CIRIA BUILDOFFSITE Guidance for greater use of performance specifications in order to facilitate the adoption of MMC (P3279)

The CIRIA Research team and BUILDOFFSITE are working together on developing new guidance on performance specifications. A key barrier to the increased adoption of offsite manufacture and modern methods of construction (MMC) has been identified as the degree of detail which is typically provided in procurement documentation whether commissioning design services or a tender stage when selecting constructors and suppliers. This level of detail can inadvertently lead towards traditional construction practice as a default and create barriers to the adoption of offsite manufacture and MMC. From a client perspective this discourages innovation and hinder the opportunities to bring the benefits of ‘tooledup/investing in tooling-up’ manufacturing technologies into play.

In response to this identified need the BUILDOFFSITE Client Group have requested CIRIA and BUILDOFFSITE to produce a guide to developing appropriate forms of functional specification which would not act as a barrier to the adoption of offsite manufacturing and MMC.

The guidance will provide clients with an improved understanding of:

• What should be framed in a functional specification and what should not be to avoid creating unintentional barriers
• The extent of detail to be included in commissioning/tender documentation so as not to constrain/lead, constructors/suppliers/designers to adopt traditional construction practice.
• Routes for maximising the use of functional specifications across sectors.
• How to provide Clients with the products they require while allowing designers to be creative and suppliers to utilise the design work and product development within their existing portfolios.
• Exploit lessons learnt by prior projects and to focus on areas where product development is happening throughout the supply chain.
• Approaches to sharing of technical information and practice across industry and its sectors.

Project status
The authoring team is now established, with Sheppard Robson and WSP taking on the chapter looking at this from the designers’ perspectives. An online meeting of the chapter authors was held in February 2024 to ensure that all aspects of the intended scope are being covered and that unnecessary repetition is being avoided.

Call for case studies
This project will include case studies. If you have potential candidates for this, please contact Nigel Fraser. Templates have been developed for these, which should help develop them in a consistent way.

Further information
For further information or to get involved with this project please contact Andy Moores.