Managing Fast – Tracked Projects:

A Review of ECI Report

Dr. George Jergeas PEng.

Slide 1
Reference

This presentation is based on the European

Construction Institute (ECI) - UK

ECI Manual
The Fast Track Manual
A guide to Schedule Reduction for Client and
Contractors on Engineering and Construction
Projects

Slide 2
Content
■ Introduction
■ Different Project Stages
● Concept Stage
● Development Stage
● Definition Stage
● Design Stage
● Procurement Stage
● Construction Stage
● Commissioning
● Operation Stage

Slide 3
Introduction

■ Takes place more quickly than normal

■ A difficult and often stressful route to follow

■ Projects ranged from 4 - 36 months

● Schedule reduction 10 - 29%
● Cost increase 10 - 20%

Slide 4
Reasons for Fast Track
■ Urgent requirements by client
● To maximize profit or limit loss

■ Imposed deadline
● Start of academic year
● End of current lease
● New legislation

■ Minimize disruption of services

Slide 5
Key Success factors

■ The calibre of individuals and their working

relationships

■ The adequacy of the definition of the project

■ Strategy adopted and systems for implementation

■ The passion to succeed on the part of key participants

Slide 6
Definitions
■ “A managerial approach to the achievement of early project
delivery, involving the application of innovations in the
management of construction procurement and recent advances
in the process that, bringing into play;

● The integration of construction and design phases

● The involvement of the contractor in both the design and
construction phases
● Overlapping of work packages to enable construction of
sections of the project to proceed while the design for other
sections is being progressed
● The employment of the expertise of suppliers in design and
construction
Kwakye, 1991

Slide 7
General Principles
■ Work Package Overlap
● Work packages are progressed in parallel
● Overlap the stages for each work package

■ Early Decisions
● Experienced judgement and empowerment
● Commence design before scope has been
defined
● Must accept wrong decisions

Slide 8
General Principles

■ Integrated Project Team

● Main parties are combined into a single organization
and participate to the limit of their capability in
achieving the project objectives
● Partnering/Building and sustaining team
● Benefits
■Availability of additional expertise
■Avoiding learning curve errors
■Reduction in the overall workload
■Commitment to the project definition and schedule
■Design and construction developed together

Slide 9
General Principles
■ Additional Staff
● More labour will be needed at peak period as a
consequence of scheduling activities in parallel
● More management resource will be needed to deal with
interface and progress issues arising from inter-
dependencies between disciplines and between design,
procurement and construction

■ Schedule Reduction Techniques

● Project must be managed in an efficient manner making full
use of project management and schedule reduction
techniques

■ Procurement Strategy
● Early selection of subcontractors and vendors

Slide 10
General Principles

■ Additional Risks
● Decisions based on limited information,
cannot always be right first time

● A structured and thorough risk

management process needed

Slide 11
Characteristics that Support Strategy
■ Ownership
● Client support
■Project sponsor or champion
● Stakeholder support and commitment
■ Organization
● Project team needs to be simple, clear and
devoid of rigid hierarchy
● If parent organization has a functional matrix
structure, the functional line must be
subordinate to the project management (task)
line for the duration of the project team

Slide 12
 Characteristics that Support Strategy

■ Desirable Team Characteristics

● Honesty - Openness - Trust
● Anticipation and avoidance of issues rather than waiting
for them to turn into problems
● Mutual support - issue resolution, coaching
● No blame culture
● Access to all parties, no communication barriers
● Lean organization, which aids communications and
speeds decision taking
● Full time members
● Authorized and empowered team members
● Decision making on the spot without referring
Slide 13
Characteristics that Support Strategy

■ People and Relationships

● Technical competence
● Decisiveness - self starter - can do - flexibility
● Ability to forecast outcome and act accordingly
● See the big picture
● Willing to collaborate
● Enthusiasm
● Strong leadership
● Managerial competence
● Openness

Slide 14
Characteristics that Support Strategy

■ Motivation
● Create a team culture that avoid de-motivation of individuals
who are keen to succeed, but are prevented by the
organization, procedures,…..
● Working part of a team, working equally hard and supporting
each other
● Appoint key positions to individuals known to be good
motivators
● Early identification and removal of under-performing
individuals
● Team building and partnering sessions
● Incentive/penalty clauses

Slide 15
Characteristics that Support Strategy

■ Contractual arrangements
● Achieve win-win situation
● Pre-selected, preferred contractor
● Reimbursable basis, with incentives
● Lump-sum can also be used
● Partnering
● Up front agreement for payment for
changes and extras

Slide 16
Characteristics that Support Strategy

■ Communications
● More informal communication - face-to-face
● Barriers should be removed - information
flows directly between the parties regardless
of parent organization and level of hierarchy
● Responsibility for communication lies with the
individual who has made a decision
● Frequency and progress meetings
● Frequent and concise reporting.

Slide 17