Collaborative Contracting Approach Brings Cost and Schedule Efficiency
Date Posted: October 27, 2020
Posted In: Ideas,
by Eric Naught, Construction Project Manager, Burns & McDonnell
Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) provides the framework to help simplify and manage large capital projects in the construction industry. But it’s the early integration of construction with engineering and procurement resources that unlocks the real potential for how AWP can impact project efficiency and success.
Avoiding Slow Project Starts Creates Efficiencies
Often, large construction projects begin with the engineering and design of a facility, followed by issuing construction scopes of work to be built by either direct-hire or subcontracted resources. While generally an adopted practice in direct-hire construction, it is important to understand that the AWP process can and should be utilized when subcontracting major scopes of work.
When a subcontracting approach is not coupled with a strong construction management (CM) team driving the AWP process to the engineering and procurement teams, disconnects exist in the level of engineering and procurement details released during the bid phase of the subcontract packages. Often, submitted estimates, proposals and schedules require redevelopment once a subcontractor is awarded a scope of work and the subcontractor execution team is onboarded for the project.
It is vital that the CM team on a project develops the framework of the overall engineer-procure-construct (EPC) execution plan and prioritization of the deliverables. This will feed and integrate the construction subcontractors into the AWP process during the bid, onboarding and execution phases of the subcontracted scopes of work.
If the CM team hasn’t been integrated from the early stages of design — and the AWP plan hasn’t been developed and communicated effectively to the subcontractors — the subcontractors can often get a slow start on projects. This causes a lag between subcontract award and true production activities and creates potentially unnecessary change order exposure with the subcontractor. These inefficiencies become apparent from the start.