One of the things we’ve tried to build at SWCP is a culture where the team genuinely looks for better ways to do things. Not change for change’s sake but a real commitment to asking whether there’s a smarter way to work.
That means we go to trade shows. We trial new ideas. We run the numbers honestly. And when something works, we back it.
The XR Projector is a good example of that in practice.
The Team Went Looking
In March 2024, we sent a team to a trade show in the USA. They came back having seen hundreds of products. Most weren’t worth a conversation. But one thing stopped them a 3D set-out projector from Mechasys.
Set-out is one of the most skilled and time-consuming tasks in our work. It’s your best people, spending days marking up a slab with the precision that every other trade depends on. The XR Projector replaces that process load the BIM model, project the lines directly onto the floor. Fast and accurate.
The team didn’t come back hyped. They came back measured. They said: this is the only thing worth talking about. That’s how I knew to take it seriously.
We Tested It Properly
We didn’t jump in. We put it through a proper cost analysis, looked hard at where the time savings would actually land, and stress-tested the numbers. When it stacked up, we moved.
On one of our more complex multi-residential projects on the Gold Coast, set-out time dropped from five days to three. A 40% reduction. Two days per floor, x 38 or 76 days back on a single project.
More importantly those two days went back to our most experienced tradespeople, who used them to push on to the next task. In a market where skilled labour is the constraint on almost everything we do, that’s not a small thing.
We Were the First in Australia
We introduced the Mechasys team to Aptella, who are now a distributer their products here in Australia now. Through Aptella (Supported by Mechasys) SWCP were the first company in this country to purchase the XR Projector.
I don’t raise that to boast I raise it because it reflects how I want us to operate. When the evidence is there and the numbers stack up, we move. We don’t wait for the rest of the industry to de-risk it for us.
The Bigger Point
The XR Projector is one example. But the mindset behind it sends the team out, stay curious, analyse properly, back what works that’s the thing I actually want to talk about.
Construction doesn’t always have a reputation for innovation. Some of that’s fair. But it doesn’t have to be the default. At SWCP, we’re trying to build something different a team that’s always looking at what we do and asking whether we could do it better.
Sometimes the answer is no, and we move on. Sometimes it’s yes, and we get Seventy-six days back on a Gold Coast project.
