Reducing unproductive variability with Peter Jones

The Infrastructure Podcast

In today's episode we tackle one of the construction sector’s most persistent and costly challenges: productivity.

The UK construction industry is under huge pressure as it copes with economic pressures, a shrinking workforce and a pipeline of increasingly complex projects.

Creating major infrastructure schemes to transform our energy water and transport systems, tackling a 1.5 million house construction target and the constant battle to renew the aging assets that glue our society together — and it is clear that delivering more with less is no longer optional, it’s critical.

And yet, while technology, manufacturing, and logistics have all seen huge productivity gains in recent decades, construction has stubbornly lagged behind.

That’s why the Construction Productivity Taskforce was established: to bring clients, contractors, consultants, and supply chain partners together to find practical ways to change the game.

Its latest report is called Improving Construction Productivity: Practical insights from Pilot Site Studies. And it doesn’t just set out ideas - it actually draws on three live, complex projects to demonstrate what really works on site – and of course what doesn’t.

The findings are compelling. Whether it’s reducing unproductive variability, leveraging digital technologies, rethinking crane scheduling, or embedding early supply chain collaboration, the evidence shows that measurable, repeatable improvements are possible. More importantly, they’re available now.

To explore the report’s findings — and what they mean for the industry at large — I’m joined by Peter Jones, Operations Director at Skanska and Visiting Professor at Loughborough University. As a member of the Taskforce, Peter is uniquely placed to explain not just the research, but how to embed its recommendations across the sector.

Resources

• Improving Construction Productivity paper
• Construction Productivity Taskforce
• Loughborough University School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
• 1 Broadgate
• Timber Square
• Vehicle Storage Support Programme
• Egan Report 1998
• Latham report 1994