The Infrastructure Podcast: Episode 165

Guest: Andrew Shepherd, Managing Director for Growth & Innovation, Ibstock plc

Brick innovation to boost growth

In this episode we focus literally on the bricks and mortar of the construction sector’s battle to boost productivity, embrace new methods of delivery and hit its housing and infrastructure ambitions and targets.

My guest today is Andrew Shepherd, Managing Director of Growth & Innovation at Ibstock Plc the UK's largest manufacturer of clay bricks and a leading provider of concrete building products. 

Andrew has spent his career trying to rethink products and create a manufacturing revolution that genuinely transforms the way housing, infrastructure and buildings are designed and delivered.

Because for decades, the UK construction industry has been locked in a struggle with stagnating productivity and a dwindling skilled labour force. 

While other global sectors have embraced a digital and manufacturing revolution, construction has largely remained site-based, manual and vulnerable to the whims of weather and the inefficiencies of a fragmented supply chain. 

Yet with a multibillion pound pipeline of infrastructure slated; a government target of 1.5 million new homes; and a non-negotiable mandate for net-zero delivery, the industry can no longer afford the luxury of business as usual.

So today we have to move away from building and toward industrialised manufacturing. And if you heard my recent podcasts with the teams at the New Hospital Programme, the concept of industrialised construction and standardised designs – Hospital 2.0 in their case – is now understood to be central to securing the industry’s future.

This kind of transition requires big thinking and a bold pivot toward Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and Design for Manufacturing and Assembly; shifting from the muddy construction site to the precision of the factory floor to unlock the speed, quality, and sustainability that the 21st century demands.

Andrew’s mission at Ibstock is clear: how can the fundamental building blocks of construction – the brick – be used to solve the UK’s productivity and housing puzzle through true industrialisation. 

It’s a big challenge but one that Andrew is embracing with passion – so let’s hear about it.

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