Name: Mark Norton
Employer: Debut Services Ltd
Project: Alexander Barracks Army Recruitment Training Accommodation, Pirbright, Surrey
Contract: Prime
Like every good general, Mark Norton knows that his troops hold the key to success. By fostering a partnering approach that included the supply chain in decision-making right through this project, Mark won the subcontractors’ commitment to resolving issues, resequencing work and reducing durations, which resulted in considerable cost, quality and time benefits.
He encouraged teambuilding from the start, inviting all supply chain managers to a ‘From Good To Great’ workshop that looked at how to succeed and improve on projects. It made a noticeable difference to all who attended, and bolstered the buy-in already achieved through the contract’s extension of the pain/gain ethos to the supply chain, which shared financially in cost savings or budget overruns.
Mark then led the project charge with shrewd value-engineering taking 5% off costs. For example, he relocated the ablution units nearer the core to reduce the length of pipe runs, changed the roof design from profiled metal to traditional timber, and standardised finishes.
Then with every floor identical in the seven blocks, he used the first block as a learning curve, closely monitoring the sequence and tweaking the subsequent programme with the lessons learnt.
Exploiting the repetitious nature of the units, he also instigated early construction of sample rooms. It benchmarked the quality standard, ironed out the sequencing and design development issues, managed user expectations and allowed for client tweaking. The result was zero defects and a snag total that decreased with each succeeding completion to zero on the final block.
And when strict army security resulted in long, slow-moving queues of construction workers outside the camp gates, Mark seized the opportunity of the appointment of a new quartermaster to develop an excellent relationship that effectively sorted out the problem. To ensure site workers did not have to leave the base (with all the security considerations that entailed) during the day, Mark provided a full-service canteen and even an onsite branch of the local tool hire shop.
In completing this project a month early and £4m under budget, Mark has delivered a project that is now a showcase for the MoD’s Single Living Accommodation Modernisation (SLAM) programme, as well as Debut Services and the subcontractors.