"A well resolved, high quality design promotes good quality construction"One of the most effective ways of improving construction quality is to spend a little extra time and money up front on design, writes Mike Barker.

Squeezing down the time it takes to deliver projects by overlapping construction with design is fine in principle, and in many cases it works.

There are some excellent buildings and pieces of infrastructure on show to recommend it.


But overlapping design with construction is not always a success.
There are too many projects that have cost more and taken longer to deliver than expected. On complex projects concertinaing design and construction has to be managed very carefully. If it is not, the quality of the delivery process and of the end result suffer.

The temptation to squeeze design begins right at the outset of the project with project funders or owners understandably wanting to see a return on investment as quickly as possible. Starting on site is a key indicator of progress, and there is often pressure to get a shovel into the ground as early as possible.

Sometimes the eagerness to get going means construction may actually start before the project team is really ready.

Being “really ready” I believe involves taking detailed design further than is currently usual, before construction gets under way. Being given the time and scope to refine and expand details, properly co-ordinate structure, services, cladding and infrastructure and engage in real size mock-ups of key assemblies makes the difference between a project that goes OK, fingers crossed, and one that you know will flow smoothly to completion.

The construction industry uses mainly standardised components but assembles them to suit the different needs of each project. This provides not only variety but uniqueness in our built environment. But it also means that almost every project is built as though it is a prototype.

As an industry this situation demands good preparation. We need to be as ready – to know in as much detail what will be needed – as possible before getting stuck in. Thorough pre-planning and clarity of design information is essential if construction is to proceed efficiently and in a timely a manner.

Builders need to understand exactly what they must do if they are to avoid mistakes and delays. Investing in development of a well resolved, high quality design promotes good quality construction and materials savings. It reduces waste – every year in the UK the construction industry throws away 100Mt of materials which are either unused or spoiled. And it greatly increases the probability of punctual completion. All of which equates to reduced overall cost.

Anyone who has been in construction for a while will have realised that none of this is new. Sir John Egan made essentially the same appeal a decade ago in “Rethinking Construction”.

But the old failings – the old barriers to quality – persist.

There is a simple way of ensuring work goes as it should: Allow designers time and scope to develop thoroughly thought through designs and complete them to a stage where they are properly ready to be built. Yes, this will require more is spent up front. But it seems to be too often forgotten that design accounts for a small fraction of the overall project cost. A well developed design will help ensure that when the real money comes to be spent during construction there won’t be costly mistakes or delays.

Sort out construction details and co-ordination issues on paper, not on site. Experience shows all to clearly that the investment greatly increases certainty and the real quality of the outcome.

Mike Barker is head of buildings at Mott MacDonald.

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This article first appeared in Construction News magazine on 5 November 2007