Design and Build
Design and Build
Design and Build
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman
a,*
Department of Building, National University of Singapore, 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore 117566, Singapore
Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Singapore Changi Airport, P.O. Box 1, Singapore 918141, Singapore
Received 20 October 2006; received in revised form 30 March 2007; accepted 4 April 2007
Abstract
Even though designbuild (DB) arrangements have several advantages, project owners are not using them to a large extent. This may
be due to some inherent problems that owners face in their DB projects. This study investigates the problems and diculties that Singaporean owners face in DB projects and how project managers can help them overcome these problems. Data were collected from public and private sector owners using a structured questionnaire via post and email. The collected data were subjected to statistical analyses.
The results show that owners face signicant problems in the whole development process of DB projects, especially during tender preparation and evaluation stages. Owners that do not have in-house project management face signicantly more problems than those with
in-house expertise. Generally, there were no dierences on the problems faced by the public and private sector owners. Recommendations are made on how project managers can help owners overcome some of the problems they face in DB projects.
2007 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Managing projects; Procurement; Design-build; Owners; Problems
1. Introduction
Many studies have compared the advantages and disadvantages of designbuild (DB) with the traditional designbid-build (DBB) procurement system. DB project delivery
method brings various design disciplines and construction
together, and this is supposed to minimize incidents of
re-works that result in cost and time savings for the owner
[1]. However, there seems to be no signicant growth in the
use of DB in Singapore [29]. Except for 2004 when it registered 23%, the percentage of building projects procured
through the DB route in Singapore had languished below
20% between 1997 and 2006 [29]. The reasons may be
because project owners feel that they need to bear more
risks, DB facilities are not of high quality, and maintenance
issues are not adequately considered [2].
The aim of this paper is to investigate how project managers can help Singaporean owners overcome the problems
they face in DB projects. Under this aim, the specic objectives are: (1) to explore the severity of problems faced by
owners of DB projects during tender preparation, tender
evaluation, design and construction stages; (2) to compare
the severity of problems of faced by public and private sector owners, and those with and without in-house project
management expertise; and (3) to suggest ways in which
project managers can help owners overcome the problems
they face in DB projects.
The study is important because if project managers can
help owners overcome the problems they face in DB projects, more owners would be willing to use this procurement
route, which has demonstrated superior performance in several areas. Past studies have shown empirically that the use
of DB procurement results in a superior time performance
[3,4]. DB projects have been found to produce equal and
sometimes more desirable quality performance than DBB
arrangement [3].
F.Y.Y. Ling, B.H.M. Poh / International Journal of Project Management 26 (2008) 164173
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F.Y.Y. Ling, B.H.M. Poh / International Journal of Project Management 26 (2008) 164173
Table 1
Problems faced in designbuild arrangement
No.
Problem faced
Overall
mean
Std.
dev
t-Test
t
Pte
mean
No PM
mean
ANOVA 2
F
Sign.
(2 tail)
11
12
13
14
1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
Tender preparation
Owners lack knowledge and experience
Owners lack relevant manpower and resources
Owners lack legal advice and assistance
Communication with end users to meet their requirements is lacking
Insucient time to prepare tender documents
Information to draft tender documents is lacking
Level of information to be provided in tender document is uncertain
Scope of works is uncertain
2.463
2.345
2.537
2.855
2.691
2.472
2.836
2.255
0.93
1.00
0.97
0.93
0.88
0.80
1.03
0.73
4.263
4.835
3.523
1.158
2.607
4.813
1.176
7.618
0.000*
0.000*
0.000*
0.126
0.006*
0.000*
0.123
0.000*
2.68
2.30
2.74
2.70
2.20
2.75
3.10
2.45
2.34
2.37
2.43
2.94
2.97
2.30
2.69
2.14
1.696
0.063
1.261
0.863
11.75
4.130
2.092
2.336
0.199
0.802
0.267
0.357
0.001*
0.047*
0.154
0.132
2.89
2.66
2.86
2.55
2.41
2.74
3.59
2.31
2.00
2.00
2.19
3.19
3.00
2.19
2.00
2.19
16.12
6.424
7.129
7.235
6.742
6.953
79.36
0.358
0.000*
0.014*
0.010*
0.010*
0.012*
0.011*
0.000*
0.552
2
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
Tender evaluation
Owners lack knowledge and experience to evaluate tender
A well-established tender evaluation system is lacking
Too many proposals to evaluate
Insucient time to evaluate tenders
Owner unsure if selected contractor is appropriate
Owner unsure if selected contractor would give value for money
3.093
2.600
2.818
2.491
2.545
2.519
1.15
1.05
1.22
1.10
1.02
0.96
0.590
2.833
1.107
3.363
3.321
3.612
0.279
0.003*
0.137
0.001*
0.001*
0.001*
2.90
2.40
2.85
2.58
2.40
2.60
3.21
2.71
2.80
2.44
2.63
2.47
0.883
1.150
0.021
0.187
0.641
0.227
0.352
0.288
0.885
0.667
0.427
0.636
3.00
2.59
3.03
2.63
2.52
2.62
3.19
2.62
2.58
2.35
2.58
2.42
0.370
0.010
1.968
0.873
0.047
0.517
0.546
0.919
0.167
0.355
0.830
0.475
3
3.1
3.2
Design stage
Contractors detailed design does not meet owners expectations
Contractor submits claims for items not clearly stated in the tender
documents
Contractors consultants are not competent
Contractors consultants, subcontractors and suppliers are not participating
in technical discussions with owners
Insucient communication between owner and contractors consultants,
subcontractors and suppliers
Owners need to bear more risks in approving design and drawings
2.981
2.745
1.11
1.25
0.123
1.510
0.452
0.069
2.90
2.25
3.03
3.03
0.169
5.330
0.682
0.025*
3.00
2.38
2.96
3.15
0.016
5.719
0.900
0.020*
2.755
2.566
1.19
1.20
1.499
2.630
0.070
0.006*
2.68
2.63
2.79
2.53
0.102
0.087
0.751
0.770
2.93
2.78
2.56
2.35
1.271
1.735
0.265
0.194
2.519
1.08
3.285
0.001*
2.58
2.49
0.091
0.764
2.64
2.38
0.772
0.384
2.600
0.993
2.989
0.002*
2.90
2.43
2.976
0.090
2.48
2.73
0.854
0.360
2.691
1.22
1.886
0.033*
2.90
2.57
0.929
0.339
2.62
2.77
0.202
0.655
2.491
1.02
3.716
0.000*
2.20
2.66
2.655
0.109
2.17
2.85
6.660
0.013*
2.691
3.056
1.23
1.24
1.863
0.331
0.034*
0.371
3.00
2.75
2.51
3.24
2.021
1.980
0.161
0.165
2.66
2.79
2.73
3.36
0.051
2.932
0.822
0.093
3.6
4
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
Construction stage
Delays in commencing work because under-estimated time needed to obtain
statutory approvals
Owners unsure if contractors method statements or shop drawings are
adequate
Owners unsure of the extent they should check on contractors
Low price certainty for owners because of more change orders
10
With PM
mean
3.5
Sign.
(2 tail)
3.3
3.4
ANOVA 1
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Public
mean
Sign.
(1 tail)
Note. Means calculated from 5-point ratings (1 = strongly agree; 5 = strongly disagree). t-Test value (l0) is set at 3.
167
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is negative. Thus, when the calculated t value has signicance of < 0.05, it is concluded that the issue is a perceived by owners to be a signicant problem in their
DB projects.
To compare the perception of problems faced by public (group 1) and private (group 2) sector owners, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. In this test,
H0: l1 = l2; and H1: l1 6 l2, where H0: there is no
signicant dierence between perceptions of public and
private sector owners; and H1: there is a signicant difference between perceptions of public and private sector
owners.
It is also important to investigate if owners face fewer
problems if they have in-house project managers. A second
ANOVA was conducted to test H0: l3 = l4 and H1:
l3 6 l4, where H0: there is no signicant dierence in the
perception of severity of problems faced by owners with
(group 3) and without (group 4) in-house project managers; and H1: there is a signicant dierence between perceptions of owners with and without in-house project
managers.
6. Characteristics of the sample
From the 100 sets of questionnaires sent out, 55 usable
forms were received, representing a response rate of 55%.
The good response rate may be because of the three
reminders that were sent to them, and respondents were
able to conveniently return completed questionnaires via
email. Thirty-ve (64%) and 20 (36%) of the respondents
belonged to the private and public sectors respectively.
The skew towards private sector is consistent with the prole of procurement system in Singapore whereby the public
agencies used signicantly lesser DB than private sector
[29]. Twenty-six (47%) respondents did not have in-house
project management and DB expertise while the rest 29
(53%) had. The almost equal ratio of those with and without project management expertise allows for an unbiased
investigation of the concerns of these two groups of respondents. Twenty-two (40%) respondents were professionals,
18 (33%) were upper management and 15 (27%) respondents were middle management. Upper management provides a macro view, while professionals and middle
management are the people who are at the project sites,
dealing with day to day issues and problems. The spread
from professionals to upper management makes the views
of dierent strata of owner organizations to be represented
in this study.
7. Results
The rst objective of this study was to explore the severity of problems faced by owners of DB projects. The results
of the t tests show that owners perceived that they faced
signicant (p < 0.05) problems managing all the four stages
of DB projects (see Table 1, columns 56). These problems
are summarized in Table 2 (column 2).
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169
Table 2
Summary of recommendations
No.
Problems
1
1.1
1.2
1.3
Tender preparation
Owners lack knowledge and experience
Owners lack relevant manpower and resources
Owners lack legal advice and assistance
1.5
1.6
1.8
2
2.2
Tender evaluation
A well-established tender evaluation system is lacking
2.4
2.5
2.6
During tender submission, request contractors to provide: quality specic qualications and life cycle cost
Require contractors to maintain the built facility for a prolonged period of time
3
3.4
Design stage
Contractors consultants, subcontractors and suppliers
are not participating in technical discussions
3.5
3.6
Recommendations
Engage a PM early (for problems 1.11.3)
Get the PM or consultant quantity surveyor to prepare tender document, RFP,
advise on conditions of contract to be used and level of information to be provided
to bidders (for problems 1.11.3)
RFP should be adequately prepared (for problems 1.11.3)
Management should set realistic deadlines and avoid publishing the completion date
before it is rmed-up
Use project management tools such as CPM to plan and schedule the activities
PM to advise on type of information and level of detail to be provided in the tender
document
RFP should not contain a large amount of design
Get the PM to identify complete scope of works
Set up a tender evaluation system
Learn from best practices adopted by other rms
Built into the contract that technical discussion with owners must be attended by
contractors design consultants
Allow for direct communication between owners and consultants in the contract,
followed by written conrmation with contractors
Specify the type of submissions needed
Engage a professional to review contractors submissions
Provide in the contract that contractors duties and responsibilities are not diminished by owners approval
4
4.1
Construction stage
Delays in commencing work because under-estimated
time needed to obtain statutory approvals
4.2
4.3
Take into account the statutory approval period from planning stage
Provide oat in the program for resubmission to authorities to meet their
requirements
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organization does not have a proper tender evaluation system in place, the time taken to award the tender is inherently longer.
Project managers must pay close attention to contractor
selection in order to ensure that the dierent aspects of DB
project performance are achieved [12]. The project managers must possess management and procurement capabilities
to make judgments on a best value rather than lowest
price basis, to select DB oers, to develop project requirements, to assess project progress and quality, and to monitor payments [8]. Owners should use an independent and
experienced evaluator or evaluation team; share results
with aected parties; and be prepared to defend their decisions [32]. The evaluation team should have expertise in
architecture, engineering, nance and project management.
It is recommended that project managers set up a systematic tender evaluation system for DB projects. There
is no need to reinvent the wheel, as models for DB contractor prequalication and bid evaluation are available [16].
Using existing models, best practices adopted by dierent
owners could be incorporated. From there, the tender evaluation system can be progressively rened to suit an owners organizational needs.
The system should consider pre-qualication of bidders,
evaluation of bids that provide the best combination of
costs and value for owners, selection criteria and weighting
of criteria [27]. Pre-qualication is important to reduce the
number of proponents to three or four to allow better competition in the second phase [32]. Even with a scientic system, it is important to select DB teams which owners trust,
so that a team approach can be cultivated.
Tenderers should also be asked to submit their nancial
results and track records, to help project managers determine their suitability to be awarded the DB project. Project
managers should also cross-check the contractors past
performance with other owners, sub-contractors and
suppliers. They should require DB bidders to submit quality-specic qualications on both the design and construction members of their teams [7]. These include a record of
quality performance and quality-specic individual credentials, so that quality risks of DB projects are reduced.
To help owners get value for money, project managers
should evaluate life cycle costs, instead of just the initial
capital cost. In practice, owners perception of value for
money is usually limited to the construction cost, especially
speculative property developers of residential projects.
Ultimately, end-users are the ones who pay for the running
cost. Unfortunately, the cheapest solution in terms of construction costs is almost always accepted with aesthetics
and life cycle cost seldom entering into the equation [9].
For example, performance of mechanical and electrical systems in factory projects using DB route has been found to
be signicantly lower than those using DBB [4]. In private
sector projects, performance of building elements of DBB
projects is also signicantly better than DB [4]. The lower
level of performance may indicate a lack of emphasis on
life cycle costs by DB contractors. It is therefore
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171
In DB projects, contractors would submit their drawings to owners for approval. Owners felt that they bear
more risks because they need to approve DB contractors
design and drawings (item 3.6). It is recommended that
owners do not hold designers to the traditional standard
of submission requirements for reviews, revisions, and
resubmissions as it would be counterproductive and may
cause project delay [32]. Moreover, owners may not be
able to evaluate if the submissions are adequate, but for
the sake of not delaying the project, they may approve
the submission so as not to let contractors have an opportunity to claim for extension of time. Unfortunately, if the
design proves to be inadequate later, DB contractors may
put the blame on owners who approved the proposal, and
they may even request for a variation order. It is recommended that the owner assigns his most knowledgeable
project manager to work with DB contractors and their
design team members.
The next issue is the status of owners approval; does the
approval absolve DB contractors from their tness for purpose and/or reasonable skills and care responsibility? It is
recommended that project managers include in the tender
document that owners approval of any design does not
modify or dilute DB contractors responsibility and liability. The general obligations of contractors are still to be
fully responsible for the design and tness for purpose. In
addition, owners should engage professional project managers to review the submissions. Though this may add cost
to owners, it may save owners from spending more time
and money in disputes later.
11. Diculties during construction stage
The t-test results in Table 1 show three signicant problems faced by owners during the construction stage (4.1, 4.2
and 4.3). The ANOVA results show no signicant dierences between the perception of public and private sector
owners.
The results show that owners sometimes under-estimate
the time needed to obtain statutory approvals (item 4.1).
Owners may not be aware that statutory approvals may
take weeks to obtain, thereby delaying physical construction start date, resulting in schedule over-run. It is recommended that project managers advise owners to take into
the account the period for obtaining statutory approvals
right at the planning stage so that a realistic completion
date can be set. Owners should also note that government
authorities may add other requirements which would mean
resubmissions and further delays to the project.
Another problem encountered was when contractors
submit shop-drawings or method statements to owners
for approval and owners are unsure whether the submissions are satisfactory (item 4.2). This is similar to item
3.6 above. The danger of giving approvals is that some of
the risks may be passed to the owner. Project managers
should advise owners to be selective in what they would
like to approve. For example, they do not have to approve
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This study recommended ways in which project managers could help owners surmount some of the problems they
face in DB projects (Table 2). The recommendations are
underpinned by the advice that owners should engage project managers either as in-house employees or external consultants to help them implement their DB projects. The
cost that they incur in project management fees would be
insignicant compared to the savings that they get from
having a well-designed and built DB facility.
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