Collaborative Planning Sessions see Great Results

Our Collaborative Planning Sessions really are proving to be a great success.

At our A500 Etruria Widening Scheme for Highways England, their first collaborative planning session brought together everyone working on the project to agree how the next 12 weeks would go.  The meeting was facilitated by Highways England and looked for efficiencies against the contract programme and any issues that needed to be overcome to make these possible.

The shear collaboration element of problem solving was amazing to see.  Even though this was the very first session for this team, they have already identified extra buffer for two activities on the programme, which will help to secure the completion date.

Collaborative Planning sessions have now also been carried out on our London Underground Project.  The first session saw an impressive 26 people turn up to input to the planning with the aim of securing a key project milestone for works to the first station in the package.  Through the detailed review the team are now confident they will achieve this critical milestone.  One key time saving, only possible through this collaborative approach was removing several weeks from the Construction Phase Plan approval process.

Having seen the genuine benefits from the first workshop, the team have decided to do this for all seven stations.  Further sessions have been held and have resulted in stability of programme, benefits in the delivery of materials and more efficient working methods.  Through exploring assumed constraints, the teams can now also complete certain works in “off peak” daytime working hours rather than just in night time working.  This is a great achievement!

Well done to our teams for really embracing the concept of Collaborative Planning.  These sessions really do highlight the benefits of clear communication, knowledge sharing, and ensuring all issues our aired.  The whole project team can then input to mitigating any hurdles before they arise.