Integrated approach to project delivery

Khaleel Ahmed, Lecturer, Dudley College of Technology 

Architecture, engineering and construction embarks on its transition to integrated project delivery

Large construction projects frequently go above budget due to their complex and unpredictable nature. Although traditional project management techniques and processes are considered suitable for small-scale projects involving lower level of predictability, these techniques are unsuitable when it comes to addressing complexities associated with larger-scale projects.

While other sectors, such as health and manufacturing, appear to have made a shift towards lean processes, construction sector does not appear to have benefitted from similar level of adoption.

As the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector embarks on its transition to integrated project delivery (IPD), a complete and effective realisation will depend on the effective use of technology and lean processes such as building information modelling (BIM), laser scanners and unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs).

Due to multiple stakeholders working on such projects, this transition to IPD fosters a culture of stronger collaboration and communication between team members.

The AEC industry is considered to be one of the oldest industries in the world, which attracts a range of working professionals within different disciplines.

The last 20 years have seen more complex construction projects than used to be due to advancement made in technology, information gathering and sharing, electrical and plumbing systems and other systems.

Construction projects still face uncertainty and unpredictability due to different sets of people involved in a project who might not have worked together. However, construction projects still face uncertainty and unpredictability due to different sets of people involved in a project who might not have worked together (Fischer, 2017). These projects have their own unique features, which are different from a production environment. Bollard also holds a similar opinion on the construction sector, which according to him has seen chronic problems for many decades (Tzortzopoulos, Kagioglou and Koskela, 2020).

As a result, construction companies gain a very low ratio of profit to contract value when most contracts within the sector are bid and won on the basis of price only (Sacks, 2017).

This can be blamed on old adversarial methods for creating the biggest ratio of waste on time and equally blames complicated contracts, non-collaboration and blame culture for resulting in this waste and increased costs (Race, 2013).

Traditional approaches and challenges

As Fischer argues that construction projects still suffer from uncertainty, traditional project management techniques are suitable for projects with very low level of uncertainty (Wysocki, 2007).

Traditional project management techniques are driven by the fact that constructions projects are simple and predictable with defined boundaries, which allow the construction plan to be followed without changes (DeCarlo, 2004). The main objective of traditional approaches is to thrive for efficiency and optimisation or in other words to deliver the project within budget, time and scope (Wysocki, 2007).

 Table 1: Evolution of project management models.

As uncertainty and complexity increase in a project, there are more chances of a project to go wrong (Williams, 2002). Williams argues these traditional approaches are not capable of dealing with these complexities. Although traditional project management approaches are recognised for their robustness, it is not possible to apply the same methods and techniques to different projects (Wysocki, 2007).

Another problem with traditional techniques like waterfall models is that different stages within the project are separate from each other and today’s complexities of a project can be reflected by these techniques (Williams, 2005). Laufer et al. (1996) have identified four project techniques and their evolution over time as shown in Table 1.

While other industries such as health and manufacturing have benefited from adoption of technology, the construction sector is still lagging behind.Table 1 shows how these styles evolved and improved on dealing with projects from simple and certain category to complex, uncertain and quick ones. It was during the first era of scheduling when the program evaluation review (PERT) and the critical path method (CPM) techniques originated and were adopted by the construction sector.

The second era saw birth of collaboration when different team members had to work as a single entity. The third era is reflected by project managers who focussed on reducing uncertainty to manageable size and finally simultaneity where project managers had to work on integrating tasks from different teams.

Previous studies (Aljohani et al., 2017) have identified these problems/factors which cause these projects to go above budget and time as shown in Figure 1. They have concluded in their study that effective use of resources (human, technical and material) and effective communication are vital when working on complex and larger projects.

A study carried out by Autodesk has found 70% of the participating contractors saying that poor coordination, communication and schedule management are to be blamed for damaging productivity. Due to these inherent problems, construction sector is rightly placed to embrace changes to address these issues (Kamara et al., 2010).

 

Figure 1: Cost overrun factors. 

One key to mitigate these issues is the adoption of technology within the construction sector. While other industries such as health and manufacturing have benefited from adoption of technology, the construction sector is still lagging behind (McKinsey Global Institute, 2017). While there are many organisations, which are still using traditional methods on construction projects such as distos, mechanical total stations, optical levels, robotic total stations, digital levels, laser scanners and the like can reduce time and increase productivity.

This is also echoed by a World Economic Forum report that a full digitisation of the sector including 3D printing and augmented reality can save $1.7tn globally within 10 years. This is also echoed by a World Economic Forum report that a full digitisation of the sector including 3D printing and augmented reality can save $1.7tn globally within 10 years. It is the combination of project management and digital technology that will equate to digital project management, with a goal to have in place improved processes which can increase value (Autodesk, 2023).

To yield higher productivity and efficiency on site, adoption of lean processes including technology such as BIM is necessary. One of the key business drivers behind this adoption is integrated project delivery (Smith, 2009). Integrated project delivery is the integration of people, systems, business structures and practices into a process that collaboratively harness the talents and insights of all participants to optimise project results (AIA, 2007).

The next sections will explore various concepts which are key to realisation of integrated project delivery. The key focal points will be around lean construction and BIM technology and how these can help overcome problems presented by traditional methods/approaches and to optimise results.

Lean construction

One way of addressing the challenges faced by construction industry is to look into improved processes for increasing value and efficiency of staff and equipment. This concept is referred as lean and has been defined by as a way of accomplishing tasks with less effort, less time and less equipment. To achieve time and budget goals of a project, value has to be starting point for lean approach (Womack and Jones, 2003).

As lean processes are key to increased productivity and reducing waste, effective utilisation of staff and equipment is paramount in achieving this.Another popular view, which is considered to be similar to Toyota Production System (TPS) is integration of four approaches of productive maintenance, quality management, just-intime and human resources management into lean. Knights and Willmott have also considered the use of information technology as one of the main principles of lean for just-in-time services.

The principle advises against using excessive stocks and staff (Tzortzopoulos, Kagioglou and Koskela, 2020). Liker (2020) also refers to same concept in his 7th principle of TPS where he encourages automation and use of technology.

Tzortzopoulos, Kagioglou and Koskela (2020) have made a reference to Koskela’s Transformation-Flow-Value (TFV) theory, which is considered as a production philosophy to construction. The theory plays an important part in the application of integrated approaches to project management and lean construction considering design as a flow of information can reduce waste on site and is also relevant when it comes to collaboration and communication between different teams.

As lean processes are key to increased productivity and reducing waste, effective utilisation of staff and equipment is paramount in achieving this. Morgan Sindall successfully applied lean monitoring process on a £100m project in London borough of Newham. Trimble’s T4D automated monitoring process was chosen to help deliver project on schedule and to ensure reliability and repeatability.

This relates to Liker’s concept of continuous flow and talk time where he argues how this concept can be applied to any repeatable process to create improved flow (Liker, 2020). Liker has discussed several lean case studies including success story of Drishti, which developed strong lean systems by using automation and real data feed from sensors.

The above approaches can be implemented at company, project or industry level as suggested by (Picchi, 2001). After having analysed various lean tools within construction sector, Picchi and Granja have proposed three implementation scenarios of fragmented tools application, integrated job site application and lean enterprise application. Another two approaches of shallow and wide and narrow and deep have been proposed Arbulu and Zabelle (2006).

BIM

It is recognised that BIM plays an important contribution to lean processes and any lean processes facilitate adoption of BIM (Sacks et al., 2010). Simultaneous implementation of lean and BIM are not only possible, but have been highly recommended (Sacks, 2017). BIM has a lot of benefits to offer when it comes to lean construction, effective data capture, better estimates, reduced design development lifecycle, reduction in rework, clash detection and enhanced collaboration between different stakeholders (Tzortzopoulos, Kagioglou and Koskela, 2020).

BIM plays an important contribution to lean processes and any lean processes facilitate adoption of BIM. Table 2 shows some benefits associated with BIM. The implementation of BIM requires adoption of new technology and Tidhar managed to improve and grow by adopting BIM and lean thinking (Sacks, 2017). Connect Scaffolding, based in Hertfordshire made a shift from its previous manual and time-consuming method to 3D scanning technology.

The design and engineering manager, Simon Lewis highlighted how the company’s traditional methods of using disto and photos were not providing the level of detail it required for design process, which subsequently resulted in design revisions, insufficient materials and additional shipping. The adoption of BIM technology allowed it to capture fully refined and registered data, which could be exported straight in the field (KOREC, 2023).

Integrated project delivery

It is believed that the AEC industry could be at the verge of a shift to integrated project delivery (IPD), however, a full realisation will require a lot of conviction and boldness (Fischer, 2017). That shift can be seen in the implementation of BIM and evolving technology in many construction projects, which allow better collaboration. According to McKinsey Global Institute, productivity can see an estimated increase of 8-9% by employing collaboration and contracting.

The key concepts and principles, which are the backbone of IPD refer to ideas of value, waste removal, collaborative culture and continuous improvements.

IPD has also been referred to in literature as a process which allows collaboration between designers and builders during the early stages of a project to help meet clients’ needs. A wider audience was introduced to lean concepts as a result of collaborative construction contracts and lean principles such as TVD and last planners began to be requested (Tommelein, I.D. and Ballard, G., 2016).

The key concepts and principles, which are the backbone of IPD refer to ideas of value, waste removal, collaborative culture and continuous improvements. The principles are more about putting these concepts into application to increase output to meet the client’s needs.

Finally, the realisation of these concepts and principles are helpful in addressing non-value adding activities by adopting approaches such as TVD, LPS and visual management (Tzortzopoulos, Kagioglou and Koskela, 2020). Morgan Sindall’s adoption of Trimble’s automated monitoring is an example of such a realisation of concepts and principles.

The transparency delivered help mitigate non-value adding activities. BIM has been considered as a tool which can be used to improve transparency as well as reduce waste on site by improving collaboration. 

Khaleel Ahmed, Lecturer, Dudley College of Technology

Khaleel.Ahmed@dudleycol.ac.uk

www.dudleycol.ac.uk