Developing Collaborative Working Arrangements
The traditional approach to procurement in the UK is based upon competitive tendering where a project is generally awarded on the basis of lowest price and where the Client and the contractor maintain separate project teams to look after their respective ‘best interests’. Various reports into the construction industry have found that this approach is characterised by an aversion to risk and innovation and an adversarial approach between the parties.
The report entitled ‘Rethinking Construction’ produced by the Construction Task Force chaired by Sir John Egan states in its executive summary that:
‘The industry must replace competitive tendering with long term relationships based on clear measurement of performance and sustained improvements in quality and efficiency.’
Various terms can be applied to the type of approach advocated in the report such as ‘partnering’, ‘alliancing’ or ‘supply chain management’, however what is truly envisaged is parties involved in the construction process working collaboratively to achieve improvements that can be measured and used as a benchmark against which further improvements can be targeted.
Such a collaborative approach is not necessarily right in every circumstance and should never be seen merely as a soft option where all parties agree to be ‘nice’ to each other. BrunswickIS believes that for collaboration to be successful it must challenge the team to work together to achieve specific measurable results.
BrunswickIS has considerable experience in establishing and working within successful collaborative arrangements and our staff includes members of the Association of Partnering Advisers.
 Establishing the Project Team
Programme Management
Developing Project Controls
Cost Planning and Control
Managing the Supply Chain
Tendering and contractor selection
Developing Collaborative Working Arrangements
Benchmarking and Key Performance Indicators
Value Management and Engineering
Risk Management |
