Butler & Young CDM training course dates announced for 2013
Butler & Young have confirmed new dates for their APS accredited course on the Management of CDM Co-ordination. The course explains the CDM Regulations and has been approved by the Association for Project Safety (APS) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). This course is aimed at all those involved in construction, the construction process, designers and/or facility and premises managers.
For more information click here
Business opportunities: international high value
construction projects
Although the UK and wider EU construction markets
are struggling the international market place is awash with commerical
opportunities.
United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI) has
compiled a listing of the top 50 international projects which
Government regards as offering particular opportunities for UK
business. Not surprisingly the majority of these building and
infrastructure projects are taking place within the emerging markets
in South America, the Middle East and Asia.
For more information on particular projects enquirers
should contact the identified UKTI business specialist.
Click
here to download the listing
Is offsite sustainable?
Alistair Gibb, Professor of Construction
Engineering Management at Loughborough University, discusses the
subject of offsite in a paper.
Click here
to read
Welding Certification
Buildoffsite Member Lloyd’s Register in
collaboration with NDT Services Ltd has developed a one stop fixed
fee weld certification service. The new service will offer clients
a fixed cost for the entire weld certification process.
Click
here for more information
Buildoffsite Newsletter December 2012
One of our ambitions within Buildoffsite is to establish positive, sustained and mutually beneficial relationships with the construction industry’s professional bodies. We recognise and support their role including that of maintaining standards within the professions and in providing CPD to ensure skills levels reflect technical and other developments taking place within the industry. Buildoffsite is a small and very lean organisation and as you know our model requires us to stay that way to minimise cost and bureaucracy. That said we aim to be in a position to punch well above our weight and to do that we need to reach out and collaborate with others. In seeking to promote improved awareness of the benefits of offsite construction methods within such a huge and diverse industry we have a particular need to work with and through the professional bodies that have extensive regional, national and indeed international reach.
Click
here to read the Newsletter
Buildoffsite Review 2012
It's that time of the year when we compile and
publish the Buildoffsite Yearbook. Many of those who read this
Newsletter may not be aware of this as copies are generally circulated
only to our Members.
Click
here to read the Review
Factoryshare.org goes live
Factoryshare.org is an initiative that seeks to
make use of the downtime and/or unused space (the cost of which
is otherwise paid for as part of the factory overhead) through
a number of possible scenarios:
- By providing manufacturing space for start
up companies wishing to enter the offsite market. These underutilised
areas could be sectioned off and rented to people thus saving
them the cost of buying, building and developing a new location.
It could test the viability of the product without high capital
cost.
- By enabling existing products to be delivered
from a range of participating facilities, allowing small operations
to upscale their offer or products to be manufactured closer
to their point of deployment (with reduce transport time and
cost).
- By enabling participating facilities to combine
and trade capacity to drive down the cost of off-site solutions
and move this further into the mainstream of construction delivery.
For further information please see www.factoryshare.org
Acermetric show house erection live
Watch the show house being built live at: http://acermetric.co.uk/cam
Tekla
UK Model competition
Tekla recently held their annual model competition
attracting entries of all size and shapes and using many different
construction materials. Once again the entries showcased the skills
of its customers in terms of their use of the Tekla software but
also highlighted their skills as companies involved in the construction
process.
The competition is open to all customers and entries
were received from one-man bands up to the largest multi-national
companies employing thousands.
The entries can be seen at: www.tekla.com/uk/Documents/model-comp-2011/entries.html
For
more information click here
Transforming
construction by adopting a Lean Thinking approach
Lean symbolises creating more value for customers
with fewer resources. CIRIA recently launched Build
Lean: transforming construction using Lean Thinking (C696)
written in the form of a novel. This innovative guide introduces
Steve, a senior leader in a construction business, as he receives
news of another failed tender. He licks his wounds and goes
on to compare two projects, one which out-performed the other,
as a result of using the Lean Thinking approach.
To find out more and to read chapter summaries
click
here
To order a copy click
here
Lean project management: getting involved
A special offer in collaboration with Construction
Skills, Buildoffsite and Lean Thinking Ltd to facilitate the implementation
of a unique Lean project management system to radically improve
performance.
This is an invitation to all sectors of the construction
industry to take up the offer of facilitated implementation of
lean project management systems on their projects with a money
back guarantee. This system applies to every stage of the project
including pre-construction and design.
Those who have attended recent Buildoffsite Stakeholder
events will be aware that several featured construction projects
have benefited from the application of Lean project management
services provided by Lean Thinking Ltd to increase client value,
project performance, profitability and sustainability. The application
of Lean project management has stimulated the increased take up
of offsite construction solutions to ensure certainty of project
programme, project cost and project quality. Clients involved
have included the Ministry of Justice and Marks & Spencer.
Main contractors have included Interserve and ISG.
For further information please click
here
How can you improve the
whole life value
of your next building project
According to the National Audit Office report,
Improving public services through better construction,
there is a distinct lack of clarity as to what best value and
whole life costing are, a lack of robust data available on running
costs, and lack of tangible benefits to be gained from considering
best value and whole life costing.
In response, award-winning off-site specialist
Yorkon has published a new technical paper A guide to improving
the whole life value of a building.
To download a copy of the new report go to: www.yorkon.info/industryreports
or email: contact@yorkon.co.uk
Building energy reduction: a leadership opportunity
Carbon is invisible, out of sight and largely
out of mind. Buildings represent the single largest cause of carbon
release but this is poorly understood, and it is hard to differentiate
between good and bad performers. This problem was overcome in
the white goods market by making energy performance visible via
the familiar energy label, which has successfully driven the development
of greener products.
The property market needs stronger incentives
to enable landlords both to build better new buildings and especially
to refurbish existing buildings to higher energy standards.
If non domestic buildings displayed their
DEC performance prominently in circulation areas (especially receptions),
this would:
-
Raise the awareness of users to their building's
energy performance.
-
Drive tenants to require higher performance
from future premises.
-
Raise the value of better performing buildings.
-
Properly reward landlords who construct/refurbish
buildings to high energy
standards.
The Government is reluctant to regulate
the market, however the prominent display of DECs will encourage
the right behaviour.
For more information click
here
Howick News
H400 Truss System
Howick's H400 Truss machine produces easy
to assemble and use Trusses using our patented Rivet system that
is equivalent to six traditional screws.
Speedfloor makes concrete floors easy
Sppedfloor, which is more commonly seen
in commercial and car parking structures, has been developed to
work seamlessly with Howick's framing machines to allow concrete
floors to easily be incorporated into light guage steel framing.
H300 Mobile Factory
Howick's H300 framing machine can be installed
in a 20ft mobile factory unit. Making it easier to transport than
the lager 40ft model.
Find
out more
Howick Steel Framing Innovation Conference registration
of interest....
Howick Ltd will be hosting a Steel Framing Innovation
Conference in Auckland, New Zealand from the 20 - 24th
September 2010.
Find
out more
Halving Waste to Landfill - signatory
update
WRAP is eager to work with you to develop case
studies, articles and PR to highlight projects that are demonstrating
a commitment to waste reduction and benefitting from cost savings.
If you would like to be involved, contact: halvingwastetolandfill@wrap.org.uk
Find
out more
LEAF International
The Leading European Architects Forum, or
LEAF, brings together leading international architectural practices
and designers operating in Europe and beyond to share knowledge,
to network and to develop new partnerships.
Howick offer factory machine demo
Discovering Offsite Howick
A small but enthusiastic group attended Henrob's
manufacturing plant in Deeside where Howick in conjunction with
Henrob and Vertex presented an end to end solution for steel frame
design and assembly.
Find
out more
Two free downloads
A guide to modern methods of construction (a
BRE/NHBC publication)
Download
Your guide to specifying Modular Buildings:
maximising value and minimising risk
(a Buildoffsite publication in partnership
with BAA)
Download
New offsite technology talks
Advantage Offsite, in collaboration with Mtech
Group, have launched a new series of dedicated Technical Talk
seminars for 2008.
Each focusing on a range of different offsite technologies,
including; volumetric modular, pods, light steel frame, timber
frame, precast concrete, ICF, SIPS, and pre-engineered M&E
services, Technical Talk will be the most dynamic and informative
offsite technology events of the year.
Technical Talk seminars will allow delegates to
understand the various different technologies within the offsite
construction sector in much more detail than the generic offsite
construction events that the industry has presented to date.
Find
out more
Buildoffsite forms alliance with new Scottish Construction Centre
Buildoffsite has formed an alliance with the recently-opened
Scottish Construction Centre (SCC) to help promote greater uptake
of offsite methods in Scottish construction sector.
The SCC has identified "offsite" as a
key theme area for Scotland and is planning an initial series
of industry workshops to explore the strength of interest in a
programme of work to help companies understand how they may gain
from increased adoption of offsite construction techniques.
Funded by Scottish Enterprise and developed by
a CIRIA-led consortium, The SCC has been created to promote innovation
and excellence in Scotland's construction industry.
To find out more, visit www.scocon.org.
Standard Specifications, Layouts and Dimensions for School
Buildings
Free downloads available
A series of guidance notes have been released
that set out the standards of performance for a range of elements
in schools and show how these standards might be delivered through
design examples.
Find
out more
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