Ridge has had an ongoing commission with Marks & Spencer to challenge design solutions, materials, plant and equipment, and installation costs across their nationwide programme of new stores, store remodelling and store maintenance.

The ongoing brief, as part of the M&S engineering team, is to liaise and engage with all stakeholders (engineering and architectural design, retail design, cost management, central procurement, fire safety, maintenance, and energy efficiency) to identify and offer ongoing value engineering and cost reduction opportunities to the business.

The scope includes assisting with the whole-life costing analysis of new product technologies as they are introduced from the supply chain in this ever-changing arena.

After an initial brief and consultation with each of the stakeholders, an interrogation of all specifications, design briefs, processes and procurement methods was carried out. This included the detailed analysis of historic costs and benchmarking against competitors.

All opportunities and innovations were categorised, prioritised and logged onto a value engineering matrix, alongside budget costs and a RAG analysis for each item to evaluate the ‘size of the prize’.

Items agreed to be progressed are evaluated in detail for specific project types, and project cost plans are adjusted to reflect the savings made.