24 March 2003
New construction industry online learning toolkit
A new construction industry online learning toolkit has gone live on industry websites. Six companies, including Buro Happold, BAA, the Bovis-Lend Lease Global Alliance (with BP Amoco) and Transco were invited to test the ‘Learning from Experience’ (LfE) methods, developed especially for the construction industry by David Bartholomew Associates and Gardiner & Theobald.
The toolkit offers a step-by-step guide for companies wanting to set up their own LfE programmes, with the test companies’ experiences appearing as illustrative case studies. Buro Happold’s pilot test of LtE methods was based on the Natural History Museum Darwin Centre, a project involving several engineering challenges, not least the safe housing of 22 million specimens in 450,000 jars of alcohol.
Buro Happold used a number of LtE methods, including a hindsight review process and a desk review of project records. Individual interviews were conducted with project team members to capture tacit knowledge, leading to a learning history – a durable record of comments and lessons learnt - which makes a valuable addition to Buro Happold’s project database.
Andrew Cripps, Buro Happold RDI co-ordinator, explains why the practice became involved in the toolkit: ‘We felt this project would bring us closer to our aim of creating a culture and infrastructure which promotes knowledge creation and sharing.’
Background information for Editors:
The learning toolkit is available now on the following websites:
- Construction Best Practice Programme http://www.cbpp.org.uk http://www.bsria.co.uk will shortly be available in the Feedback Portfolio on Usable Buildings http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk and the Glasgow Caledonian University Knowledge Management site http://www.sbne.gcal.ac.uk
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976 offering civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, health and safety management, infrastructure and traffic engineering, ground engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, computational fluid dynamics analysis, disability design consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.
