How Taylor Woodrow improved coordination with Aphex

The project

Meridian Water is part of a wider £6 billion regeneration scheme by the London Borough of Enfield to redevelop the area over the next 25 years. The project spans approximately 78 acres of land and will include residential, commercial, and community spaces.

Taylor Woodrow (TW) have been appointed by Enfield Council to deliver the Meridian Water Strategic Infrastructure Works (SIW). The SIW will facilitate ongoing plot development that will drive the regeneration in the area comprising mixed-use residential-led development of up to 10,000 homes and a new local centre.

The SIW project is key in enabling future phases of development, by providing a strategic framework for flood alleviation; earthworks; site remediation landscaping and green infrastructure; new east-west and north-south access routes; and utilities infrastructure. These works allow Meridian Water to continue its transformation, with proposals to remediate the site, introduce parks to provide flood attenuation and create new roads and utility networks.

To learn more about how Taylor Woodrow improved their planning processes on this complex project, we spoke with Shobhit Nigam, Planning and Project Controls Manager for the project.

The limitations of Excel

Like many construction projects, the Meridian Water team previously relied on Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Project files for their short-term planning.

As Shobhit explains, "Traditionally, we were following the Last Planner system for short-term planning, but that was all Microsoft Excel based.”

This approach had several limitations. Each section of the project operated in isolation, with their own Excel plans and not much integration between them. Updates were manual and time-consuming, with any changes having to be manually replicated into the follow-on tasks.

"With the Excel plans, one of the problems was it was all done in isolated environments, with each section having their own Excel plan without any integration between those plans."
_{Shobhit Nigam, Planning and Project Controls Manager}

A key tool for the delivery team

To address these limitations of Excel, the team onboarded Aphex. The Aphex team provided three training sessions over the first few weeks, introducing the tool and progressively covering more advanced features.

“There was good support from the Aphex team," Shobhit says. "In the initial period, if we had issues, we knew who to contact, and there was a quick turnaround on those queries."

Today, the Meridian Water team uses Aphex on a daily basis. Each morning, they review the daily task list in Aphex during their meeting. At the end of the day, engineers provide updates, using the thumbs up or down feature to indicate whether tasks are on track.

The team also follows a weekly routine:

• On Thursdays, the section leads update and review their plans for the next four to six weeks, checking for interfaces and comparing against target milestones
• On Fridays, the planning team meets with each section lead and the Project Managers to go through the plan in detail, review issues and deviations from last week’s plan, and agree interventions before the lookahead plans are published.

"The delivery team are using it on a daily basis. It's a key tool for us now to track progress and to make sure that things are going to plan."
_{Shobhit Nigam, Planning and Project Controls Manager}

Significant time savings

One of the most notable benefits has been the time saved in creating and updating plans. The team has seen dramatic reductions in the hours required to maintain their short-term schedules, allowing them to focus more on analysis and proactive planning rather than administrative tasks.

"Before using Aphex, we would have the section leads, supported by their team,  spend at least a couple of hours each week just to update the plan and get it done. That’s roughly 10 hours spent across the different sections just producing that four to six week look ahead," Shobhit explains.

This administrative burden was taking valuable time away from more strategic activities. With Aphex, the automation and integration capabilities have transformed how the team spends their planning time.

"With Aphex automating some of this process, that planning time has been cut down by roughly half — if not more. The efficiencies are reflected within the planning team as well. We spend a lot more time now actually analysing the plans and talking about issues and mitigations than trying to verify the credibility of the plan."
_{Shobhit Nigam, Planning and Project Controls Manager}

Better collaboration and engagement

The ability to plan in an integrated workspace has been transformative for the team. Instead of working in silos, teams can now see how their work impacts others. This means they can manage interfaces more effectively.

"Just having it all in an integrated space and having clear visibility of the interfaces is extremely useful," says Shobhit. "And at the same time, the progress tracking element is a lot more user-friendly."

The collaborative nature of Aphex has also improved engagement across the team.

“Aphex is really helping the section leads and Project Managers, who may not necessarily be closely involved in the day-to-day on-site tasks or have real-time visibility of the emerging issues on site. When the site engineers update their progress during the day, the senior team can immediately see any potential issues and help resolve them early.”

Because Aphex is a live environment, it’s much easier for the broader team to see updates as they occur. As Shobhit explains, “Aphex is a lot more dynamic than a spreadsheet, which enables much greater collaboration across the team.”

Beyond short-term planning

After the first three months of using Aphex for short-term planning, the team began exploring additional ways to leverage the tool. One significant development was using Aphex for target planning.

"We thought, what else can be done with Aphex? This was a natural progression. We've already got the plan for the six to eight weeks within Aphex. Why don't we extend it a bit more and then a bit more until we get to a point where we've got a program to completion?”

This has given the planning team better visibility and control on the longer-term ‘target’ plan and how current issues might impact crucial deliverables in the months to come. 

"We're using Aphex as a platform for our target plan — rather than creating a duplicate P6 programme. That's quite important for me because this is where I can see what influence some of our current issues or plans are having on those crucial deliverables at the back end of the job."
_{Shobhit Nigam, Planning and Project Controls Manager}

Advice for other projects

For teams considering Aphex, Shobhit recommends taking a gradual approach to implementation.

"Take one step at a time. You won't be able to do and solve everything with Aphex on day one. It has to be a progressive curve where the team has to first get comfortable with the tool, have confidence in the tool, and then slowly start expanding its application."

He also highlights the mapping tool as a key feature worth exploring, particularly for projects with constrained logistics and footprints. As Shobit notes, Aphex automatically flags up potential clashes, ensuring that they can be discussed and solved before becoming issues on site.

Another recommendation is to consider engaging the supply chain directly in developing and owning the short-term plan within Aphex from the beginning.

"On some jobs, we can think of collaborating with the supply chain in the Aphex environment and having it all done as an integrated project plan.”

A model for the future

The success of Aphex on the Meridian Water project has generated interest throughout Taylor Woodrow and the wider Vinci group.

"Since we were one of the first ones to roll it out within the business, a lot of people are being directed towards us to get feedback, and for us to share learnings on what works," Shobhit explains.

As Taylor Woodrow continues to expand its use of Aphex across more projects, the Meridian Water team's experience provides a valuable template for successful implementation and adoption.