The Golden Thread: The biggest change to stock control for the construction industry

Duty holders and accountable persons have a legal duty to create, obtain, store and share documents and information in a prescribed format for buildings that are at least 18 metres in height or have at least 7 storeys and have at least two residential units. This legal duty will also apply to care homes and hospitals that meet the same height threshold during design and construction.

James Mitchell, Managing Director UK & Ireland, Kerridge Commercial Systems explains “In order for building companies to comply with the Building Safety Act, each element of the supply chain, right from source, needs to have full traceability of the products that are used in the building project. This is potentially the biggest change to stock control the building industry has ever seen, and digitalisation is the key factor in the process required to create a fully accountable trail.

For merchants, distribution, and wholesale businesses, knowing where the products you stock come from and being able to track where they are sent to not only reduces spoilage and aids in managing recalls, it crucially protects the business from risk of litigation, and it also protects your customers. This process isn’t as scary as it sounds, having the right ERP system, such as K8 in place can easily provide a simple and efficient way to assist your customers in complying with the legislation.

James Mitchell, Managing Director UK & Ireland, Kerridge Commercial Systems

The batch control functionality in K8 supports batch number, serial number, or goods received note number management, providing you with full forward (to customer) and backward (to supplier) traceability. This makes it a straight-forward process to digitally trace products from being booked in to being booked out. To ensure that the correct information is completed on the system, a mandatory field can be made upon the receipt of the goods. It’s an easy and structured way to find the right product information that is simple to extract to support the digital trail of the Golden Thread. It also helps improve customer service levels, for example, if a customer needs more materials - such as a specific floor covering - you can easily find the same roll or batch to cut the required length.

Adjusting your processes and implementing traceability into your business efficiently shows a level of commitment and professionalism that you are taking control and demonstrating a proactive approach to the Golden Thread. It sets you apart from your competition and has a positive and profitable impact on your customer relationships.

“The Building Safety Act and the Golden Thread plays a key part in the wider digital transformation of the built environment and the supply chain within it. This transformation can’t be ignored. Digitalisation is not something that you need to be wary of, it does not cause disruption to your business. Embracing the digital journey means that you can in effect ‘take the technology to the job’ and not the other way around and this can have a real impact on reducing your carbon footprint as well as really enhancing your efficiency – saving money and increasing profitability – and enhancing your customer service. Now is the time for businesses to get their heads out of the piles of paper and embrace modern digital technology, or they could be left behind their competition, failing to comply with legislation and putting their business at risk”.