Improving, but no time to rest!

By - , Build 137

The Productivity Partnership has laid the groundwork for improving productivity in the building and construction sector by 20% by 2020. Several new initiatives are under way, but there is still a long way to go.

Figure 1: Innovators in the sector are starting to look for new and better ways of building.
Figure 2: Productivity in the construction sector starting to improve, but still a long way behind.

THE BUILDING and Construction Sector Productivity Partnership met formally for the first time in February 2011, bringing government and the sector together to tackle the issue of poor productivity.

Taskforce identified needs

The partnership was a response to the 2009 Building and Construction Sector Productivity Taskforce, which reported the need for:

  • a better evidence base for decision-making
  • more capability in construction procurement
  • the use of new technology
  • an increase of skills in the sector.

The structure of the partnership echoes those priorities, with a Governance Group of senior industry leaders and government officials and four workstreams whose leaders drive the work programme:

  • Evidence
  • Procurement
  • Construction systems
  • Skills.

MBIE, BRANZ, BCITO and the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Industry Training Organisation has provided funding for the partnership. A secretariat within MBIE connects the partnership together and back into government.

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Solid base built

At the end of the partnership’s first funding agreement on 30 June, the taskforce report’s key recommendations have been addressed.

Importantly, a solid base has been built from which to work with the sector to improve productivity, although much of this progress has not been visible. A classical innovation diffusion curve (see Figure 1) illustrates this – basically, for any new knowledge, technology or process to become mainstream, there is a long period of apparent inactivity while the new concept becomes familiar, followed by a comparatively rapid uptake and then a long tail-off.

The partnership has successfully completed the base-building part of this curve for increasing productivity – already, we are seeing the innovators in the sector looking for new and better ways of building, using new technology and striving to take less time to complete its work.

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Plenty of work done or under way

To date, the partnership has delivered the:

  • Built Environment Skills Strategy – March 2012
  • Research Action Plan – March 2012
  • Productivity Roadmap – March 2012
  • Auckland Procurement Forum – December 2011
  • Canterbury Procurement Forum – October 2012
  • National Online Consenting and Building Information Modelling (BIM) interoperability protocols – December 2012
  • Review of drivers of statistically reported productivity (NZIER)
  • Completion of stage one of the Research Action Plan.
Figure 1: Innovators in the sector are starting to look for new and better ways of building.

Work in progress includes some exciting initiatives, such as:

  • Construction Procurement Centre of Expertise
  • forward construction workloads – the national pipeline
  • New Zealand BIM Handbook
  • future skills requirements
  • small to medium builder pricing risk app
  • procurement self-assessment online tool
  • Research Action Plan review
  • skills strategy implementation.

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Government playing its part

The creation of MBIE provided a much broader canvas for the partnership’s work – many of the government departments and ministries have become easier to access and work with, which is important for some of the bigger initiatives that cross multiple disciplines.

An excellent example of this is the Construction Procurement Centre of Expertise, which will provide guidance to those buying construction – a very different exercise to bulk-buying staplers or computers or even cars. Because buildings and infrastructure are so long-lived, careful consideration of what the client really needs is critical before making any delivery agreements.

Figure 2: Productivity in the construction sector starting to improve, but still a long way behind.

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Involvement in Christchurch rebuild

Another focus area for the partnership is providing on-going support for the Christchurch rebuild. The Canterbury Procurement Forum has established a reliable view of the forward work programme by working with the major rebuild client.

This is currently being consolidated and used as input to both labour and materials supply models. When agreed with the client, this information will be released to the wider sector.

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Tapping into the research

In July, the partnership published the work carried out so far in support of the Research Action Plan. This is available on the partnership’s website and includes a range of ‘mud on the boots’ research, covering the spectrum from case studies of successful projects to big picture projects on how the sector organises itself, and where to focus efforts to improve productivity.

Finally, although it is mainly due to a reclassification of the categories taken into account when compiling the statistics, it is heartening to see productivity has improved in the official statistics (see Figure 2).

So while the sector is doing better and those innovators are paying attention, there’s still a mountain to climb!

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For more

See the Productivity Partnership’s website at www.buildingvalue.co.nz.

Download the PDF

More articles about these topics

Articles are correct at the time of publication but may have since become outdated.

Figure 1: Innovators in the sector are starting to look for new and better ways of building.
Figure 2: Productivity in the construction sector starting to improve, but still a long way behind.

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