Successful verification of subcontracted work in the construction industry

Abstract

Due to the introduction of new types of contracts, such as Design, Build, Finance, & Maintain (DBFM), a major shift in tasks and responsibilities from client to contractor can be seen in the construction industry. To manage these new contracts and corresponding shifts in responsibilities, systems engineering (SE) is seen as a relevant instrument and applied increasingly in this industry.When these new, integrated contracts are applied in combination with SE, the contractor becomes responsible for verification. The contractor, however, is not the only organization that executes verification tasks as contractors regularly subcontract work to suppliers. Although the main contractor bears the final responsibility toward the client, it may be expected that the supplier verifies its own work. This requires verification to be carried out further down the supply chain. However, many problems are experienced when allocating these verification responsibilities to the suppliers. This paper explores which verification problems are faced in construction work that is subcontracted to suppliers. A conceptual framework is applied to categorize these problems and to analyze the solutions applied in the construction industry. The major finding of this study is that causes of verification problems can be found at both the contractor and the supplier side. Improvements are suggested for both these sides.

Investigating Systems Engineering Approaches in the Norwegian Construction Industry: A Multi‐Case Study

“…In the past decades, Systems Engineering has gained interest in the construction industry internationally to handle the increasing complexity (de Graaf, Voordijk, and van den Heuvel ,2016, de Graaf, Vromen, andBoes, 2017;de Graaf and Loonen, 2018;Elliott, O'Neil, Roberts, Schmid, and Shannon, 2012;Emes, Smith, and Marjanovic-Halburd, 2012;Makkinga, de Graaf, and Voordijk, 2018;Yoo and Park, 2001). In recent years, the approach also gains traction in the Norwegian construction industry.…”

Level of sub-contracting design responsibilities in design and construct civil engineering bridge projects

“…Despite the attention for sub-contracting, literature barely addresses which level of design responsibility MCs sub-contract to SCs and how that affects projects. Particularly in the civil engineering industry, MCs struggle with this, which results in interface mismatches, design errors and a variety of other problems (Makkinga et al, 2018;Zaneldin, 2016). The costs of such errors and rework can be substantial (Olanrewaju and Lee, 2022).…”

“…In the past two decades, this has resulted in responsibilities being transferred from the client to the contractor, and contracts that make the contractor responsible not only for construction, but also for design. Examples of such contracts are engineering and construct (E&C), design and construct (D&C), design, build, finance, maintain (DBFM) and similar types (Makkinga et al, 2018;Winch, 2010). For the client, such contracts are beneficial as tasks and risks become the responsibility of the contractor.…”

Twenty-year application of logistics and supply chain management in the construction industry

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