Perspectives of a Quantity Surveyor

SADMIR CERIC

Sadmir Ceric started his career as a junior Quantity Surveyor in 2003, whilst completing his degree and graduating in 2004 from Curtin University of Technology (Bachelor of Applied Science, Construction Management and Economics). He joined Ralph Beattie Bosworth (RBB) in 2011 and in 2016 Sadmir accepted the position on the firm’s Board of Directors.

Over the last 15 years, Sadmir has worked as a professional Quantity Surveyor across many sectors including traditional building and construction, mining, oil and gas, infrastructure, marine and civil, on projects of varying sizes and complexities.

Sadmir has been on the AIQS Western Australia Chapter council for around 10 years, holding the position of Councillor, Secretary, Vice President and is currently the President.

1. WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD FOR THE QUANTITY SURVEYING PROFESSION?

The Quantity Surveying profession today is different to that of the profession twenty or so years ago. Yes, the principals of the profession are still the same but the Quantity Surveying firms, in addition to the ‘Traditional QS’ services of Bills of Quantities, Cost Planning and Estimating, Contract Administration and the like, offer a lot more services, such as Arbitration, Feasibility Studies, Due Diligence Reports, Value Management, Insurance Valuations, Expert Witness, Bank Reports and Audits. In short, the Quantity Surveying profession has had to evolve and/or diversify to provide a suite of ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ services to the dynamic market.

In my opinion, Quantity Surveyors must ensure that the profession stays relevant in the fast paced, everchanging market conditions and technological advances that we see on daily basis. We know that Quantity Surveyors bring great value to projects, for example, by making sure we provide quality advice pre and post contract which ultimately saves project/ client money. However, from personal experience, Quantity Surveyors are not great marketers and advertisers of work and/or profession and we should and can do a lot better on this front. Quantity Surveyors need to be more pro-active and bullish in marketing themselves and our profession.

It is therefore important for the Quantity Surveying profession to embrace the changing market conditions, technology/ software and move forward with the times, while constantly keeping in line with the core principles of our profession.

2. HOW ARE NEW TECHNOLOGIES INFLUENCING THE WAY QS OPERATE?

It is an exciting technological era that we are living in. Innovation and technology are moving at lighting speed, new apps and software are released almost daily and existing software platforms are updated just as fast. The new technology and software are having an impact and an increased influence on the Quantity Surveying profession.

Forefront example of this, over the last few years, is the introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and 3D models, which are having an increased influence on Quantity Surveying. An increasing number of Architects and Engineers can provide a 3D model to the Quantity Surveyor who, with the right training, is able to view, interrogate and generate quantities from the model if required. Being able to properly utilise the model, has meant that the ‘traditional’ scale ruler and take-off paper training is now supplemented with additional training to be able to perform a 2D on-screen take-off and 3D model quantity generation.

It is important to note that generating quantities from a 3D model or BIM is by no means the ‘be all and end all’, far from it. Quantities will be only as good as the model and Quantity Surveyors spend a substantial amount of time checking and querying the model the same way they once queried the design documentation such as 2D drawings. A good Quantity Surveyor can understand and know what information isn’t reflected on the design, and yet this ‘missing’ info is crucial to the project and therefore to the budget.

Utilising new software has resulted in a number of benefits such as, increased speed of the quantity take-off, decreased amount of printing, drawings are stored electronically and others. However, this does come at a cost. The cost of software subscription/maintenance isn’t insignificant and the additional continual ‘up-specking’ of hardware to optimally run the software adds to office overheads.

In the near future, we may see Quantity Surveyors utilise remote drones to undertake site inspections!

3. WHAT COULD BE DISRUPTIVE TO THE QS PROFESSION?

The introduction of BIM in the industry has resulted in some talk that the Quantity Surveyors will become redundant. That estimates, Bills of Quantities, material take-offs and other elements of our services will become so automated that there will no longer be a need for a Quantity Surveyor to be involved. The fact is that any new software and technological change does cause disruption to the Quantity Surveying office due to training of staff and switching from one platform to another. It does not mean redundancy to our profession. In fact, many Quantity Surveyors are now able to interrogate BIM and/or 3D model in a similar way that they would a 2D drawing and are able to utilise it during measurement as a viewing tool or for quantification.

There have also been some comments that Artificial Intelligence is a potential disruptor to our profession. In my humble opinion, I do not believe that this will have a significant impact on the Quantity Surveying profession, at least not in the near future. Projects will always require the ‘QS Intelligence’ to understand the ‘un-knowns’ or risks which haven’t been documented or defined. A Quantity Surveyor’s role will change/morph with the times, but I do not believe that it will ever be made redundant.