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The Construction Innovation Hub has published the beta Product Platform Rulebook for consultation.
Developed with the Hub’s industry partners, the Rulebook addresses the Government’s ambitions – set out in the Construction Playbook and TIP Roadmap – to accelerate the development and adoption of solutions to deliver our future schools, hospitals and homes – boosting productivity, innovation and quality.
The Rulebook is an open-access guide to support industry – clients, consultants, contractors, manufacturers and product suppliers – in building capability and capacity to develop and deploy product platforms to meet demand.
Publication follows extensive stakeholder consultation and industry involvement in developing the Rulebook, which not only defines a set of seven guiding Rules but also introduces a ‘Product Platform Development Framework’ – detailed steps to guide anyone seeking to develop and deploy product platforms.
The needs of government, clients and industry have been at the heart of development, meaning this will be a tool that both demand and supply side can use to help the delivery of the future pipeline of projects and programmes. It will encourage clients to harmonise requirements and specify a platform approach with confidence – secure in the knowledge that this will improve safety, performance, and quality criteria.
Lee Rowley MP, Minister for Business and Industry said:
Platform-based approaches are an example of how we can use digital and offsite manufacturing technologies to drive the transformation of the construction industry in the UK, improving its performance and delivering better outcomes for clients.
This Platform Rulebook will help both construction clients and firms in the supply chain adopt more standardised parts by using product platforms to deliver new buildings and infrastructure, significantly improving productivity, quality, safety and sustainability.”
Commenting on the publication Hub Director Keith Waller said:
Today’s publication is about driving the schools, hospitals, homes and buildings of the future. Designed with built-in mechanisms for continuous improvement and the opportunity for synchronisation and streamlining as both capability and capacity grow.
The collaboration involved to get to this point has been exceptional – our beta Rulebook has been produced by industry and today marks the start of a further round of consultation. I look forward to seeing the Rulebook evolve as it becomes the basis for Platform approaches.”
Construction Leadership Council co-chair Andy Mitchell said:
The Construction Leadership Council supports transformational change to the performance of our sector. The move to platform-based approaches to deliver is one such transformation. This requires a clear understanding of what the change will look like for companies across the sector, so we welcome and support the publication of the Platform Rulebook as a guide for anyone looking to work in this emerging area.”
Ron Lang, Technical Director – DfMA, Atkins said:
The Rulebook is a fantastic example of what can be achieved when we work together for the benefit of the sector. The Rulebook brings much needed clarity to the subject of product platforms in construction and ensures client’s and industry alike understand the benefits of product platform approaches, and how and when to develop and deploy them.
We firmly believe that the uptake of, and continuous improvement in, product platforms will enable us to deliver greater social environmental and economic outcomes from what we deliver and how we deliver it, and lead to a more profitable, more sustainable model for our industry. To that end, we hope that the launch of the Rulebook signposts the start of an ongoing collaboration between government and industry.”
Jamie Hillier, Partner, Akerlof said:
Today’s publication of the beta Platform Rulebook is an important, early step towards maturing the construction industry’s understanding and application of product platforms to deliver better outcomes. We hope that the Rulebook stimulates engagement and debate as part of a long-term journey and ambition to leverage the collective strength of our industry for the benefit of society.”
Ben Carlisle, global practice leader for DfMA, Mott MacDonald said:
We are pleased to see the launch of the Platform Rulebook as a mechanism to bring clarity and common understanding to the industry on product platform approaches, being an enabler for industry to meet the evolving needs of future infrastructure.
Infrastructure has a key role to play in meeting the huge environmental and societal challenges we face and establishing commonality across our industry on the what, why, and how of product platforms in construction is an important step in the right direction.
The necessary sector-wide improvements in efficiency, quality, cost-effectiveness and sustainability in development are only possible through close collaboration across the sector and between traditional competitors. We look forward to continuing to work closely with both government and peers to support the uptake and continuous improvement of product platforms, ensuring a brighter future for society and our industry.”
The Rulebook is rich with tangible case studies, involving proof of concepts and flagship projects and solutions and including SEISMIC, Bryden Wood’s Platform II, the Department for Education’s Gen Zero, NG Bailey’s M&E kit of parts and Mace’s High-Rise Solutions (HRS). As the Rulebook will be a live document further case studies will be developed through deployment, resulting in continuous improvement and future iterations that will provide further opportunities for the market to respond.
It stands ready to be the blueprint for developing and implementing product platforms today and long into the future. Demonstrating the power of effective collaboration and the commitment of the organisations involved to work together – tackling common industry challenges for the benefit of all.
The beta Product Platform Rulebook can be found here.
A series of consultation sessions will now take place with industry and government with an updated Rulebook publication due in late summer 2022.
The Rulebook establishes the Rules and Principles for product platforms in construction and provides supporting explanations. The seven Rules are Deployability, Configurability, Common, Repeatable Elements, Defined Interfaces, Quality Standard, Structured Approach to Configuration and Openness. The Principles are requirements which should be applied in conjunction with the Rules.
With over £75 million funding from UK Research and Innovation’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, since 2018 the Construction Innovation Hub has focused on enabling transformation by working with over 300 partners and experts to produce market-ready solutions that improve the construction sector’s performance and productivity.
This success has been achieved by combining world-class expertise from BRE, the Centre for Digital Built Britain and the Manufacturing Technology Centre with industry partners and government.
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