Constructing excellence announces results of UK Construction Industry's 2007 KPI Survey

Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment has released the results of the 2007 UK Construction Industry Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The survey revealed improved industry performance across a number of indicators and reduced levels of improvement across others.

The results this year will all be published on KPIzone ñ the UK Construction Industry KPIs are now on-line at www.kpizone.com. This will replace the hard copy packs and will enable users to use the figures in a more dynamic and flexible way than previously.

A number of improvements can be seen on the predictability indicators, with time predictability (project) increasing from 44% in 2006 to 58% in 2007. Smaller improvements were also registered in terms of time predictability for both design and construction phases of a project.

On the client satisfaction indicators, figures show a fall across all three indicators including product, service and value for money. The biggest fall was seen on service and value for money indicators, which measured a decrease from 79% to 75% and from 80% to 75% respectively. The longer term trend, over the five year period, across all indicators, remains one of steady improvement.

According to Peter Cunningham, Director, Constructing Excellence: ìCompared with last yearís results, the 2007 KPI survey paints a mixed picture of performance improvement. We have seen improvements on the predictability measures at the same time as falls in client satisfaction. The demonstration project programme is delivering better performance than the general industry and we are continuing to see good progress. Publishing the KPI results online means that companies will be able to benchmark their own performance much more effectively which we expect will advance the continuous improvement agenda.î

Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for Industry and the Regions, commented: ìThe KPIs are a valuable tool for the UK construction industry and benchmarking is central to enabling UK construction companies to compete at a global level. It is imperative for UK construction companies, irrespective of size, to measure and improve their performance. It is very encouraging that the industry continues to head in the right direction on many indicators. Continuing to support the delivery of the KPIs will remain a key objective for the DTI in 2007.î

Over the last 5 years, there have been significant improvements in productivity with an increase from 28k value-added per employee in 2002 to 42k in 2007. In addition, the number of companies reporting zero incidents is now standing at 62%, which is double the 31% registered in 2002.

Housing
The housing sector registered improvements across a number of indicators. Project predictability in the sector has improved with the percentage of projects on-cost or better rising from 43% last year to 48% in 2007. The percentage of projects delivered on-time or better was also up from 42% in 2006 to 46% in 2007. In addition, productivity in the housing sector increased from 47,800 median value per employee in 2006 to 54,000 in 2007. At the same time, profitability declined to a median of 7.1% in 2007 from 8.5% in 2006 and 8.9% in 2005.

Client satisfaction in the housing sector for product reversed last yearís decline and improved slightly from 81% in 2006 to 83% in 2007 (based on the percentage scored by clients at 8 out of 10 or better). However, client satisfaction in the housing sector for service and defects worsened with service falling from 78% in 2006 to 74% and defects from 82% in 2006 to 74%.

Environment
On the environmental KPIs, compared with last yearís figures, the industry is performing less well. On the opinion indicators, which measure the perceptions of clients on how much care is being taken for the environment in the design of the product or facility, there has been a fall with clients giving 8 or more out of 10 for Impact on the Environment down from 54% to 51% in 2007; impact on biodiversity fell from 36% to 34%; and, whole life performance went down from 41% to 39%.

Whilst some improvements were measured in energy and water use during construction, there was a worsening of waste transported off-site from 37.0 to 39.1 m3 per 100k project value.

Respect for People
The results which measure Respect for People again show mixed results. Staff turnover has improved, dropping from 5.9% in 2006 to only 5.0% in 2007. However, days lost through sickness increased from 1.4 days per employee in 2006 to 1.7 days in 2007.

Employee satisfaction dropped this year after two years of improvements to 47% compared with 55% in 2006. Training across the industry has remained low at a median rate of 0.9 day per employee per year, just marginally down on the full day registered in 2006.