Committed to delivering infrastructure smarter, one of the UK’s most experienced transformational improvement companies, Newton, has joined forces with Costain, a smart infrastructure solutions company, to share insights into large-scale infrastructure programmes with a joint report, Gearing Complex Engineering Programmes for Success.
Between them, Newton and Costain have worked on some of the UK’s highest profile defence and infrastructure projects, including the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers and the redevelopment of London Bridge station, giving them unique insight into how large-scale programmes can be set up for success to deliver value for the UK economy.
Complex defence programmes such as the aircraft carrier build inevitably involve challenges across planning, engineering and production that take deep experience and agility to manage efficiently. Drawing on shared expertise, the report identifies three best practice findings – shared focus, programme enablers and smarter working – which, if implemented, significantly impact build efficiency and costs. The report also explores why consensus, communication and innovation are critical to the successful delivery of complex projects.
Stephen Smith, Director of Infrastructure at Newton said: “We are delighted to have worked collaboratively with Costain on this report and share our combined learnings from two large scale programmes which fundamentally faced many of same challenges due to their scale and complexity, despite intuitively looking very different. We hope that the lessons we outline within will offer a platform for industrywide debate and advancement as we continue to meet the infrastructure challenges of the twenty-first century.”
Ian Parker, Sector Director – Rail, Costain, added: “Comparing the London Bridge Station redevelopment and the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers project has been invaluable. The two programmes had significant elements in common and illustrated the need to create a clear and agreed set of objectives and a plan – and then to improve pinch-points in delivery by ensuring a cooperative workplace culture and technological innovation.”
The report can be found in full here:
