Building the Ideal Project Delivery Team

While other industries streamline their processes to become more productive over time, the building industry has faced a decrease in productivity, especially during the construction phase. This is especially true with healthcare facilities, which are becoming increasingly more expensive to build. In fact, by some calculations, the quantity of work constituting waste on a typical healthcare project may approach 50% of the total work performed.

These inefficiencies are being absorbed by owners in the form of increasing costs of construction. Given this situation, owners are finding that building the ideal delivery team, by selecting the right design team partners, is a priority in order to minimize costs and maximize productivity for healthcare projects.

The decrease in productivity isn’t the only factor contributing to increased healthcare construction costs. The rules governing construction of healthcare facilities in general create many challenges. In its current state, the highly regulated nature of the healthcare industry is greatly influencing the design and construction of facilities, resulting in haphazard project delivery that lacks flow and ultimately project constructability.

The need to dramatically improve results within the healthcare design and construction industry has pushed companies to closely examine their method for buying design and construction services. A significant portion of the waste generated during a project’s life can be attributed to inefficiencies generated during design. Examining the origin of the project design is an important component to identifying and eliminating waste.

To control waste, many owners have been turning to Lean manufacturing concepts as applied to the construction industry. This approach, derived from manufacturing, is rapidly becoming more prevalent within the construction industry. The Lean Construction Institute (LCI) has even set forth some guidelines for the application of Lean manufacturing. The commercial terms outlined in an integrated form of agreement, combined with the Lean tools used by a collaborating team to integrate design and construction, should be considered for new projects.

To maximize value, owners also should consider ways to collaborate on project cost in addition to implementing Lean tools during project design. The primary objective of the traditional design team is not only to plan the project, but also to predict the project’s cost and promote conformance with the owner’s business case. Designers, working alone, can sometimes have difficulty with cost estimating and value management.

Appropriate construction personnel are needed to complement the designers in order to produce a project that meets the predetermined target value cost set by the owner, as a large majority of total project costs are locked up in the construction phase of a project. Therefore, inviting builders to participate in the design phase can be effective in minimizing or eliminating isolated thinking, from a systems standpoint, that can sometimes occur during traditional design approaches. 

Builder experience can provide significant value and should be considered during this phase of project delivery. The real data brought to the table by the builders allows the design team to make decisions rapidly, as real-time cost data is available to aid in making an appropriate choice.