Booming Broome construction firm B&J Building Consultants expects to boost business by using the breakthrough STEELbuilder Builder’s Management System.

The 45-person firm expects STEELbuilder to increase productivity, remove bottlenecks and improve consistency and quality throughout its operations. B&J Building Consultants supplies steel construction components to residential and commercial builders in the Pilbara and Kimberly regions of northern WA. The company’s frames are designed and manufactured to meet Region C or Region D cyclone standards.

Northern WA has experienced a building boom during the past two years, driven by the surging minerals sector and increased domestic tourism. Managing Partner Paul Watling said the construction sector was experiencing record growth. “There is a huge boom up here at the moment,” he said.

“I’ve lived here for 25 years. I’ve never seen as much activity as in the past two years.” B&J Building Consultants operates from as far south as Karratha to Kununurra in the north. The company’s buildings range from 2x2 metre galvanised iron sheds to high visibility projects such as the award-winning McDonalds in Broome’s Chinatown area, the Customs House at Broome jetty and major resort projects.

Mr. Watling said STEELbuilder would overcome B&J’s biggest bottleneck. “Our major hold-ups are in detailed drafting,” he said. “Doing every design individually leaves open a lot of room for human error. STEELbuilder cuts that down to a minimum.

“Whereas before, it took us 24-30 working hours to quote and fully design a job, STEELbuilder now lets us quote and design in a fraction of the time with greater accuracy. We expect STEELbuilder will free up 60 per cent of our drafting time. Over the next 12 months to two years, the extra productivity of our existing people will let us open up opportunities in new areas.”

Mr. Watling said STEELbuilder would also help B&J overcome problems with consistency and access to skills. “With two full time and one contract draftsmen, we often had little consistency between drawings,” he said.

“Each has his own flair, which could mean inconsistent drawings for workshop staff who had to read and interpret the designs. Another challenge up here is the skills shortage that has hit the building industry in the past two years. STEELbuilder enables us to improve consistency of output designs and makes us less reliant on design skills.

“STEELbuilder also has extremely good works and scheduling programs to incorporate with our existing system to make things run more smoothly. It puts out a polished product that helps builders stick to their schedules better. Another benefit is that we have been able to use our existing computer equipment to run STEELbuilder.”

B&J Building Consultants’ core business is producing components for steel wall frames, roof trusses and structural steel. Using about 180 tonnes of steel a month, the company produces wall frames and trusses with fully welded connections.

Mr. Watling said he was very impressed with how ESS had adapted STEELbuilder to suit B&J’s welded connections. “STEELbuilder has fitted in extremely well,” he said. “ESS’ performance has been very professional. They deliver a good product and deliver it extremely well. Their training is quite in depth and the service to date is exceptional.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think it could have been done better.”

For more information about STEELbuilder Shed Edition, call ESS on (08) 8241-0575 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can also read more about STEELbuilder at www.STEELbuilder.com.au