Technics Awarded Gold Star

Technics have achieved Gold Level 3 status with Constructionline.

Constructionline is an industry-leading supply chain management service. Their aim is to make procurement and contracting by the client simpler, to reduce risk and to standardise the often laborious and time-consuming process of pre-qualification.

From our client’s point of view, they have a duty of care under their own quality and safety systems to ensure that contractors working on their sites meet safe standards. Without using a service like Constructionline, it falls to the client themselves to take on this task; one they may not have the time or specialist knowledge to tackle.

Technics have been accredited with Constructionline for many years. Recently, Constructionline underwent some changes to their system aligning their questions to the industry benchmark PAS 91 Construction Prequalification Questionnaires.

PAS 91 is a Publicly Available Specification which was commissioned by the Government and developed by BSI in 2010. This was with the specific aim of reducing the burden on small and medium size suppliers and contractors who have to complete a range of PQQ’s and approval forms from their clients before work can commence. PAS 91 is a set of standardised questions which can be used in part or in full by clients and accreditation bodies to assess the potential of existing subcontractors or suppliers.

Ironically, for a system which is designed to maximise efficiency, the burden on contractors only grows. Each individual accreditation or stand-alone approval takes considerable time and effort and contractors are in a tricky position trying to decide which to achieve. The efficient ideal where a contractor can complete these questions once and simply reuse the answers is still some way off but is a positive direction for these accreditation bodies to aim towards.

Technics carefully select which accreditations we should obtain. As an SME contractor we must show that not only can we meet any health, safety, environmental, quality, BIM (Building Information Modelling) and corporate social responsibility requirements set by the client but show evidence of continuous improvement and development. The accreditations we select help us achieve this aim and meet our client’s requirements, saving us both time, reducing risk and maximising efficiency (as much as we can).

Alison Smith, Technics’ Compliance Manager said: “I am so pleased that Technics have achieved Gold status with Constructionline. Our fantastic, efficient Admin Team did a cracking job compiling the answers and evidence needed for our submission. As a company, we invest to ensure our systems and processes meet not only our requirements but those of the wider industry and this is one of our key benchmark indicators to show we are minimising client risk”.