Five years of celebrating World Quality

2017  

In 2017, Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd signed the contract for Phase 3A of the Battersea Power Station development. It was crucial for the team to establish a management commitment, so the project’s Quality Leadership Team (QLT) was founded to focus on First Time Right delivery. As part of this start-up, a quality policy was developed and agreed on between all collaborating partners on the project. That year, the CQI World Quality Day theme was ‘Everyday leadership’, so we integrated a quality leadership approach into the project culture. We learned that, to establish quality at the heart of our team, these eight key roles should be performed by leaders: the quality advocate, the stakeholder advocate, the systems thinker, the fact-based thinker, the quality planner, the quality coach, the quality motivator, and the quality collaborator. Using the eight key leadership roles, we were able to implement quality values and management commitments throughout the project’s quality policy, which helped to enhance every professional’s role as part of their everyday work. 

2018  

In 2018, the CQI World Quality Day theme was ‘Trust’. Following CQI guidance, as a project, we focused on building a trustful relationship with all stakeholders involved and with a progressively growing integrated management team. The project recognised that trust derives from quality, and that it is important to build trustful relations for a successful project delivery. Together, we identified attributes of trust, such as transparency and consistency, and then collectively came up with actions to sustain them. To continue employing this culture and morale, the team put together a Project Charter of Trust, which was a symbol of team’s commitment to build and sustain trust. 

2019  

In 2019, the theme of the year was ‘100 years of quality’, and it was the golden 100-year anniversary for the CQI. Together again, we 100 years of the quality profession and the significance of our work, engaging with the project’s key trade contractors, architects, consultants and the client, Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC). With the help of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and the Get It Right Initiative (GIRI), the team constructed a LEGO model, to demonstrate the importance of effective collaboration working together. In 2019, one of the most important mutual deliverables was a Phase 3A film produced by the project. The film, called ‘Inspired by Quality’, was shared with the wider project team to engage more members of the delivery team who worked on Phase 3. 

2020 

In 2020, the CQI World Quality Day theme was ‘Creating customer value’. To celebrate, we gathered to think about the role of quality and the value it brings to our customers, with a focus on the Building Safety Bill and how it would help us deliver quality excellence. The bill was introduced in response to Dame Judith Hackitt’s independent review of buildings regulation and fire safety following the Grenfell tragedy in June 2017. We looked at the bill and the way it would transform how we record information and control quality on projects. We recognised the importance of digital technology to quality delivery, and the value in the certainty it provides for our clients. We also recognised the importance of taking pride in the customer value we create. 

2021

This year, we are preparing for the handover and successful completion of Phase 3A next year, and the team is looking forward to celebrating this year’s World Quality Week theme of Sustainability: improving our products, people and planet, which means a lot, not just for the project, but also for every business and organisation. Together with the QLT, Phase 3A and 3B teams will come together to take part in quizzes, games nights and workshops run by our Production and Sustainability teams, to raise awareness of the role of quality in sustainability. Our Sustainability and Community teams have also been working with local schools on a project that encouraged students to think about sustainability. We asked the students to design a bug hotel, and the winning design was then built out of reusable and repurposed waste material. This project showed how sustainability can bring the community together.

The CQI’s themes, knowledge, and inspirational ideas over the last five years have injected a good spirit and morale into the Phase 3A project, and has helped towards successful completion and handover in anticipation of 2022. 

Find out more about Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd.