The pros and cons of zero error

The construction industry must reduce error to combat climate change, improve productivity, health and safety and the diversity of the workforce, said Jim Taylor-Rose, head of operational excellence at Taylor Woodrow at GIRI’s autumn members’ meeting. However, he argued that there are benefits that can be gleaned from error, not least the opportunity to learn from mistakes, train the incoming workforce, and ensure that organisations are able to react and adapt in a changing world. 

Jim explained that for Taylor Woodrow, a zero-error approach is also an imperative driven by its move into the energy sector. “This is critical infrastructure. It must be built right first time and continue to operate once it is switched on. It’s also a highly regulated sector and zero error is required by the client, the National Grid.” 

It’s a learning curve for the business, and Jim highlighted the risks of potentially inexperienced site teams, which makes planning for zero error vital when moving into new sectors. It’s also an important factor in the industry’s efforts to diversify the workforce. “Currently, this is an industry that has a lot of error and a lot of engineers who like to fix things, but a more diverse workforce won’t necessarily be made up of engineers who want to solve problems all the time. We must reduce error so we are not constantly firefighting and so that we project a much more professional image of the sector.”

The importance of error

However, he cautioned that pursuing an industry in which no error takes place has its downsides. “If we create an environment in which nothing ever goes wrong and no one makes mistakes, people aren’t learning. If everything goes perfectly, how will our young engineers learn? In a safe, zero-error environment, what happens when something does go wrong? As a business and as an industry, we need to be able to react and adapt and manage problems when they occur. So there are benefits from having error and learning from it.”

Pursuing zero error

At Taylor Woodrow, a key aspect of the strategy to manage error is the rollout of GIRI’s train-the-trainer training, which enables the business to deliver the GIRI courses to its own staff. “Having that flexibility and embedded knowledge within the business is key, and the people attending the training really see the importance of the messaging. They better understand error and the impact of behaviours and are taking away key tools. We are looking at building this into our operating procedures.”

Another central aspect of Taylor Woodrow’s strategy is to focus not just on quality but also on improvement. “If you only focus on quality – the checking and compliance, etc – you will get quality, in a way, but you sacrifice the productivity side of things. Focusing on operational excellence – quality and improvement together – is a much more efficient way of pursuing zero error. A model that we’ve found very useful to assess ourselves against is the National Highways HELMA approach (Highways Excellence Lean Maturity Assessment).”

Taylor Woodrow is also leveraging technology to reduce error, and Jim explained how the business is linking systems, including project management software Aconex and drone imagery, via Altea to generate layers of information to deliver much greater flexibility to the client and inspection teams. “We can do a job in Newcastle and the client’s designer in London can check the progress digitally. It allows us to see any issues because it is location-based.”

Innovation

Finally, the business is fostering innovation through its global entrepreneurship programme, which brings together internal and external entrepreneurs to develop their ideas. “Our particular focus at the moment is on the use of AI, and the team has been looking at how to use it to improve our inspection and test plans (ITPs). The AI looks at client data, specs and standards and pulls all this together to ensure we are picking up all the requirements for a particular task and allows us to target and eliminate error. I believe this will be really important for getting us to that zero-error position.”

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