A Mechanical Engineer Speaks (feat. Patrick Fernbach)

We start out today with a little Chicken N Pickle talk and some eye rolling about Tyler’s $150 pickleball paddle.   Then we move on to content most of you will find more substantial. Patrick Fernbach, our guest today, is Director of Mechanical Engineering at KLH Engineers in Kentucky.    Tyler asks Patrick what grinds his gears when it comes to the construction industry. Patrick discusses the fact that construction contract practices put the engineers and the trades at opposite ends of an unnecessarily complicated process. The long chain of contracts makes meaningful collaboration incredibly difficult.    Patrick acknowledges that he has not hung a single piece of ductwork, yet he’s designed miles of it. The closer he can get to the trades, however, the better he can do his job and the better those people can do their jobs.   He wants to hear from tradesmen who can provide some productive pushback on designs that cause complications where the screw meets the stud. He wants to know when his designs are a pain in someone’s neck.   Eddie asks Patrick to turn his thoughts in the opposite direction, toward the relationship between engineers on one end and architects and owners on the other end. He knows that the industry expects him to stay in his lane, but he doesn’t think that’s always the way it should be.    Eddie asks Patrick what kinds of things he struggles with in the process of doing his job. Patrick says that the most challenging thing is the ever-changing nature of the project. Architects and owners don’t always seem to understand just how many changes need to happen as a result of something that seems like a minor design adjustment.    The live nature of BIM360 makes this even more challenging. It’s difficult to track changes and determine which elements are locked and which ones aren’t.    Tyler discusses his experience with the ripple effect of small changes that seem to cause the unraveling of an entire project, and Eddie discusses how iterative design blurs the lines regarding completion of project elements.   Patrick raises the issue of meetings, and how the number of meetings seems to be continually increasing because of the dynamic nature of design. Although he doesn’t necessarily say that there have been too many meetings, he has definitely noticed that this aspect of the work is consuming more of the average engineer’s time.    Construction lacks some of the systems that manufacturing has, Patrick says. It feels like we’re in the process of putting those systems into place, which explains why things are kind of clunky at this point.   We ask Patrick to list some of the positives in construction-related engineering right now. Here are some of the things he lists:

• The increasingly smooth process of design-build
• The expectation for more detailed permit sets–detailed enough that the building could almost be built from them
• Increased proactive interest from a variety of vendors and subs who want to make sure that their contributions to a project will work smoothly
• VDC technology that increases efficiencies 

  Eddie asks about how fees have changed as approaches have changed. Patrick said that it varies from job to job because of varied expectations and services requested.   We explore how engineers like Patrick–those who seek to engage with the tradespeople–move the industry forward.   Patrick explains that siloed pricing structures that don’t involve upstream and downstream communication lead to some design elements being done multiple times.    Eddie piggybacks on this and contrasts the novice owner or general contractor from the experienced one. The experienced one knows that detailed design pays off in the long run. The bidding process is more effective. There are fewer RFIs. There are fewer complications. The guesswork is gone.    Patrick confirms what Eddie says with examples from a recent project.    Patrick’s Megaphone Message: Trust isn’t a soft skill; it’s a project multiplier. Build strong partnerships. Build strong teams. Show up with mutual respect for one another. Show up knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Don’t BIM for BIM’s sake. Be intentional when you model and design. It’s about creating value for the owner and the downstream consumer. 
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