Integration and collaborative working: best practice solutions

by Victor Tsemo
West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence

Developing successful building solutions is always a team effort. Integration and collaborative working is essential in order to develop systems and successfully complete projects. Not only that but an effective system of collaborative working can add value to your business and enhance the effectiveness of all levels of the supply chain. Results can be evident in numerous areas of the business including workforce and process development, customer satisfaction, product/service, logistics, communication and project management.

So what are the best practice methods for integration and collaborative working? It's important to ensure that the following occurs:

1. That the client's satisfaction is the number one priority
2. That there is a sense of shared purpose and direction between the parties involved
3. That the relationship is attentive and responsive to the environment
4. That communication remains frequent and effective
5. That the collaboration is efficiently managed to minimise confusion.

Case study – Alumet Systems (UK) Ltd

Alumet are an ideal case study for best practice. This Warwickshire based specialist contractor recently diversified into the defence industry with their award winning ABLE Façade System – a fully glazed pre-fabricated walling system that is capable of withstanding bomb-blasts. The system has recently been installed on a £6.3M facility for the Ministry of Defence.

Developing the system involved collaborating with numerous parties, including architects, main contractors, the MoD, ballistics design experts and ballistics blast-testers. So how did they ensure that the team would work well together along the supply chain? We spoke to Director Dean Walton:

“When we began product development for the ABLE Façade System we decided right from the start that we would focus on project management and communication in order to ensure that the collaboration between parties was as efficient as possible. We ensured this in a number of ways.

“Firstly we assigned a Project Manager to overseas the whole process. This made the management of the process a lot simpler. We made the consciences decision to recruit someone from outside of the construction industry in order to ensure that we had a completely fresh engineering viewpoint, with no disposition towards existing walling systems. For this reason we hired someone who has previously worked as an engineer for Toyota. The choice was a success as the team and production process both exceeded expectations.

“Secondly in order to promote communication we hosted Partnering Days at our head offices in Warwickshire. Everyone involved on the project was invited to join us, helping to ensure all parties were involved in the communication process right from the very start and that any issues were resolved as early as possible.

“Lastly, we invited our clients to visit us on a weekly basis for vesting visits in order to check that the production of the system was going according to plan. Little things like this can make all the difference, but you'd be surprised how many companies don't offer these options.”

As Dean's comments highlight, by implementing best practice methods it is possible to collaborate both internally and externally to produce innovative and profitable products that add value to a business.

Related NBS information:

Articles:

• A client’s guide to engaging an architect: project management

Written March 2010

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