Innovate UK has awarded a grant to a consortium for the development of a solution for high supply chain costs in the construction industry. The grant is part of a plan to meet government targets to reduce costs by £45 billion (33 per cent) by 2025.
The grant has been awarded to analytics firm Concentra, engineering solutions provider Costain, and Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick.
Simon Hart, innovation programme leader – built environment at Innovate UK said: “The construction industry needs to innovate if it is to meet customer demand for higher performance and to become a dynamic industry. Yet, lack of integration within the supply chain is leading to lost opportunities for innovation.
“Projects Innovate UK have funded, such as Concentra’s, show great potential in helping the construction industry meet its goals.”
The three companies will work together to provide a solution which will help securely analyse construction material, equipment and labour supply chains. This will provide greater visibility and identify areas for improvement in material flows, demand and supply of resources and utilisations over time.
There have been three Innovate UK programmes in this sector:
Firstly ‘rethinking the build process’: seven projects comprising of 35 companies and valued at £6.8M received £3.4M of funding.
Secondly, ‘digitising the construction sector’: 10 projects comprising 38 companies were awarded funding of £5.6M and commenced in April 2015.
And finally ‘supply chain integration’: with up to £2 million in feasibility studies
