Planned Maintenance framework saves Longhurst Group over 1000 hours of staff time

The objective of any procurement exercise is to source a service that represents value for money to the customer at the price and quality they desire.

Reallies Partner CHIC worked with Longhurst Group to procure the contractor and supply chain to deliver their kitchen and bathroom replacement programme and this exercise immediately demonstrated a 7% saving against their incumbent provider.

However, value for money is not measured at tender stage but when the job is completed on time, on budget and to the desired quality. CHIC worked with the project team to refine the pricing structure and processes being used to ensure efficient use of resources. Regular review meetings and the use of Schemes Plus ensured costs were transparent to all, and when the final property was handed over the final account was agreed.

Rob MacDonald, Regional Planned Works Manager at the Longhurst Group said: “The transparency that Schemes Plus provides has enabled us to minimise the administrative time needed for the contract whilst retaining the control of the price. Discussions with the contractor are now based more on innovation and value engineering and less about remeasure and variation”.

Matt Fearn, Managing Director at Woodland Property Services added: “By working with the project team to streamline processes I was able to reduce my QS resource from five days per month to less than one. This has enabled my team to concentrate more on innovation and the customer and less on the paperwork. At first I was sceptical about splitting out the materials element, however the cash flow benefits and increased competitivity that this provides has certainly put my concerns to rest”.

Using the Reallies framework has saved Longhurst Group 1,120 hours of unproductive time, with average cost savings of 7% and an additional saving of £12k through value engineering during project.