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Colin Coleman of ISC Best Practice Consultancy told ACE’s annual conference that innovation must be targeted directly at efficiency and saving costs across projects.
Mr Coleman noted that it was one thing to talk about integrated supply chains, but this fundamentally amounted to teamwork and he had been promoting teamwork for over a decade.
So he suggested the industry needed some criticism. In particular he suggested that some view construction processes as backwards in the UK, and too many projects suffer delays and cost overruns.
Meanwhile he stressed that new and emerging markets, with new and emerging companies, had no reason to show UK construction mercy. Firms thus had to learn quickly, change practices to keep improving, and by doing that they can survive and thrive.
To that aim he suggested that that the industry could achieve zero defects on completion. However, he noted that would mean no post-contract work and claims, and thus many contractors might not want to achieve it.
So to push efficiency, Colin Coleman suggested that companies analyse their strategy and benchmark their activities against the industry they operate in. He stressed that these activities could prove a significant strength for companies that do it and act wisely on the results.
He then noted that around a third of all failures relate to poor information. So he stressed that engineers must not accept poor drawings from partners, and must maintain the highest information standards.
This, he said, would drive up efficiency and benefit companies significantly.
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