Name: Adrian Smith
Employer: Willmott Dixon Housing
Project: Meadway Extra Care Home, Birmingham
Adrian Smith’s introduction of a ‘white card’ system had a revolutionary effect on this project. Every operation of every trade was inspected and signed off by the site manager and trade foreman before the next could follow on, and the sign-off white cards were linked to subcontractor payments. The result? ‘In my 30 years in the industry I have never seen a site as productively as well as cosmetically tidy,’ said the client representative. ‘You could have walked around it in carpet slippers.’
When Adrian joined the project it was already six weeks behind, the product of bad weather and the need to change steel-frame supplier part-way through procurement. He not only reprogrammed to meet the completion date, he also rethought the entire project on the basis of subcontractor advice on output and sequencing. The new programme prioritised logic and subcontractor continuity, and Adrian then sat down with his key trades to fine-tune it to perfection, gaining buy-in as an invaluable by-product.
He then kept on top by constantly communicating with the site team. Having helped draft the programme, they understood the bigger picture. And Adrian’s formal weekly meetings with them and daily meetings with supervisors drove the build smoothly, powerfully and with a quality focus. He handed the scheme over a whopping six weeks early, bang on budget and with zero defects to a very happy client.
Value: £9.7m