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The models and research below show how we approach a problem: understand the system first, and then decide what would improve it. Each worked example sets out the question, the model or evidence built to answer it, the assumptions behind it and where its limits are.

Further down are our articles on how complex work is commissioned, governed and delivered, written by John Lohan and the Synaform team and grouped by theme.

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Tower cranes lit red against a blue evening sky

Illustrative models

Four models that show how we go about modelling: follow the work through the whole system and find where it binds.

DemandAirspaceRunwayStands+ spendTerminalSurfaceBindsCapacity in passengers per hour, one peak hour
Illustrative modelAirports

Airports, optimised as a system

One peak hour at an illustrative two-runway hub, followed through six stages from airspace to the kerb. Move a lever to see which stage binds and who gains or loses.

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Container port at night with ship-to-shore cranes
Illustrative modelPorts

Ports, configured by demand

Vessel calls and cargo flow through to berth, landside space and capital and operating cost, recalculated as each input changes.

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Concrete frame analyser trade-off cloud
Illustrative modelBuildings

Concrete frames, optimised

972 combinations of slab, core, mix, shifts, cranes, gangs and falsework compared on cost, time, carbon and cash.

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From the modelBuilt independently, schemes peak together. Sequenced, the peak is lower and better used.
Illustrative modelWater

Reservoirs, sequenced as a programme

A programme of large storage reservoirs rebuilt from published documents, to find what sets the pace and how sequencing changes it.

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Research from the public record

Three pieces of research that build a picture from what is already published, and then apply it to specific questions.

Aerial view of a large NHS hospital campus
ResearchPFI

PFI handbacks, de-risked

A national catalogue of 720 PFI projects, and four contracts rebuilt from the public record to show what an authority gets back at expiry. Developed in collaboration with A7Consult Limited.

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Aerial view of a solar farm in rolling countryside
ResearchConsenting

Consenting at speed

What the July 2026 reforms changed at the front end of the DCO regime, checked against primary law and read against 154,723 published DCO documents.

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Map of a town and its edges with candidate land parcels shaded by constraint
ResearchLand

Land that fits the brief

Every parcel of land screened against a brief, from homes on a town edge to wind turbines or a small modular reactor.

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From the articleProcurement does not create outcomes - it operationalises them.
Articles · Featured · Advisory

Why Procurement "Fails" - and Why the Real Issue Often Starts Earlier

John Lohan · 2 December 2025 · 4 min read

When procurement disappoints, the procedure usually takes the blame. More often the cause sits upstream, in how clearly the client has defined what the project needs and who is designing the route to market.

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Systems and complexity

How information, knowledge and decisions connect across a system.

From the articleChange the question and the same dataset moves from excellent to useless without a single value changing.
Integration24 June 2026 · 5 min read

There Is No Such Thing as Good Data

"The data isn't good enough" is usually the wrong sentence. Good is a fit to a purpose, and naming the purpose tells you which bar the data has to clear and whether waiting for better data is worth it.

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Technology26 September 2026 · 5 min readShifting Ground: how 78 sources became one interactive toolShifting Ground turns 78 statutes, judgments, reports and standard forms into one structured, checked evidence base with an interactive front end. Integration26 June 2026 · 4 min readData Has No Fixed ValueOne record, captured once and read many ways, is worth more than most organisations realise, provided each decision draws only on the part of it that the question actually needs.

Strategy and performance

The choices made early that decide how well work performs later.

From the articleIt is not a data asset. It is a franchise on observed reality, and unlike a data asset, it cannot be replicated by anyone with a budget.
Integration8 September 2026 · 5 min read

The Data You Already Own

Most organisations are sitting on a record nobody else could build, and treating it as an archive rather than an asset. The first question is not what to do with it, but whose permission you need.

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Technology25 June 2026 · 5 min readBeyond the Five Vs: What a Data Strategy Should Actually MeasureVolume, velocity, variety, veracity and value describe data, but they do not decide anything.

Technology and AI

Where new technology helps, and what still rests with people.

From the articleA sign-off from someone who cannot actually check the work is not assurance.
Governance19 October 2026 · 7 min read

The Machine Never Holds the Stamp

We have relied on computers to do our thinking for fifty years; AI just made us look at it. What changes is the audit trail, and accountability still rests on one person and one stamp.

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Technology7 October 2026 · 7 min readFluency Is Not CompetenceEveryone is an AI expert now, and most of them mean they are good at ChatGPT.

Organisations and delivery

How governance, operating models and early involvement shape what gets delivered.

From the articleThe role is the symptom; the missing system is the cause.
Governance25 May 2026 · 6 min read

People as Proxies for Systems

Major programmes run real-time governance through a reporting apparatus of people that was never designed to carry it. Governance is the requirement; the PMO operating model, at today's scale, is what adds latency and strips out context.

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Delivery2 December 2025 · 4 min readEarly Involvement That Actually Works: Bring In the People Who Make ItBringing specialist contractors and manufacturers in early should be transformational, but it often drifts into pricing risk instead of reducing it.

The built environment

How the industry contracts, buys advice and organises itself.

From the articleTarget cost works where the client and the work are already disciplined, and fails where it is asked to substitute for that discipline.
Delivery1 April 2026 · 7 min read

Target practice: how Britain mistook a contract for a delivery strategy

For thirty years British infrastructure has told itself that target cost contracts deliver better outcomes than the lump-sum contracting still standard across much of Europe. The comparative evidence does not support that confidence.

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Advisory26 September 2026 · 5 min readBuying Advice in a Consolidated Market: What Good Looks LikeBritain's construction advice market now has fewer, larger and more often overseas-owned firms.

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If one of these models or articles describes a problem you recognise, we would be glad to discuss it.

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