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To ensure the timely delivery of the £150m Gatwick Airport station redevelopment project, Costain made it its mission to optimise resource utilisation, real-time troubleshooting and subcontractor performance management.

A large-scale, high-profile project like upgrading Gatwick Airport station comes with many challenges, including:

• Manual, error-prone methods of documenting site activities on paper
• Redundant, cumbersome double work of collating paper site diaries onto spreadsheets
• Information delay between site and office due to traditional methods of record keeping and reporting
• Lack of control as the project team had to react to resource utilisation issues instead of proactively addressing them
• Lack of clarity on actual labour hours and associated costs, risking discrepancies between budget and actual expenses
• Difficulties in accurately estimating and controlling labour costs because of limited visibility on site activities

In essence, paper-based reporting systems are not conducive to proactive project and cost management. To leapfrog from this archaic method to modern best practice, Costain has chosen to implement Gather for all stakeholders of the Gatwick Airport station redevelopment project, including supply chain partners. 

Fast onboarding 

To assist rapid and effective implementation, Gather provided in-person training with Costain and its key subcontractors. Over 70 users at supervisor level and above received thorough onboarding training in less than 4 weeks.

Gather's intuitive platform is built natively for mobile devices and tablets, designed for data entry while on site. Supervisors could effortlessly record labour hours and assign them to specific work activities on the go. This significantly reduced the need for paper site diaries and manual data entry afterwards. Not only has this saved time and reduced the risks of human errors, it has also curbed unnecessary after-shift trips to the office.

Supervisor Brian O'Connor has had positive experiences with the record management system (RMS): "Gather is simple and easy to use. I no longer have to complete paper allocation records. I can easily distribute the team's working hours to pre-planned work activities."

Commenting on the time saved by completing site records digitally, on the spot, O'Connor continued: "For me, it saves a huge amount of time after every shift. It is straightforward. Importantly, Gather makes it so much easier to show where things change on site, and this provides detailed records to benefit our commercial team."

Commercial reporting made easy

"Gather has saved me a significant number of hours each week. I no longer have to collate paper records and transfer data to spreadsheets," Commercial Manager Adam Foster agreed with O'Connor. "All our cost information is now visible to those who need it as supervisors upload their daily activities. This has allowed the team to query data to drive decision-making quicker than ever."

Customisable reports played a big part. They provided key insights on resource usage trends, potential areas for improvement, and progress towards project goals. Having clarity on these key productivity metrics equipped the team with all the necessary tools to keep the project on track and within budget.

By eliminating paper forms, physically collating them and manually entering the data into spreadsheets, Gather made commercial reporting easy and fast.

The project team estimated that Gather saved them over 25 hours per week in resource allocation and over 10 hours per week in commercial reporting time. This time saving allowed the team to focus on more strategic tasks, such as solving problems, making decisions and engaging stakeholders.

BIM integration

Besides adopting best practice in site record management, Costain also explored the possibilities of integrating site intelligence captured by Gather with Building Information Modelling (BIM) models.

BIM-Gather integration enabled the project team to automatically track labour hours and associated costs against the model. The project-wide labour expenses dashboard enabled the proactive identification and prevention of potential labour cost overruns.

This integration also facilitated a granular analysis of labour allocation across the project. By overlaying Gather data onto the BIM model, the project team could visualise how labour resources were being utilised in different areas of the project. This helped to identify and address any inefficiencies or areas for improvement swiftly.

First of its kind, integrating site intelligence with BIM showcased the potential of approaching different databases and information systems holistically. Collecting data is a means to an end. The decisions data inform also need not stay siloed.

The creativity that Costain introduced to redeveloping Gatwick Airport station gave the project team more tools to optimise resource allocation and utilisation. This was essential to delivering this high-profile project on budget and on time.

Transparent subcontractor management

"Gather has been an absolute game-changer. All our cost information is now integrated directly into the Gather platform. We can understand the true cost of works completed across the project areas in real time, as well as the works undertaken by our subcontractors beyond the agreed scope," Commercial Manager Colin Tweed commented on using Gather to manage subcontractors.

The structured, standardised data generated by Gather facilitated performance evaluation across the supply chain. Comparative insights enabled a better, deeper understanding of subcontractor performance against the programme's baseline, as well as cost forecasting and budgeting.

Furthermore, the project team for Gatwick Airport station redevelopment was able to integrate Gather with Costain's in-house commercial reporting tool. This combined analytical tool provided a comprehensive overview of resource utilisation and supply chain performance, improving efficiency throughout the project lifecycle.

"Since switching to Gather, we have been able to consistently capture the work activities for our labour-only subcontractor. We can now stay on top of progress and make decisions in a timely manner," Commercial Manager Marisa Rabbin adds. "I would recommend Gather to be extended to all subcontractors on future projects."

Lead industry with innovations

Costain is committed to innovation, efficiency and excellence, as demonstrated in their successful implementation of Gather for the Gatwick Airport station redevelopment project.

The adoption of Gather not only modernised their operations from paper to digital best practice; it was another signal to UK construction that Costain continues to lead the mission for digital transformation.

Its commitment to consistent site data capture and creativity to integrate site insights with BIM and its in-house reporting tools distinguished Costain from fellow contractors. The success and lessons learnt in the Gatwick Airport station project are now being replicated across other large-scale projects, such as A12 upgrades.

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