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Shadow

My thoughts

Shy

 

Shy

 

At school I was described as "shy and retiring, something of a loner". I was not very gregarious. Those of you that know me from work will not recognise the first, but perhaps the second. I still don't particularly like pubs and other large social gatherings. Some places I have worked, it was de rigueur to go to the pub after work, sometimes once a week, but other times more frequently. This allows you to join the inner sanctum, become one of the favoured few, thereby progressing. Sometimes there is also a cost, other than that of the drinks, including alcohol dependency, missing out on children growing up, strained relationships, divorce, as well as health issues, and some questionable work practices. Fortunately, I avoided most of the down side, by not attending. Frequently quoting the  railway's zero tolerance, and random testing for alcohol, and other substances in the blood. As an aside, it still amazes me how many people in the railway industry post on social media what a wonderful time they are having at, such and such a place, which could lead you to surmise, that they may be imbibing in alcohol consumption in a timeframe which if the case, would result in them still having some alcohol in their blood at work. It is an interesting risk, as failure of a test is instant dismissal and banned from the industry for life. A severe consequence for going out and posting on line. They could of course not be drinking alcohol, just having a good time.

Performance, good and bad

 

Performance, good and bad

 

Purpose of a Contract Audit

 

Purpose of a Contract Audit

Snow and the last train

 

Snow and the last train

Maths Homework

 

Maths Homework

 

Not the normal grone about Maths. It was my favourite subject both at Secondary School and at Sixth Form. Indeed, three of my 5 'A' Levels are in Maths.

I liked our Sixth Form Maths teacher. He was very clever. He would often sit at his desk and get out the Times crossword, within ten minutes it was done. Generally he would set homework with five easy to middling questions and one stinker.

I would habitually start with the difficult question, and almost invariably resolve it successfully. Not, within the ten minutes that he would do the crossword, but frequently over twice the time it should have taken to do my homework. Focussing on the difficult does have its downside, particularly with respect to learning by rout and repetition, and therefore speed in exams.  Exams are not just about your root knowledge, but also understanding  and speed. Conversely, focussing on the difficult does help enhance complex problem solving skills. 

Often heard question, what can Maths do for me?

Well, Maths helped me with creating complex financial models, risk management, cost predictions, contractor audits, specialist contract reviews, drafting reports for Major Projects External Experts, Company Re-engineering, creating strategies, and working on many other complex problems and opportunities. It helped me with logical and holistic thinking. In general, it helped a lot.

BIM - The importance of procurement

 

BIM - The importance of procurement

[Published in Civil Engineering Surveyor (CES) on December 2015/ January 2016]

BIM - The importance of procurement on CES digital player

 

7 October 2015

 

The essentials of BIM centric project procurement

Congratulations, pats on the back all round, we have managed to nurture our infrastructure Capex project through the trials and tribulations of the stage gate process from inception to the point where we are preparing to tender the Main Contract. What a great relief, we have achieved authority and have funding. Lets go and bag ourselves a contractor.

Stop.

We need to go back a few stage gates and question how we got through them. The stage gates match the digital plan of works, and we have developed the project using a 3D BIM model from the outset. We started with a HD LIDAR survey with photos to create the base model. We planted that on the earth with real coordinates using snake grid. We used GIS to inform decisions and integrated BIM and GIS. What's more we set up a very early requirements management system to ensure we kept focused on the deliverables of the project at each stage. The requirements became more detailed as the project progressed through the digital plan of works in a similar fashion to the BIM LOD and LOI. The V & V followed suit.

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