In the past, I have written about the integrated project delivery (IPD) process and my advocating it over design-bid-build, construction management, and/or performance contracting, but I’m troubled by the slow progress of IPD into the design, construction, and O&M business. Sure, lots of designers, builders, and trade contractors are saying they are following either the IPD, or the more popular term IPD-ish process, but I know from my own experience over the past year that engineers and builders really aren’t embracing IPD in the spirit of the true team environment. So why aren’t they embracing IPD? Two words: trust and change.
Beginning with trust: We are an industry built on competition backed by lawyers and insurance policies to protect us in a competitive environment. You could say trust and competition are analogous to oil and water. For example, health care organizations (AKA owners) compete with other owners for the business and the profits associated with caring for people, as well as for research funds for future health care solutions. In pursuit of health care growth, owners have building programs and capital projects that must be built, and these owners will follow the 20th-century “request for proposal” (RFP) process to procure needed services to go forward with project.