that

26:49

, so it's really facilitated

26:52

taking out all those things

26:54

that we get asked for here and there and combining

26:57

them into one unified thing that

26:59

says even if you don't ask for it , we have this for you and

27:01

we can give it to you . And by doing

27:03

it this way , it cuts the cost of the

27:05

step that we were doing here , the step that we were

27:07

doing here , the step that we were doing

27:10

here , and really combines them into a

27:12

process as opposed to a

27:15

bunch of favors .

27:17

Have you shared that larger story and the specific

27:19

implementation or integration that you did

27:21

on , maybe on the conference stage or publicly

27:24

somewhere that the listeners could look

27:26

into ?

27:27

I haven't yet . We

27:29

have talked a little bit about it . We are trying

27:32

to get a C-suite approval to

27:34

be a little bit more open about the

27:36

exact numbers and results of that story

27:38

.

27:39

Very cool . Well , when you do , let us know and

27:41

we'll help you get the word out Absolutely

27:44

, thank you . So

27:46

I would love to understand about

27:49

how you work to reduce total project man

27:51

hours and increase deliverable

27:53

value . The BIM process

27:55

has been shown to save upwards of 40 percent of the

27:57

construction budget . How integral was that

28:00

into your reduction of the man hours

28:02

and delivering the value ?

28:05

Yeah , it's always very integral because for

28:07

me , the things that we're looking for are

28:10

, or should always be , focused

28:12

on one how do we get the deliverable but two , how do

28:14

we make it easier for the end user ? And

28:17

if you don't take both of those into consideration

28:19

, one or the other can get extremely out

28:21

of control in in a way that's

28:23

going to negatively impact your project . So

28:26

we actually had a parallel effort

28:28

that we were running as a way to

28:31

automate some of the data collection

28:33

that we do of our users time

28:35

, so that we took some

28:37

work off of their plate that they were doing

28:39

for sort of administration or tracking

28:42

type work and then let them

28:44

also focus that on to the additional

28:46

deliverables of the prefab if they weren't doing

28:48

that on the project already . And

28:51

we found , I mean , even one tweak

28:53

that that we made that took about

28:55

. I think

28:58

it was about 100

29:00

hours of development , so pretty low

29:02

development for a web application reduces

29:05

every one of our users down

29:08

our extra time if we

29:10

take one man hour out of their admin

29:12

so that we can put an hour towards

29:15

production every single

29:17

day for every single user . To

29:21

me yeah , to be able to take

29:23

and have a whole one eighth of your time

29:25

or one tenth of your time given

29:28

back to you every single day to

29:30

progress the project instead of just

29:33

make sure that data is getting passed around . You

29:36

know that that makes my day , because people

29:39

that are doing work whether it's , you know , a modeler or

29:41

an installer they want to do the

29:44

job they signed up for . They want to work

29:46

, model to install , they

29:48

want to manage the project . They don't want

29:50

to sit and fill out paperwork .

29:54

Yeah , and thanks for putting it into perspective too , because if we're reducing

29:57

one hour , you know

29:59

that that may seem like one hour in a week , one

30:01

hour in a year , right , but it's one hour per day , one

30:03

hour per workday , specifically , so one

30:05

out of eight or one out of 10 , beautiful . Yeah

30:08

, thanks for that , kelly . I feel like there's so much I can

30:10

learn from you and I hope that there's a

30:13

there's a future podcast recording that

30:15

I can continue learning from , and we're at time , so

30:18

I would love to share that . As the final question of the show and

30:22

a traditional future construct , if you could project yourself out 25

30:24

years and wanted to

30:26

have any device or technology that would benefit you personally , what

30:29

would that be and what would it do ?

30:33

Man . I mean I can think of so many different

30:35

things , whether

30:38

there are things that already exist now but could be tweaked , or things that don't

30:40

exist . But I

30:42

think my brain always immediately goes back to one of the things that

30:45

my very first co-workers in the industry

30:47

and I used to joke about , which was having like a little

30:49

plug on the side of your head that you can plug

30:51

into the computer so that I can just think about the

30:53

drafting I want done and

30:56

it drafts itself . I

30:59

think you know we obviously get closer and closer to automation , but

31:02

there's still a human component to

31:04

the design and the choices that we make and I think

31:07

that helps with that . I

31:10

think that would be such a cool thing to help streamline that is

31:12

, to take away

31:14

the fingers , typing and the

31:16

clicking and all that and be able to envision it

31:20

and see your vision break . You know , display

31:22

in front of you as you think about it . It's beautiful , yeah .

31:24

It took me to the white room in the matrix . Yes

31:27

, yes , absolutely Very cool .

31:28

Awesome Kelly .

31:31

Well , thank you so much for your time today . I

31:33

really enjoyed speaking with you and learning from you , and I look forward to

31:36

continuing the conversation in the future .

31:39

Absolutely . It was wonderful being here . I love chatting

31:42

with you , thank you very much .

31:42

Talk to you soon , bye

31:45

.