Esher 22 November 2017: Principal Engineer Ioannis Vousvoukis (pictured left) from Wentworth House Partnership, part of Keltbray Group, was on the team that won last night’s Tech Sprint at the Construction News Summit 2017 at Hilton Bankside in Southwark with their ‘Act’ solution to improve productivity in construction.

At this year’s Tech Sprint, companies in construction had nominated some of their brightest minds to come together to develop a new technology-based solution to improve productivity, which is one of the biggest challenges currently faced by the industry.

During the the 12-hour challenge, Ioannis’ team came up with the idea of a software solution designed for project teams to facilitate automatic project updates and alerts for all project team members and supply chain contractors on the back of construction programme changes.

Head Judge and Associate Editor for Construction News, Damon Schunmann, said: “Every idea had merit, but the judges felt the Act solution was very well articulated, although it would require some work to get the supply the chain on-board. However, it has great potential for improving productivity and could well be adopted on site.”

Keltbray Remediation’s Junior Contracts Manager, George Watt (pictured left), also took part in the challenge, and was on one of the four runner-up teams. Their solution, ‘Snap’, proposed to save programme time and reduce email traffic through the introduction of a social media platform that can be used by the supply chain to resolve smaller queries more quickly.

“It was a fun, but tiring day, and inspiring to work in such a collective way with representatives from other companies in the industry,” said Ioannis. George agreed, but thinks some of the companies in our industry would need time to get their heads around such collaborative tools: “In our industry, there are still companies that like to keep information close to their chests. This mentality would pose a challenge and would need to change if we were to implement some of the solutions proposed at the tech sprint,” he said.

Thinking outside the box is vital if construction is to win the war on productivity, and the young people at the tech sprint showed what can be done when you try something new.

ENDS

For more information, please contact Keltbray’s head of communications, Marit Meyer-Bell, on tel. 0786 765 3392 or by email to [email protected]

Keltbray Group
Keltbray Group is a UK leading specialist business, which offers engineering, construction, demolition, decommissioning, remediation, rail, environmental services and reinforced concrete frame solutions. The company dates back to 1976, employs more than 1,500 people, and is a key player in developing and maintaining Britain’s built environment. Keltbray provides services to meet the needs of diverse and complex projects, and its well qualified people take pride in delivering projects safely and efficiently, on time and to budget, and with care for the environment and our communities. Keltbray has contributed to a range of high profile construction projects including The Shard, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Stadium, St Pancras International, Crossrail, Earls Court and Battersea Power Station.