Construction sector recovery needs a transformed delivery approach to assure safety and quality

Developing advanced, digitally enabled, manufacturing processes and products that can be used in new schools, hospitals and homes forms a core part of the Construction Innovation Hub’s £72 million Government-backed transformative programme.

The Hub is now inviting clients and businesses to input into the first of a series of new processes which could spark a game-change in the sector’s approach to quality planning.

The Hub’s Construction Quality Planning (CQP) is inspired by Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), a process already used widely across leading manufacturing sectors like aerospace and automotive. CQP defines an approach for those firms which supply the construction sector with new products and assemblies that form part of tomorrow’s offsite manufactured buildings.

The CQP process will also play a vital role in guiding the Hub’s flagship Platform Design Programme which was launched last year and seeks to enable new buildings like schools and hospitals to be designed and configured using a pre-defined ‘kit of parts’. This CQP will form part of a wider family of quality management approaches from onsite assembly to whole life management, which will be rolled out at later stages of the Hub’s programme. Together these will help assure quality, providing a golden thread to demonstrate safety and compliance of manufactured and assembled buildings.

Construction Innovation Hub Programme Director, Keith Waller said:

It is vitally important that the post-COVID19 recovery is rooted firmly in new and better ways of doing things and not simply a return to business as usual. As we get Britain building again, we must grasp the opportunity to lay the groundwork for some transformative changes in construction, including a fundamental shift in our approach to quality.

In developing Construction Quality Planning (CQP), we are not looking to reinvent the wheel. Rather, we are taking a tried and tested process which is already commonplace amongst cutting edge manufacturing firms and tailoring it to suit the unique needs of UK construction.

Manufactured solutions will have a direct role in supporting a sector-led recovery – reducing the demand for on-site labour and creating new skilled jobs into manufacturing and assembly facilities throughout the UK. Moreover, with greater levels of offsite manufactured solutions, we can help to mitigate both the safety risks of labour-intensive sites placing demands on public transport, and the productivity and output of the sector on site at a time when social distancing looks set to continue for some time to come.”

Cast Consultancy Founding Director & CEO, Mark Farmer said:

Over the last 3 years I have worked extensively with the development finance and building insurance underwriting industry as well as the new build residential warranty market to explore ways of better assuring quality and outcomes in the homebuilding. On the back of that I have been hugely impressed by the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) approach used in the manufacturing sector and how it could be practically applied to drive a modernised construction process.

This initiative by the Construction Innovation Hub really unlocks that potential and Construction Quality Planning (CQP) can in my opinion lead to higher pre-manufactured value becoming a proxy for better assured building quality, safety and performance. It will also in turn be a measure of how easily you will be able to access finance and insurance for built assets in the future.”

Further Information 

• To contact the Construction Innovation Hub’s press office, please email pressoffice@constructioninnovationhub.org.uk.
• Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) is a methodology employed throughout the manufacturing sector on a global scale to effectively ‘build in’ the quality into new and complex products being brought to market. Many of the tools included within APQP can be adapted to construction, providing improved quality and therefore addressing the identified bottlenecks for the sector. In sectors such as aerospace and automotive, industry specific standards provide guidance on applying these tools.
• Construction Quality Planning (CQP) provides a structured quality planning process for introducing new products, from the concept phase through to manufacturing and first-time installation. CQP applies to products being manufactured and delivered at scale (higher production volumes) using manufacturing-led construction approaches such as offsite, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), platform and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA).
• The Hub is exploiting existing natural synergies and incorporating the CQP framework to guide our flagship ‘Platform Construction System’ through the new product development journey.