Hard and fast

Back in 1998 Barrett Steel Buildings thought they were doing really well. But when he conducted a formal client survey, commercial manager Andrew Marston learned that clients didn't think they were so hot in key areas like site performance and health and safety.

Shocked, Barrett embarked on an improvement plan that included supply chain management, IT and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The result was revolutionary. The company now breaks construction speed records. In 2001 Barrett erected a 412,000 sq ft distribution shed at Lutterworth in three weeks. Last year, Barrett erected 475,000 sq ft distribution shed in five weeks in Brackmills. The Steel Construction Institute admits these two projects are "staggeringly fast" and "fast" respectively.

So how does Barrett do it?

Supply chain management
Barrett tackled the nuts and bolts of the issue. Literally. The company heard through the grapevine that cheap nuts and bolts from India and China tended to break. So it commissioned some tests by an independent laboratory, tests that proved too many of the bolts fractured under stress despite test certificates to the contrary.

So Barrett sought a distributor who could guarantee higher-quality British bolts for main structural joins. Barrett also demanded that the bolts be palletised, labelled and colour-coded for delivery to site. Andrews Fasteners rose to the challenge. Marston said most suppliers thought Barrett was weird for specifying British bolts.

Barrett also applied a lick of paint. The majority of structural steelwork is sprayed with traditional Alkyd zinc phosphate. Barrett engineers felt it was more prone to rust and damage and, frankly, less attractive than a newer, two-pack epoxy on the market. The problem was that the newer style of paint was more expensive and fussier to apply because it came in two tins and had to be mixed before application.

However, with the help of its supplier, Leigh's paints, Barrett installed a giant paint-mixing machine at its plant in order to simplify the process. It still costs more, but Marston reckons there is a saving through less remedial work once the steel is up.

"The last thing a main contractor wants is to have guys running around re-painting steel while the cladders are waiting," he said.

Finally, it's easy to get suppliers to jump though hoops so you can streamline your operation. But how do you win the cooperation of those peer companies who have more-or-less the same footing with the main contractor as you?

You try asking nicely.

Barrett found itself repeatedly rubbing shoulders with the same associate contractors and saw areas where repetitive procedures could be eliminated. In loading bays, for instance, the steel erectors, the cladders and the door suppliers were re-inventing the interfaces time after time.

Barrett instigated talks and all parties agreed to standard interfaces, which cut the time and hassle involved in building the doors. Barrett's drawing office director did a fair amount of legwork to hammer out the designs with the other two companies, but the standard interfaces shaved at least a couple of days off the erection process and, more importantly, allows Barrett to progress the design with the client faster.

Colour-coded Communication
The Barrett crew talk to each other a lot. As a result, the company is in a position to learn from its mistakes better than competitors.

Mention KPIs and eyes glaze over. Like other acronymic, bureaucratic constructs that carry a whiff of the Kremlin (NVQ, ISO), they fascinate the desk jockey setting them up - but trigger the yawn reflex in others.

But Barrett's been at it awhile, and it's an essential part of the reason they set speed records. They've got 12 KPIs: five they get clients to mark and seven they apply to their internal marketplace. For instance, draughtsman score the designers on the integrity of their calculations, supervisors score the paint shop on the quality of the finish. The scoring system is simply one to 10 and if the score dips below 7.5, the relevant company director has to act.

Marston admits it's a bit of a grind, but a necessary one.

Barrett also talks to its subcontractor erection foremen, calling them in for major workshops periodically throughout the year. These guys make suggestions and Barrett implements them if they're good. They've made 100 so far, and 70 were good. Most of it is boring little detail, but that seems to be the bread and butter of continuous improvement. They asked for steel members to be loaded vertically because it's easier to unload. They compiled a snagger's guide because there are only a finite number of snags, after all. They asked Barrett to stick on all the ancillary bits at the plant rather than deliver them loose in a big bag because erectors were sick of fishing around on hands and knees in the mud when, invariably, the bits get dropped. All these are worthy little improvements Barrett would never have made if they didn't bother to talk to the workforce.

Finally, following principles well established in guerrilla warfare, international terrorism and metropolitan bus transport, Barrett organizes its people into cells, each with project manager, designers, engineers, draughtsmen and quantity surveyor. There are three of these cells at Barrett. They are called Blue, Green and Red. Clients always deal with the same cell so that lessons learned don't dissolve into the ether at the end of every job.

IT innovations
Barrett was smart back in 1998, because it partnered with software house CSC to develop a new management information system (MIS). Its old one, made in-house in the 80s, was on the verge of taking itself off somewhere to die. Teaming up with a software house like this can be advantageous, because you get experts to invent your ideal system. The downside is that your IT partner takes the system to the market and your competitors have a chance to catch up.

The new system, called Fabtrol, helped Barrett link its IT from estimating and design through to fabrication and despatch. It goes further - right to the hands of the erection supervisor on site. Through his laptop the supervisor can look at a detailed 3D steelwork model and diagnose problems instantly. He can tell, for instance, whether the base plate is welded upside down, as the foreman keeps insisting. This means an engineer or draughtsman doesn't have to traipse to site to investigate.

"It's no good just wishing jobs will go properly. You've got to have the infrastructure in place to take corrective measures," said Marston.

Supervisors can also electronically submit pictures and reports so they don't have to leave site to sit around in long progress meetings.

Another benefit of the MIS is that it lets project managers plan steel deliveries in erectable lots, precise to the half-hour, and right to the area of site it's needed. This means that the Barrett plant is fabricating components only as the erectors need them, whereas it's more typical to fabricate the whole lot and figure out the delivery sequence later.

Ahead of the pack
Back in November, Barrett's MD, Richard Barrett, travelled to London from Bradford to tell a scattered audience at the Building Centre Trust about the Lutterworth fast track project. With his engineer's propensity to stick to the facts, he's a slightly understated evangelist for his company. But the facts are good.

In using IT, supply chain management and progressive management techniques, companies like Barrett threaten to shame sluggish main contractors in front of clients.

Richard Barrett acknowledges this: "The problem in embarking on our own renovation was convincing some of the old-fashioned main contractors to come along with us," he said. "In the end we just got along without them."