A construction company goes bust every four hours as the full extent of the economic downturn hits home. Figures from the Insolvency Service show 500 building firms went to the wall during the first quarter of 2008 – the highest rate for five years. To stay solvent you need to critically examine your business and Lean is an excellent tool to flush out any unprofitable activities. Lean Construction is a production management strategy for achieving significant, continuous improvement in the performance. It eliminates all wastes of time and other resources that do not add value to the product or service delivered to the customer. Lean has caused a revolution in manufacturing design, supply and assembly - applied to construction, Lean changes the way work is done at every stage of the delivery process.
For details about SECBE Lean training programme www.secbe.org.uk/documents/lean_flier.pdf
Sponsorship opportunities – prestigious event This is the second year of the Constructing Excellence awards. We have had lots of entries from project teams and organisations across the 10 award categories and we are holding a special dinner to celebrate the best of construction in the region on Thursday, 10 July 2008 at the Hotel Russell, Bloomsbury, London. By sponsoring the London and South East Constructing Excellence awards, your company would be recognised as a champion of best practice in the region. As a not-for-profit organisation we rely on donations and sponsorship in order to undertake the work we do within the Construction Industry. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Jonathan de Souza at Constructing Excellence on 020 7592 1100 or Tina McGeachan at the South East Centre for the Built Environment on 0118 9207 204.
Wrap has launched a new Net Waste Tool which calculates the waste arising on a construction project and shows how to improve recycled content and quantifies the overall Net waste for the project. Together with an effective Site Waste Management Plan (SWMP) and a robust method for capturing live data on construction waste provides a comprehensive suite of tools for improving resource efficiency.
Your chance to shape the future of the industry by learning from the past!! You may be aware that it’s been 10 years since the launch of Rethinking Construction and we would like to invite you to take part in a really important survey which should only take 10-15 minutes of your valuable time. We want to know your views on how the projects you work on, and the industry have changed over the last decade and what you think the drivers for change should be for the future. We aim to discover what has been achieved; who has benefited, and how; and what now needs to change. Our findings will form part of the basis for a major new industry report which seeks to set the agenda for the next ten years, so in completing this survey you will be helping to set the future agenda. You can register at the end of the survey to receive a copy of the report, so you can see how its findings may affect you and your company in the future.
Reducing the Burden of Legislation Ask the business world what gives it a headache and the words “red tape” and “regulation” will be high on the list. Reducing the burden of regulation without lessening the protection it provides is the role of the Better Regulation Executive (BRE). It aims to make everybody’s working life easier by saving people and business time and money, which can then be spent on things that really make a difference. It focuses on challenging new legislation as well as simplifying and improving existing regulation, which in turn helps reduce administration costs borne by businesses, currently running at about £20 billion a year. The government target of reducing the regulatory burden to businesses by 25% by 2010 means that BRE works with other government departments and agencies to help them develop plans to either simplify, update or scrap their own rules and regulations. It also has a voice in the European Commission and European Parliament where it works to improve the quality of EU legislation and reduce the admin burden for businesses across the Community. BRE’s website, www.betterregulation.gov.uk shows the difference it has already made to UK businesses and invites you to make suggestions and contribute ideas on how it can reduce regulation even further.
Feedback from the CPD modules leading to MSc in Sustainable Construction survey
We recently sent out a survey to you regarding a feasibility study that we were asked to undertake regarding the possibility of introducing a MSc in Sustainable Construction, which would be comprised of CPD modules.
We asked for your views on this, and the potential themes that might be covered in the course, and we received the largest response to a survey that we have ever had. The significant majority of respondants supported the introduction of this type of course at an MSc level, comprised of CPD modules, allowing for flexibility in how and what they studied. Overwhelmingly, the biggest area of interest is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the environment, followed by procurement. We have fed back all of the findings from the survey and also from the face to face and telephone interviews that we did, to the sponsor, who are reviewing the report with the universities involved in order to move forward.
Thank you very much to all those who participated in this. It is your views that count.
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