The Association of Ductwork Contractors and Allied Services (ADCAS) and the HVCA Ductwork Group have announced the culmination of their highly successful joint campaign to tackle the problem of Information Overload.
Launched two years ago, the campaign was a response to the irresponsible practice of 'dumping' large amounts of irrelevant and unfinished project information down the supply chain.

The ADCAS/HVCA action succeeded in raising the profile of the issue throughout the contractual chain - and in having it addressed by Paul Morrell, the Government's chief construction adviser, who has undertaken to include it in his strategy for industry reform.

Ductwork firms were persuaded to take a lead on the Information Overload issue partly because the advent of information technology has significantly increased the problem - with large quantities of design information being supplied before it is ready for specialist input, or in a state of such incompleteness and/or inaccuracy that the sub-contractor is not able accurately to cost the work.

Indeed, Information Overload has been cited as a major contributor to the estimated £5 bn wasted annually in the construction tendering process, and as a symptom of the fragmentation that undermines the efficiency of project supply chains.

Following a workshop on Information Overload organised by the Construction Industry Research and Information Association, it was agreed that a workable solution could only be identified in the context of an overall improvement in supply chain integration, such as that sought by Paul Morrell.

'We have made great progress, but in order to find a lasting solution, we must look further up the construction chain,' said Kevin White, chairman of the HVCA Ductwork Group.

'There must be a more comprehensive will within the industry to streamline tendering processes - in everyone's interests.'

Paul Adlam, who chaired the ADCAS working party on Information Overload, congratulated all those involved in the campaign for delivering such impressive results. He said: 'This is a difficult and complex issue, but I think that - as specialist firms working at the tail end of the supply chain - we did as much as we could to bring the issue out into the open.'

'We are not backing away from it now. Rather, we are challenging others across the supply chain to pick up our ball and run with it,' he added.

Research carried out by industry consultants Judy Payne and David Churcher in connection with the Information Overload campaign revealed that 72 per cent of respondents believe that tendering is now more difficult than it was five years ago - and that 67 per cent were routinely provided with all the contract information even when simply tendering for one small part of a project.

Significantly, 70 per cent of responses to the online research emanated from main contractors, who clearly identify this issue as a major impediment to the efficient delivery of projects.