Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
concurrently. Projects are often delivered in silos according to the needs
of the individual client in question, and only passing attention is paid
to any corporate strategic view - usually at head offi ce, often with little
translation of this on the project site. However, once a project starts on
site, the project team are charged with delivering the project without
any concern for the business as a whole or for any impact their decisions
might have on other projects being delivered elsewhere. This is often
true when projects are delivered by the same contractor, but for different
clients. Changing this approach to projects, and taking a far more stra-
tegic approach to their procurement either at a programme or a project
level, represents an opportunity for effi ciency gains, risk avoidance and
value improvement.
The aim of the topic is to provide an understanding of the programme
procurement principles developed and to give practical advice on avoid-
ing many of the problems that can arise. For example, it is not suffi cient
to procure main contractors alone, while ignoring the impact of their
selection of subcontractors and suppliers, because problems frequently
arise in construction when subcontractors do not have the capacity and
capability to service all their commitments on all their contracts. Labour
and resources are often moved from one contract to another by subcon-
tractors, depending on the demands of competing projects, the threat of
penalty clauses or delayed payments for late delivery. This leverage over
subcontractors is important, because resources are pulled by the lever-
age of their clients, who are often the main contractor. It should be
recognised that the vast majority of main contractors are not vertically
integrated and therefore they rely on their subcontractors to carry out
the physical delivery of the construction process.
Concluding remarks
This chapter has introduced the concept and model of PSE in its most
basic terms and has discussed some of the challenges the model was
developed to address. It has also highlighted the way in which the pro-
gramme procurement function works as a function within the wider
programme management team and described how the ODA utilised
third-party specialists in their delivery partner, CLM, to mobilise the
appropriate resources for developing and implementing the necessary
requirements for realising the ODA's vision as part of a fully integrated
client function.
