Innovate, Create, Automate - Daniel Staines.

There's been a great deal in the news of late, relating to automation and the advances of AI in current and future technical development. Just this morning, reports from the O2 Arena covered the public testing of a driverless shuttle bus.

Oxbotica, which developed the technology behind the shuttle, said 5,000 members of the public had applied to take part.

"Very few people have experienced an autonomous vehicle, so this is about letting people see one in person," chief executive Graeme Smith told the BBC.

There were big enough fears when they removed the conductor from the bus - and now they propose to get rid of the driver too - has the world gone mad!

That said, automation has a valuable place in the corporate infrastructure, as JMS continue to demonstrate.

The key to JMS high standards is 'quality'. Quality people, working as quality teams, delivering quality service through qualified skills.

But - and in his own words - Daniel Staines is confounded by one fundamental problem: " ... the lack of suitable staff." He continues "Since the recession of 2008, it has been noted that a 20% year-on-year reduction in technical staff coming to the industry and there is no indication of this changing course."

Daniel describes this as  "the first of two asteroids hurtling towards planet JMS".

He goes on to say: "The second chunk of rock heading our way (and everybody else’s too) is the next recession. If we go for a soft Brexit (i.e. productive negotiations), then this will arrive in 2020 – if we go for a hard Brexit (i.e. the UK takes an arrogant stance) then we will start to see Bank Interest rates drifting up in the 3^rd Quarter of this year as the Government must address its Balance of Payments with short term lending."

Is this pessimism or realism. 

In fact, you could take it a stage further. One of the many unknowns about post Brexit Britain is how the movement of qualified labour will be affected. If we can't grow our own chartered and civil engineers, will we be able to import them or have we got to return to the educational drawing board.

Skill goes further than credentials. Skill is about innovation and creativity. The innovation to be different, inventive, to approach projects with originality that stands you apart from the competition. Creativity is the ability to then deliver that innovation. Identifying problems, creating solutions and delivering cost-effective benefits for client and company alike.

 The tools are here to support individual and team innovation, whichever office is managing the project and wherever the site may be. JMS' secure cloud technology gives team access to sophisticated structural and civil design as well as project management technologies: 

Masterseries - structural design software, analysis, 3D modelling, drafting for steel, concrete, composite, timber, connections, masonry, pile caps & retaining walls.

Revit - allowing users to design a building and structure and its components in 3D, annotate the model with 2D drafting elements, and access building information from the building model's database.

Scia -  structural design software, analysis, 3D modelling, drafting for steel, concrete, composite, timber, connections, masonry, pile caps & retaining walls.

Autodesk - Autodesk's architecture, engineering, and construction solutions include AutoCAD design and documentation software.

XP Solutions MicroDrainage - the leading drainage design software for stormwater and foulwater drainage systems.

Wrike - an online project management software that gives you full visibility and control over your tasks.  

10,000 Feet -  supporting resource management by creating an interactive schedule with a dynamic timeline that visualises the work plan for your entire organisation. 

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Is this automation - nearly but not quite.

It can only be as good as it's operator. The levels of innovation supported by this cloud of powerful resource can't make its user innovative, it only supports innovation that's already there. The creative scope is exponential, but again the engineer needs to be a creative thinker in the first place.

Daniel Staines again: "Although we will now be taking a pro-active approach to sourcing staff, we must accept that this is going to be an uphill struggle and that any new staff will be a bonus – not a given.  It is therefore essential that we ‘sweat’ what we have - we must innovate, create and in particular, we have to automate".

We need to nurture our colleagues and further nurture budding future engineers in schools, colleges and through professional organisations such as IStructE and ICE to build a future for our industry and a commanding position for JMS within it.

We add value to every project we have been,
are, and will be equally proud to support.

High rising professionalism with IStructE – inspired by Andy Kenyon

Andy Kenyon (right) leads the East Midlands team of JMS and was Chairman of IStructE East Midlands until handing over to Steve Swindale (left) of Swindale Associates at the Chairman’s Installation Dinner on 10^th February this year.

In its own words, “the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) is the world’s largest organisation dedicated to the art of science and structural engineering”.

With 27,000 members in 105 countries it is internationally recognised as a source of expertise and information concerning all issues involving structural engineering and public safety. 

It supports and protects professionalism within the industry, upholding professional standards and acting as the global voice for the qualities of structural engineers.

The IStructE President, Ian Firth (above centre), was guest of honour. During the formal part of the evening’s procedures he thanked Andy for his year in office and handed over the ceremonial chain of office to Steve.

Part of the institution’s remit is to nurture and support students from the earlier years of merely considering structural engineering as a career possibility, through the studious and vocational years that build their professional commitment.

Andy and his team chose this as their focus for his year in office, extending the institution’s dedication to professional standards, competence and recognition. Qualification is not just a ‘cash-for-letters’ exchange (that’s just membership!).

Qualification is a lengthy process first to build a portfolio of representative structural engineering projects, then to pass a 7 hour exam (which has a mere 30% pass rate). Both require hard work and guidance.

Mentoring student aspiration is no small task. We know, because it is a major part of the national JMS ethos conceived by Daniel Staines and thankfully shared by the whole JMS team.

Part of a regional chair’s role is to sit on the Council that forms the central body of IStructE. 

Here, Andy was able to represent issues arising from the regional technical meetings and professional review meetings, both of which form the essence of regional office activity.

Young Members Group (Midlands) in action

In his outgoing speech, Andy thanked his committee members for their support, in particular Chris Leese (also of JMS) for his work with young members. This focussed on the development of the regional Young Members Group, which Chris leads. Efforts here delivered a 30% increase in student membership in the year and an 11% increase in membership overall. 

Chris is also on the committee for Young Members in London, showing the efforts IStructE is making to encourage, develop and welcome fresh blood and professional insight into the world of Structural Engineering. 

The future?

Every town and city in every country across the globe is growing and will continue to do so. If we're not building towards to skies, we're sub-structuring towards Professor Lidenbrock's very core (Jules Verne). 

From Lidenbrock's discovery of giant mushrooms, to global desire for giant structures, materials are constantly changing as technology demands more. 

The physical laws and empirical knowledge, which are key to structural engineering theory, must move in time with changing material performances and geometries.  

IStructE ?  High rising professionalism - indeed.  

Many thanks to Andy Kenyon for his valuable contribution to this blog.  

For JMS Midlands, please call 02476 350 505.

We add value to every project we have been,
are, and will be equally proud to support.

Could Philip Hammond’s Spring Budget hail an Autumn fall for the construction industry?

Could Philip Hammond’s red box have contained yet another inappropriate gesture to further slow the required housing and commercial growth and infrastructure in this country?

As a result of his April Budget speech, he has been accused of plotting a tax raid on the self-employed with news that the Treasury will raise an extra £145m by 2022 through a series of (NI) national insurance rises.

The Chancellor said that to make the system ‘fairer’, NI contributions will rise for the self-employed by 9% to 10% from April next year. It will rise to 11% in 2019 – directly penalising those preferring or needing self-employment status.

Brian Berry, the chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, said: “Increasing tax on the self-employed is not helpful. If we want to establish a resilient, Brexit-proof economy, we must encourage and support our current and future entrepreneurs in the construction industry and beyond.”

The flexible advantages of self-employment for technically capable young Civil and Structural Engineers may now be outweighed by these new financial penalties. The independence of self-management and self-ownership now has detrimental tax implications to add to others, such as the current surge in business rates and other onerous fiscal reporting responsibilities.

Many have seen this as their first step in developing their own consultancy, their own business, their first step on the entrepreneurial ladder to fame, fortune (and a decent motor car). First self-employment, then contracted relations, perhaps an LLP and eventual directorship of your own company or partnership. It’s the young entrepreneurial dream.

NI rises and the loss of tax relief on dividend payments now leaves the self-employed and ‘off-payroll’ contractor with much to think about.

But. Need you lose independence, flexibility, self-drive, proprietorial rewards (without proprietorial penalties) by stepping back into the fold of a forward thinking consultancy.

Daniel Staines, Group Managing Director, JMS Consulting Group Limited has been down this route and now has teams in offices in Manchester, the Midlands, London, Chelmsford and East Anglia. But these are teams with a difference. They have independent goals / budgets and the flexibility to grow each office as a self-driven business.

This doesn’t mean they don’t have guidance and it doesn’t mean they don’t have technical experience and skills in depth.

Structure is delivered through motivation, mentoring, systems and procedural regulation.
Technical skills sit behind the independent face of each office and the teams within them, in the form of an intranet of ‘cleverness’.

If there’s a big project in East Anglia - such as the redevelopment of multi-storey residential and commercial buildings along Ipswich’s Orwell waterfront - the project leaders can immediately double their resources by using specialist skills in London or Chelmsford for technical support
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It is the self-motivation of would be self-employed individuals with entrepreneurial flair that keep the fuse wire of business development alight across JMS.

The friendly competition of business success between regions and within teams is balanced by the group hug of corporate ethos and reward.

If you are sitting in a lonely office wondering how to deal with your pay cut and increased overheads, be brave, step back into the fold but please – keep your sense of proprietorial self-drive.  

If you are interested in joining our progressive team, click on the logo below and select 'careers' on the JMS website - we're looking forward to hearing from you.

This blog was inspired by Daniel Staines and Philip Hammond 
- many thanks to both

We add value to every project we have been,
are, and will be equally proud to support.

The ebb and flow of SUDS and Planning. A project in drainage - by Haroon Lulat

This is a story of successive problem solving ~ 
combining technical knowledge with innovative design and planning.

Part of a massive urbanisation project outside Hinckley in the Midlands, JMS were appointed to introduce a flow control system at the point of exit to main Water Authority drainage for 6 industrial units at Nutts Lane.  The drawings being submitted were necessary for Planning Permission.

This sensitive area comprises a site of six new industrial units with HGV hard standing off a lane bordered by the Ashby de la Zouch Canal.

Two major problems were evident from the outset – firstly that the drop to the main pipes was too shallow for the smaller pipes to achieve effective flow; and there is no natural infiltration on site as the ground has no permeability. 

And this was for just three of the six units.

Instead of a Planning Officer, JMS needed to secure the approval of the Drainage Officer at Hinckley Burrough Council, who required considerably more efficient water treatment plans to deliver SUDS requirements and secure planning.

Water leaving the site would pass through a bypass oil interceptor for treatment before reaching the main drainage (right). 

However the system being designed for a 1 in 100 +40% storm / heavy weather at greenfield rate of 5 litre per second outflow would exceed the flow controller’s capacity, backing up into the site.  

We had to slow the flow down and introduce effective permeability to clean the water further before infiltration. 

The text book first step was to introduce catch pits (left) to filter out sediment contamination. 

The next text book solution was permeable paving whose porosity would filter the water into the manufactured and natural sub-structure. But – this wouldn’t support the weight of standing HGVs.

To get round this, hard standing and areas of permeable paving were alternated across the overall standing area in front of the units.

Channel drains were added to the end of each hard standing enabling excess water to flow back into the sub-base, supporting attenuation and, in turn, now making the hard standing an integral part of the whole drainage system.

To aid attenuation further, the pipes being employed were specified to be porous – but (yes, another one) to protect them from HGV movement they would have to be concreted in:

 ... bang goes porosity, bang goes infiltration, bang goes planning. Surely.

Thanks here to Topmix Permeable concrete from Tarmac (view here). 

The pipes can now be concreted in and well protected . The permeability of the combined solutions finally prevail. Hooray ... surely!!

With planning permission being dangled before our very eyes, the plans now highlighted the remaining three units. Their drainage had nowhere to go but into the drainage system so expertly crafted for the first three units. 

There was no room for permeable paving, channel drains, catch pits etc. This water would flow, petrol, oils, silt, debris and it would all come at once.

There was however room for just one thing – bring on the Downstream Defender (right). 

This, the latest of the X-Men, cleans and filtrates the drainage to such a high standard, that the water leaving it to flow into the lower drainage system actually now helps the cleaning process. 

It has become a further integral part of the overall site drainage solution.

The result – Planning Permission approved ... just another day in the mud !

Thank you Haroon. 

Haroon is part of the team at JMS Midlands, based in Nuneaton. 
For JMS Midlands, please call 02476 350 505.

We add value to every project we have been,
are, and will be equally proud to support.