Nov 15 2005
Gogarburn Project - the winner of the safety award
PROJECT PROFILE
In 2003, BSRIA was contracted by Mace Ltd to help a £380 million UK construction project invest in its workforce and improve performance. The RBS Gogarburn project involved the construction of a new worldwide headquarters for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) near Edinburgh.
The development has been designed to accommodate 3,250 people, with parking for 1,650 cars. The site comprises of 65,300m2 of office space within seven three-storey buildings, and 8,000m2 of conference and leisure facilities.
The construction cost was £241 million and a construction programme of 39 months. The project was completed on time and within budget with the health and safety performance that was more than eleven times better than the current UK average.
This achievement was recognised in January 2005 when the project won the UK's most prestigious safety award - the British Safety Council's 'Sword of Honour'.
OBJECTIVES
The key objective was to achieve best practice levels of safety, quality, time and cost performance for all participating organizations. The project team was looking to create a construction project with a stimulating and rewarding working environment. BSRIA was contracted by the project management company Mace and the client Royal Bank of Scotland to assist with the delivery.
BSRIA MOVING FORWARD TRAINING PROGRAMME
BSRIA carried out an extensive training programme that equipped the workforce with additional competences usually disregarded on construction projects: work preparation, innovative ways of working, learning from experience. The result was an effective and efficient workforce capable of safely delivering best practice levels of construction site productivity.
The Moving Forward programme, developed by BSRIA, is based on interactive site-based training. With 976 participants from 85 different companies this programme represented the largest initiative of its kind ever undertaken in the UK construction.
BSRIA CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT INPUT
BSRIA initiated an evidence-based continuous improvement process, with performance statistics and independently configured lessons-learned as the key drivers. The evidence were produced by monitoring, measuring and analysing activities that were either principal consumers of time and cost, or that dominated the critical path of project delivery.
This systematic approach enabled the project team to recognise good practice or areas for improvement, and to identify the causes of the problem and take the appropriate corrective actions. A feedback process set up by BSRIA enabled wide dissemination of the findings throughout the construction site.
SAFETY RESULTS
During a 25-month study period, over 5 million man-hours had been worked on the project with only three reportable injuries. The industry average for UK construction is one reportable injury every 150,000 man-hours worked. (HSE National Statistics; DTI data)
This meant that the health and safety performance at the RBS Gogarburn was more than eleven times better than the current UK average. This has proven that the combination of a well-trained, motivated and responsible workforce, excellent site organisation and the provision of appropriate equipment can generate a reduced incidence rate of reportable injuries.
This achievement was recognised in January 2005 when project won the UK's most prestigious safety award - the British Safety Council's 'Sword of Honour'
QUALITY RESULTS
A study of the causes of defects recorded on the project prior to practical completion revealed all the areas attributed to the defects
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This enabled the project team to work in a much more controlled manner focusing on the key factors that were inhibiting the delivery of a defect-free project at handover to the client.
TIME AND COST RESULTS
The productive time per worker at RBS Gogarburn averaged 80% of the working day. An average UK construction project achieves 60% productive time during the working day. (BSRIA research data)
The improvements in productive have had a huge impact on the project time and cost. If the project had experienced productive times at conventional UK construction industry levels of 60% of the working day:
- The construction cost would have increased from £241 million to £263.5 million, or by 9.3%
- The construction programme would have increased from 39 months to 52 months, or by 33.3%