The installation of innovative Nereda technology at Failsworth WwTw saw the implementation of a more efficient way of working for Suprafilt with the introduction of their ‘off site’ ethos.

Pre-assembling the product meant a 30% reduction in the number of deliveries by 30%, reduction in fuel, man hours, packaging and the carbon footprint. Suprafilt also required only one crane on site. All of these economies created a financial saving to the client, and saved time.

We are leading the field in the development of Nerada installations and it was up to us to refine the process and continually evolve our best practice.

The refined design and process built on Suprafilt’s previous Nereda projects – for example, reducing the number of fixings, which in turn has health and safety benefits as there is less drilling and hand vibrations for the workers. Less manual handling and working at height also reduced the health and safety risks. The factory build also ensured a tidier work area on site.

A previous job of a similar size took eight men around 20 weeks to complete, where Failsworth took four men 14 weeks to complete.

The project:

The Failsworth project required a ‘fast-track’ programme to achieve the overall project completion date.

Traditional construction techniques are to deliver all the supports and all the pipework and assemble on site. However, here given timescales and lack of assembly space we took a different approach. Instead we looked at key modules for the Failsworth project, considering which elements would be optimal, and decided to build and assemble them off-site.

There are constraints around logistical restrictions like haulage and cranage which mean you have to carefully select modules. In effect, we aimed to put the more complex structures together. All of this saves time on site which means the project is inherently cheaper and safer.

Our programme showed which modules were to be installed on which day. That allowed our team to track the progress and ensure we were consistently on or ahead of plan. The approach massively reduces the installation time by as much as 50% in terms of man hours.

The programme was shared online on a common project website accessible to the team at Suprafilt and LiMA so that all parties can see the model as it develops and track progress on site.

Another knock-on effect with this method was a reduction in the number of supports and fixings required. Instead we had common support structures holding up multiple elements rather than having supports for each individual part. This reduced on site drilling time.

Future projects will follow the Failsworth example and will be assembled off site. This will help to make us even more competitive.