工程管理专业英语4 PROJECT DELIVERY S及翻译.docx

CHAPTER 4 PROJECT DELIVERY METHODSCHAPTER OUTLINE INTRODUCTIONMANAGING PROJECT RISKS Lessons from History ASSESSING PROJECT RISKS General Risks Project-Specific Risks Other Risks MINIMIZING RISK Choosing the Right Delivery Method Choosing a Contract Type Monitoring the Entire Process Partnering DELIVERY METHODS Traditional Design/Build Construction Project Management CONTRACT TYPES Single Fixed Price Unit Price Contract Cost Plus a Fee CONTRACT CHANGES CONCLUSION STUDENT LEARNING OBJE TIVES In this chapter you will learn the following: 1. The principal challenges that successful projects overcome 2. The four major categories of project risk 3. The three primary delivery method arrangements, with their advantages and disadvantages 4. The three major types of contractsINTRODUCTIONAn owners primary goal in choosing a delivery method is to ensure that it will meet the project objectives and at the same time allow the project to be delivered on time and within budget. In a risk-free, predictable world. this would be a relatively simple task. The world. however. is full of unpredictable forces and undesirable outcomes. As a consequence, an owner must monitor the process to prevent unpleasant outcomes along the way.Construction projects have many unique characteristics. Creating a large facility takes a long time and usually involves a large capital investment. Cost overruns, delays, and other problems tend to be proportionally monumental. The process of building is complicated by the large number of components that are provided by different suppliers. Furthermore, the process only occurs once. Even if an owner builds repeatedly, the nature of the product and the parties involved in building depend on time. site conditions. user needs, and economic health. Compared with professionals in other industries, designers and constructors have less opportunity to transfer lessons learned from project to proj ect. All of these factors combine to create uniqueness. which carries with it heightened risk.A building not delivered on time usually costs more than planned, and a late delivery can have cascading effects throughout an owners organization. For example, a microcomputer chip manufacturer may need a new facility to manufacture the latest version of a chip. If the facility is late, the manufacturer may miss the market and allow a competitor to get its chip on line sooner. This will affect the entire organization and may cause serious economic setbacks. An owners primary goal is to avoid such pitfalls.One method to avoid these pitfalls is to put together a team of people whose skills match the type of project envisioned and who have a proven record of delivering such proj ects. Before this team is put together, however, an owner should decide how the members will interact with both the owner organization and each other. This approach is called the project deliveryme加Ddj a particular combination of professionals and contract arrangements that assign s responsibilities and risk in a certain way. The three most common delivery methods are traditional, design/build, and construction management. Within each of these methods there is a choice of contract arrangements, and each has its own set of risks and capabilities. Early on, the owner must decide which type will best suit the specific circumstances of the specific project.MANAGING PROJECT RISKSLessons from HistoryAn owner may choose a particular delivery method after studying why construction projects throughout history have failed. The task is not as daunting as it may seem. A number of recurring problems accounts for the vast maj oritv of construction project failures. Here are the most common:Separated FunctionsThe two primary professionals on the project are the designer and the constructor. Their communication during the entire project life cycle is key to project success. Proj ects tend to be large, complex undertakings, and each is unique. The actions of one professional can have a major impact on the concerns of the other.For example, a design change after construction has started can adversely affect construction sequencing, thus causing considerable increases in cost due to lost efficiency. Early information about these changes gives construction personnel time to anticipate how to integrate them into the overall schedule. The longer the designer waits to inform the contractor of the change, the more money will be spent making the change. Conversely, if a contractor makes a field change and does not include the designer in the decision loop, design elements could be adversely affected and the building may not function as well as intended. In both cases. consultation between parties is important to maintain quality, budget, and schedule.Scope CreepThe scope of work on a project can bc defined as the product of the quantity of the work and the character of the work. For instance, imagine that 10,000 square feet of 5/8 inch gypsum wallboard defines the work of a drywall subcontractor. lf the quantity increases to11.000 square feet or the thickness to 3/4 inch.then the scope of work increases. Scope of work is the primary determinant of costs on a proj ect. If scope increases. costs also increase.Maintaining the scope of work as budgeted on a project can be a difficult aspect of managing the project since it is often beyond the control of any one member of the project team. Many factors can cause scope to increase. Todays large proj ects often involve complex and highly political organizations. Getting 100 percent consensus of what constitutes the entire proj ect can be time-consuming. Most proj ects have tight timelines and often do not take into account the time needed for up-front consensus. Therefore, proj ects often go forward without total consensus. This usually creates a backlash soruewhere further into the project. Often the only way to resolve it is to incorporate more scope.Scope may also grow when a critical user is left out during the early needs analysis stage and must be accOJ11modated later in the process. Sometimes this user was not available during the planning stages or became critical because of a new influx of money or other requirements. The change may be necessary, and the job of the project team is to minimize its impact on money and time.Another cause of scope growth is miscommunication among the user. the designer. and/or the constructor. In complex projects, a tremendous amount of information moves among the different organizations. Controlling this information flow and ensuring that each party knows and understands criticaJ information are major considerations when choosing delivery methods. It is the task of the project team to clearly identify the scope of work that was budgeted in the project and note any time that scope changes.Project AccelerationBuyers of construction services prefer to have projects delivered quickly. Finishing early lowers some costs, puts the building into service sooner. and can cut interest costs on construction loans considerably. Early completion also has a psychological impact, making owners, designers, and constructors alike happy. There is enthusiasm when closing out the job. Changes are easier to settle, inspectors are less rigid, and in general other aspects of bringing in the project flow smoother. There are, however, real risks associaced with going too fast. The biggest is that the project team will proceed into construction without having thoroughly considered all the elements of the design. As a consequence, the end product may not serve the needs of the oxvner as well as it could have with more planning. Another major risk is the problem of incomplete documents. A construction team faced with this situation can be well into construction only to find that the drawings are not detailed enough to accurately calculate the real costs. It is also possible that construction may have to be stopped or slowed to fix design problems, wasting rather than saving time.Poor Working RelationshipsIt is difficult enough for companies that perform the same tasks year after year to build effective organizations. The unique character of construction makes the task doubly difficult. The project team hired and assembled by the owner will probably be together only for one project. There simply isnt enough time to work out all the relationships necessary to perform difficult interconnected work. Personal work styles as well as corporate cultures can be very different from one another. Personal chemistry between individuals plays an important role, and good working relationships at the personal level are often a matter of luck.It is also true that contract forms. which are used in construction. can work against good teamwork. A construction contract has been called an exercise in risk allocation. If one party or team member attempts to unfairly or unrealistically put most of the risk on another party, then the effect on team performance can be dramatic. Most professionals in construction have heard horror stories in which project participants communicated only through formal means, using memos or (even worse) lawyers. Establishing good, informal rapport with other project participants is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that vital information will be exchanged early and often.These examples are certainly not the only lessons that can be learned from the history of construction failures, but they are among the most important. Througbout this chapter we discuss ways to mitigate these pitfalls through organization of the team. contract choice, partnering sessions. and delivery methods.ASSESSING PROJECT RISKSSelecting a delivery method and a contract type involves sequential decision making in which the owner. usually with professional advice and sometimes after the designer is selected, examines the specific circumstances of the project and chooses the best fit. Perhaps the project requires a fast turnaround, the scope is technically compjex, or the work is a renovation with many unknowns. Whatever the important drivers. the steps to the decision are essentially the same.General RisksThe general risks that occur on any project can be classified into four major areas: Financial. The project will cost more than the money that has been allocated to it. or it will cost more than the product itself is worth. Time. The project will not be completed within the planned time. Worse. it will be completed so late that it has an adverse effect on other parts of the owners work. Design. The project will not perform the function for which it was intended or. more commonly, will perform the function in a degraded manner. Quality. The project will have poor-quality materials or workmanship, or the work will be incomplete in some way.A project team experienced with the building process will address these risks during project development. The risks are approached differently, depending on whether the team is in the preconstruction or construction phase of the project.Preconstruction is often thought of as the design phase, but in reality it goes beyond the design tasks of working out the functional. aesthetic. and material requirements of the job. In this phase the project team (owner, designer, and constructor)start to deal seriously with balancing the design/cost equation. This equation is not a formalized mathematical expression but an understanding that increased function and quality equal increased costs. By factoring in this understanding while the design is being developed, team members play off one element (function and quality) against another (costs). The designer mubt take the lead here-identifying changes in scope, engineered systems, level of quality, or any other elements in the design that could increase costs. If the owner has this information early enough, then he or she can make informed decisions before too much money or time is spent. The risk occurs when realistic assessments of costs are not part of the design process, leaving the owner vulnerable to some unpleasant choices when these costs are finally identified.During the actual field construction process, the emphasis shifts from design/cost tradeoffsto executing a project within the constraints defined bv the contract documents. schedule. and budget. Risks in this phase involve time and external unknowns. One serious problem is that the early estimates are only that-estimates. They are not purchase prices. There are no guarantees when the estimates are prepared that the same conditions will prevail when materials are bought or labor hired. A sudden shift in lumber availability or a new union trade contract can alter prices. There are also many other risks. Community disapproval of a certain project can put pressure on local officials and cause delays. Labor actions, adverse weather conditions. And site accidents are all risks that are difficult to predict and hard to control. All cancause serious overruns in time and money during construction.Project-Specific RisksIn addition to general industry risks, there are specific risks that all owners and designers must take into account during their work.Site RisksEvery project has neighbors who may or may not be pleased with the idea of a new facilitv in their communitv.There will always be a regulatory environment. Some are stricter than others. but the rules are usually unique to the locale and must be understood and factored into the design and construction plan. Each region of the country has local geological characteristics. Specific conditions of the site, especially underground conditions. are difficult to predict. Finally, every site is located within a specific economic region. Economic conditions can change more rapidly than any other site factor.The Project ItselfBecause each project is unique, the risks associated with each are also unique. Many factors can influence the levels of risk. Complexity is a major factor because complex projects tend to be more difficult than simple projects. Complexity is related to the level of technology employed. New technologies of materials and assembly are more likely to be used on complex projects, but they also carry more risk than do proven technologies. For example, constructors working on the tunnel between England and France used a tunnel boring technique that had never been used at this scale before. In building projects, using a brick facade is a known and proven technology; but if project members want a different look. they may use a new configuration of a curtainwall system. Details of this system might be designed for the first tiroc on this particular project and may be troublesome both to install and maintain. Recently, there has been an increase in risk associated with smart systems-the use of computer technology to run operating systems in. forexample, a building, a hydroelectric plant, or a nuclear reactor. This technology is continually developing, which increases potential obsolescence, incompatibility of parts, and installation glitches.Other RisksIn addition to technical concerns. there are organizational and financial risks. An owners level of knowledge about the building process varies from person to person. To minimize risk, project members should match the delivery type with this level. Great danger lies in putting an unsophisticated owner into a delivery mode and contract arrangement that require knowledgeable involvement.Financial changes can also upset the success of the project. Many projects have been technically feasible only to fail due to inadequate capital for paying the bills as the project proceeds. Tightening the schedule can also create considerable risk. If the team is not assembled for an accelerated schedule. errors and inefficiencies can occur as the team races to accommodate it.MINIMIZING RISKOnce the general and specific project risks have been assessed. the owner must build a team that is matched to the project and therefore has the best chance of minimizing the risks. Among the many members of this team, the two primary ones are the design professionals and the construction professionals. These team members are usually corporate entities who assign appropriate, qualified personnel to the project organization for the life of the design and building effort. These primary members influence the inclusion of other participants such as consultants, specialty contractors, and suppliers. Both the firms and the individuals must have qualifications and experience that are suited to the particular demands of the unique project.The demands of the project can be categorized in many ways. Technically, each project can be categorized as a type-bridge, tunnel, biotech production facility, highway project. Design and construction firms often specialize in a type of project, so these qualifications are easy to fiIl.The makeup of the owner organization also puts demands on the project. Government agencies and private owners require different criteria to be met. Institutional owners often have specialized needs not required by the