Construction Waste - Do you know how much is being thrown away?

Do you know how much waste is being produced on your construction site - or come to that, do you care?  No doubt you have priced the job and allowed for an element of waste within the quantities of materials required, so provided you get the project done on time and within budget what does it matter?

Apart from any good corporate governance or environmental considerations, it matters because it has a big impact on your profitability.  If materials account for, say, 40% of a contract value and your waste 15% (a typical value), that’s 6% of potential margin thrown away!  There are not many construction companies that would not like to see a few percentage points added to their bottom line.

So assuming you are aware of the waste on your construction site (it’s hard to miss after all - there’s so much of it) what do you do about it?  Simply speaking, you start to measure it.  For example, you can ask your suppliers to segregate waste by type (plaster board, timber, bricks etc.) and you can monitor how many skips leave site.  You might even be able to determine which contractors are the biggest generators of waste.  It’s not always their fault but at least you can identify the problem and work with them to find solutions.  You can then agree how the waste will be reduced on future contracts and perhaps how the benefits will be shared.  The fact is that unless you start to measure waste you will never know how much you are producing and you will never find ways of reducing it.

And then there’s transport waste.  Wasted, or inefficient, journeys of people and materials resulting in wasted fuel.  Maybe you see this as your suppliers’ responsibility, maybe not.  But in any event it’s ultimately costing you money.  So why not start to measure it.  Ask your major suppliers how much of their prices are related to transport - and if they say that delivery is free, ask them politely to re-think.  What they really mean is that transport costs are built in to the prices and they don’t know how to answer your question.

And, of course, in all this, we haven’t mentioned wasted labour.  Various estimates suggest that anything from 20% to 50% of skilled labour is wasted on finding or moving materials on a construction site …….. but that’s another story for another day.

THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS, are a leading specialist supply chain and logistics consultancy, has experience in planning and developing supply chain, distribution and warehousing operations throughout the world. From supply chain and distribution strategy, to development of distribution operations, warehouse design and layout, as well as manufacturing logistics and IT systems design, its clients include many blue chip companies.  We also work on government initiatives on sustainable transport and waste minimisation.

For further information please call:Helen Morris, THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS on +44(0)1527 889 060, email helen.morris@logistics.co.uk