Marginal Gains - Construction

The Marginal Gain theory is in simple terms - breaking everything down and then try to improve it by 1% and it will create a significant increase when you put all the pieces back together.

It’s a theory made famous by its implementation in British Cycling by director Dave Brailsford, the British cycling teams performance before and after the adoption of this method is staggering.

“The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together. Dave Brailsford

Every piece of equipment, every process, every factor that could be improved, Brailsford set out to improve – even if just by minuscule increments. Amazingly some of the improvements includes traveling with your pillow, washing your hands better – in this case the team was shown how to wash their hands like a surgeon before theatre and even painting the interior of the transportation truck white so they could see if there was any dust on the bikes wheels before use.

Q: How can the construction industry benefit from the Marginal Gain Theory? A: By using their data to unlock insights on their performance.

Construction is the combination of multi parts and process to create an output, improve each of these by just 1% could lead to increased profits, faster project turnaround, better quality, less wastage and reduced carbon.

As reported by the Get It Right Initiative avoidable errors are costing the UK construction industry between £10-25bn per annum, roughly 20% of the value of the uK construction industry. Flip this figure and imagine saving 20% on your operations, increasing your profits through efficiencies, retaining satisfied customers. What would that do for your business?

Digital technologies and construction data can bring huge value to the industry through better more accurate project outcomes, more timely delivered projects and increased profits and savings.

In addition it is estimated that around 38 percept of global energy related emissions come from building and construction, how can you take steps to reduce this?

As a starting point, improving your activities and business by 1% is an easy first step and over time these gains compound and proliferate further increasing their benefit and returns.