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CONSTRUCTION/PROJECT PLANNING
Keys to Successful Capital Project Delivery Early collaboration between team members will help to keep a project on track and eliminate added costs. By Shawn Buchanan, Vice President/General Manager; and John Trussell, Operations Manager; Graycor Southern Inc.
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apital projects, because of their scope and size, have many “moving parts” during construction. It is important to keep all these parts aligned as the project progresses. Failure to do so results in delays and extra costs. Large-scale capital projects are known to suffer disproportionately from such overruns. A McKinsey report estimated “98 percent of megaprojects suffer cost overruns of more than 30 percent; 77 percent are at least 40 percent late.”1 Therefore, as construction activity resumes, it is imperative to find a smoother project delivery process. Traditional design-bid-build project delivery, in which the design team makes all decisions and then sends a project to bid, purposefully keeps teams and tasks siloed in order to limit liability. Even as project delivery methods have diversified, with new methods — such as design-build, early contractor involvement (ECI), and integrated project delivery (IPD) — seeking to bring teams together more collaboratively, there is still room for improvement. Payoffs associated with newer project delivery methods, or with better execution of existing delivery methods, are most likely to occur if collaboration happens early, has full buy-in from all participants, and is iterative.
Early Collaboration Putting the team together early, and truly weighing the input from various members, achieves an active approach to the capital project as op-
posed to a reactive one. Creating a formal pre-planning or preconstruction phase is key. Pre-project planning helps identify strategic information that owners can utilize to address risks and commit resources to ensure successful project outcomes. Many project delivery methods emphasize the importance of preconstruction. For example, ECI, while closely related to design-build project delivery, brings subcontractors to the table even earlier in the process, at the design concept or schematic phase. Such project delivery methods add value because they tap the expertise of the subcontractors, who are often able to contribute unique perspectives, ideas, approaches, and solutions regarding constructability.
Using a combination of structured approaches and responsive team management, owners, consultants, contractors, and vendors can overcome the challenges that have historically beset capital projects when it comes to on-time, on-budget delivery. AREA DEVELOPMENT | Q3 2021
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