Obstacles With Understanding Best Value Practices

Obstacles With Understanding Best Value Practices

By Jacob Kovel, Marie Sullivan, Kenneth Sullivan, Dean Kashiwagi

April 2005

Abstract

The Performance Information Procurement System (PIPS) is an information based best value system that minimizes risk using best business practices. Best business practices include the minimization of management and control, the use of performance information to pick the most qualified contractor(s), and forcing contractors to minimize risk. The authors propose that the cause of construction nonperformance is the lack of understanding by the client’s professional representatives.

The paper proposes that there is a lack of construction management educators/researchers to teach the industry. Educators/researchers lack first hand experience, education, and research funding to support best value education. This paper highlights the difficulty using a case study of a CM who is introduced to PIPS during a 14 week masters level construction class. One of the class assignments was to implement the concepts on an actual project. The CM selected a large scale bridge project. The bridge project entails replacing the existing movable span of a Railroad Bridge with a new vertical lift span and considers the ability of a CM to overcome the traditional roadblocks to a successful project outcome. This paper analyzes the difficulties faced by the CM in implementing the concepts after a semester of education. Additionally a professor familiar with performance-based concepts had difficulty seeing the incorrect implementation by the student.

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