Thursday 22^nd July 2010 saw the West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence (WMCCE) host to the inaugural meeting and workshop of the West Midlands Benchmarking Forum. The construction industry was represented by nine separate organisations operating from the West Midlands up and down the Supplychain, all demonstrating their commitment to continuous improvement over the next year and beyond.

This inaugural meeting focussed on how members could become part of the national Performance Measurement Network and improve their businesses for their benefit and also for their Clients and Customers.

During the workshop, the concept of benchmarking against the best in class and the rest industry was discussed and debated, overcoming any concerns of sharing information with others and overcoming barriers.  Queries were raised and answered on KPI Definitions, Data Collection, Lessons in Best Practice, together with What and How to measure or benchmark and reporting outcomes (improvement and deficiency).

A short case study was presented on how Mansell Construction had used the KPI Engine and Benchmarking to; overhaul and enhance their capacity to report data into the business; provide evidence of activity and improvement; and to support winning new work.

An overwhelming conclusion from the new members was that representation from the Client organisations was absent and delegates resolved to ‘bring your client’ to future meetings.

Building upon the success of this inaugural benchmarking forum event, future meetings will be quarterly, where members will discuss their own business performance and compare and share how performance has been affected by change and improvement on specific themes agreed by the group.

It is clear that in the future, work in the construction sector will diminish and only the best performers will be ready to deliver the required performance levels for their Clients, how will you improve and be ready?

Why not sign up to improve your business or Supplychain and join us on the road to continuous improvement – “Delivering More, for Less”.

Presentation slides during the workshop can be accessed by clicking here.

For more information about the Benchmarking Forum and Performance Measurement Network, contact WMCCE or Nigel Curry at CCI NorthWest nigel.curry@ccinw.com - Improving the construction industry in partnership.