Partnering: only a buzz word

Partnering has simply become a buzz word and a marketing tool – and is delivering little against expectation.

That’s the view of Ali Mafi, formerly of Constructing Excellence and who now heads up consultancy Lean Thinking.

He believes that despite a surge in the branding of partnering as framework agreements, alliances or collaborative working, very little is being achieved in improving project performance across all key performance indicators. “I am all in support of partnering in the industry,” he said. “However, the logic behind how partnering can help deliver radical improvement is very much misunderstood.

“Partnering, as is currently perceived, deals predominantly with emotional and contractual issues, not the project delivery process where the value is added.”

He said that having a laminated partnering charter, holding lots of meetings, being nice to each other and having a hierarchical problem resolution procedure for constantly re-occurring problems “won’t deliver radical improvement”.

“Partnering should be about problem prevention and making work flow by eliminating waste,” he said. “Jolly days out quad-biking and charter signing while front-line operatives carry on in the same old way is not the answer.”

On supply chain integration, Mafi believes the majority of contractors reduce their supplier lists mainly to squeeze the rest for bigger discounts, rather than taking the approach of looking to improve flow by reducing waste in the joint delivery process and increasing profitability for the whole team.

The solution, according to Mafi, for achieving sustainable, radical improvement is to apply lean project-management methods, which concentrate on creating continuous flows on projects. “To create flow, the construction teams should be focusing on the constraint of the project, rather than just trying to keep everyone busy and throwing money at projects when they start to fall behind,” he said.

“The constraint on a project determines the completion date. The constraint can most often arise as the result of policies set by management.”

Contractors such as Gleeson and Robert Woodhead, which have embraced these principles under Mafi’s guidance, have already seen a 27% reduction in project duration, allowing resources to be released early to work and earn money on other projects.

The time and cost predictability on these projects hit the mid-90% mark.

Planning projects to maximise continuous flow will do away with the traditional approach of all new trades starting on site on a Monday – currently adopted by 95% of the industry.