Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

HANDBOOK 2 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION
Industrialised, integrated and intelligent construction project
logistics
Glenn Hawkins – BSRIA
Abstract
This paper illustrates how construction is an assembly or layering
process in which safe, high quality, productive, socially-responsible
and environmentally-sensitive work can only be carried out if certain
key pre-requisites are in place for each construction task. It
describes how construction project logistics, although not adding
value itself, plays a fundamental role in ensuring that projects are
successfully delivered to clients, whilst minimising social and
environmental impact external to the site.
It is hoped that this paper will help construction project teams
develop a clearer understanding of how crucial logistics are in the
creation of the modern built environment and as a result place
greater emphasis on ensuring that their approach to project logistics
is correctly designed, planned and implemented.
Keywords: logistics, construction, performance improvement, built environment
Introduction
Closely examine a successfully delivered, modern UK building such as an educational academy,
hospital, museum, sports stadium or manufacturing facility and you stare upon engineering excellence
and the organisational brilliance of the global market place.
These buildings may be configured from superstructures composed of aggregate, cement and steel
reinforcement sourced from different parts of the European Union, facades composed of larch grown
in Siberia and cut to profile in Scotland, coated aluminium curtain wall systems fabricated in a
German facility from assorted sub-elements produced elsewhere, marble flooring quarried in the
South of Italy but processed in the North, complex electronic components assembled in Japan by selfguided
robots, and furniture, fittings and equipment sourced from every corner of the globe.
This collection of parts implies astonishing journeys over land, sea and air of raw materials, sub
assemblies and finished parts in the pursuit of meeting a client’s requirements. The aggregation of
these parts into finished buildings implies incredible feats of organisation, planning and control by the
project teams involved in the design and construction of these facilities.
Stand in front of the latest, successfully completed 50-storey office development in the centre of any
major city. Look at the river that flows directly behind it and the railway lines and roads that seem to
totally enclose the site of this new landmark. Ask yourself “How did the team that produced this
unique building bring together so many different parts and then assemble them in such demanding
conditions, without bringing the city to a standstill?’
The answer is because logistics informed the work of the design, construction, procurement and cost
professionals involved in the project.
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