From Quick Wins to Big Plays: Unlocking Our Engineering Toolkit
How can we make the best use of our engineering tools in the short, medium and long term? What quick wins can we deliver for AMP8, how can we prepare for AMP9 and what are the longer-term strategic opportunities?
We are investing in new engineering tools. AMP8 is large and complex, with many teams involved. There are multiple systems and data sources in different locations.
Quick win: What can we do in the short term, using our existing toolsets, to support project delivery, stakeholder communication and decision-making?
- We do not currently provide our Customer and Communications teams with visualisations from our systems to support external communications.
- We have systems (for example, Revit) that we could use simply but to great effect; however, we currently have no process for Communications to request support from Engineering.
- We have not yet fully explored how to use the capabilities of the engineering tools we already have, even at a simple quick-win level.
Medium term: What can we do in the near term to support PR29 concept development and optioneering?
- We need to undertake a large amount of concept development and optioneering work for PR29, learning from PR24 and moving towards a more standardised product approach.
- We do not yet have a Standard Product Library, and adoption of modern engineering tools is still at an early stage.
- We will need to make rapid decisions based on incomplete information across several teams.
- We do not have the time or budget to invest in more complex systems.
More strategically: exploring opportunities to integrate engineering and modelling.
- Autodesk offers a range of tools that support optioneering, design, construction and modelling.
- Using wastewater hydraulic modelling as an example, there is an opportunity to review the art of the possible by considering our existing information and tools alongside future capabilities and options.
This sprint will not be a theoretical discussion about engineering tools. It will not be about what the textbook says.
This sprint will be pragmatic and action-oriented.
This sprint will take a focused day-by-day approach to enable the rapid delivery of real value, while also shaping longer-term plans.
Together, we will:
- Assess the current situation
- Understand the capabilities of existing systems
- Focus on quick wins
- Expand the discussion to preparation for AMP9
- Explore broader strategic options
Participants will collaborate through a series of structured, interactive sessions, with a clear plan for the week.
Day 1: Quick-win focus, with particular relevance to Project Management, Customer teams and Communications.
- How can we use our existing tools more effectively to support Customer, Communications and Planning teams with visualisations?
- Simple visualisations using Revit
- Rendered, photorealistic outputs using Autodesk Forma
- Walkthroughs using Revit/AEC capabilities
- 4D visualisation
Days 2 and 3: How can we best enable PR29 optioneering and strategic thinking?
- How can we use our existing tools to better support strategic and tactical planning through optioneering and pre-business planning, enabling rapid buildability assessments and options appraisal?
Day 4: What are the longer-term and broader strategic opportunities to make better use of our engineering toolsets?
- A specific focus on wastewater modelling opportunities
- An opportunity to capture broader system-wide static or dynamic digital twin possibilities
By the end of the sprint, we aim to deliver:
Quick-win “how-to” documentation, defined processes, and improved awareness of system capabilities.
- A PR29 opportunities list, assessed for impact and viability, alongside an implementation plan
- A documented list of strategic options, particularly for wastewater modelling
- Day 1: Engineering, project management within asset investment delivery, Customer teams, Communications and PMO
- Days 2 and 3: Engineering, Tactical Planning and PMO
- Day 4: Engineering and Wastewater Tactical Planning
Any questions? Contact Eve Paylor, IS Product Manager, at Eve.Paylor@nwl.co.uk or Dan Walsh, Digital Construction Lead, at Daniel.Walsh@nwl.co.uk