Community Outreach and In-house Initiatives Award of Excellence
Digital Acceleration Initiative WSP
Dedicated teams WSP formed a digital solutions team, which would be dedicated to executing the ‘digital acceleration’ initiative. With more than 760 employees and 22 offices across the country, the creation of a standard approach to BIM and custom tool development involved gathering one key leader from each region and agreeing on the standard for project delivery, including a BIM execution plan, level of development matrix, draw60
CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER
ing standard and workflow, all in two languages. The most impactful innovation to result from the process was a connected approach to project data, with a centralized database for all of the various software platforms needed to execute a project. This serves as a single source of the data stream, is intuitive for a non-software engineer to use, saves thousands of hours and improves quality. WSP also formed 10 internal focus teams to work with key clients across the country, who in turn would provide the voice of industry. The teams would share WSP’s plans so clients could validate them and provide feedback on the direction for digital twins, decarbonization and automation. The purpose of this approach was also to promote industry-wide tools and set a common language for digital solutions.
“An important project in terms of advancement of the industry and the direction of the tools we use as we move toward the next generation of construction.” – Jury
Measuring progress In addition to creating a standard baseline for project delivery that would be common across Canada and offer a ‘launching pad’ for automation, it was also important to measure the progress of WSP’s digital transformation. Given the size of WSP’s property and buildings practice and its structures, mechanical and electrical businesses, a focused approach to change management was necessary to mobilize everyone to participate. This involved creating small teams of individuals across the business with similar day-to-day activities to select one or two ‘wildly important’ goals to achieve in their work by leveraging and adopting technology. The challenge of covering a vast range of sectors, regions and project typologies with a standard project delivery approach was overcome by gathering experts in each sector and September/October 2023
I M AG E S COU RT E SY WS P.
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igital project delivery has become critical to achieving successful project outcomes while adapting to the changing needs of the consulting engineering industry. In 2020, WSP’s leaders in the property and buildings sector—more specifically, in the structures, mechanical and electrical subsectors— launched a strategic initiative to advance technology, offer digitally integrated services and advise clients on digital asset management and decarbonization objectives. The key steps included baseline training in building information modelling (BIM) and automation for all staff; the standardization of templates to ensure all are working from a common base on all projects; the mentoring of ‘champions’ in each business region and sector; and the development of custom workflows to enhance efficiency and quality.
