CLIP to continue after massive contractor savings

The Construction Best Practice Programme (CBPP) is looking to expand its Construction Lean Improvement Programme (CLIP) out to the whole industry after creating an elite list of contractors over the last 12 months.

Results back from the CLIP programme, which started in January last year, have seen many of the seven contractors involved (Cruden, Denne Group, NG Bailey, Simpson, Keepmoat, Thomas Vale and Stepnell) shave time and costs down considerably on their future projects.

Major success stories include: a 48% saving for Denne on tendering and estimating costs, which could rise to 80% in the near future; a 33% time reduction on a refurbishment contract for NG Bailey; a general 16% - 40% improvement on productivity; and a reduction of general refurbishment lead times from 25% to 50%.

One unnamed contractor has already seen a 3% saving to the bottom line when it comes to direct labour - this figure is not uncommon to the other contractors involved.

The CBPP's Martin Watson, who heads up CLIP, said that a five-year extension of the initiative, valued at around £5m, had been approved by the Department of Trade & Industry which itself is funding £2.5m to the scheme.

Watson has set himself a target of 200 companies within construction to join CLIP, with a further 200 companies taking part through those already signed up to the scheme.

"This is open to everyone from contractors to consultants," said Watson. "Some can join from the start by setting up their plans, while others might want to join some of our CLIP leadership workshops."