Business models used to deliver and operate ever growing infrastructure in the UK have proven to deliver projects over budget, past deadline and below face value. Project 13 is a response to the challenges faced by the industry in the past. Driven by the ICE, it embarks upon a journey of creating a new model of delivery that will help us move from transactional structure to enterprise structure – from businesses fighting for their own interests as first priority to sophisticated, integrated organisations, incentivised to deliver better outcomes for their customers together, while maintaining long standing relationships with each other. Project 13 helps resolve issues such as low margins, low investments and disfunctional relationships within the supply chain.
At the heart of Project 13 is creation of community of owners and suppliers committed to moving away from making decisions based purely on cost and focusing on creating value. Early adopters step away from multi-layered commercial models to integrated organisations where all partners are commercially aligned and focus on heading in the same direction.
Where there is talk about collaboration, NEC comes to mind and just last June we observed emergence of the new NEC4 Alliance Contract, which engages multiple partners within the supply chain under a single contract with an integrated risk and rewards model. This promotes much deeper collaboration between all project partners, bound by common interests and reduced the potential for dispute. Furthermore, the changes to performance measurement further promote this notion. As put by NEC on their website: “All members of the alliance have an equal voice and share in the performance of the alliance as whole as opposed to their own individual performance“. The amazing part of it is that just like all other NEC contracts it uses with familiar provisions, management processes and terminology making the transition from other forms of contracts from NEC family much smoother than when adopting a brand new type of contract.
Why is this important to you?
Project 13 is not just a business model. It’s a representation of collective thoughts of the industry leaders. It represents the direction the industry is going in. Early adopters include Heathrow Airport, Anglian Water, National Grid and Environment Agency – that’s just to start with. Whether you are directly or indirectly involved with them or are potentially going to face some of the big clients in the industry, understanding the principles and driving forces behind them makes you and your business more competitive and will position you better for the times to come. At the end of the day all of us have bi-fold obligations – one to satisfy the needs of our clients to the best of our ability and another one to advance our respective industries and societies we live in.
Best,
Radek Makar
Director | Project and Forensic Services
radek@viviad.co.uk
We are a London based, independent construction consultancy specialising in Project Services with Dispute Resolution Reachback. We act as interim managers but are open to longer commissions.
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