Fit out £3-£15 million

Gold

The souped-up Superdairy

The challenge was to quadruple the production capacity of a dairy without disrupting existing production levels. Jon Oulsnam proved a logistical whizz and so won the day for Willmott Dixon. Willmott Dixon was appointed as Principal Contractor and Oulsnam assumed the co-ordination role across his work, plus that of the client’s directly employed services contractor and process engineer. Once on site, he realised he didn’t understand the process at all and felt he was “on the back foot” for most of the contract. At one point he realised that the services contractor and the process engineer were both working to their own, different, drawings. He had to act. Accepting that process engineering was the key to the project, he decided that construction and services should take their lead from process design. So began a regular series of meetings between the disciplines. This allowed a basic building structure to be designed and built around a process design; the production line and services could then be installed and the building completed around the new production line. All this had to be carried out within non-extendable time limits and without interruption to production. Oulsnam also had to ensure that stringent standards were maintained. The major supermarkets carried out weekly hygiene audits and there was the constant concern that they could take their business elsewhere if standards were not met. The scope of the work changed completely from the tender. All variations had to be priced and the implications advised immediately to the client. The final account showed a 50% increase over the tender and there were 750 variations spread over 660 official drawings. There were also thousands of alterations agreed at design meetings and marked by hand directly onto drawings. Despite the disjointed nature of the project, Oulsnam ensured that good relationships were maintained and no one sought advantage from the turmoil. The client’s citation reads like this: “His client skills were brilliant….his programming was beyond reproach…. his safety was second to none….and Jon Oulsnam is the most professional construction manager I have ever worked with”.

Silver

Every little helps at Tesco

The major supermarkets are tough clients. They know what they want, how much they will pay and they will not move the end date. Dharmesh Parmar and his team from Costain knew this. He also knew he would have to satisfy the sometimes conflicting requirements of the various facets of the client; from Tesco Stores Ltd, the design team, the store management and staff, customers, and over 60 subcontractors. He achieved this by a combination of technical expertise, communication, enthusiasm and hard work. With the project including five separate extensions to the existing store, as well as a complete refit of existing trading areas, the planning was particularly complex. This was complicated by access being denied to certain areas due to the increased trade around Christmas. Parmar controlled everything from overall programmes, through short-term and weekly programmes, and down to hour-by-hour task-scheduling for difficult moves. This related not only to site work, but also to the design process, information flow, procurement and internal store moves. The nature of the work and the operation of the store meant all programme activities had to remain flexible. Sometimes this enabled Parmar to complete an item ahead of programme, allowing him to “bargain” on other matters, or to suggest alternative methods. Parmar also used a new form of internal hoarding. This consists of a full height insulated sheet, needing minimal supporting framework. It looks and performs better and is easier to erect and dismantle when the boundary between site and store is constantly moving.

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