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Project misses target

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Nikolaos Blanas Mechanical Engineer| AECOM Tripoli, J, Greece
Hi All,

Currently I am facing an unpleasant situation regarding a large construction project. Just to get you on board I will give a high level description of the situation.

A project that consists of three phases, is currently in the design phase. The project phase was initiated and planned by another company and we took over the MEP design during the execution process. The project was going well until we reached the milestone of design freeze which was 1.5 months before the final design submission. The client ignored it and decided to continue issuing changes and kept doing it until now, almost two weeks before the final design submission. Because time was running out the architectural team tried to implement changes without following a proper change process and fit it all within the current schedule.

To make a long story short the architectural team lost aim of the project by pressing things and focused only on the final milestone. This resulted in low quality, many mistakes within the design, other teams struggling to keep up by dedicating more resources from outside the project and low client satisfaction.

I was wondering how would you handle such a situation occurring so close to the final milestone.

Thanks in advance!
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Nikolaos Blanas Mechanical Engineer| AECOM Tripoli, J, Greece
Jul 26, 2020 5:05 PM
Replying to MARK A ANNUNZIATA, Sr
...
NB-
You received some great advice here. Kiron, Sergio and Peter are spot on!
Margaret seems tough, but in my world of Tier One Project Management (either Contractor or Owner side) I agree with her that you need to rigidly assume responsibility for Goal setting and meeting KPI's.
I always have a change management plan in place which always includes additional costs (scope creep) and duration additions ordered by the Owner. The Owner does not have a Blank Check! Your job is to communicate this to your Client-if it is a PM he needs to be involved in the communication process with the Owner. Please remember- everybody in the process has an ego and proper communication will alleviate hurt feelings.
I have become an expert at performing Constructability Reviews to make sure no Detailed Design flaws come back to bite me-this is usually performed at the 75% phase of detailed design.
When necessary I involve my internal SME's in these meetings. We always uncover some errors no matter the trade.
Almost every Detailed Designer fails to coordinate with the other trades-Str, Arch, MEP, Str. Stl., Curtain Wall glass performance, etc. I wish I had $100 USD for every time an MEP Designer ran a main supply line through a structural element, or the sprinkler line or cable tray conflicted with exhaust ducts in a Parking Garage---I would be Retired Now!
I wish you well- take control of this challenge before it takes control of you!

From the Trenches!
M
Dear Mark,

You totally understand the situation by working in this exact field. The fact is that the owners PMO bears the main responsibility for the project.

During the design, a design review team is mandatory in order to ensure that conflicts are minimized. Especially in large projects that implicates different organizations for each discipline the need for coordination becomes more important. However the owner failed to realize this early in the process.

Also to my experience, especially in construction industry, changes cannot be avoided. It is a key issue to control them and communicate the information to all the teams.

Just a last comment we should also have in mind is the responsibility and who bears it and this sometimes may be an unidentified risk. By that I mean that I have worked in projects that changes had an impact in schedule and cost. People who should make decisions (accept or deny) for these changes avoided to do so and the reason was that they did not want to be responsible for burdening the budget (risk of loosing their job etc.).

I wish you also well!

N.
...
1 reply by Peter Rapin
Jul 28, 2020 3:18 PM
Peter Rapin
...
AS a point of clarification on your statement "During the design, a design review team is mandatory in order to ensure that conflicts are minimized". The designer is responsibility for design quality control including identifying and rectifying conflict between various design solutions and disciplines - mechanical, electrical, structural, etc. - unless each discipline has a separate contract with the owner with no integration requirements.The Owner and PMO should be the quality assurance agent - confirming that QC has actually been implemented by the design firm as contracted - not quality control!

Too many Owners take on quality control essentially letting the designer off the hook for design integration. The designers are happy with this as they can back off their quality commitments. How many times have I heard - "You (referring to the Owner or PM) had numerous opportunities to catch the error, why did you wait until the last minute?". A: "Because its your commitment under the contract."

At the end, every stakeholder suffers when mistakes are made however the best approach is to have a process where mistakes are not made - hold people accountable for the quality of their deliverables.

When I, or my team, review design documents I don't create a list of inadequacies or discipline interference but identify the failure to apply quality control and request a response confirming a better process and demand a full conflict review - at their cost.

To me, one conflict is put down as an oversight to be corrected, two conflicts results in a written reprimand and caution under the contract and three conflicts calls for a complete design review at the designers cost with possible third party peer review. I make that clear at the beginning.
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Peter Rapin Subject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent Consultant Ontario, Canada
Jul 28, 2020 1:42 AM
Replying to Nikolaos Blanas
...
Dear Mark,

You totally understand the situation by working in this exact field. The fact is that the owners PMO bears the main responsibility for the project.

During the design, a design review team is mandatory in order to ensure that conflicts are minimized. Especially in large projects that implicates different organizations for each discipline the need for coordination becomes more important. However the owner failed to realize this early in the process.

Also to my experience, especially in construction industry, changes cannot be avoided. It is a key issue to control them and communicate the information to all the teams.

Just a last comment we should also have in mind is the responsibility and who bears it and this sometimes may be an unidentified risk. By that I mean that I have worked in projects that changes had an impact in schedule and cost. People who should make decisions (accept or deny) for these changes avoided to do so and the reason was that they did not want to be responsible for burdening the budget (risk of loosing their job etc.).

I wish you also well!

N.
AS a point of clarification on your statement "During the design, a design review team is mandatory in order to ensure that conflicts are minimized". The designer is responsibility for design quality control including identifying and rectifying conflict between various design solutions and disciplines - mechanical, electrical, structural, etc. - unless each discipline has a separate contract with the owner with no integration requirements.The Owner and PMO should be the quality assurance agent - confirming that QC has actually been implemented by the design firm as contracted - not quality control!

Too many Owners take on quality control essentially letting the designer off the hook for design integration. The designers are happy with this as they can back off their quality commitments. How many times have I heard - "You (referring to the Owner or PM) had numerous opportunities to catch the error, why did you wait until the last minute?". A: "Because its your commitment under the contract."

At the end, every stakeholder suffers when mistakes are made however the best approach is to have a process where mistakes are not made - hold people accountable for the quality of their deliverables.

When I, or my team, review design documents I don't create a list of inadequacies or discipline interference but identify the failure to apply quality control and request a response confirming a better process and demand a full conflict review - at their cost.

To me, one conflict is put down as an oversight to be corrected, two conflicts results in a written reprimand and caution under the contract and three conflicts calls for a complete design review at the designers cost with possible third party peer review. I make that clear at the beginning.
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