With the construction sector set for profound change, Trudi Sully at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), predicts exciting times ahead with the Construction Innovation Hub set to change the way the industry thinks and performs.
I write this article during a time of transition in my own role from Associate Director for Construction and Infrastructure at the MTC to Impact Director for Manufacturing at the Construction Innovation Hub (CIH).
My hat change was borne out of demand and necessity during a time when the appetite and support for transformation in the construction sector has never been so great. R&D project work at MTC continues to flourish across the built environment areas in which they are now well-established innovation partners. With the announcement of the recent UKRI competition winning projects imminent, I hope to see even more key projects with their industry partners announced.
Meanwhile, the CIH’s profile and the ambition to maximise the impact on the sector during this programme has also grown beyond expectation over our first full year in business. Whereas we started this journey as three organisations – the MTC, BRE and Centre for Digital Build Britain (CDBB) – we have recognised that the CIH’s programme is neither contained within each centre or even within the wider Hub and so we are shifting the balance to reinforce our engagement with government and industry to ensure we deliver the impact we have committed to demonstrate. And hence my new hat!
We have also recognised that greater clarity of purpose comes from aligning our programme to four core themes: Value, Manufacturing, Assurance and Digital. From the new work year in April all of our output focused activities will fall within these themes as outlined here:
Manufacturing
Our Platform Design Programme is central to this theme. This two-year workstream builds on the IPA’s call for evidence on a P-DfMA approach and supports the 2017 Budget announcement of departments adopting presumption in favour of offsite as further described in the Transforming Infrastructure Performance report.
We are working with over 40 industry partners from Tier 1 contractors to offsite manufacturers and through to supply chain SME’s to develop a prototype platform-based, manufacturing solution for buildings. This will include development of integrated assembly systems, interface standards and rules that enable kits of parts to be designed which can be configured into manufactured buildings. These standards and rules will be published and open to allow others to adopt this approach.
This programme is about process standardisation rather than physical standardisation. Therefore this isn’t constrained to creating a particular physical approach, such as a modular solution, (though is still applicable to one), but rather offers a flexibility of approach, with consideration of parameters and constraints, and through the use of a configurator, will determine the best value system.
Our output will be a physical demonstrator of the products and processes, with the intended outcome being a proven approach that Government departments can specify for future projects.
The industry partners who have signed up to the programme have committed time, material and resource which is recognised as contribution to the industry’s match funding as pledged to in the Industrial Strategy’s Construction Sector Deal. We are delighted to have just announced the partners who will be collaborating as the ‘Integrator’ Team: BAM, PCE, MID Group, Kier/Vinci, Mace, Skanska and Mott MacDonald. The remaining partners will work in smaller teams providing design, specialist consultancy services, sub-assemblies, components and materials. We will be announcing them shortly and regularly posting updates about progress via our website.
As exciting as this work is, a technical solution for platform-based manufacture is only part of what is needed to deliver real impact and support transformation. Hence the three other key themes:
Value
We are developing a Value Framework for government, clients and industry to inform investment decisions, procurement and incentivisation. This will be backed by consistent benchmarks, metrics and data. This, critically, will refocus decision making away from capital cost, and on to whole-life value that includes consideration of carbon, social impact, user satisfaction, design quality, UK content and much more.
We are already working with Ann Bentley and the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) Procuring for Value working group on the development of a new tool, which will provide clients with a structured approach to the definition, optimisation and measurement of value throughout the lifecycle of a project or programme.
Further vital work is being done with the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) and academic partners to identify the commercial strategies and underlying business models required to enable a value-based approach, while work on skills, capacity and capability will ensure we have the right people in the right roles to support the future environment we create.
Assurance
The Assurance Framework will provide the confidence that products, materials, sub-assemblies and components meet performance and safety criteria through both physical and digital testing and that suppliers have the capability, quality systems and certification requirements to deliver to expectations. As part of wider programme, we are also working with financial institutions to ensure that access to finance, guarantees and insurance-based products supports wider roll out.
Digital
The Digital Framework in development will set out what data is required to support decision making and performance measurement and how it should be structured, shared and secured consistent with the Gemini Principles.
This theme will also include developing the next phase of BIM standards, driving an already successful international programme and work with government and the NIC to drive adoption of a National Digital Twin. This framework will inform data required for measuring against our Value Framework and demonstrating compliance with our Assurance Framework.
The Value, Assurance and Digital frameworks will be equally applicable to traditionally delivered projects as to future states of manufactured delivery, but to truly realise the benefits of transformation - i.e. higher quality, safer delivery, cost and time savings, reduced energy demand, less waste and more – we see the adoption of manufacturing methodologies as vital. However, as implied above, we cannot succeed in our ambitions without government department buy-in or industry engagement. We cannot deliver transformation through instruction. We must do it through co-development and co-delivery.
As such, the Hub’s Impact Team are fully focused on working with our industry and government partners to provide critical insight, and to influence and shape the strategic delivery of the programme to ensure the realisation of impact, value for money, and ultimately, transformation at scale.
During a conversation at Futurebuild earlier in the year, a delegate told me he was envious of my position. He commented on how lucky I was to be in the middle of something so significant that really is going to impact the way the industry works and delivers our vital infrastructure – something he’s been trying to influence for much of his 40 years in the industry. What could I do but agree? I am indeed lucky to be embedded in this programme and working with such inspiring partners who are all so driven to create better social, environmental and economic benefits for us and our future generations.
Find out more at: www.constructioninnovationhub.org.uk or follow on Twitter @CIH_HUB
View the article and the complete magazine here: https://issuu.com/radarcommunications/docs/offsite_mag_issue_22_web/52?e=15424601/64704172
