Whitefriars Maintenance, Coventry

Whitefriars is a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer from Coventry City Council, it operates from a group structure, Whitefriars services, Whitefriars South and Whitefriars North. The guarantees to residents involve a five-year programme to fully maintain and improve each property within the stock.

This large project involves 20,000 units for refurbishment. For a programme of this size and intensity, all the teams' efforts would need to be focused on managing the programme rather than protecting corners.

A team structure was needed that encouraged this and that would remove some of the traditional barriers that often exist in the client/contractor/supply chain relationships.

The project involved the client and contractors working in parallel partnering arrangements. All partners in the programme had some experience of partnering, but this long-term programme provided an opportunity to take integration to a different level.

As such the key innovation in this project is the focus on and commitment to lean thinking and continuous improvement through a 5-year programme. This will be enhanced by comparisons between the contractors.

The contract arrangements involved signing a five-year strategic agreement under PPC2000, this defines the overall relationship. Individual contracts are then entered into for the works in each project year. The contracts have a high degree of flexibility and works are allocated according to resources, funding and progress.

Drivers for attempting to integrate the supply chain

• The repetitive nature of the works means it is well suited to continuous improvement and the introduction of lean construction principles.
• The team set out 5 key objectives and 10 performance indicators, taking data collected in the pilot scheme they set benchmarks for year on year improvements.
• A structure was set up which allows a focus on continuous improvement of Whitefriars key objectives within a strategic delivery framework.
• To promote integration, all elements of the structure have all-party representation and facilities are available at each office base for shared use.