Ian Mills talks to one leading contractor who recognises the problem of information overload and takes steps to prevent it.
Since ADCAS launched its Information Overload campaign a few months back, support has poured in from every quarter.
HVCA has thrown its considerable weight behind the fight to reduce the amount of unnecessary data that's dumped on the luckless sub-contractor.
That it is a problem everyone agrees. But is it just an unwanted child of the digital revolution, or a sinister plot to pass on the heavy baton of risk?
Certainly there's no hint of anything sinister in the greeting offered to visitors at Briggs and Forrester's London regional office at Old Street in the City.
The company is one of the largest privately-owned mechanical and electrical contractors in Britain.
Chris Church is a director of the company's Engineering Services Division, which accounts for around half of the company's £130 million turnover. He is responsible for business development, design and tendering.
He, if anyone, should understand the problems that can arise from Information Overload.
And, of course, he does. Mention the survey that revealed 97% of contractors feel they have insufficient time to respond to a tender enquiry and not even an eyebrow twitches in surprise.
'The world changes,' he says 'and we have to keep up. In my time at Briggs and Forrester we've moved from a paper-based past to a digital present in which 95% of enquiries are now received
electronically.
'However, of the enquiries we receive, about half are not in a fit state to pass directly on to our supply chain!'
The Briggs and Forrester system takes not even the 'good' 50% for granted. Staff sift through all the documentation received, identifying drawings and information to pass on to specialist sub-contractors.
The result is a Master Schedule, which registers each and every document.
Chris Church: it starts at the top
'It's not exactly rocket science,' says Church, 'but it has to be done. The system we use is really a natural progression from the old paper chain days. The detail extends down to documents dealing with things like logistics and hoisting requirements.'
He scorns the idea of passing on risk. 'Lack of proper records actually raises the level of risk rather than reducing it. Accuracy and efficiency are the only shields that are worth having. Giving our sub-contractors the clearly identified information they need to produce a proper tender will always pay off in the end.'
Even with that winning post in view, producing a Master Schedule often proves to be a steeplechase rather than a flat race. There may be big fences to clear - including missing detail and corrupt files that even the main contractor can't open!
'Above all,' says Church, 'is the lack of time. There's never enough. No allowance is made upstream for sorting the information. The pressure gets greater and the time gets shorter with every link in the procurement chain.'
He's also keenly aware that the next step in the digital revolution brings new potential for confusion.
Briggs and Forrester is already well down the road to a web-based system for project information. But, this too, will have a proper schedule of essential drawings and, crucially, addenda with updated detail as the inevitable revisions to tender documents are introduced.
Recognising and tackling a problem is one thing, identifying the root cause is another. I asked Church the big question:
Just where does Information Overload begin?
'Well it's not with the main contractors,' he sighs, 'they have just the same problems as us. It starts at the very top, when the inputs from the professional team - the architect, consultant and surveyors - are first gathered into a single project file for tender purposes.
'If the project manager or quantity surveyor doesn't properly schedule the drawings and specialist detail right at the start, the problem is off and running and likely to grow every time a disk is passed on.'
So, what would the ideal enquiry look like?
Church doesn't hesitate. 'Until we switch to the web, it would look just like it does now,' he smiles, 'a disk. Except it would be a disk that was easy to open, easy to copy and carrying all the project detail clearly identified by specialisation in dedicated folders and all neatly indexed.'
And how often does the perfect disk turn up?
He smiles again. 'That'll be the day.'
18 February 2010