Name: Ian Armitage
Employer: ISG Regions
Project: Ramada Encor Hotel, Barnsley
Contract: JCT 2005
After a lifetime in the construction industry, Ian Armitage has seen it all. So when the groundworks contractor’s enabling works went pear-shaped, delaying the site start by a whopping six months, he recognised there was a silver lining. He put to excellent use the 27 weeks of downtime (followed by another four weeks of remediation work) by advancing the procurement and sequencing the works.
But his real management success was his unflagging ability to keep the project team motivated and focused on the job. He brought the client, design and subcontractor teams together to minimise the impact of the delay and to plan remedial works that could drive costs down.
His thorough preparation and transparent, well-oiled communications were the twin driving forces of the project. His dovetailing of the fortnightly planning meetings with the weekly subcontractor meetings proved highly effective in resolving scheduling issues early in the process and made for an efficient site. Ian was proactive in organising meetings, especially with the specialist subcontractors, which went a long way to iron out design, detailing, fixing, labour and programming issues, and smoothly co-ordinated the trades.
The standard of workmanship on this site was superb, thanks largely to an inspection and test plan developed and pursued by Ian. It underpinned a rigorous quality checking regime that resulted in a finished product that delighted the client and the design team.
He also focused strongly on safety. Those operatives who failed to adopt safe practices were excluded from site. A prominent board at the site entrance displayed the safety scores attained by each subcontractor. And at least two toolbox talks were held a month, with every subcontractor having to talk the team through the safety aspects of their specialist areas. It resulted in a site with no reportable accidents.
This smoothly run site, where relationships and communications were at the heart of the management strategy, won great acclaim from the project architect, who declared: “In 25 years of running my own practice, Ian is by far the best project manager I have had the pleasure of working with.”
Value: £5.6m