A contractor's perception on early contractor involvement

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the perception of a contractor on early contractor involvement (ECI) type of construction project delivery approach in terms of its benefits and drawbacks. Design/methodology/approach -A questionnaire survey was conducted on various professionals of a contractor, who had extensive experience of working in ECI. Findings -The ECI approach increases the opportunity for better relationships among the parties, which assist the design process from contractor's input and eventually lead to successful delivery of the project. On the other hand, unequal commitment and lack of win-win attitude between the parties are seen as the most important drawbacks that hinder integration in ECI approach. It is also observed that benefits from ECI are likely to outweigh the drawbacks. Originality/value -Construction projects are different, requiring adjustments, even within generic procurement or delivery approaches, in order to build a harmonious team, to allow project participants to work together and deliver an improved project. This study contributes to devising and demonstrating such a strategy, focusing on ECI approach.

Performance of Project Alliancing in Australasia: a Digest of Infrastructure Development from 2008 to 2013

“…Questions about innovation (not reported upon here) on the project comprised Q46 to Q50. The final two questions related to early contractor involvement (ECI) as this aspect of constructor/designer/PO collaboration has been found to be highly effective in facilitating superior project delivery performance (Sidwell and Mehrtens, 1996;McGeorge and Palmer, 2002;Rahman and Alhassan, 2012). Participant survey interviews took 60 minutes on average.…”

Best Value Procurement – Experiences From the Execution Phase

“…One of these measures is Early Contractor Involvement (ECI). ECI refers to the involvement of a contractor at an early stage of project development, to work together with the client and/or consultant, mainly to assist in planning and buildability (Rahman & Alhassan, 2012). It is recognized that the ability of the parties to influence project outcomes, including reduction of cost, creation of additional value, improvement of performance and flexibility to incorporate changes is much higher in the conceptual and design stages of the project (Mosey, 2009).…”

Early contractor involvement approaches in public project procurement

“…Open book target pricingpricing process is to make the contractor to design or construct the project on budget. (Gransberg, 2016), (Scheepbouwer and Humphries, 2011), (Rahman and Alhassan, 2012), (Molenaar et al, 2007) 11 Cost led procurementprocurement methods that have been developed in the UK comparable to target pricing. (Ciribini et al, 2016), (Williams et al, 2013) Integrated Project Insurancean alternative form of insurance providing single cover for the construction project team as a whole.…”

“…(Hoezen, 2012), (Kashiwagi, 2016) Negotiated procedure -Procurement procedure like competitive dialogue but can be applied in simpler public projects. (Van Valkenburg et al, 2008), (Lenferink et al, 2012), (Hoezen, 2012), (European Parliament, 2014) Partneringa long-term commitment between the client and contractor for the (Rahman and Alhassan, 2012), (Walker and Lloyd-Walker, 2012), (Lahdenperä, purposes of achieving specific business objectives.…”