Siniat has launched a productivity research project with building science centre BRE (Building Research Establishment) to identify ways of improving productivity in the drylining industry.  

The research will assess the speed of installation for a range of drywall systems, including taping and jointing systems and twin frame and single frame partition systems, to identify best practice and potential areas of improvement.  The project will also measure the amount of process waste generated during the installation process for each system type and will look at health and safety aspects, such as manual handling and the dust and noise impacts of cutting processes.

Siniat and the BRE will focus in particular on drywall systems for multi-residential schemes, as one of the sectors most under pressure to accelerate build times to meet the UK’s housing shortfall.

The investigation will be conducted using CaliBRE, a site efficiency and productivity measurement tool developed by the BRE that measures ‘waste’ by assessing the proportion of time in each construction process measured that does not add value to the construction project in question. The tool forms part of a suite of digital construction performance tools including Yellow Jacket and SmartWaste. The research is due to be completed in autumn 2016.

Neil Ash, managing director for Siniat UK, said: “The UK is struggling to boost productivity across all sectors of its economy.  For the construction industry in particular, speeding up building processes is crucial to driving down costs and helping us to meet current and future development needs.

“This research will help us to further target our innovation work into the next generation of dry construction systems which can help our customers to drive efficiency on-site, cut down installation times and ultimately deliver better projects.”