Laryea, S and Watermeyer, R (2014) Innovative construction procurement at Wits University. Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Management, Procurement and Law, 167(5), pp. 220-231. ISSN 17514304
Abstract
Many construction projects end up with a wide gap between achieved and expected outcomes, which puts value for money for a project at risk. A root cause of this problem may lie in the development of an appropriate procurement strategy for projects. Wits University in South Africa has used a mixture of innovative procurement and contract strategies to deliver a portfolio of capital projects within 6% of the control budget over a period of 6 years (2008- 2013). The research aim was to examine the procurement strategies and project organisation techniques adopted to deliver projects successfully. The strategic procurement approach has been based on the philosophy of collaboration, shared risk and integrated project teams, which is different from the conventional approaches in South Africa. A discussion of strategies including framework agreements, New Engineering Contract (NEC3) options, target cost contracts and early contractor involvement is presented to demonstrate how the use of collaborative procurement methods and integrated supply chains provides a key to deliver successful outcomes and value for money. Organisations intending to adopt similar approaches will require a team of experts to lead a change from traditional procurement cultures to more collaborative and integrated procurement methodologies.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | contracting; procurement; project management |
| Index terms: | project management, project team, option, construction procurement, capital project, procurement strategy, traditional procurement, target cost, New Engineering Contract, framework agreement, procurement method, value-for-money, South Africa, construction project, collaboration, contract strategy, methodology, project organization, strategic procurement, philosophy, strategy, early contractor involvement |
| Subjects: | project delivery, decision analysis, philosophical studies, economics, management, project management theory and practice, strategic project management, contractual arrangements, research methods, evaluation, production management, organizational theory, Geography |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Value Management, Procurement, Risk Management, Project Management, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here