HEIJMANS : Standardization should lead to calm

4 november 2015

Homes and bridges purchased from a catalogue. Debate about standardization in the construction industry or conceptual construction is quick to refer to such ideas. However, the real gain for customers and the construction industry does not lie in products. Jan Jelsma, N381 provincial motorway Project Manager, and Pim Ketelaars, Manager Wonen (Living) concepts, maintain that the benefits are far more related to gains in calm and confidence.

Jan thinks out loud about the areas within the infrastructure sector where standardization is already being applied: “Paving structures, prefab elements, guide-rails, lighting. We are already doing all of this. Of course, all of this is prescribed by the sector’s standards, the RAW Standard Conditions (specification system for civil and hydraulic engineering works). The differences in a project are in fact inherent in the surroundings and the soil, and the type of substrate and the groundwater level. When it comes to standardization, I think that we can make a bigger difference in terms of our partnerships.” This is very clear to Pim: “We eliminated the internal debate with the Heijmans Living (Woon) Concept. Where do we earn our money and what are we good in? We then started to focus on this. You then do the same type of contracts with the same people. With the same co-creators. Because we already standardized everything at the product level, the debate has shifted to other things.”

The standardization within the Heijmans and co-creator team means that discussion can focus on things other than just price and product only. “The gain then shifts to the work planning. You know which parts to use, such as window and door frames, for example. There is no need to figure this out all over again for every project. It is easy to underestimate the gains you can derive from this,” says Pim. Jan is engaged in a similar debate on his project: “I am not really all that interested whether a subcontractor charges a few euros more or less per hour. What I want is that they contribute to coming up with solutions for the project. For example, that a crane business jointly makes an assessment to determine when the crane can best be deployed and what it is then going to do. If in the end, we deliver on time and with the best possible quality, I would rather pay a little more per hour.”

“Because you each clearly understand what the other party can do and you communicate with each other, it becomes possible to avoid surprises in the project.'

Jan translates this into a tight schedule in his project approach. “Because you each clearly understand what the other party can do and you communicate with each other, it becomes possible to avoid surprises in the project. And this enables us to take a more proactive approach towards our customer. The customer sees that we not only have the work, but everything related to it, such as the management of the surroundings, under control. This is consequently nicely reflected in the work. During a weekend closure, 150 workers had to be at work. Everyone was at the right place within half an hour. Everything went very smoothly. If you are lacking such tight coordination, there is far more chaos and that results in panic. The customer also sees this and comments on the project saying that there is calm at work and that the work is well-organized.”