The way we have always gone through these periods in the past is by innovating. The tip of the spear for innovation is and has always been startups. Though they are often forgotten, tech startups have the potential to revolutionize any economic sector. Diamonds are created under pressure, and startups are no stranger to pressure. It will now be more important than ever not only to stimulate but to bet on startups for an economic recovery.
One of the most interesting startup companies is Mechasys . An interior system tool company based out of Montreal, that seeks to revolutionize layout positioning on the job site. Co-founder and CEO William St-Pierre explains:
Mechasys is a bunch of really talented people working commonly towards one goal: to make construction contractor’s life easier. We work closely hand in hand with those construction contractors to develop the best product possible so that they really can help their worker on site and it being really simple. The vision we have is that construction companies, construction workers must have access valuable information about what they need to build and where to build that. So, every time they do an action, they won’t redo that action again. We make sure that they will construct right the first time, every time.
Mechasys was founded by three engineering students in March of 2018. They have since grown their company and their expertise. They are on their way to develop a tool that will dramatically increase the speed and efficiency of interior system construction and it has attracted the attention of many big players in the industry.
Throughout this crisis, it is sometimes hard to appreciate the role and efforts that startup companies, such as Mechasys, must put in. If giants like BMW and Bombardier are afraid to go under, simply imagine small companies with limited resources. Mechasys was able to adapt very rapidly to remote working, and these conditions have not affected their production. It is both an example of flexibility and agility, that prove that startups are the best positioned to change the way we work.
The reality is that the construction industry is one of the most conservative of any economic sector. But it is also one of the biggest sectors of economic activity in Canada. One out of every fourteen workers work in construction and it accounts for about nine percent of the Canadian GDP. Mechasys is reaching an extremely vast market in a very new way. Most construction layout is still done with tape measures and chalk lines. The same way it was done a hundred if not a thousand years ago. Mechasys was able to focus on this problem and see how inefficient and prone to error it was. They are now developing the FRAMR, which will project in real time the construction plans with a laser, increasing by leaps and bounds the efficiency and accuracy of this stage of construction. As Mr. St-Pierre says:
The FRAMR is a revolutionary product that aims to position construction materials on the job sites. So, its main purpose is to replace chalk-lines, tape measures and pencils. The way we do that is by making a laser projection which displays construction plans in real scale on the job site, which helps to focus on increasing productivity, minimizing human errors and mistakes done on layout and simplifying the entire workflow where less experienced workers can do highly complicated tasks.
It is through startups like Mechasys that we will be able to jumpstart the economic recovery in the construction sector. Startups are often more obscure and unknown companies, but they account for an incredible amount of innovation in any sector of business. It is through such companies that the technological revolution can take place.
