Gleeson Homes has announced a partnership with Zutec to digitise the housebuilder’s quality control processes including multiple Quality Assurance inspection forms and Part L photographic evidence.
The partnership aims to help Gleeson maintain quality standards and meet regulatory compliance, while bringing structure to process and providing complete data visibility plot to plot and project to project, helping deliver more on-site efficiencies.
Since June 2023, housebuilders have to provide mandatory photographic evidence to the SAP Assessor for new developments to prove that work and materials used in new homes comply with updated energy efficiency requirements that reduce carbon emissions. Zutec’s Part L Photographic Evidence solution was implemented across 82 sites earlier in the year, which was the first step in digitising Gleeson’s Quality Control Plot Book, providing the ability for teams to update and submit as-built Buildings Regulations England Part L (BREL) reports to assessors for approval and faster plot completion.
Zutec’s Part L Photographic Evidence solution allows users to capture, store, share and manage geo-located photographic evidence and supporting documents required for the as-built BREL report. Working within the requirements of the Part L framework, the solution ensures users on-site can capture the right quality photos with the right information. Using Zutec’s field app photos can be captured and submitted to an assessor for sign-off, speeding up the process and bringing building information together in one place to remove the complexity of gathering evidence and submitting for approval.
Matt Ball, solutions architect at Gleeson, commented: “We want to raise the bar in quality housebuilding and believe innovation in this area is key. We partnered with Zutec for their Part L innovation to help us meet regulatory requirements, but quickly realised that we could work together to digitise our quality control process and plot book to give us more control and consistency on what was happening site by site and project to project.”
“Zutec’s Quality Management solutions form the foundation of our digitised Quality Control Plot Book, which is used for inspections on-site, it gives us complete data visibility of project progress and contractor performance via a dashboard view where we can analyse information to help us make more informed decisions and implement best practice.”
Using Zutec’s field app, on-site teams can also add status codes to inspections to track inspection progress, which can be marked up as draft, for review, complete or rejected. Additionally, an action register means items can also be assigned to users through notifications for faster resolution, and with full audibility, there is a trail of information that can show if an action has been completed or not. With interactive reporting and dashboards, specific reports can be set up and easily exported for review and analysis meaning continual improvement of working practices.
James Cannon, commercial director at Zutec, said: “By configuring and rolling out our quality management solutions at Gleeson, we have been able to support them in digitising their Quality Control Plot Book, which sets new standards in quality across their business. As part of our solution onboarding, we are providing super user training that means our tools can be easily self-administered across sites. It is great to see user adoption and to partner with Gleeson on this project and be part of their transformation journey, as we both learn more about what the very best quality practice looks like.”
