Performance Based Studies Research Group

-Abstract-

Best Value Procurement/Performance Information Procurement System (BVP/PIPS) has been developed by Dean Kashiwagi and the Performance Based Studies Research Group (PBSRG) from 1991 – 2010. BVP/PIPS is a licensed technology from Arizona State University that includes a deductive logic called Information Measurement Theory (IMT), an industry structure model which shapes the PIPS functions, and a process and structure that transfers risk and control to expert vendors.

The BVP/PIPS has gone through numerous stages: the performance information centered PIPS (1994-2001); the PIPS testing phase (2001-2005); and the implementation stage (2005-2009); and the theoretical refinement and standardization of BVP/PIPS technology (2010). BVP/PIPS was introduced into the Netherlands in 2005 by a large general contractor Heijmans, the Rijkeswaterstaat, and aggressively proliferated by Scenter and others. BVP/PIPS usage in the Netherlands is modified to fit within the European procurement law. However, the main advantage of PIPS is the IMT based philosophy of minimized management, direction, and control of expert vendors.

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-Abstract-

A large government organization is using a risk management system which depends on the vendors to manage the risk on their contracts that they do not control, and to report on the status of the risk using a weekly risk report (WRR) and a risk management plan (RMP) which identifies how the vendor is minimizing the risk that they do not control. By minimizing the report content to dominant information that is difficult to refute (objective information such as time, cost, status), information is generated that motivates accountability, pre-planning, and performance of all parties. Dominant information minimizes the need for direction and control, identification of exact solution, and management, direction, and control by the client/user/buyers, and motivates the use of quality control/risk management by the contractors and quality assurance by the client/users. The transparency of the system becomes the enforcement of performance and accountability. Interesting concepts developed by the research include the concept that minimizing information flow is more effective than maximizing information flow between participants, vendors can effectively manage and minimize risk that they do not control by use of dominant information and best value concepts of measurement of performance and accountability can be initialized from the bottom up instead of from top down.

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-Abstract-

Developed construction industries in the US, UK, and Europe have battled to increase the performance of their construction industries. These more developed countries influence the underdeveloped countries. The underdeveloped countries hire academics, consultants and experts from the more developed countries to model their industry and practices.  The author is proposing that the underdeveloped countries should not do this based on the low performance of the developed nation’s processes, and use more efficient and effective practices that are based on logic, practices from other more efficient industries, systems with proven dominant or very high performance.

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-Abstract-

In the past two years, the Facility Management Division of the U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) has been implementing a Best Value System that will move their Capital Investment Program from a management to a leadership structure. The MEDCOM is working to minimize management, transfer risk to the contractor, and use performance information to give a competitive advantage to contractors when selecting them to perform facility renovations and construction. Currently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE,) on behalf of the MEDCOM has awarded several Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contracts with a pool of six contractors.

The following research provides insight into a contractor’s implementation of a risk identification, planning and management program. Their goal is to improve their performance and competitiveness within the MEDCOM’s new Best Value System. The program assists the contractor with identifying value in terms of risk minimization and avoidance and uses that information to differentiate themselves from the other IDIQ contractors. The result provides a process for implementing the program within the contractor’s project delivery system and measures the outcome.

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-Abstract-

An information environment uses non-technical performance measurements to provide data that indicates relative efficiency and effectiveness of all key participants in a system. The movement from a traditional environment, which relies upon technical information, high levels of management and control, and large amounts of information transfer, to an information environment, which relies upon non-technical information, minimal levels of management and control, and minimizes information and communications, is difficult. In construction and facilities, the industry is predominately traditional in its characteristics and the transition to an information environment often is converse to standard practices and thinking.

This paper presents research conducted at the University of Minnesota (UMN) Capital Planning and Project Management group and their movement from a traditional organization to an information environment. The UMN’s traditional management and system structure is presented along with the intermediary steps taken in the transformation to a performance information-driven system. In the transition, the UMN began with using performance measurements in small maintenance and repair requirements (specifically mechanical, electrical, and roofing services) on vendors and contractors. The system was then expanded to consider larger providers of services and some internal assessment of department performance. As the environment evolved, the performance measurements were directed inwards, with an initial examination and tracking of project managers, designers, facility managers, etc. The resultant environment is presented along with the most recent performance results of the research.

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