Watkins Steel Wins Innovation Award
Watkins Steel (Brisbane, Australia) is the inaugural recipient of the Tommy Award at the International Thomas Alva Edison Awards. This award was handed out by the Young President’s Organization (YPO) in association with the Edison Innovation Foundation at the closing event of the inaugural YPO Innovation Week in New York City. The steel fabricator beat applicants from around the world to be recognized for the ability to develop “out-of-the-box” strategies to overcome common limitations in the building and construction industry.
For them, this award was the end result of interviewing clients in the construction industry about their biggest challenges. During this process, the senior management team learned that they were primarily judged on how they reacted to on-site construction problems. Consequently, the company invested in innovative equipment that could eliminate the human error, guesswork, and on-site rectification work that challenged the success of construction projects, including:
- 3D laser scanner and Realworks software for site measurement
- Voortman V808 Coping Machine for automated steel fabrication
- Robotic Total Station and Field Link software for onsite steel installation
- Trimble Connect for sharing models with clients in the cloud
By successfully integrating this equipment through distinct technological software that was originally developed for surveyors, the shop has created a completely unique end-to-end digital workflow for steel fabrication and installation that significantly reduced problems on-site and can now guarantee clients near 100 percent accuracy on every job, the first time. On winning this innovation award, Des Watkins, the director of Watkins Steel, stated, “We won because we have been able to leverage a deep understanding of our customers’ pain points to create this entirely digital process.”
Watkins Steel is a privately operated steel fabrication and installation company, based in Brisbane. Founded in 1968, they employ 50 people across estimating, drafting, fabrication, and installation functions. Specializing in small structural steel and metalwork packages, they service clients in the building, mining, and construction industries throughout Brisbane and South East Queensland.
