The Background

BBI Services were engaged by a main contractor to deliver productivity enhancement on a large residential construction project where programme performance was at risk.

The project was experiencing delays to the façade brickwork, with productivity levels significantly below the planned rate. BBI’s role was to identify the factors affecting brickwork output, work on productivity enhancement and support the project team in recovering the programme.

The objective was to improve construction productivity, address operational blockers and establish a practical recovery plan that would support an acceptable completion date for all parties.

BBI facilitated a structured recovery plan focused on improving brickwork output and productivity levels, using regular reporting, analysis and targeted improvement actions to monitor progress and address issues as they arose.

The Challenge

When BBI Services were engaged, the façade brickwork had reached only 60% of planned completion, creating a significant risk to the wider construction programme.

The subcontractor was resistant to committing additional labour while a number of unresolved issues and operational blockers remained. Simply increasing resources would not necessarily address the underlying productivity challenges.

The project required a targeted approach to productivity enhancement, identifying where time and resources were being lost and putting practical measures in place to improve the production process.

The Solution

BBI Services developed and deployed a four-week lookahead productivity enhancement plan, informed by weekly status reporting, productivity analysis and ongoing review of improvement actions. The approach focused on the production process. By identifying issues and blockers early, the project team could take targeted action to improve productivity and support the programme recovery plan.

The weekly data reporting and improvement process focused on:

• Issue and blocker resolution – identifying problems affecting productivity and supporting their timely resolution.
• Brickwork completion and productivity opportunities – reviewing output against planned progress and identifying opportunities to improve productivity.
• Scaffold organisation, planning and communication – improving the organisation and planning of scaffold access to support more efficient brickwork operations.
• Subcontractor data and reporting – analysing subcontractor reports and productivity data to identify issues, understand performance and support effective problem-solving.
• Four-week lookahead planning – creating greater visibility of upcoming activities and potential constraints so that action could be taken before they affected production.

This structured approach provided the project team with greater visibility of productivity performance and a clear set of actions to support programme recovery.

The Impact

BBI’s productivity enhancement approach provided a structured framework for addressing the factors affecting brickwork output and supporting the recovery of the construction programme.

The approach also created greater visibility of productivity performance and provided a consistent process for identifying and resolving issues affecting delivery.

Talk to BBI About Productivity Enhancement