The procurement process is a major part of the construction process and in this extension it is no different. There are six steps to the procurement process but the most important one is the third step which is developing the procurement strategy. The first step is determining the need for the extension, as it is one of the first steps in the re-development of the health centre therefore it is obvious that this extension is much needed. The second step is assessing the options. For this step the in-house team will outline all of the needs the health centre will have for the extension and then find a strategy that suits their needs. When deciding on a procurement strategy there are three things considered, these are; time, quality and cost. The in house team will take these into consideration when deciding upon a strategy. Based upon the information given the procurement strategy is likely to be the construction management strategy. This means that the client is still in charge but DMAS architects as lead consultants administers the contract on behalf of the client, they will also input their ideas and advise on different aspects of the refurbishment and are involved in the design and planning stage which improves buildability. The good thing about this type of procurement is that there is potential to save time in the overall construction. It is also very easy to make changes along the way as the client and DMAS work together. The negative side however means that it time and cost certainty isn’t reliable. For this type of procurement the client needs to be experienced with this type of arrangement or it won’t work. The client also has to take most of the risk on this type of procurement strategy.
Once the procurement strategy is selected and in place they need to devise a way to manage the strategy and how the client and DMAS work together to get the most out of the project. There are now standards in place for both to achieve. They are set to achieve good collaborative business management. It focuses on 8 points to focus on so that the job is done with quality and good inter-relationships along the way. The eight points are; awareness, knowledge, internal assessment, partner selection, working together, value creation, staying together and exit strategy. These standards are called the BS 11000 standards.
I think the best structure for Meade health centre would be framework agreement. The reason I chose this structure is because this extension is only one phase of the overall re-development. This suits framework agreement because as the other phases will need construction the relationships will grow stronger and will be continuously improving which will have a knock on effect on the quality of work, design and finish product. Also with this type of structure it can reduce costs as they learn from previous mistakes. There is less risk involved with this type of structure also.
Reasons for Contract Choice and Justification
The way in which the type of contract is chosen is based upon the focus on three elements of the procurement. These are; flexibility, risk allocation and incentive. The flexibility refers to how change in the construction process can be dealt with. Meade health centre and DMAS architects work closely together as a result of the structure they would have in place and therefore changes can be dealt with in ease. Normally these changes can be predictable and therefore they should have prepared for these changes anyway. The risk allocation refers to how the risk should be shared between Meade health centre and DMAS. This should be decided at the start so that each party knows what they are responsible for and that there is no confusion as to who to blame when something goes wrong. Incentive is part of the contract criteria because people in this refurbishment need to have a common goal and want to work towards it
