CLC to take the lead on new platform playbook

The Construction Leadership Council is set to take over an open-access guide designed to help construction firms develop product platforms.

The beta version of the product platform rulebook, develop­ed by the now wound-down Construction Innovation Hub, was first published in May 2022 to address the government’s ambitions for the sector, as set out in the Construction Playbook and TIP Roadmap.

The Construction Innovation Hub came to an end as expected at the end of 2022.

Now, the CLC has confirmed that it be taking over the reins of the product platform rulebook in 2024 thanks to its new industrialised construction workstream.

>> Watch: In conversation with Ron Lang while at the Construction Innovation Hub

This work will see the rulebook revised and re-released in the form of a new ‘Platform Playbook’, setting out a clear path to the adoption of platform approaches for social infrastructure delivery.

The group is chaired by Ron Lang, former chief technical officer of the Construction Innovation Hub and now regional director at AtkinsRéalis.

Lang said: ”The Product Platform Rulebook and the concepts it contains present a logical path to a more industrialised, more productive construction sector. But this work is far from complete, and we continue to learn through our collective experiences of applying these concepts in practice.”

The new platform playbook is expected to be published for comment in November with a series of supporting activities being planned for 2024. 

As it currently stands, the rulebook sets out a set of seven guiding rules as well as a product platform development framework, which provides detailed instructions for clients, consultants, contractors, manufacturers and product suppliers seeking to develop and deploy product platforms.

The product platform rulebook was one of three key outputs from the Construction Innovation Hub.

The £72m government-backed R&D programme was also tasked with platform deployment and the value toolkit, the latter of which has been taken on by the Infrastructure Projects Authority.