Rethinking Construction

Toolkit>>

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 IStructE started to address Rethinking Construction
three years ago when a task group was set up by Alan
Gilbertson at the request of the president of the time John
Hill.
The members of the group had over one hundred
years experience in the construction industry - mostly
reactionary but tinged with the belief that we could do
better and the desire that succeeding generations should
not have to endure the blood, sweat and tears that they
had experienced on too many projects in the past.
We began our work by publishing six broadsheets in Rethinking Construction
The Structural Engineer to explain what Rethinking is the term used to
Construction was all about. These urged readers to summarise an industry
consider commonsense suggestions which would improve wide initiative to improve
their working lives if they were prepared to grasp the performance of the
changes, such as working together as a team to promote construction industry.
the successful outcome of the project, or at least stop and Far reaching changes
do a health check on themselves to see which ideas they to design, construction
were already doing and which they still had to try. and procurement affect
The response to this was underwhelming; typical amongst all of us and there are
the responses were comments such as ‘but the lowest significant benefits for
price always wins’ and ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’. those joining in. It is about
engineering best practice
Undeterred, we saw that people and companies in
as well as cultural and
the construction industry at large were beginning to
management issues. The
make these changes and reap the benefits. Indeed as
challenge for the task
individuals we had experienced integrated working
group has been to take
practices and had benefited from them. As a result
this message to structural
the work of the task group became focused on how to
engineers.
help structural engineers embrace the changes that will
improve their approach and performance in every aspect.
The Rethinking Construction Toolkit is intended to be a
simple and practical guide that will help you see real
benefits for your personal working life as well as the
success of your business.
Please use the toolkit to suit the needs of your individual
situation, develop new skills and find out what works best
for you.
Ian Thirlwall
Chairman, Rethinking Construction Task Group
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 Introduction Contents
The toolkit is in four
sections:
Q What is this for? • Engineering Best
A Rethinking Construction – the Structural Engineer’s Practice – are you
Toolkit presents you with an opportunity to inspect using modern
the bones of Rethinking Construction and to see what techniques?
the ideas can do for you and your business. • Delivering Best
Service – what do you
Q Why should I use it? offer your clients?
A Rethinking Construction is not a fixed set of rules, • Working Together
it is an approach to our work in which we seek to – how do you work
provide a more successful and consistent service to with other people?
our clients. All the ideas and techniques are there for • Developing Your
you to use, how you do so is your decision. Role – what sort of
organisation are you?
Q How will it help me? The four sections, when
A The toolkit will be useful at whatever level you are taken together, will assist
working. you to see how you can
For young engineers here is an opportunity to access rethink who you are
what others are doing. Be proactive, challenge the and what you do, to the
views of others and seek out ways to try the new benefit of yourself and
ideas in your career. your clients.
If you are a Chartered Structural Engineer the toolkit
offers you an opportunity to differentiate yourself Contributors
from your competitors and to work with others to do Ian Thirlwall
things in a more effective manner. Alan Gilbertson
Even for senior engineers the toolkit can help. You Simon Pole
may well think you have seen it all before but Kieran Miles (Editor)
thousands of others are trying out these new ideas Damian LeBargy (Art Editor)
and finding that they work. Now is your chance.
Perhaps there are ideas here you always wanted to
try out, but were unable to. Now with the benefit of
all your experience, maybe it is time to try again.
Published by IStructE
11 Upper Belgrave Street,
Q What shall I do with the toolkit? London SW1X 8BH, UK
A You should discuss the ideas contained in the toolkit T +44(0)20 72354535
with colleagues, others in the industry and your F +44(0)20 72354294
clients to see which can be useful for you. Decide E mail@istructe.org.uk
what you will do individually and, more importantly, W www.istructe.org.uk
with others.
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 Engineering best practice
Integrated teams Managing risk
It is essential for everyone involved in construction to On a well-run project,
work as an integrated team, with each player seeking risk will be identified and
to add value to the performance of the whole team and managed in a proactive
looking out for each other. manner, but remember
As designers, we should be seeking to provide added- managing risk is corrective
value services to the team, to provide real value for the as well as preventive. The
client and improved buildability for the construction team. use of risk assessment/
• How do you currently work? management on a project
• Do you understand what collaboration is really about? only takes a few hours
and is guaranteed to
• What extra services are you going to bring to the team?
save money and improve
performance.
• Do you understand risk
management principles?
• Remember risks occur
in many different fields:
commercial; personal;
personnel; supply.
• Ask yourself: ‘What if...?’
• Ask your clients and
Innovating supply chain partners
This is not about inventing, it means seeking to do how they manage risk
things in ways which were not at first obvious, which on their projects.
require some thought. • Agree with project
• Review your approach to design. partners to use a simple
• Try introducing project reviews, brainstorming, and risk identification/
peer reviews in your company. management log; keep
it up-to-date at each
• Do you have a culture of seeking views from all
team meeting.
members of the construction team?
• Try out different ideas – have you built a masonry
arch? Used diaphragm walling? Built unreinforced
bases cast into freshly dug holes?
• Try to get the team on your next project to consider
off-site pre-fabrication ideas and standardised
components. This will require creative, collaborative
design by the whole team, to ensure success.

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 The environment, Examples of best practice
health and safety The efficiency of a design office could be improved by
• Are you able to early consultation with other team members. It is good
practice to meet with the builder and other specialists
operate CDM to make
before producing detailed drawings to agree the best
a difference?
solution for a particular building.
• Do you have any Improved teamwork, within a design and client team can
ideas on how to save everyone abortive work, saving time and money
sustain and protect for all. Are we reactive and simply designing in response
the environment? to designs by others, or can we be more proactive and
help shape the architecture and design of a building that
• Think about
benefits our clients and also makes clear what we do?
sustainability;
A more integrated design and construction team is one
structural engineers
of the key recommendations from all of the Rethinking
are uniquely Construction initiatives. We know this is obvious but how
equipped to take the often do we work this way and how do we influence this
lead in this area. process when others suggest a more fragmented approach?

Design management systems. consensus.

Skills for design
management must include
an ability to use the latest
techniques, such as:
• Common information
• Design programming • Use of Design Quality
with management of Indicators to measure
information flow. progress in meeting a
• Use of workshops clients objectives (see
to build and record www.dqi.org.uk).

Notes
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 Delivering best service
Input to the costplan
Much time in our industry
is spent reworking
because costs are out of
control. Make sure you
are in command of the
costs you are making
choices for.
• Seek to ensure that
the costplan is robust
and in place before
major design work is
carried out.
• Assist by
understanding the
detailed costs of your
portion of the work.
• Contribute actively
to debate about the
costplan.
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Rethinking 6
Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
KPI’s are those factors that are crucial to YOUR business or
project. They should be as meaningful and as specific as
you like.
Much of the basis of Rethinking Construction is to be more
scientific in our approach to the construction process. As
engineers we should be good at this and could play a key
role for clients if we want to get involved in this area.
Whilst projects vary, the same processes arise frequently
and we currently have an ad hoc way of dealing with
these from one project and team of people to the next.
Managing time and change
This area of activity is one of the weakest in UK performance
and this has a knock-on effect upon both quality and the
bottom line, as the dash for completion takes over.
• Make sure you provide a written account of what
information you require from others to perform your
tasks on time. Share it with them, and update and re-
issue as events unfold.
• Refuse to accept the effects of change until they are
accepted by the whole team and the implications
recognised as a team, including the client. Unrecognised
and unmanaged change is the enemy of success.
• If you have a problem, share it with the team and see
how they can help – you’ll be surprised by the reaction.
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 Adding value
As a structural engineer the high level of skills you possess
can have a wider impact on the project than you might
first imagine. Project management, contract administration,
planning supervision and risk management are all skills
essential for the client and others in the supply chain.
• Analyse what contribution you make to a project. Is
your input to a scheme more than simply designing
structures?
• Talk to clients about their needs and where they see
opportunities for improvement.
• Decide if you can deliver an enhanced, more efficient
service to your clients. Can you involve fewer parties
overall, are there opportunities for faster programmes
for delivery?
• Try to get the whole team involved earlier in order to
get buy-in and buildability.
• Can you find or offer ways to use IT to improve
efficiency?
• Many larger clients are cutting down on tendering,
preferring to set up teams and negotiate based on a
framework agreement. If you are not up-to-date and
delivering best practice, you may miss out.

Notes
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 Working together
A partnering approach
An increasing number of clients (including government
bodies and local authorities) have decided that
competition on price does not give them what they
want - best value. Whether the answer lies with
supply-chain integration, long-term partnerships, term
appointments or project partnering, you need to be
getting involved, or you may well lose out as clients
change the way they procure construction.
• Analyse where your work comes from.
• Ask your clients if they have plans to change, and
ask regularly.
• Study the options (eg CIRIA CPN events and reports
www.ciria.org.uk or the Construction Best Practise
Programme (CBPP) website www.cbpp.org.uk) and
be able to discuss them.
• Make the most of what partnering experience you
already have.
• Offer to help your clients study the options for
change.
• Employ staff with partnering experience.

Gearing up to provide new and additional services

All the ideas outlined in this toolkit will enable you to
spread your wings and fly. However, they require you to
rethink your place in the market and the project team.
• Are you in a forward-looking team which welcomes
change?
• Do you and your colleagues have the necessary skills
to deliver value in new ways, or do you need to
acquire them?
• Carry out a skills audit.
• Seek new experiences in successful teams, such as
those involved in the M4I demonstration projects.
• Join a Best Practice club (see www.cbpp.org).

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 Contributing to best value
All the ideas suggested here should help achieve best value.
However, if you do not understand what it is you are unlikely
to be on the same wavelength as your clients. To achieve long-
term two-way partnerships with many clients you must act and
be seen to act in their best interest. To help your client really
appreciate what you do, you must be seen as a central player,
helping to stimulate the whole team to perform, starting with
an understanding of their business needs and contributing ideas
as to how they can best be met on time and to budget in a
predictable manner.
• Talk to your clients to understand what they really value.
• Examine how you can deliver in a manner which really
gives clients what they want.
• Discuss your ideas with them, would they be prepared to try
out working in new and different ways, such as partnering?

Continuous improvement
• At the start of a new commission, ask yourself what needs to be better than last time?
• Challenge the team when disruptive changes occur, to ask what went wrong? - how
can we stop this happening?
• At the end of a job ask yourself what you need to be able to do better. Work at the
areas of weakness.

Notes
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 Developing your role
This section asks you to decide what sort of
organisation you work in and whether you
are addressing the key issues which will
assist you to move forward.
• Honestly assess your position.
• Ask others, including clients to give a
view.
• Decide how you need to change.
• Put in place an action plan and follow it
through.

An integrated supply chain

It is preferable to work with others on a repeat basis; this
will improve how you do things and deliver better whole-
life value to your clients. This will normally mean being in
a repeat-order situation and working as a member of an
integrated supply chain, in which all (including contractors,
end-users and the facilities team) are involved from
an early stage. This will mean that the more inflexible
traditional approach is abandoned.
• Do you have clients who place orders with you on a
regular basis, where price is not their primary concern?
• If you have to bid for most of your work and often do
one-off commissions, why have you had to remain in
this less attractive end of the market?
• Do you know how to work to deliver whole-life value?
• Do you have experience of working as part of an
integrated supply-chain team?

Client focus
The purpose of Rethinking Construction is to achieve
mutual benefit for yourself and your clients. Exactly how
change is achieved will vary a great deal, depending on
the organisations and people involved in each situation.
Only by working to achieve benefit for the client will they
buy into the new ideas.
• Would you like to change? Are you aware of how
others arrange things?
• Are you able to change the way you work? If not, why
not? Are the barriers to change real?
• Have you tested new ideas on others?

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 Investing in people
Your skills and knowledge are your firm’s most important resource. Your skill and
application determine the success of your employer and your clients’ projects. Your firm
should be investing in your future so that your contribution to your business allows you
both to benefit. Companies can outwardly demonstrate this commitment by applying for
Investors in People status. Make sure yours does.

Personal development
Your own progression and improvement is central to the
development of your organisation:
• Ask about your organisation’s training programmes.
• Seek out training advice.
• Register for Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
with IStructE.

Tools for performance deliver your work fast and accurately?

It is not enough to have some good people
who get stuck in; they need to have the
tools. In addition, the way they work
needs to be flexible and responsive to the
processes being used on each project.
• Do your work processes enable you to
• Has the IT system been kept up-to-
date?
• Are the employees in your company
adequately trained with the IT?
• Are you prepared and able to adapt to
specific project needs?

Notes
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 It is your career, your business, your life. You can continue
as you are or you can become a more modern, proactive
construction professional.
One thing is for sure, even if you do not change, your
clients and competitors are already changing the way they
work together for mutual benefit. Rethinking Construction
is a huge cultural change that benefits all who embrace it.
This booklet has contained a number of simple, clear
messages. What are you going to do about them? We
suggest that you make an action plan, based on the areas
where you feel you could make progress.

Personal action plan

Topic Action When
1 Review your training requirements Review gaps in your skills Now and continuing
2 Join a Best Practice Club Make contact Now
(www.cbpp.org.uk)
3 Visit IStructE website for info including Visit website Now
course details (www.istructe.org.uk)
4 What do colleagues feel about the Meet
situation in UK construction?
5 What do your clients think? Talk to clients Now
6 Maintaining momentum Review of progress 2 months

Notes
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