The construction best practice programme: key facts

The Construction Industry Best Practice Programme has been developed in the wake of the Latham report and Sir John Egan's Rethinking Construction to help any construction-related organisation achieve greater efficiencies through improved knowledge and a change of business practices, writes Brian Sims.

Based at the BRE, the Best Practice Programme has been funded by the DETR to the tune of £6 million with the aim of identifying areas of best practice (from demonstration projects and other industries, etc), signposting them (via publications and a helpline) and then communicating these ideas to the industry at large via a web site and countrywide seminars. In essence, it is a single point of access by which they can work out a strategy for change and how to go about implementing their plans.

Initially the Programme Management Unit (PMU) – set up at the BRE and managed by Tarmac director Zara Lamont – will target improvements in the areas of benchmarking, partnering, standardisation, supply chain management, lean thinking in the construction process, sustainability, risk management and IT.

"We shouldn't expect to give clients buildings five or six weeks late, and with defects to be sorted out at a later date," said Lamont.

Benchmarking is seen as key to the success of the Programme. By providing yardsticks against which organisations can measure themselves, the organisers hope to raise performance levels in the industry as a whole.

“We shouldn’t expect to give clients buildings five or six weeks late, and with defects”

Zara Lamont

To this end, several key performance indicators are being collated by the CIB and the Construction Clients Forum, looking at typical profit levels within the industry, how close final construction costs relate to initial contract costs and actual construction periods compared with contract figures.

"Not everybody has the ability to rethink construction, at least not yet anyway. But these key performance indicators will enable individual firms to compare their performance with their competitors," commented CIB chief executive Don Ward. "What we are really aiming for is a series of step improvements in the industry, from top to bottom." Early figures suggest that only 40% of projects are being delivered on or ahead of time – a situation which must change. The message of the Construction Best Practice Programme has to be made sector specific in order to work and, with this in mind, two sectors are being targeted in the initial stages – housing and building services. The 2000 Homes programme has been awarded a contract by the PMU to promulgate the message that best practice is good for business, while the BSRIA has won a contract in excess of £100 000 to take care of the building services sector.

In unison with the CIBSE, the BSRIA's initial programme of work – to be headed up by information and best practice manager Mike Smith – is aiming to:

establish what is unique about the building services sector, and disseminate that information to the industry;

form a solid working relationship with the PMU such that the information service available is seamless;

look at ways in which a consortium of the best in the building services business, with CIBSE as its rungmaster, could come together and steer the building services programme.

For more information contact the Construction Best Practice Programme at the Building Research Establishment, PO Box 147, Bucknalls Lane, Garston, Watford WD2 7RE (telephone: 0845 605 5566, fax: 01923 664690, e-mail: pmu@cbpp.org.uk).