Kier has published a new report examining how Construction Playbook recommendations are translating into real-world industrialised delivery outcomes across major public sector programmes.
Lessons from the Construction Playbook: Industrialisation in Action explores how principles including longer-term contracting, standardisation, outcome-based specifications and early supply chain involvement are improving productivity, quality and programme certainty.
Based on its findings, Kier recommends greater use of standardised outcome measures, stronger alignment between customers and supply chains, and increased focus on programme-level delivery models that enable industrialisation and continuous improvement.
The report comes as skills shortages and cost uncertainty continue to challenge project delivery, sharpening the need for more productive and predictable approaches to building public infrastructure.
Drawing on evidence from major government programmes, the report demonstrates how industrialised approaches can help address many of the challenges highlighted by the Construction Playbook. The findings draw on Kier's experience supporting programmes including the Ministry of Justice's New Prison Programme, the NHS New Hospital Programme, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation's Single Living Accommodation Programme and the Department for Education's Construction frameworks.
Kier's analysis shows measurable benefits from industrialised delivery, including:
47% improvement in productivity
40% improvement in quality
15% improvement in delivery certainty
The report also identified improvements across design, delivery, carbon, waste and quality, including:
22% faster than traditional, non-systemised approaches
74% of prison houseblock design and 60% of overall project design standardised
43% fewer technical queries, per 100 documents
41% reduction in construction waste, per 100m²
15% reduction in quality issues, per 100m²
14.9% reduction in embodied carbon of precast concrete, compared with the Fosse Way* baseline (*MoJ's previous completed prison)
99.3% precast quality rate, supported by digital tracking across prison projects
100% of projects completed to budget and schedule, as reported for the New Prison Programme
The report also recommends moving beyond traditional cost-based productivity measures alone, arguing that metrics such as certainty, quality, waste reduction, design efficiency, carbon performance and workforce stability provide a more complete picture of project performance.
Andrew Dewdney, head of industrialisation at Kier, said:
When the Construction Playbook was published in 2020, it set out a clear vision for transforming how public sector projects and programmes are delivered. Five years on, the industry is increasingly asking what evidence exists that those principles work in practice. What we've found is that the greatest benefits come when industrialisation is viewed as more than a construction methodology. It is about creating the conditions for continuous improvement through repeatable requirements, integrated supply chains and long-term programme thinking. The evidence suggests it can play a critical role in helping clients looking at critical infrastructure investments improve productivity, certainty and value across repeatable programmes of work.
Dapo Obatusin, deputy director, Capital Construction Delivery, MoJ Property Directorate added:
Industrialised construction is central to our approach to delivering the prison estate we need. Kier’s report reinforces the case for this model, demonstrating how innovation and practical delivery experience can improve productivity, quality and certainty. By sharing these insights and lessons, Kier is helping advance a way of building that is essential to delivering at the scale required and securing better value for the public.