Skip to content

Hawthorne Boyle header thin

Quality Systems

At HB we are committed to a policy of management that embodies the principles of quality and business excellence. We believe that the delivery of a quality service to its client is of paramount importance in all of our commissions. This commitment is central to our business planning processes, and reflects the fact that the requirements of the ultimate user of a construction scheme are the focus of our clients, and therefore should be our focus.

HB operates a management system that ensures the right product is delivered at the appropriate time.  We see the issue of quality extending beyond the implementation of procedures and schedules – quality and value engineering is a state of mind that we seek to instil in our staff at all times.  This is achieved through the dissemination of best practice through seminars and technical reports, a commitment to the latest resources and equipment being provided and the encouragement of staff to make suggestions for improvements in our processes.

HB has accredited under BS EN ISO 9001 for many years but full advantage has been grasped of the changes in the latest Quality Standard to shape our management system to better fit our business, enabling continual refocus on the primary functions of meeting clients needs through effective project and risk management.

We achieve this by:-

  • Maintaining a proactive leadership that directs, supports and empowers individuals, business and project teams along defined strategies.
  • Understanding and meeting the requirements of all customers and stakeholders including those internal to our operations.
  • Adopting processes, founded on the skills and performance of our staff.
  • Identifying and measuring performance against key business indicators.
  • Following business cycles of planning, communication, implementation and review that enable continuous improvement in all operations and results.
  • Recognising staff as our most valuable asset and ensuring that their development and their efforts receive the attention and recognition of management.

We consider our primary contribution to be in the quality of our design.  We believe that in understanding the quality of design we are considering two aspects, product and process.  Product is the actual outcome of the design and process is the means by which we move to this outcome ensuring timeliness and cost effectiveness of delivery.  We develop the quality of both these facets on projects through a range of workshops, reviews audits and structured reports.

HB designs according to five key principles:

    1. Continuous improvement achieved through a process of perpetual review: Our iterative and collaborative approach ensures that design proposals are constantly reviewed and tested against the requirements of the project brief and client aspiration. In doing this we aim to provide robust solutions which provide the best possible outcomes for our clients. These reviews will also challenge our process quality, to ensure our progress is real and that our design development and research are both appropriate and rigorous.  Reviews will look to test and compare our designs against other similar developments and our technical database of good and any benchmarking information, as well as challenging its completeness.

 

    1. Our people are our key asset: Our team is highly experienced and has a track record of delivering high quality buildings where our designers have demonstrated an ability to provide imaginative and innovative building services solutions to many challenging sites and briefs.

 

    1. Evaluating opportunities and challenges through project pathology to ensure the achievement of best practice: Our extensive experience in the public sector has allowed us to collate an extensive body of data on different approaches to public sector design. Through the use of post occupancy evaluations we are objectively evaluating the efficacy of different approaches and this data informs our approach to each new project.

 

    1. Embracing a culture of risk management which is focused on the identification, evaluation and effective management of all design risks to ensure that both an inspirational and practical building services design solution can be achieved: By recording design assumptions and consequences of deviating from those assumptions and by publishing that information each design team member is encouraged to input into the Risk Register. The commercial and technical aspects of those risks can then be assessed by those best placed to review the risk.  Risk management can then be linked to a value engineering exercise.

 

  1. We ensure sustainability is integral to everything we do and understand and pursue the notion that excellent design is sustainable design:Our project team will be backed up by our in-house services low carbon specialists to ensure a broad and robust approach to this issue. This approach recognises that the building’s fabric and form must contribute to the conditioning of the internal environment in conjunction with the designed building services, particularly in relation to the quantity and quality of natural light, and the provision of good indoor air quality via appropriate use of natural ventilation.
    Evaluating opportunities and challenges through project pathology to ensure the achievement of best practice: Sustainability cannot be treated as an add-on or an option. Our holistic approach ensures that the sustainability of a project is reviewed as a key design objective at every stage.