Traditional construction procurement methods can endanger building safety, while an integrated, less adversarial approach can consistently improve safety and quality, while significantly reducing cost and delivery time.
“The way in which procurement is often managed can reduce the likelihood that a building will be safe […] Issues at this stage, for example inadequate specification, focus on low cost or adversarial contracting, can make it difficult (and most likely, more expensive) to produce a safe building.”
-2017, Building a Safer Future, Independent Review of Building, Regulations and Fire Safety:
Interim Report
Traditional procurement methods are little more than a race to the bottom whereby the objectives of low price and fast delivery are the primary drivers. Independent reviews have clearly stated that “The way in which procurement is often managed can reduce the likelihood that a building will be safe… Issues at this stage, for example inadequate specification, focus on low cost or adversarial contracting, can make it difficult (and most likely, more expensive) to produce a safe building.”
The public sector is wary of collaborative procurement, planning, and project delivery, as well as poorly informed on the topic. The realization of the fact the owners, design-builders, and all other participants must share in risk and reward has been particularly difficult for public sector procurement professionals.
Robust, proven methods such as LEAN Job Order Contracting and Integrated Project Delivery can consistently deliver quality projects on time and on budget when appropriately implemented and management. The integrated planning, procurement, and project delivery methods avoid these the pitfalls of traditional procurement by clearly defining roles, responsibilities, tools, and deliverables via written operations manuals/execution guides and associated long term contracts, early planning, and accurate information, inclusive of locally researched detailed line-item construction task data and costs, to reduce the potential for failures, errors, misunderstandings, and disputes.
Case studies have clearly demonstrated how collaborative procurement can lead to safer, better- quality outcomes, reducing risks and improving value on public sector and private sector construction projects.
The role of public sector procurement professionals must include working together with in-house facilities management and design-builder teams throughout the planning, procurement, and project delivery phases.
While technology should not be a driver, embedding these new LEAN methods into web technology can significantly reduce deployment costs, improve consistency, and aid in management, continuous improvement, and compliance.
All the tools and services are readily available to leverage, as soon as public sector leadership and procurement professionals are ready to mitigate the safety issues associated with traditional procurement methods, not to mention rampant economic and environmental waste.
Feel free to contact me for more information.
Remember…Traditional construction procurement methods can endanger building safety!
Fundamental change is now required across the public sector to put effective systems in place that ensure buildings and other forms of physical infrastructure are built and maintained so that they are safe for use initially and for decades after the original construction. The mindset
of doing things as cheaply as possible and passing responsibility for problems and shortcomings to the next people in the job must end.
We all must focus on doing the right things because it is our responsibility to be stewards of the structures and the environment.
• regulation • guidance • roles and responsibilities • competence; • process • compliance • quality
- Are the means for assessing and ensuring appropriate levels of competence clear and adequate?
- Is clarity of roles and responsibilities sufficient?
- Are there adequate means of compliance assurance, and redress for non-compliance?