Challenges

The site was originally a car park located on Denby Street, situated opposite Sheffield United’s football stadium.  It is also surrounded by other businesses, student accommodation and private dwellings, making for an extremely tight site and work area.  This led to significant logistical challenges throughout the course of the project. Our main consideration was getting materials to site efficiently and then distributing it around the scheme once delivered.

Solutions

The solution to overcome this challenge was two-fold. Firstly, we meticulously planned how we would get materials to site in the most efficient way possible.  We then detailed out how material would be handled when on site in order to distribute them to the various work areas. This resulted in our delivery team securing off site storage space, with one of our supply partners, to transit materials on a ‘just in time’ basis.  This led to us maximising the amount of available space on site and decluttering work areas to create greater production efficiency.

Secondly, we identified a need for two tower cranes.  A detailed hook time analysis, carried out as part of our logistics planning process, highlighted that the use of two cranes would create distribution efficiencies.   This allowed us to move materials around site effectively, both horizontally and vertically across the two buildings.

Results

Our solutions resulted in the efficient and effective delivery of materials when required.  We limited the amount of space required to store materials, which led to the safe and productive day to day operations of the site.  Overall the detailed planning and execution of our logistics strategy significantly contributed to the handover of more than 750 bedrooms.  In turn, this allowed the clients student intake to occupy their rooms prior to the commencement of the academic year.