Steel Detailing | Precast Detailing | Estimation

Author: admin

  • Memo #7 – How to on Statuses, ETAs must be accurate

    When traveling overseas, especially India, I often hear the following:

    “Where are you?

    “I’m almost there”

    “When will you arrive?”

    “Five minutes!”

    They always say: “five minutes”.

    Once, I remember waiting, for at least 45 minutes.

    Not sure if this is a cultural thing. I’ve heard Indians say:

    “Oh, that’s IST – Indian Standard Timing”.

    Friends – Indian Standard Timing might work very well for your own personal arrangements, but it will not work well in the USA / UK / Europe / Australia / NZ, on construction projects, where tight deadlines are involved, and where “Liquidated Damages” are at stake.

    Why are ETAs important?

    Because clients need to order material, organise labour, and equipment. It will not do to organise a crane, and hire labour, only for them to sit idle for a couple of weeks because you were overly optimistic with your delivery times. Cranes alone might cost $5000 – $15,000 per day. What about site crews? If you give the wrong ETA, then it could cost your client a lot of money. Which means it’s gonna cost you a lot of money.

    Give real ETA. Not the typical: “5 minutes later” ETA. Update your clients constantly on your Tek1 status reports.

    Summary: Give the correct ETA, and make sure you meet it.

    Lesson – Keep the statuses short and sweet

    ETA – This means Estimated Time of Arrival. Just put the ETA and then the date, the time and the time zone:

    e.g. We will issue the Takeoff reports by the end of 02.04.2025

    Don’t do that.

    ETA: COB 2025-04-02 (AEST)

    Clients care about their time zone, not yours.

    Lesson – Clients Pyramid Their ETAs on top of Your ETAs – so add a buffer

    Why is a client asking for an ETA? Because they need to:

    1. Tell their client the ETA.
    2. They need to plan / arrange resources. So does their client. e.g. if they hire workers to come to their factory on date: XYZ to do work – how can they do any work without any drawings to work on? These workers will be sitting on the site twiddling their thumbs, and it is very expensive.
    3. If you promise a time and don’t deliver: then you will lose your client.

    The Cost of promising ETAs and not meeting them is large – if it does not come on time, and the communication is poorly managed – then we’re hurting our clients

    Let’s take this job for example: https://tek1-quotes.herokuapp.com/organisations/2/quotes/12046

    It was filled with issues: some from our side, the other from the client, and the other just due to coordination issues.

    We need to ensure that our communication on the hold-up points is clear.

    I’m not here to lay blame: but to make people understand the cost.

    • You promise a time to the client.
    • That time gets blown out. The reasons must be clearly communicated. If it is not communicated clearly you will get blamed.
    • The client promises a time to his client based on your ETA. If the drawings don’t come on the time, then the client cannot meet his ETA. In this case, the delays became so egregious that our client’s client – was threatening to de-scope him from the job, cancel his contract and go somewhere else.
    • This particular job is worth over $100,000 to our client. And our client is about to lose millions of dollars because he will have burned his client – because of the ETA issues and delays. Again not laying blame on anyone.
    • Think of the cost: our poor ETA management and poor communication costing our client, but it is also costing our client’s client.
    • In addition I had x2 clients who were about to be severely compromised because of LGS delays, and I was delayed in my other projects.
    • The cost? My x2 clients potentially burned (they were not), our client potentially burned, and our client’s client also potentially burned.
    • The cost is very very high.

    Do me a favour: add buffer time, and communicate your hold-ups effectively. Perhaps this might require a technological solution.

  • Memo #6 – Drawings not to be issued “IFC” markings without approvals

    Here is a memo we received from one of our clients. Such memos are not infrequent:

    I am pushing for stamped drawings, however from the IFAs issued there should be no changes made. I need to begin the steel ordering process tomorrow. There is a lead time on the ordering of the steel, and by that stage we should have the finalised drawings. Anything that gets altered can be held at the processing of steel stage.

    Can you please issue the full pack for the Spiral tonight.

    Thanks

    Question: what should you do?

    1. Do whatever the client says, because the client is always right?
    2. Stamp with IFC and send to the client?
    3. Ask your boss what you should do?
    4. Send the drawings without the IFC stamp?
    5. Send the drawings with an IFA stamp + a disclaimer on the drawing + another disclaimer in the same email?

    To answer this question, you need to first understand the approval work-flow in building and construction projects:

    Process in Building and Construction

    1. You do the shop drawings.
    2. You submit them for approval.
    3. The architects and engineers then approve the documents.
    4. AFTER they have been approved (not before, but after), then you can mark: “For Construction” and release the drawings.

    Please follow this process. It is very important from an insurance and legal liability point of view.

    Why is the process important?

    In every building and construction job, there is risk. If something goes wrong, then fabricators and builders are likely to start blaming people – lawyers will blame anyone who is not insolvent so they can recover the loss. If people fabricate from IFC drawings without a stamped approval, then we will not be covered by insurance: the entire firm could go under.

    When things aren’t approved: the things are likely to be in a rush, and things are likely to be poorly planned and coordinated. When the builder starts blaming you for releasing IFC without stamped approval, even though he demanded it: what are you going to say in response? We want to avoid problems and disputes at all hazards. To keep it simple:

    DO NOT MARK AS IFC WITHOUT STAMPED APPROVAL

    So what should I do?

    1. Release the drawings as IFA with the following annotation:

    Shows how to annotate when you don't have the stamped approvals
    You defeinitely don’t want to mark as IFC without stamped approvals. If the client wants to fabricate, then he must very clearly understand that he is playing with fire.

    2. Add in the following disclaimer ON THE DRAWING:

    Fabricate at own risk. No stamped approvals? Then no insurance. If anything goes wrong, for whatever reason, you’re carrying the can, not Tek1.

    Summary:

    DO NOT MARK AS IFC WITHOUT STAMPED APPROVAL

    Why? Check the insurance documentation here (internal link):

  • Junior Modeller At Koyambedu

    We have a few positions available to young Engineering graduates at the Koyembedu office in Chennai

    To be successful – You have to be a recent graduate in Civil, Mechanical or structural engineering.

    Must have a good command of English and Tamil.

    1-2 years of Tekla skills is appreciated. Else you have to demonstrate the ability to learn quickly via our online tutorials.

    There will be an appropriate task to complete whether you have no experience or have some experience.

    The position involved shift work (We work 2 shifts).

    Please send your applications to hr@tek1.com.au

  • AS1657 CHECK LIST

    Here is a list of items to look for when detailing stairs

    AS1657-CHECKLISTDownload

  • Quiz on getting Approvals

    Here is a quiz that Bharath has written. Very relevant.

    Engineers Architects are trying to wriggle out of their responsibilities by stamping “VIEWED” or “No COMMENT”. They do not want to stamp approved for fear of any error in the document could come back and bite.

    Insurance companies on the other hand are trying to minimize their risk when they provide insurance to detailers by explicitly stating, they will not cover the detailer unless the drawings are stamped for approval by the engineer and architect, and anyone else.

    To cut the discussion short, if the detailer issues without approval then the detailer will put everyone at risk because there will be no insurance cover. Detailers are the smallest in the chain. Try to litigate against the detailer is unlikely to get any good result. They could simply windup.

    Now here is the quiz

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScspZzCdNBlwVb4FJcB3rUebNuaZHBk28goPcUBHGFXz-aQiA/viewform

  • Tek1 adds Revit and Tekla to precast Detailing

    Tek1 has extended their tool kit by adding Revit Structural and Tekla Precast to detail precast concrete.

    We were trialing precast for a few months now. We have developed some internal tools to handle precast panel shop drawing efficiently.

    Tekla for Precast

    We are experts in using Teka for steel detailing. Now are embarking on using Tekla for detailing precast. As first step, we have upgraded our 2 steel detailing Licenses in Melbourne to Global License and upgraded to enterprise. We are running parallel trials with Revit and Tekla to test whether Tekla will make the grade.

  • Appreciation from client

    Hi Koshy,

    You guys just did a job for Morada Build Co Pty Ltd at Lot 6 Newes Road Coorabell NSW and are currently drafting a couple more…We supplied the structural steel, fabrication and installation of this project and were very impressed with the drawings and the way the job went together onsite…

    We are currently super busy and looking for someone to do a couple of house steel projects for us

    Greg Dutton | Estimator

    Richard Steel

  • Steel Detailing Primers and Processes

    The following codifies our processes. It is made for the following reasons:

    (i) to educate our own staff, about what they need to know and secondly,

    (ii) to make transparent to our clients, how we operate. We are essentially inviting you into our kitchen, so you can see for yourselves how we cook, and to then decide, whether you would like to dine with us.

    1. Mistakes are expensive. (Why this is the case?)
    2. Understanding risk and liability.
      1. Understanding risk: liquidated damages, contractual obligations, insurance. Understanding the legal system in Australia, USA, UK.
      2. e.g. to NEVER issue drawings for construction without consultant approvals.
    3. Confirm important details in writing. (Why is this the case?)
    4. Understanding: the importance of accurate estimation(s) of deliveries (Why is this the case?)
    5. What do clients value?
      1. To make things as easy as possible for the client, and to make the client money. This might involve:
        1. Quick drawings.
        2. Accurate drawings.
        3. Timely feedback (i.e. what is the status of their project?)
        4. Pushing the job along.
        5. Solving problems with minimal noise
        6. If they client asks for something, we need to either: (i) deliver what they ask exactly, or (ii) give clear reasons why it can’t be delivered. If the client asks for an program schedule, it will not do to say: “yes sir” and completely forget what the client asked for.
        7. Delivering on your promise. If you say “5 minutes” then deliver in extra 300 seconds, and not, 6 hours later. (Why is this important? (the client might allocate an entire team to fabricate something in 5 minutes, and you will cost the client $10,000s of dollars if they are sitting around in the factory floor, without nothing to fabricate, because you didn’t deliver the drawings when promised)).
        8. Making things easy for the client to fabricate and/or manage their projects.
        9. Good grammar, good English, and clear communication.
        10. Extra material: to be immediately communicated to the client. (Why? So clients can recover their costs).
        11. Tender drawings vs for construction drawings to be compared and the differences reported to the client in a report. (Why? So the client can recover costs).

  • AWS VPN Client Errors

    If you are having trouble with the AWS VPN Client, you need to systematically work through the issue. Remember, we are authenticating with Azure Active Directory (using what’s called: “SAML 2.0”). If you don’t know how to do something, or if you don’t understand something: please go to Google and find out.

    First start with the basic requirements:

    1. Check your internet speed. if your upload speed is less than: 5 mpbs then you need to upgrade your internet.
    2. Delete all your cookies in all your web browsers. (Please use Google if you don’t know).
    3. Check that you have the requirements: Windows, and .net etc. If you don’t have the requirements, then please upgrade your system to meet those requirements. Please use Google to find out how.
    4. Check Troublshooting Client VPN.
    5. Check Windows Troublshooting.
    6. Search Google and AWS forums for the error you are facing.
    7. Check the AWS Client Log files (search for them on Google). Read the log files and try to search for where the error is. Do further Google searches – continue until you find the problem.

    If you don’t understand what the instructions are, then please undertake a further google search. For example we are required to have Windows 10 Pro. How do I verify this? Google. Next we need .net 4.7.2. How do I verify this? Google. We have a port conflict. What is a port? Google. How do I know I have a port conflict? What is TLS? What is UDP? etc. you get the picture.

    Firewall

    Ensure the AWS VPN client can operate through the firewall:

    Trellex example
    Add a new Rule
    Ensure that the AWS VPN Client is allowed through the firewall.