No ‘Big Bang’ accompanied the Building Research Establishment‘s move four years ago from the public to the private sector. Nevertheless, the switch has led to a sizeable shift in the way that the organisation functions and the make-up of its client base, according to Dr Tony Bravery, director of BRE‘s Centre for Timber Technology & Construction (BRE-CTTC).
Not that the BRE has lost any of its standing as a leading centre for construction and fire research. BRE is still known worldwide by its three simple initials as a source of research, consultancy and information services for the construction sector as well as for building owners and users.
BRE-CTTC offers three key areas of expertise: wood technology – covering properties and behaviour, processing and components, and environmental issues; wood durability – covering exterior wood coatings, preservation and wood biodeterioration; and timber engineering – dealing largely with European and international standards affecting the structural use of timber. BRE-CTTC performs a highly active role in shaping legislation and framing codes and standards, and serves as a technical advisory source for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.
The centre’s scientists and technicians – many of international renown in their given fields – are supported at Garston by specialist research and testing facilities, including: a small-scale sawmill and machine shop, standard and high temperature kilns, a national library of wood samples, controlled conditioning test chambers, mechanical testing laboratories, full-scale structural testing rigs, a multi-storey timber frame test facility, pilot preservative treatment plants, artificial weathering equipment, a creep rig facility, and chemical analytical/microbiological laboratories. The centre also has access to BRE’s Fire Research Station.
One of the most striking effects of privatisation has been the strong growth in contracts won in the commercial rather than government sphere.
In 1990, government departments provided BRE-CTTC with all but around 15% of its turnover. Today, however, the split is relatively even. ‘It would be fair to say that we now look at the whole client arena as a common body of potential customers,’ Dr Bravery said.
He acknowledged, however, that privatisation had provoked ‘a major cultural change’. No longer primarily a government-funded service that had to respond to all incoming enquiries, BRE-CTTC now had to focus on securing and delivering work for which clients were willing to pay for the centre’s highly-prized services. ‘If we don’t get business in a certain area we have to ask ourselves searching questions as to whether we should still be in that area,’ he said.
Employing 25 people, BRE-CTTC had become ‘much more customer focused’ and therefore ‘much more flexible and multi-skilled’ with senior specialists now generally backed by junior personnel capable of offering support across a wide range of disciplines. The centre had had to learn ‘very fast’ about such disciplines as marketing/ self-promotion and development of ‘productive relationships with clients’, he explained.
And Dr Bravery added: ‘Although government remains our most significant and important client, we now have much greater freedom to develop our own customer base and manage our own resources. BRE is highly delegated now – I run a business and am responsible for its financial performance.’ A pricing structure common to all BRE’s activities means clients are charged according to the seniority and expertise of the personnel assigned to their project.
Almost four years down the line from privatisation, the centre had widened its client base such that it now reflected a fuller range of commercial interests. Some of the centre’s work was carried out on behalf of individual companies or consortia from within the timber sector and, therefore, was often subject to strict confidentiality. But BRE-CTTC also maintained close links with leading timber industry organisations such as the British Wood Preserving and Damp-proofing Association (BWPDA) – through its biological testing scheme, for example. Indeed, five timber trade bodies – Timber Trade Federation (TTF), BWPDA, British Woodworking Federation (BWF), Wood Panel Industries Federation (WPIF) and UK Forest Products Association (UKFPA) – are members of the Foundation for the Built Environment which now owns BRE.
Dr Bravery commented: ‘The work we now do tends to reflect the broader church of concerns in society, especially the environment, as well as industry’s concerns for its business success and its technical processes.’ Development of life cycle analysis techniques offered a prime example, he said, of a vital but complex issue facing the industry that no single player within the timber sector would necessarily be able to sustain on its own account.
The drive towards extending its client base had led BRE-CTTC to look beyond the timber industry to the wider construction sector and, reported Dr Bravery, ‘we have already had a lot of success with our presentations to the building sector showing what timber can do’. The centre had played a major role, he added, in enhancing the competitiveness of timber frame buildings and timber windows through improved construction standards.
Interestingly, the scope of BRE at Garston also embraces competitor building materials such as steel and concrete. Interaction with scientists researching these other materials ‘has allowed us to hone our arguments with relation to timber and to correct the common misconception of wood as not a long-lasting material’. He went on: ‘In the end, BRE wants to give the client the best solution for his or her problem and not just promote a particular material for its own sake. We give the client the facts and the options, and then it is the client’s decision.’
And he added: ‘We in BRE-CTTC see ourselves as looking for opportunities where timber is the best option and giving the client the best perception of timber.’
Employing around 550 people in total, BRE adopts a ‘matrix’ style of operation whereby staff with linked skills are regularly gathered into relevant project teams. Thus, experts from the different material disciplines such as concrete, steel and timber can be brought together when construction processes or other so-called ‘cross-cutting themes’ are under examination. Said Dr Bravery: ‘This integration is one of BRE’s great strengths.’
Furthermore, BRE-CTTC is able to sub-contract work where appropriate and can also call on the expertise of so-called ‘BRE Associates’, or skill-based organisations that are able to offer support in specific project areas.
