M&SDP Case Study: Eatonfield

The training and development need

The need for the investment in the programme was essentially two-fold.

1. To help grow the business. “The construction side of the company was new. We wanted to deliver larger developments than Marrs Davies had worked on. In order to do this, we needed to do things differently – we needed new processes. We wanted to be exposed to different management techniques to increase the control we had on the different build phases, and for a ‘best practice’ approach to spread throughout the business.”
2. To increase profitability. “If we were going to increase the profitability of the business we had to reduce the time we took between obtaining planning permission for a development, and selling the properties. It is only at that point of sale that we make money.

The project

Between August and October 2007, seven Eatonfield mangers took part in a Construction Lean Improvement Programme (CLIP) training course – delivered by BRE engineers through workshops at the company’s Mold headquarters. It used a live development – of four properties in the village of Meliden near Prestatyn – to put the theory into practice.

The objective was to enable Eatonfield to significantly reduce the time it took to start building after gaining planning consent, and to improve its site management and planning processes.

The workshops covered three CLIP techniques.

• Process mapping – “We visually represented our processes and identified who does what – and when, why and how they do it. This gave everyone involved a shared understanding of how we work, and a chance to spot opportunities for improvement. We then mapped out a process that would give us the shorter pre-construction lead times we were looking for.”
• Visual management – “There was a lack of visibility about our projects - people didn’t know clearly what they should be doing nor when. So, having set targets for the pre-construction phase, we outlined the tasks we needed to monitor, and set delivery dates for them.”
• Collaborative planning – “Activity planning with CLIP includes and involves everyone. By establishing the Meliden Project programme together, we made full use of the team’s skills and experience, identified problems and opportunities at an early stage and predicted completion times more accurately.

“On site at Meliden, for example, we displayed a weekly planning schedule in the canteen where site operatives could add to it, and used an office copy to assess progress at the end of the week.”

The benefits

“The immediate benefit at Meliden was to reduce by 30%, the time between the granting of planning consent and starting work on site - from 20 to 14 weeks. The weekly schedule helped everybody know what needed be done, any problems were quickly highlighted, and the project stayed on target.

“Lean Construction is about streamlining processes to enable you to reduce building time -and save money. Using this approach at Meliden helped us to cut the build schedule by a month – bringing direct savings on site manager, scaffolding, cabin, plant hire and security costs.”

Several of the approaches used during the Meliden Project have now been incorporated into the systems used throughout Eatonfield’s construction business.

“Although the programme initially targeted our site managers, the whole organisation has benefited. CLIP showed us how to make our processes more efficient and how to make everyone aware. As a result we build faster. For example, a 24 apartment development we recently completed in Cannock in the West Midlands took just 36 weeks from the granting of planning permission to making them available for sale.”

The lessons

Building on a large scale is not the same as building on a small scale. It requires a different type of management system to provide the structures and processes to step up. CLIP is a tool for enabling companies to grow.

“The CLIP process is scaleable – and becomes more important the bigger you get. In 2006 we could build four houses at a time. Now we can build up to 42. Since CLIP, more larger-scale work has come in. Now we can do it – and can prove that we can do it.

“Lean construction is also about improved communications. If you are operating on a small scale with few people communication is easier. Before CLIP, not everyone knew what needed to be done on a project because not everyone was involved at the initial planning stage.

“Now everyone is involved – from the managing director down. Everyone knows who is doing what and when and is responsible for delivering it on time. Weekly project meetings develop this shared understanding. Issues are sorted out at the planning stage, well ahead of getting on site where they cost time and money; and opportunities can be identified when there is still time to take full advantage of them.

“Lean construction is the only way to go. People are still buying houses, but in this business climate you have to save money and time. You have to have the processes and systems to keep your costs to a minimum. If you can build your houses quicker than your competitors you will get to them market quicker.”

“We think that the CLIP course has been good value for money and would recommend it.”

The spokesperson

Chris Lewis is a contract co-ordinator with Eatonfield. He joined the company directly from the University of Warwick after completing a Masters degree in Civil Engineering.

The company

Eatonfield Developments is based in Mold in North Wales and employs around 40 people. It was formed in 1998 as a property company, diversifying into construction in 2006 following the acquisition of a small local housebuilder, Marrs Davies.

Turnover grew from £4.8 million in 2005 to £18.6 million in 2007 – and pre-tax profit over the same period rose from £42,000 to more than £5 million. The business was floated on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in November 2006.

The ConstructionSkills approach

The Management and Supervisory Development Programme (M&SDP) was set up in 2001 by ConstructionSkills (then CITB) to provide financial support to Federation members pursuing management qualifications, business improvement initiatives and management and supervisory training.

Research carried out in 2007 by ConstructionSkills identified a set of common management skills gaps and revealed that almost one in five directors and senior managers in the industry has no formal qualifications at all.

The M&SDP fund which is always fully used, supports an average of 45 projects at a time. Since the programme was established, more than 300 projects have benefited, with 85-90% of all successful applications coming from Federations which represent small and medium-sized companies