Source of inspiration

Gleeson Homes has one of the more daunting challenges of all the demonstration projects: building traditional homes for a fairly conservative private housebuying market using entirely traditional build methods and yet finding ways of innovating to improve efficiency and quality. And if it were that easy, wouldn't the homebuilding industry have already done it?

Its demonstration project, the 430-unit Netherne-on-the-Hill site in Coulsdon, Surrey, relies on improving current practice by benchmarking performance against a series of key performance indicators (see table), the most prominent of which involves measuring not what Gleeson is building, but what it is throwing away.

The industry routinely wastes some 7% of the building materials it buys, but Gleeson set itself the objective of cutting that figure by 5%, and eighteen months into its eight-year build programme it is already improving on that percentage. While a site of this size would normally expect to fill more than two skips a week with waste, Netherne's gatekeeper checks out just one skip a month.

Around 60% of the waste is being recycled on the spot. The 100-acre Netherne site originally contained a 600 000 sq ft hospital complex, some two thirds of which has been demolished to make way for new homes, although 'new' could be a bit of a misnomer when the homes' dining rooms have teak flooring from the old hospital wards and even the garden walls are built of recycled bricks.

Overall some 95% of the hospital buildings, including roof slates, bricks, stonework, radiators and flooring, are being saved and re-used. Recycling takes up a lot of space, with Netherne having its own architectural salvage store and hardcore crushing operation. "We're lucky to have enough space to store 600 000 tons of crushed concrete," says Wilding.

Build activity generates more waste, but that too is being minimised. Plasterboard offcuts are shredded and mixed with the subsoil to make topsoil. Materials that cannot be reused on site, like polythene wrapping, are collected for disposal. Wilding expects this waste saving approach should produce a financial saving of 3% on contract cost.

Waste is just one of the benchmarks established alongside the housebuilder's partnering arrangement with the project team, subcontractors and suppliers. The partnering was confirmed in a charter.

Subcontractors and suppliers were brought into the project from day one, working with architect Yeoman McAllister. "The roofer sat down with the architect. He came up with a practical way of building the bonnets and hip ends detailed by the architect," says Wilding.

The housebuilder is also using the partnering process to iron out potential problem areas. Plumbing leaks are a major source of call backs to any new home, so Gleeson asked its subcontractor to come up with a no-leak package. The plumbing subcontractor responded by recommending a German make of jointless, sheathed aluminium pipe, that was slightly more expensive, but would prove better value.

Leaking pipes in finished houses, however, will not be measured within the current set of key performance indicators (KPIs). These concentrate on the build process, and monitor such features as accident levels and the project team's carrying out of action points arising from meetings Measuring performance need not be a time-consuming process, says Wilding: "It has to bolt into existing systems. You have to keep it simple." As one of just four private housebuilders willing to commit to a wholly private sector demonstration project the company does not have the same imperative to innovate as those running social housing demonstration projects, so it has to have easily workable systems. "This is purely something we have introduced ourselves to increase efficiency," says Wilding. "We could stop doing it."

Wilding admits, however, that a lot of time and effort has gone into setting up its efficency drive, and that partnering with subcontractors and suppliers has not always gone smoothly.

"Never underestimate what's involved in culture change," he says. "Where it hasn't worked it has been because people haven't been committed to it. Often the managing director and the sales director commit to it, but it doesn't feed down the line.

"On the plus side, we've learned that benchmarking focuses the mind into doing things on schedule and on time and it will improve the bottom line. On the negative side, there is still a massive culture change wall to climb. We've generally been disappointed. Around 15% of our suppliers and subcontractors have been superb. The rest have not been committed. We would welcome honest, open relations with suppliers." Nonetheless the housebuilder is continuing in its efforts to partner down the supply chain.

"Involving subcontractors and suppliers at design stage has almost become company policy now," says Wilding.