INNOVATION & SUPPLY CHAIN
Innovating the future at Stafford
Andrew Ellwood, innovation and continuous improvement manager on the Stafford Area Improvements Programme, spoke to RTM about innovation in project management.
fter our site visit to see early construction work on the Stafford Area Improvements Programme (SAIP), as reported in the April/ May 2014 edition, RTM wanted to hear more about the ways innovation is being managed on the project.
A
It is being delivered by Network Rail with partners VolkerRail, Laing O’Rourke and Atkins, who form the Staffordshire Alliance. Their aims are simple: improving the line speed between Crewe and Norton Bridge, resignalling Stafford station, and installing a new railway flyover at Norton Bridge. But delivering the project as safely and efficiently as possible has required a new way of working.
Andrew Ellwood works for Laing O’Rourke and manages innovation
and continuous
improvement for the Alliance. He is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer from the manufacturing sector.
Values and behaviours
He told RTM: “Staffordshire Alliance’s client, Network Rail, will be delighted if we deliver its £250m SAIP on time and to budget, but not if we do so by exhibiting the wrong values and behaviours.
“It is important to recognise that to truly ‘deliver’ this challenging multi-disciplinary programme of work, we need to demonstrate that we have done the work differently; that we have not defaulted to business-as-usual practice when under pressure but have actively sought the
36 | rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 14
“This illustrates one of the fundamental challenges of innovation; that the return on
investment is often
ambiguous or difficult to quantify.”
more efficient and effective approach. We need to be diligent in our choice of products, services and construction methodologies to ensure that new and emerging technologies are appraised and applied where appropriate.
“It’s worth noting that ‘best for Alliance’ should give
cognisance
to the intangible benefits that arise from playing host
to innovation, meaning that it is ok to spend a little or risk a little in the pursuit of something new. Alliance team members recognise that it is squarely within their duties to look outside the rail industry for inspiration and seek to import the good practice or proven products into the rail environment to challenge our existing ways of working. This is how we will demonstrate our core value of ‘Challenge and Innovation’ to the client and the wider industry.”
Beyond the tangible
The Alliance has been making “concerted efforts to innovate in a range of levels and directions”, Ellwood added. “Business-level innovation, such as novel forms of contract or industry partnerships, have been as important as more tangible items of innovation, such as products and services that challenge the incumbent ways of working.”
Doing so has necessitated looking outside the Alliance, and plenty of partnership working. “Working relationships have been formed with the Railway Industry Association (RIA) and the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), with both bodies choosing to pilot business-level
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