Name: Mark Giltsoff FCIOB
Employer: Skanska
Project: PFI Bristol Schools x 4
Contract: PFI
‘The way your employees feel is the way your customers are going to feel,’ says Mark Giltsoff, and he took the advice to heart. The key to his approach was staff motivation in building 55,000sqm of teaching facilities in four separate sites.
He set the highest welfare standards, with clean and spacious facilities and an excellent canteen. He managed his suppliers fairly and communicated with them openly. They responded with a flexibility that allowed works to be reprogrammed when required, and solutions to be achieved amicably and cost-effectively.
Mark rapidly established a senior management team. He made the early crucial methodology choices, such as choosing a flat slab concrete frame rather than steel, making the interfaces as simple as possible.
He aligned the structural and M&E subcontractors with the design team in defining exactly what had to be built and in what sequence. He encouraged the supply chain to contribute to meeting the project goals.
After building the first school, he assembled all the trade specialists and consultants to work out what could be done better. He set a target of reducing build costs on subsequent schools by 5% by eliminating waste rather than squeezing profitability.
As the schools were built, one after another, he constantly came up with fresh solutions to the problems that arose. He saved £40K by redesigning the interface between the structural steel and the curtain wall on one school. When a quarry was uncovered at another school, he excavated the stone, crushing it and using it as fill, to save another £25K.
Value: £126m