Productivity and error reduction - what did we learn?
17 Jun 26The construction industry is facing a critical productivity challenge, agreed speakers at the summer GIRI members' meeting. The event shared the work being done to develop new tools and approaches to help the sector reduce error and improve productivity, many of which focus on establishing the right culture and behaviours to get it right from the start.
Here are the key insights from our speakers.
Culture is central to construction's productivity challenge
The right culture is critical to tackling construction’s productivity challenge, said Jim Neill, AOS EMEA regional director from Bentley Systems, but technology innovations and the responsible use of AI also have an important part to play. And, while complex project variables play a part in construction productivity lagging behind other sectors, Jim argued that the lack of commitment to longer term pipelines and partnerships is also to blame. Challenging contractual arrangements also result in low profits across the industry and limited investment in innovation.
What you need to know about PAS 4010 and infrastructure productivity
The upcoming PAS 4010: 2026 – maximising productivity in infrastructure development and delivery is being developed by the British Standards Institution, sponsored by the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Department for Transport. It will introduce a productivity management strategy for projects and programmes, and it's aim, explained the document’s technical author Mark Hansford, is to provide the sector with what it has been missing: a consistent, shared system for embedding productivity across the life cycle of the project.
Improving private sector productivity
The Construction Productivity Taskforce (CPT) was set up in 2020 by Be the Business to tackle the sector’s long-standing productivity challenge, said Alan Bunting, former head of development delivery at British Land. It brings together clients, contractors, designers and supply chain partners to develop and share practical evidence-based approaches that deliver change at the project, organisation and industry level.
How GIRI training can help construction organisations improve productivity
The results of the recently published GIRI/CITB Training Productivity Commission demonstrate the potential impact of GIRI training for construction organisations, said GIRI board member Duncan Aspin from VolkerStevin. VolkerStevin was one of the four construction organisations that participated in the commission to become GIRI Approved Training Providers and roll out GIRI training within their companies and on specific projects. The pilot ran for 26 months and saw 4,575 training certificates issued.
Read the GIRI/CITB Productivity Training Commission final evaluation report.
