Improved collaboration between Owner, Contractors and Subcontractors can generate substantial benefits in terms of cost, schedule and risk for the delivery of large, complex projects. The recent crisis in extractive industries has led stakeholders to investigate new contracting and collaboration models. In our new White Paper 2018-15 ‘How to Reap Benefits from Improved Collaboration between Owner, Contractors and Subcontractors’, building on our experience helping Owners and Contractors release value by working more collaboratively, we detail what is driving the change in collaboration on large complex projects, what is limiting with the traditional model and how an innovative, improved model can be implemented to succeed.
The traditional approach for contracting on infrastructure projects has been to define a few large packages with well-defined interfaces. Lump Sum Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation and/or Commissioning contracts have been the norm. Contract Management has adopted an arm’s length approach with each contractor working in relative independence using its own Quality Management System. Whilst this approach has provided contractual clarity and simplified contract management, it has not been conducive to collaboration.
We now observe that several of our clients, Owners and Contractors, are seeking to increase and improve the collaboration between Owners, Contractors and Subcontractors to improve the project delivery. Ideally, the Owner should commence preparing for increased collaboration before Final Investment Decision so that it can be reflected in its budget, schedule, resourcing and invitations to tender. As a minimum, principles for collaboration should be included in the contract. They don’t need to be too detailed but need to be made contractual.
When a contract is awarded, work should start to establish efficient ways of collaborating between Owner and Contractor.
For the new way of collaborating to produce the desired results, proper support needs to be provided both at the governance level and at the project team level. Proven processes and methods are available that can be deployed from before the Final Investment Decision until to the project start-up stage to ensure significant value can be reaped by Owners and Contractors. Read our new White Paper 2018-15 ‘How to Reap Benefits from Improved Collaboration between Owner, Contractors and Subcontractors’ to get some useful thoughts about how to implement improved collaboration between key stakeholders and share your thoughts in the comments section!
If you can’t access the link to the white paper, copy and paste the following link in your browser: http://www.projectvaluedelivery.com/_library/2018-15_Owner_contractor-cooperation_v1.pdf
