Costain advocates production thinking as a means to deliver best-in-class infrastructure solutions in the road, rail, integrated transport, energy, water, and defence and nuclear energy sectors.
Find out more about production thinking and how it differs from traditional methods of construction.
What is production thinking?
Production thinking combines modern methods of construction (MMC) with new technologies and materials, lean techniques, digital tools and smart decision-making to boost productivity and efficiency across Costain’s infrastructure projects, supporting a more prosperous, resilient, and decarbonised UK.
It is embedded in Costain’s approach to best-in-class infrastructure delivery, and more than 1,300 of our people have been trained in production thinking to standardise behaviours across our design and delivery teams.
The approach is split into three broad pillars that cover all stages of a project:
- Pre-manufacturing – boosting offsite and modular construction and embedding principles of established methodologies such as design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA).
- Operational efficiencies - utilising new technologies and materials and applying lean management principles to reduce waste and maximise customer value.
- Automation – the adoption of robotics and AI.
The benefits of production thinking
- It drives a better understanding of productivity within infrastructure projects, helping to ensure more accurate delivery timelines.
- It enables the use of modularisation and standardisation principles, which help to identify cost and time efficiencies for our customers.
- It is implemented throughout our supply chain, encouraging a more productive and collaborative relationship in the delivery of large-scale projects.
Production thinking in action
Across our sectors we have implemented a range of production thinking solutions, including:
Pioneering concrete sensor technology to reduce formwork time
Across our projects in road, rail and water, we have used new concrete sensor technology to track the strength and temperature of setting concrete.
Gaia 200 sensors, developed by technology firm Maturix, send real-time temperature and strength data wirelessly to project teams during concrete pours, informing the teams when to remove the formwork (the temporary structure used to mould concrete to required dimensions).
As a result, it has reduced the average length of time that formwork is in place by a third, with one Costain project using the sensors for more than 80 different pours and structures.
Read more about the technology here.
Applying lean management principles to the London Underground
Working with TfL, we provided design, buildability and construction advice for the upgrade of the Piccadilly Line.
We used a range of production thinking principles on the project, including implementing a smart workflow management tool to manage and track project tasks. It facilitated collaboration at each stage of the design and also avoided duplications and costly rework. Alongside this, we developed a standard toolkit which can be rapidly deployed across the London Underground network to accelerate design, procurement and assurance.
As a result, we delivered cost savings of more than 25% and reduced the duration of the programme by more than 15%.
Read more about the project here.
Supporting National Highways with 3D printing technology
We led the use of 3D printing in a UK road building project for the first time on our completed upgrade of the A30.
Instead of using traditional pre-cast concrete, we used 3D printing to build a headwall structure for a wildlife corridor, which has contributed to a predicted 20% net gain in biodiversity on the scheme.
The project, supported by our partner, Versarien, used a bespoke, curved shape for the headwall enabled by the 3D printing, giving greater structural efficiency than traditional rectangular headwalls. It also allowed for the use of fibre reinforcement to replace traditional steel rebar, providing further material savings.
Read more about the technology here.
Offsite fabrication to prevent disruption to the Notting Hill Carnival
As part of our work with TfL providing design and construction services for improvements to the A40, we deployed production thinking techniques to drive predictable, right-first-time outcomes ensuring that the Notting Hill Carnival was not affected by construction works.
These included a coordinated approach to road closures with other TfL projects, the offsite fabrication of joints and of a joint installation trial in order to manage the replacement of seven cantilever expansion joints on the project, as well as the use of 3D asset surveys and scanning.
Read more about the project here.
Discover more
Want to learn more about Costain’s approach? Get in touch with our production thinking lead, James Neve ([email protected]).
James is a chartered engineer who has overseen the embedding of production thinking into Costain’s operations. He has extensive experience designing and delivering complex national infrastructure projects including projects for Network Rail, National Grid and HS2.
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