77-705839 Construction Law and Professional Context
77-705839 Construction Law and Professional Context
Introduction
The background of the current study rests on initiation of a Grade 2 listed building that is currently having some structural problems and the purpose of the construction is to create 10 one bedroom apartments, and 5 two bedroom apartments along with a retail unit on the ground floor. The total budget of the project is £3.0m and the timeline is approximately 15 months. The current study is based on the selection and appropriateness of a procurement route that is defined as the implementation of procurement strategy and method adopted in a construction project with focus on purchase of construction services, equipment and materials. The importance of the procurement procedure rests on selection and acquisition of materials and equipment in a project in order to meet the specified project goals. In this study, there is analysis of the procurement issues in the project, along with selection of the appropriate procurement method with comparison of a traditional or modern approach to procurement. Additionally, there is also a recommendation provided for the most suitable form of contract to be adopted by the Sheffield City Council in the construction project.
Issues in the procurement procedure
Based on the study of Hamza, Rasheed & Hussein (2022), one of the common issues in procurement is miscommunication. The key stakeholder of the current construction procedure is Sheffield city council and it is important for the procurement managers and agents to have profound knowledge of the needs and demands of the stakeholder. In this context, it is also witnessed that sometimes the contractor of a project is more prone to use a decentralized approach to procurement for the management of supply chain activities. However, this often culminates in delayed shipping and under performance of the customer service or inaccurate delivery of orders. Henceforth, in order to be updated with the needs and specifications of the stakeholders of a construction project, it is highly important to maintain communication and transparency within the project. However, one of the major procurement issues likely to be witnessed in the provided construction project scenario of Sheffield City Council is lack of proper communication techniques and medium for passing onto relevant information with the contractors and subcontractors of the project related to the needs of the stakeholders and also having adequate knowledge of the type of procurement and supply chain activities implemented in the project for acquisition of products and equipment. In this context, as stated by Windapo, Olugboyega & Odediran (2020), the use of a centralized communication and procurement solution is likely to incur positive impact on the project outcome and procurement procedures including minimal budget spending on the project activities and keeping all the stakeholders of the project up-to-dated with the key project status and information. Since the budget of the Sheffield City council construction project is kept low at £3.0 million, the application of decentralized communication and procurement solution shall be one of the major issues leading to increase in costs, budget surplus and lack of addressing the needs of the stakeholder.
One of the basic issues in procurement solutions in construction projects is complexity associated with the procurement procedures. As influenced by Morledge, Smith & Appiah (2021), there might be demand for occasional one-off buying procedures at local hardware or at the site. Therefore, the need for a well developed supply chain procedure is highly important for an effective purchasing and inventory management system and this would also help in curbing overspending in the project. A well curated and constructed supply chain management would also help eliminate double buying or buying equipment outside the requirement of the project. This would not only lead to budget surplus in the project, but also increase the timeline of the project. The positive aspect of the concerned construction project initiated by Sheffield City Council is adequate timeline amounting to 15 months. However, the inadequate budget of the project shall make it difficult for the project managers and executives to incur spending on technologies such as cloud computing that would result in centralization of the procurement procedure and thus, the project members and other members of the procurement team would be able to buy the products online from their mobile phones and personal computers. As mentioned by Ershadi et al. (2021), centralized procurement solutions could also be beneficial for approval of one-off purchase requests with easy review of the products needed to be bought. However, the key issue likely to be faced by the concerned construction project is lack of a centralized procurement solution that could result in buying irrelevant products not needed in the project or indulge into double buying as part of which there could be spending on unwanted equipment, resulting in inability of the project manager to buy products and equipment that are needed for the project.
The dearth of flexibility could also turn out to be one of the major procurement problems in the concerned project. As such, in the opinion of Bajomo, Ogbeyemi & Zhang (2022), the complexity associated with construction projects and the procurement procedure shall often require purchase of products and equipment in an emergency situation. Moreover, the Sheffield City council project requires the construction of 10 one room bedrooms, 5 two room bedrooms and one retail store at the ground floor that calls for acquisition of high quality construction equipment and products. In this scenario, the change in need and demand of project criteria and specifications or the stakeholders often requires adaptability from the end of the project managers. The adaptability and flexibility of project managers and leaders would also make it easier for the project to implement strategies in alignment with legal requirements and regulatory changes. Some of the reasons likely to cause delay in the concerned project include uncertain weather conditions in the UK due to which the overall timeline of the project is likely to be increased. Additionally, as mentioned by Perera, Nanayakkara & Weerasuriya (2021), labor shortage could also incur potential challenges in the project in terms of final delivery. Therefore, lack of project manager’s flexibility could turn out to be one of the major issues in the project as part of which there would be implementation of risk management and resilience strategies for dealing with the sudden issues in the project as part of which, the issues would be solved in a time effective manner, leading to effectiveness of the project procedures.
Appropriateness of the design and build procurement route
The procurement procedure that has been selected in the current project management scenario is design and build approach. As studied by Smith et al. (2023), the design and build procurement procedure is based on delivery of a project involving a single contract between the owner and the builder. The difference between traditional, and design and build contract is that the former involves two separate entities between the designer and the contractor whereas the latter involves two entities with only one company being responsible. In the coming years, almost 58% of the construction project managers are focusing on the implementation of design-build procurement procedure as the crux of it rests on elimination of the complexities associated with multiple contracts in a project that shall be time consuming. Since the Sheffield City Council project has a limited time frame of 15 months and the project shall be hindered by the occurrence of uncertain weather conditions or lack of adequate labors in the project, the design build approach is considered to be more appropriate as the procurement solution as part of which, there would be time management and betterment of overall efficiency of the project.
As stated by Suratkon, Yunus & Deraman (2020), one of the major advantages of the design build approach is removal of the bidding phase with concurrence of the design phase, thus, resulting in faster completion of the project. Time management serves to be an essential factor in the Sheffield City Council construction project resulting in the implementation of faster and more effective procurement and supply chain procedures. In contrast to that, the traditional procurement process implemented in construction projects involves complex steps and procedures and the design is segregated into three stages including design, bid and build. The traditional procurement procedure also requires separate negotiation with the project owner with an architect or construction contractor that often results in huge consumption of time, resulting in delays in the project. Therefore, the Sheffield City council project shall face issues related to time management and timely delivery of the project. However, as mentioned by Calahorra-Jimenez et al. (2020), one of the benefits offered by traditional procurement procedure in relation to design-build approach is greater control over design decisions and quality of workmanship. Moreover, the involvement of the bidding procedure in the procurement and project management procedure also results in submission of multiple tenders by multiple contractors due to which competitive pricing can be achieved. Since the budget of the Sheffield City council project is kept low at £3.0 million, the traditional procurement procedure shall be highly beneficial for the project.
In order to constitute the success and positive outcome of the design build approach in the concerned construction project, there is a need for implementation of a range of practices and strategies. As influenced by Lee, Rahman & Doh (2020), one of the primary strategies is the involvement of key players, thus, constituting effective stakeholder management. The benefit of traditional procurement method rests on greater control over decision-making. This should be achieved in the design build procurement approach of the construction project as well as for that, the decentralization of the procurement solutions is important. The success of the design build approach could only be ensured if there is documentation and reporting structures with clear line of communication to underpin the needs and specifications of the stakeholders. In this context, the UK laws and regulations governing the construction projects along with analysis of the needs of Sheffield City Council should also be analysed and addressed to ensure integration of the necessary factors and approaches into the project (Esperance & Sung-Hoon, 2023). The needs and specifications of the stakeholders should also be considered prior to the implementation of procurement and supply chain procedure in the project. In this regard, the success of the project also rests on the extent to which there is involvement of the architects, engineers, contractors and subcontractors of the project with the goals and scope of the project.
Moreover, the benefit of the traditional procurement approach as opposed to the design-build approach is the implementation of an open communication system. Although the design build approach eradicates complexity in projects through curbing the bidding procedure, there is a positive aspect to it as there is a clear line of communication established with the bidders, contractors and subcontractors of the project. As mentioned by Heaphy (2021), Sheffield City council and the construction project would only be benefitted when there is a clear line of communication between each of the project members and departments. In this context, the implementation of hierarchical organizational or project communication structure shall turn out to be highly disadvantageous for the project, resulting in lack of addressing the needs and opinions of the lower level members. Henceforth, the design-build approach shall only turn out to be beneficial for the construction project when functional or matrix organizational structure is implemented and each of the members, managers, leaders and executives of the project is given equal access and scope to the communication procedure.
Recommendation for suitable form of contract
After thorough analysis and evaluation of the different types of contracts and procurement approaches implemented in construction projects, the type of contract that has been recommended for the current construction project is lump sum contract. As mentioned by Gad et al. (2020), the lump sum contract is defined as the segregation of the entire task into small and workable parts that are completed in the project through construction trade. In the Sheffield City Council construction project, the implementation of the lump sum contract shall take place through clear definition of the scope and purpose of the project as part of which the members shall not work beyond the project requirements and tasks. However, the lack of a clearly defined scope shall turn out to be disadvantageous and inappropriate in a project. Henceforth, one of the major amendments that would be made in the standard form of the contract is to have clear definition of the construction project and also underpinning the goals and objectives of the project. As reported by Shash & Habash (2020), the documentation procedure also holds an immensely important role in the lump sum contract in project procurement methods. Some of the documentations that are needed to be maintained in the Sheffield City Council project as part of the lump sum procurement procedure are discussion of the general conditions including roles, payment information, change orders, dispute resolution, and site conditions. Additionally, other documentation procedures involved in this context are construction specifications, project schedule, construction drawings, and bill of quantities. As influenced by Mohammed & Othman (2023), the amendment that would be made in the documentation procedure is integration of scope of work and schedule of values. The reason for which scope of work would be integrated in the documentation procedure of the project is to have a clear understanding of the scope of the project, as part of which there would be a clear definition of the purpose and activities to be achieved in the project. In addition to that, the documentation would also have a clear definition of the distinctive job roles and responsibilities of the project members so that there is little misalignment or overlapping of the key job roles and work done by the members.
The benefits of a lump sum contract in a project rests on simplicity and financing options. According to Mikowati & Gultom (2023), the implementation of lump sum contracts in a project is often considered to be the easiest with clear underpinning of the state of work that needs to be addressed and the expected financial outcome for the contractor or owners of the project. Henceforth, through the application of the lump sum contract, there could be clear understanding of the financial benefits incurred by Sheffield City council through the completion of the project. Furthermore, the benefit of this contract also rests on easy financing options due to provision of better financing costs to the lenders. There is no need for amendment in this area as the procedure is highly systematic and effective through provision of a contingent percentage set aside for the owners or stakeholders of the project (Thomas & Wright, 2020). Henceforth, the completion of the construction project is likely to bring plenty of financial benefits and outcomes for the Sheffield City council.
Conclusions
To conclude, it could be stated that the definition of clear scope of the construction project initiated by Sheffield City Council is important. The implementation of design and build procurement strategy is recommended as compared to the traditional procurement solution due to flexibility and enhanced communication. The contract recommended is lump sum contract as part of which there would be a clear line of documentation to identify the scope, responsibility and work procedure of the project.
Reference List
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