OLG Engineering have invested in full A3 HD graphics tablets for our engineers. Why would engineers be using graphics tablets when they have CAD and BIM modelling you might ask? A valid question, but as you look around most offices you see vast amounts of paper, despite fully integrated workflows of digital information. We wanted to solve, or at least reduce that problem!
We asked our teams “Why was the digital age was still creating paper?” The answers we received ranged from “It’s quicker to mark up by hand than with PDF editors,” to “It just feels more intuitive.”
Then we looked at the time taken to scan such documents to the data repositories, and the cost of paper and stationary. We had a choice: force everyone down a controlled digital route to reduce our paper usage and carbon footprint, or give them some freedom of expression and tactility in an innovative way.
OLG chose the latter, we are our people, and our people create our engineering product, so we make life easier and more efficient for the people who create that product. We work smarter, not harder!
As a result, we now have systems where we can mark up by hand without using paper, without information leaving our secure drives, and without losing valuable information. We can draw freehand in a Teams meeting with a client across the world, or we can sketch something out with someone sat by our side, and we can check all our deliverables digitally – by hand.
When the laptops, graphic screens and twin monitors for our engineers’ workstations are all fired up it’s beginning to resemblance the “Starship Enterprise,” but nobody ever saw Captain Kirk with an A4 sheet of paper in his hand did they?
