The Engineering game in 2020

2020, that’s not so far away, and yet the engineering industry will likely undergo some drastic change in that short time.

Although it may seem irrelevant to you if you aren't a part of this industry, keep in mind that these people shape the physical world around you, and in doing so consume a significant amount of your tax dollars. That is to say that if we’re lucky the changes will measurably improve our lives.

1. The majority of the engineering work force will be contract staff reducing the financial impacts of the peaks and troughs inherent in engineering consulting. This works well into the growing desire of people to have more freedom and variety in the work they do.
2. The majority of low touch projects will be conducted offshore, and will be conducted far more cost effectively than they are today. This started to happen a few years ago and is on the increase. It will lead to improved conditions in poorer countries and the potential to deliver more projects in developed countries.
3. Computers, mobile devices, drones and IT will be utilised more effectively to help deliver better solutions: Examples: Where ever possible surveys will be conducted using unmanned drones; Engineers will collect more information during site visits using tablets, phones and their sensors, enabling more rapid development of concept designs. As digital storage continues to get cheaper, wearables will record every detail of visits; CAD software will utilise digitised data more effectively to rapidly automate designs.
4. Government agencies and professional bodies will make design standards available in digital formats that can be utilised by CAD software to produce compliant designs.
5. Professionals will spend less time entering data. Systems will be integrated such that any information that is entered once is never entered again, making use of public databases to fill the gaps. More tools will emerge to enable this.
6. Existing monolithic software systems that aim to fully integrate all tools (i.e. ERPs) will be in decline, as more flexible solutions emerge that permit more open access and integration with third party solutions.
7. Commoditised services like simple car-park designs, simple drafting, specification production etc. will be delivered through on-line companies, similar to 99 designs and Lawpath.
8. Standard element designs (think footpath and car port slabs) will be available off the shelf and therefore either be free or very cheap. Lighting layouts will be automated based on set conditions.
9. Reviews will be undertaken on-line. And only on-line. People who say “but I just like paper” will continue to complain.
10. All site photographs will be georeferenced and accessible within design packages — this ones largely happening already.
11. All designs will have version control similar to GIT that highlights changes so you don’t need to manually compare. As above, tools that do this are now starting to get some attention.
12. We will be closer to full transparency, where a client can request a design snapshot at any time. No more spending days or even weeks preparing a submission that should simply represent a snapshot of progress to date.
13. BIM will be the norm.

And of course, our ability to produce such a high standard of living at a fraction of the cost will finally mean that we only need to work 15 hours a week, as so optimistically predicted by the famous Economist John Keynes in the 1930s. Maybe this one is a little wishful — but here’s to hope!