Patrick Gersch, Project Director at Turner & Townsend, On Having A Sound Logistics Strategy For Building Projects

A structured, thoughtful, and phased logistics plan integrated into the project schedule is the cornerstone for successfully delivering a programme or project. A logistics plan is crucial for identifying and mitigating productivity, programme, sequencing, interface, and constraint challenges that differ from project to project.

Plans for the logistics of a construction site are essential for the secure delivery, fabrication, storage, and installation of materials and the protection of resources and assets. Lack of a logistics plan could quickly result in bottlenecks, abandoned projects, or unsafe conditions that could negatively affect a company’s licences, reputation, insurance, stocks, or even cause fatalities.

In this article, Patrick Gersch, Project Director at Turner & Townsend, discusses with us the benefits that construction logistics plans can provide to project stakeholders…

Planning Is Key To Optimise Productivity And De-Risk Delivery:

Planning a project’s phases, along with a complete inventory of materials and a specific delivery methodology, is an essential component of logistics management. Planning issues or a lack thereof can easily result in compromised, unsafe, or unplanned shortcuts, abandoned projects, delays, or cost increases. According to the proverb, “If you don’t plan, you plan to fail.”

The level of logistics planning will range from large-scale programme management to small-scale project management. It will need to consider the site conditions, adjacencies, interfaces, environmental conditions, and difficulties associated with transporting goods from their point of origin to on-site storage and installation.

To optimise delivery as much as possible, it must consider effective planning, risk management, and delivery methodologies as:

• Proactive plans are in place that considers evolving site-specific challenges.
• Potential cost savings and waste reduction for site teams to operate efficiently.
• Promotes teamwork-motivated workforce and allows wins to be celebrated.
• Provides the basis for safe and healthy working conditions.

Responding To Challenging Site Constraints:

Controlled delivery is frequently regarded as the most secure method when materials are in-country and on-site in possession of the general contractor or client.

However, this scenario is only sometimes feasible due to programme, site, or environmental factors that may prevent or limit the ability to receive, store, fabricate and prepare components before lifting or installation.

Some prefabricated or modular construction technologies offer controlled solutions to these project challenges, but they might only be suitable for some project applications or correspond to customer or market preferences. Although just-in-time deliveries have many advantages, they might be less valuable.

The provision of off-site fabrication or consolidation centres is a further alternative as they enable projects to move forward without the impact of site-based constraints, which:

• Serve as a holding area for significant components awaiting delivery to the construction site.
• Permit any pre-construction activity to occur before they are required on site.
• Have the ability to lower carbon emissions due to decreased trips and deliveries.
• Safely store unused materials to prevent their destruction and disposal in a landfill.
• Provide more sustainable delivery via off-site manufacturing and pre-fabrication, resulting in less material wastage.

Use Of Technology To Optimise Delivery:

The creation of digital twins of projects is made possible by contemporary building materials like BIM, which can be used to identify the required materials, plan and sequence project requirements, and identify construction activities.

Furthermore, 4D sequencing technology enables detailed analysis and planning to ensure that critical preparatory works and interfaces are identified and tracked to ensure that critical pieces can be completed to maintain the project’s delivery requirements. This allows project stakeholders to create time-slice views of projects to plan, manage, and sequence critical construction activities.

The development of drones and time-lapse cameras offers more resources for documenting a project’s current state at any given time. These help monitor development, evaluating claims, and giving websites an extra layer of security.

Construction logistics and supply chain integration:

The compatibility between the quality and management of the supply chain and the effective use of resources within the parameters of the construction logistics plan is crucial to a project’s success.

All parties involved in the project delivery process should clearly understand the resources, on-site logistics, and expertise needed to finish the project on schedule and within budget. Visits to suppliers, factories, and fabrication facilities offer essential knowledge about the quality of finishes and enable potential problems to be mitigated before delivery to the site, frequently when it would be too late.

In order to concentrate on an integrated delivery solution, it is crucial to conduct a thorough pre-qualification of the supply chain, take the packaging interface into account, and consider origin-to-destination challenges.

Sustainable Delivery:

Delivering projects effectively, optimised, and sustainably will become the new standard with the introduction of sustainability certifications, targeting the construction of net zero and spaces that respond to healthy environments. These have the potential to offer higher premiums and reputational enhancements, which will change future growth, sales, and product success in the market. They also provide the benefits of reduced wastage, decreased costs, and improved marketability of the products.

From Logistics News ME February 2023 Issue.