A McAlpine aims for shed market

Exclusive by David Nunn



Alfred McAlpine has begun a major supply chain management initiative aimed at securing market leadership in warehouse construction.

The contractor has formed a strategic alliance with a steel fabricator, engineer, architect and key suppliers to form a virtual company that will compete for construction work.

The project, entitled Mosaic, is the brainchild of Dr Richard Baldwin, head of McAlpine's special projects division. Industry sources say the aim of Mosaic is to "build metal sheds quicker and cheaper than anybody else."

Baldwin has drawn on his background in the manufacturing of domestic appliances to bring a production line approach to bear on construction. Significant research has already been carried out to enable design to be simplified by standardising components and steelwork detailing. The grouping has also reduced the pallet of materials needed to build a typical warehouse to further cut time and costs.

"This is not just a group of names who have come together in a consortium to win work," said one observe: "There is a considerable amount of thought and work behind the idea and they have everything in place."

Management and construction methods are understood to have been developed in sufficient detail to win the praise of the MoD, which is requiring companies to have such procedures in place before considering them as prime contractors.

Dr Baldwin declined to discuss the initiative.