Why Small Jobs are Killing Small Firms

Smaller residential jobs look simpler on paper because the engineering itself is normally straightforward. A beam replacement, a small renovation, or a basic extension may only require quite simple calculations and detailing compared to larger commercial or complex residential projects. However, these smaller jobs come with a hidden catch: they still require the same workflow.

Regardless of project size, engineers still need to manage emails, revisions, coordination with architects and builders, documentation, calculations, producer statements, and council. The engineering problem may be smaller, but the process surrounding it often remains the same.

This creates an issue for smaller firms operating on fixed fees.

On many residential projects, the actual engineering design can end up taking less time than the administration surrounding it. Engineers may spend more in admins than they do solving structural problems. A job that only requires a small amount of engineering judgement can still consume hours of valuable time.

As firms take on more small jobs to maintain revenue, the inefficiencies scale with them. More projects mean more revisions, more duplicated workflows, and more coordination time. Instead of increasing productivity, firms often end up increasing administrative workload and the staff get burnt out. 

Simple jobs should not require the same amount of manual effort as larger, more complex projects.

That is one of the reasons we created Nodey. We wanted to reduce the workflow overhead that slows engineers down and make repetitive residential work more efficient. By connecting calculations, documentation, and project information into a more streamlined workflow, engineers can spend less time on administration and more time on actual engineering.

Because ultimately, engineers should be solving structural problems not doing mindless admin.