Developing a standardised metric for construction quality

The Construction Special Interest Group’s (CONSIG) Metrics Working Group is aiming to create a scalable industry-standard toolbox that will enable construction organisations of all sizes to measure quality consistently and support benchmarking for meaningful improvements, working group lead Thomas Churchill told delegates at GIRI’s members’ meeting.

“Has quality become better or worse in the last five years?” Thomas asked GIRI members. “The answer is that we don’t know, because we don’t have a consistent way to measure construction quality across the industry.”

Thomas is the area quality manager in England for BAM UK & Ireland and is leading CONSIG’s collaboration with GIRI on the Metrics Working Group to develop an industry-wide method of measuring quality. “It’s something we have been talking about for some time, and while there is a lot of good work happening in the industry, there are also repeated mistakes, and what we struggle with is that collaborative piece where we measure things en masse to create a benchmark.”

He argued that there is a competitive advantage for organisations to be able to benchmark their quality performance. “We do some really good work in UK construction, but we can struggle to sell that good work because we don’t have a way of shouting about it. This is something we have discussed in the working group, and we realised that if we can create a single toolbox of metrics and have a conversation around certain numbers, it would enable organisations to use metrics from previous projects to demonstrate that they are well positioned to deliver on future projects.”

The objectives

The CONSIG Metrics Working Group has four key objectives:

• To create a standardised quality metric that can be used across the industry.
• To develop a practical toolbox for measuring and understanding metrics, that is simple but powerful and accessible to companies of all sizes.
• To engage with industry bodies to ensure the relevance of the work.
• To enable benchmarking to support consistent, sustainable improvement.

Developing the metric and toolbox will be an iterative process, said Thomas. “As the industry grows and matures, that toolbox can be further adapted.”

This is an industry-led initiative. GIRI executive director Cliff Smith is a member of the working group alongside key players within the sector, many of whom are GIRI members. “We have people from the right organisations,” said Thomas. “If we can all agree what good looks like, we are well placed for the future.”

The challenge

The group started by looking at the problem, namely that while most organisations use metrics to an extent, each organisation uses different metrics or uses them differently, which means benchmarking isn’t currently possible. “Also, some projects start new metrics afresh, which is massively inefficient, so we need to ask ourselves if we are measuring the right thing at the right stage.”

Another issue is that what quality looks like can differ across the sector, and there are different requirements. What’s needed, he said, is collaboration and benchmarking to drive confidence and consistency within the industry.

Roadmap

To that end, the CONSIG Metrics Working Group has developed an implementation roadmap. Work is currently in phase one, developing and validating standardised definitions and identifying key themes through research and consultation. “The research definition needs to be very precise,” said Thomas. “And it needs to be academically led to ensure we capture that academic rigour.”

The research phase is expected to be completed in the coming months, then the next step is the creation of the toolkit. The aim is to keep this simple and not over-complicate the process, he explained. This phase will involve benchmarking industry practices and testing pilots as well as defining key quality metrics and creating that scalable framework.

“The benchmarking and testing will be incredibly important because this needs to be valid and applicable to everyone in this room but also to the wider industry. And credibility is also vital. We want it to be seen as having the right type of rigour to be used as an industry benchmarking tool.”

Phase three will focus on refining the work already carried out and developing implementation and benchmarking guidelines. “By phase four we will have a fully developed construction quality metrics toolbox for industry-wide adoption. Our aim is that it makes measuring quality as natural for organisations as time, safety or carbon, and I invite everyone to get involved.”

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