May 27 2005
Bold claims made by the Construction Lean Improvement Programme (CLIP) to be able to improve construction industry performance now seem well founded, with CLIP having already worked successfully in more than 60 companies from all sectors of the industry.
Case studies detailing the experiences of a selection of these companies have just been published, and demonstrate improvements that are often dramatic, for example:
- M&E contractor Southern Electric Contracting (SEC), worked with CLIP on a major street lighting maintenance contract and reduced the man hours needed to replace each lighting column from 22 to 9. 'The savings are massive when you consider the large number of columns we are maintaining,' says SEC.
- Main contractor Lindum Construction reduced the amount of non-productive time on a project to construct student accommodation and extend a hotel in Lincoln, from 19.5% to 2.5%.
- Manufacturer Pillar Wedge, which specialises in hot dip galvanising, increased the weight of metal on each dip by 7%, leading to a significantly increased turnover. 'We have reduced the number of defects by 63%, and more of our deliveries are reaching our customers on time,' says Pillar Wedge.
- Building contractor J & S Seddon, when refurbishing student accommodation at Keele University, reduced the time taken to refurbish a room by 12%, and all snagging by 69%
CLIP works by focussing companies on improving the quality, cost, efficiency and delivery of a product or service, to achieve greater customer satisfaction. It provides the knowledge and practical skills needed to turn the highly theoretical concept of lean construction into a practical tool they can implement effectively. Many in the industry have been understandably cautious about embracing initiatives of this kind.
'Having participated over the years in many training and development initiatives, with varying degrees of success,' said Howard Baggaley, Executive Chairman of Baggaley Construction, 'I was very impressed by the way our project teams took to the CLIP project'.
Having found that the CLIP system does work in the real world of construction sites and factories, companies are generally keen to extend its use both within the company and the supply chain.
'Our vision is to have all our sites deliver these improvements', says Warren Glover of Lindum Construction, 'by introducing the new systems, measures and reporting structures on all our projects.'
'We see our CLIP strategy as a bow wave that will spread down our supply chain and ensure that everyone benefits from it in the long term,' says Robin Davies of Shepherd Construction.
Eleven detailed case studies are presented in a booklet, Profit together from process improvement, which also explains how the CLIP system works. Published this week, the booklet is available free of charge from Martin Watson, CLIP Director, Tel 01923 664638, or can be downloaded from www.bre.co.uk (select CLIP from the 'a-z of services').