Bosom Buddies
Staffordshire based Alsecco (UK) Ltd has signed a long-term partnership agreement to supply external renders and wall insulation systems to the Unity Project in Bristol. The agreement will see more than 40,000m2 of Alsecco’s products used over the next two years.
Alsecco and Bristol City Council have been working together now for some 10 years, and Paul Jermy, the council’s Senior Building Surveyor, explained why Alsecco had been selected for the Unity project.
“Having tried other systems over the last ten years, Alsecco has consistently proved itself to be the best in terms of performance, fit and value. He continued: “specifying Alsecco is easy because it delivers on all fronts and gives the peace of mind that comes from product guarantees and first-rate technical support”.
The Bristol Unity project involves the insulation and external rendering of low-rise two-storey semi-detached houses. Alsecco is applying external wall insulation (EWI) and render to the properties to bring their thermal values in line with the latest requirements of the Decent Homes Standard as set out by the ODPM. Since insulating properties from the inside would reduce room size, the only way of meeting current U-Value requirements is to insulate the property from the outside. Like many houses erected in the 1960s where the main construction drivers were speed and cost, the building structure is a 50-100mm concrete panel with no cavity.
Jim Holman, Regional Technical Manager, commented that the Alsecco Basic 1 system had proven itself to be a real winner with all parties and that the agreement with Bristol City Council was testimony to the company’s success in forming long-term relationships and providing products of superior performance and value. “The partnership with Bristol Council is highly significant and reflects their belief in us as a credible, reliable supplier.”
All recent projects in the city have been conducted within the partnership framework established at the end of 2005, although the two parties have been working closely together for some time. The Unity project saw Alsecco take a place on the partnership workshop alongside the city council, the main contractor, other supply chain members and Impart Links, the partnering facilitator. The workshop set out to establish a team charter with key performance indicators (KPIs) and measurement tools along with objectives for successful project completions.
The commitment to enter into a partnering agreement was a key success factor in securing current and future business with the council, with the added bonus of locking the company in as an integral part of the project process.
Bristol had specified Alsecco products from day one of its housing stock refurbishment and continues to employ their services due to the superior product performance and, perhaps most importantly, the degree of technical back-up available. Alsecco is unique from this perspective in that it offers same-day on-site assistance, and telephone support for even longer periods. Issues arising on site can be resolved the same day in most cases.
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Such attention can be necessary as each refurbishment project often presents new challenges and unforeseen obstacles to overcome. This degree of collaboration and approach to problem solving is a perfect example of how open-book partnering arrangements really do achieve the results that the theory intended (see diagram and comment, below, from Partnering Charter).
Fig.1
TIME COST QUALITY TRIANGLE
TIME
COST QUALITY
The client indicated project requirements in relation to the Time Cost Quality triangle (marked). Whilst this indicates quality is most important to the client, it should be understood that this is relative and dependent with time and cost.
VALUE is the overriding feature.
Source: Report from Bristol city council partnering workshop, 2005.
One of the most important challenges to overcome has been the demands and needs of the individual tenants who, after all, are the ultimate client. Virtually each and every property must be dealt with in a different way to accommodate everyday items such as hanging baskets and other paraphernalia on the front aspects of the houses. Residents can sometimes be reticent about any potential disruption to their homes, but most objections fade into insignificance when it is explained that the council (via Alsecco) will apply a ‘tea cosy’ to the outside of the house, making their homes warmer and cutting CO2 emissions equivalent to the weight of a jungle-full of elephants!
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Furthermore, Alsecco’s EWI system adds another 30 years to the life of the houses. When comparing this with the cost and disruption of demolishing and rebuilding, refurbishment is up to 90% cheaper, let alone the added environmental benefits.
Bristol’s housing stock numbers more than 42,000 units that it is committed to upgrade before the 2010 DHS deadline. On new projects there is now, following the partnering framework, a set process that all stakeholders follow.
1) Establish the type of construction.
2) Ascertain the client’s requirements (e.g. upgrading to 0.35 U-values to comply with current regulations).
3) Work with the client to select and specify how much insulation is required.
4) Despatch of tender document (by the council) to main contractors inviting proposals and costs based on the Alsecco system. At this first tender stage, selections are based on a weighted basket of suitability, namely 30% cost, 60% interview and 10% site visits.
5) Creation of a matrix showing how those tendering have scored and how the council has chosen the contractor (the basis used for this is an open-book accounting system).
6) Attendance to subsequent partnering workshops by all supply chain members, during which the team seeks to deliver Best Value through a process of value engineering, setting realistic KPIs and performance measurement criteria. This is what avoids the big surprises so commonplace on construction projects.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this process is the way in which the EWI products are selected for the tender document in the first place. Alsecco uses specialist software to calculate airflow through walls, thermal properties and condensation risk to ensure that each building is fitted with the product most suited to its fabric. From a financial point of view, the open-book
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accounting system means that all stakeholders share both pain and gain, and this truly democratises relationships, removing traditional suspicions that exist between contractors, suppliers and clients.
As mentioned earlier, the most important stakeholder in the whole project is the end-user; the council tenant. So important, in fact, that their needs are considered perhaps more than anyone else’s. Sometimes, however, other factors force themselves into play. On the high-rise Butler House project in Bristol for example, the Planning Department (made up of council employees and residents) stipulated that the refurbishment application comprise an element of brickwork to maintain fidelity to the original external aspect. This posed quite a problem; how do you achieve thermal value targets and preserve/improve aesthetic appeal while appeasing diametrically opposed parties within the council? A solution had to be found in order to prevent the worst-case scenarios of demolition, rebuilding or decanting (re-housing tenants). Both these would have been extremely costly, time-consuming and disruptive for all concerned. After extensive, in-depth technical machinating, Alsecco was able to satisfy all stakeholders by providing flexible, durable brick slips that could be adhered to a regulation-compliant EWI system. Taking samples from the original brickwork, Alsecco achieved accurate colour matches in the lab that were then replicated en masse. Easy to apply, and indistinguishable from the original bricks, the Butler House project was another huge success, proving Alsecco’s competence in terms of both performance and supply.
The Unity Bristol project is just one example of how Alsecco has proven its ability to work in close partnership with complex supply chains and local authorities. The company has grown its social housing business considerably over the last few years, and is confident that this trend will be sustained as it continues to deliver Best Value and first-class service to stakeholders.
