Partnering
As an initiative of the CIC Industry Improvement Committee, a
Task Force was convened with the objective of building on the recommendations
of the Latham report Constructing the Team and producing
guidance on integrated working for members and the industry and
its clients generally. The outcome in June 2000, under the chairmanship
of John Wright, was A
Guide to Project Team Partnering. Always intended as a
dynamic document for continuous improvement, two years later in
2002, the Partnering Task Force produced a second edition incorporating
feedback from user’s experience.
During its work on the second edition the group identified a
need for guidance on selecting the partnering team and also on
how to run partnering workshops. It set to work producing companion
guides on these two topics, which are due for publication shortly.
An extract from the introduction to the main guide follows to
give a flavour of what the publication contains:
“Why
choose Partnering?
For too long the construction industry has been
divided by factionalism and conflict, which has contributed to
poor performance, dangerously low profit margins and poor morale
among consultants, constructors and suppliers. Understandably,
clients in both the public and the private sectors have become
increasingly dissatisfied. What they see is unpredictability and
under-performance. What they receive is too often of poor quality,
late and overpriced, provided by a process seldom offering best
value.
Much had been done and much more is being done to address these
major issues facing the construction industry. In 1998 the Construction
Task Force set up by the Government published its report Rethinking
Construction. This gave birth to the Movement for Innovation
(M4I) and a pool of demonstration projects, which in the new spirit
of openness, provide a bank of knowledge on good practice and innovation.
The Government has followed this up with its own guidance documents
produced by the Treasury.
The Construction Industry Council enthusiastically supports these
initiatives and the new thinking and cultural change they are helping
to engender in clients, consultants, constructors, specialist contractors
and suppliers.
At the heart of Rethinking Construction is the conviction
that an integrated project process will deliver the best value
to the client and user. The process must however embrace the combined
talents of the full project team as early as possible. The team
must be in place from concept to completion and be wholly focused
on the needs of the client and users.
Central to this integrated process is project team partnering – a
structured management approach to facilitate working together.
The project partnering team must include the client together with
consultants, constructor/construction manager, key specialists,
and key suppliers. The team members form a ‘virtual company’,
acting co-operatively and making decisions in a blame-free environment
of trust. This will raise the collective performance and aid more
effective working, with the focus firmly on agreed common goals.
Underpinning the successful project partnering team will be openness,
clearly articulated mutual objectives, a problem resolving structure,
a commitment to continuous improvement - measured against Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) - and a mechanism to manage the risks and fairly
share the rewards.”
To be notified when Selecting the Team and Guide
to Partnering Workshops are available click here |