Work has commenced on a new digital planning and supply chain management toolbox to help improve efficiency in the construction process for planning and supply chain management.

VINCI Construction UK, BRE, nPlan, Assentian and Skanska have partnered for the project, which seeks to produce a proof of concept version of a toolkit.

Built on a blockchain platform, it aims improve construction productivity via better project planning, improved supply chain collaboration, and analysis of supply chain and IoT data. It has the potential to deliver 25% cost and time savings for projects.

The tool enables planners to create and quantitatively rehearse project delivery scenarios such as sequences, critical path and logistics. This reduces risk by taking account of context-specific restrictions and supply chain 'pinch-points', for example where increased capacity or automation could improve overall productivity.

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PLASMA enables supply chain businesses to collect, share and store 'tamper-resistant' data without the need for central control and management. This optimises complex supply chains and facilitates the tracking of elements such as task completion via existing IoT-based data capabilities. It also enables change management and incremental payments to be made via smart contracts.

Task parameters such as cost, and time will be quantified for planning scenario optioneering and optimisation. The tool will also enable the development of quantified KPIs that are specific to construction supply chains, identifying best practice and the range of performance across the sector. KPIs can be linked to and benchmark a range of established

performance improvement approaches, as well as innovations such as robotics and automation.

Sam Stacey, Director of the Transforming Construction Challenge UKRI, said: "Projects such as PLASMA are funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and play a key role in advancing the transformation across the sector. It will help the construction industry work directly with talented innovators to explore new ways of working in construction that will speed up assembly, save money, and improve the quality of building projects."

The project commenced in March 2018 and will run for two years, supported by UK Research and Innovation.

(CM/MH)