Pilot project highlights potential benefits of quality metric

A pilot study funded by GIRI has concluded that a quality metric for construction could drive improvement in the sector.

The research project was carried out Centre for Design Engineering (C4DE)4 at Cranfield University and developed in partnership with the Construction Leadership Council and Actuate UK. It was designed as a proof of concept to develop a quality metric as a viable alternative to cash retentions as a form of insurance against defects. 

The project developed and tested a methodology to record a contractor’s quality performance across previous projects using outstanding defect information recorded on completion certificates. This data could then be collated and compared across businesses, projects and sectors.  

Use of publicly available performance tables could:

• support a client decision on the engagement of the contractor and use of retention clauses on future contracts;
• incentivise increased performance and quality of work by the contractor through a project;
• and the Error Frequency Rate (EFR) would provide a data-driven industry-wide metric to reduce defects and help remove the need for cash retentions in contracts.

However, the pilot project faced some limitations in data collection, with a low and incomplete response rate for the online survey, and the inability to identify the cost-efficient factors for mitigating the EFR.  

Despite the small data set, key findings from the pilot showed:

• the data-driven method can measure and evaluate the EFR metric for construction projects and companies, and provide useful insights for improvement;
• the number of outstanding defects at project completion typically rises with an increase in project value (and complexity); and
• an increased number of outstanding defects at project completion are typically seen in the sectors of ‘Public Housing – New’ and ‘Private Industrial – New'

GIRI is now looking at ways to take forward learning from the pilot project to inform the development of a defect reporting metric. 

To read the full pilot project report, visit https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CLC-GIRI-Pilot-Project-Report.pdf