Galliford Try’s schedule checking on the A303 and McLaughlin & Harvey’s (M&H) digital approach to learning lessons are among the 20 best practice case studies highlighted in a new report from the Get It Right Initiative (GIRI).
The GIRI Best Practice Casebook is a follow-up to the Use Of Technology To Reduce Errors In Design And Construction report (published last year) and provides brief case studies of the deployment of key technology to reduce errors.
On the A303 Sparkford to Ilchester upgrade, Galliford Try Highways had to manage both internal teams and nine subcontractors, along with dozens of monthly schedule updates.
The contractor used Nodes & Links’ Schedule Health tool, which automates complex schedule integrity workflows and verifies each submission against predefined quality benchmarks. Every schedule update is automatically scrutinised for compliance with the quality criteria. If compliant, the data is integrated into the overall programme plan. If not, any discrepancies or errors are flagged instantly, and the tool generates correction reports.
Galliford Try Highways saw “a significant reduction in the time spent on manual reviews”.
M&H’s lessons learned
M&H faced challenges in managing lessons learned because, although it had captured knowledge, it was not centralised or effectively shared across the wider business.
The contractor turned to Lessonflow, a customisable lessons-learned management system that includes analytics, a search function and an auditable action system. M&H is using Lessonflow to:
- capture lessons from tenders;
- to investigate one-off situations, ensuring either that best practices are repeated, or errors are prevented in the future; and
- to conduct project close-out reviews with site teams.
M&H now benefits from the intelligence gathered from individual projects and business functions, reducing the errors endemic to siloed behaviours. The system has refined collaboration and communication, making it easier to pass information about improvements from owner, to sponsor to head of function. The system also supports the requirements of the contractor’s ISO 9001 certification on lessons learned.
The GIRI report issues the reminder that “the technology exists and is available”.
GIRI executive director Cliff Smith added: “Digital tools must be combined with people and processes, and fed with the right information, to be implemented effectively. We hope that this report will inspire other design and construction firms to adopt digital tools, as well as encourage technology providers to continue to develop new solutions.”
Next year, GIRI’s technology working group will review AI-driven technology’s capability to reduce errors and, conversely, its potential to be the cause of errors.
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