“Value” what is it and how do we measure it?

What’s valuable to one person isn’t necessarily valuable to another. So, we need to be clear on what value is expected from an investment in infrastructure.

What are the criteria that make up our common understanding of value, how do we define it, how do we measure it and how do we ensure that this is understood and delivered right through our supply chains and right through the life of the investment? This is where the Value Toolkit comes in.

Piers Burroughs, managing director of Burroughs, and Cherie Paterson of Costain, explained at our conference, that “value” is the Golden Thread throughout the life of the project and the Value Toolkit, developed by the Construction Innovation Hub:

• provides a framework to deliver better value

• pauses the process to speed up later

• stimulates the hard questions being asked and answered

• provides a repeatable, consistent and auditable process

• accommodates the rich policy framework in Wales

• is agnostic to Gateway Procedures

• complements other measurement tools

Importantly, for construction clients and suppliers across Wales it gives clarity on what value is expected from an investment and helps to define a strategy for delivering and measuring that value through the supply chain.

It is consistent with the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act and the Wellbeing objectives that all public bodies in Wales need to deliver against. For suppliers, contractors and consultants, it sets out what is expected of them and how risks are best allocated and managed, to deliver the best outcomes.

This is unlikely to mean transferring all project risks down the supply chain! But it does mean a greater opportunity to deliver social value, drive down carbon, and provide better long term outcomes.

“Value-based decision making focuses on how an investment can deliver the best outcomes and thus value, rather than focusing exclusively on delivering to the lowest possible price.”