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Project 13 will help to rebuild a more sustainable construction industry

By Adam Kirkup, in News,

Mark Hansford, ICE director of engineering knowledge, explains why Project 13 is central to efforts to rebuild a more productive, sustainable construction industry post-Covid-19.
Led by the Infrastructure Client Group and supported by ICE, the industry-wide change programme Project 13 is intended to improve outcomes for the public and infrastructure customers, deliver a more highly skilled, innovative workforce and create a more sustainable, productive construction industry.
The collaborative enterprise business model officially moved into its implementation phase in May 2018. Back then, in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of UK contracting giant Carillion, it was hard to argue that existing business models were not broken.
Fast forward two years and introduce the biggest shock to the construction industry in living memory – Covid-19 – and the call for change is deafening. Embedding more collaborative working between the industry and its clients, building on initiatives such as Project 13, is a key plank of the Construction Leadership Council’s recovery plan for the construction sector and it is easy to see why.
The reasons for embracing Project 13 are compelling. At its heart, it advocates delivering projects through enterprises – long-term relationships between owners, investors, integrators, advisers and suppliers – and aligning all involved around a set of agreed outcomes that they then work collaboratively towards achieving.
Delivery through enterprises
To be clear, these outcomes are customer outcomes. This, says ICG Project 13 Chair Dale Evans, ensures that the voice of the customer is clearly articulated and investment is focused on its needs.
“Outcomes provide the starting point for engagement and creating alignment between the owners of infrastructure and the deliverers,” he says.
The Project 13 philosophy is also based on earlier engagement between infrastructure owners and integrated supply chain teams. Evans places emphasis on the word 'integrated' here.
“These integrated teams can then support the application of innovative technology and more productive methods of delivery, such as manufactured solutions, thereby enabling continuous improvements in productivity,” he says.
Lastly, Project 13 promotes a more sustainable construction industry. It aims to change the business model, connecting infrastructure owners and their supply chains to one that jointly incentivises performance; aligns reward with delivery of outcomes, not on volume of work done; and promotes greater understanding of cost drivers and risk across all organisations in the enterprise, with commercial incentives for collaboration to jointly mitigate risk, not transfer it.
So how is Project 13 faring? It's doing well, according to early adopters of the philosophy at ICE's Strategy Session, Turning Theory into a Reality. There, adopters ranging from Network Rail in the UK to Sydney Water in Australia described how the Project 13 principles were being brought to bear on major infrastructure programmes.
Still, it is not as simple as going home on a Friday night in an old model and turning up at work on Monday and instantly converting to the Project 13 way of working.
Both Network Rail's and Sydney Water’s Project 13 enthusiasts make clear that real and bold leadership is required to move to these new delivery models and that all organisations – and all of us individually – have to be prepared to tackle some of the key blockers along the way.
It’s clear and obvious that moving to an enterprise approach requires owner commitment from the outset and that the approach has to be developed by working much more closely with partners. An environment must be created where all involved collectively pursue the clear benefits of greater integration and collaboration.
A focus on the cultural and behavioural aspects is an essential part of creating this environment – and in overcoming some of the behaviours embedded in our traditional thinking.

A new partnership between Project 13 and the World Economic Forum

By Adam Kirkup, in News,

Project 13 has formed an exciting new partnership with the World Economic Forum. What does this mean for the future of the initiative? 
Following constructive engagement throughout 2019 and at the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) Industry Strategy Annual Meeting, Project 13 has been selected as a flagship initiative supported by the WEF’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Energy, Materials and Infrastructure. 
The partnership
This new partnership represents a significant and welcome step for Project 13. It demonstrates that the principles first set out by the Infrastructure Client Group resonate with the global infrastructure community, providing further impetus for their adoption.
It also provides us with the opportunity to significantly extend the active participants of the Project 13 network, increasing the potential sources of learning that will flow from adopters to the wider community of practitioners.
The WEF’s Platform on Shaping the Future of Energy, Materials and Infrastructure is focused on the transition to net-zero carbon, resilience and wellbeing, which aligns well with the objectives of Project 13, in particular the need to focus on outcomes for end users. The platform, a focal point for discussion, starts with the premise that there are big challenges when it comes to urbanisation and the future delivery of infrastructure. While nobody has all of the answers yet, there is a lot of thinking going on around the world.
The platform aims to coordinate this thinking to ensure that when tangible action and policy measures are ready to be made, they are done in a coordinated and collaborative way across the public and private sectors right across the globe. The platform shares the same ethos as Project 13 – that by looking at case studies worldwide and sharing best practice, the infrastructure ecosystem will be in a better place to advocate and provide guidance on the changes needed to deliver impact at scale. 
As part of the partnership, I was invited to participate in the WEF Industry Strategy Meeting on 25-26 March, along with Mark Enzer, Project 13 digital transformation lead.  The discussion focused on the barriers to industry transformation and the innovative strategies that can be employed to overcome the unprecedented challenges faced by the infrastructure and urban development industries in these challenging times.
Katherine Davisson, head of the Platform on Shaping the Future of Energy, Materials and Infrastructure, said: “We are delighted to partner with Project 13 given its pioneering work and thought leadership in advancing enterprise delivery models and collaborative principles for infrastructure projects.  We share its aim of improving outcomes surrounding the delivery of sustainable and resilient infrastructure and look forward to supporting Project 13 in its next phase of development.” 
Recap: what is Project 13?
Project 13 aims to shift the delivery of infrastructure to focus more clearly on outcomes for society. Achieving this shift in thinking will also help to boost productivity and certainty in delivery and to support a more sustainable, innovative, highly skilled construction industry.
The key shift required as part of Project 13 thinking is the adoption of enterprise delivery models for infrastructure programmes and projects, moving away from transactional, cost-driven procurement to the creation of value-driven, collaborative enterprises.
From the initial research phase onwards, when exemplar projects provided our initial evidence base, Project 13 has demonstrated that enterprise models deliver significantly better performance. This study of industry best practice gave us the framework for moving towards enterprise delivery, including:
Five capability pillars (capable owner, enterprise governance, organisation, integration and digital transformation) The associated Project 13 principles A maturity matrix that recognises that for participating organisations this is a journey not an overnight shift. This clear framework also recognises that application will vary in line with required project outcomes, the organisations involved and their relative maturity.
As well as aligning with the World Economic Forum focus on resilience, Project 13 also aligns with other industry drivers, including the need to improve sustainability in infrastructure delivery. Some of the exemplar Project 13 projects, such as Anglian Water’s @one alliance, have demonstrated how stretching sustainability targets can be delivered alongside productivity and efficiency – the @one alliance reduced capital carbon by more than 50% across the investment programme. 
The Project 13 focus on outcomes also enables the opportunity presented by digital transformation, probably the single biggest opportunity for our industry in generations. Engaging with partners and the wider ecosystem to deliver outcomes, rather than to just deliver a specified engineering scope, opens up the opportunity for intelligent solutions and highly optimised infrastructure systems.
As Project 13 has developed, a number of infrastructure owners have become early adopters, including Heathrow, Sellafield Ltd, the Environment Agency, Anglian Water, Sydney Water, Network Rail and the National Grid.
Other owners, such as Highways England and Yorkshire Water, are now looking to embed the Project 13 principles into their programmes of work, including the Smart Motorways Programme. 
A focus on outcomes
In all cases, these owners have placed a greater emphasis on delivering better outcomes for their customers. Having clearly articulated those outcomes, they have then set out to select and integrate partners with the right technical and behavioural capability and deliver through high-performing integrated teams.
As an example, Heathrow is aiming to integrate the wider ecosystem of delivery partners, including specialist suppliers who can add greater value through earlier involvement in the development process. The use of regional logistics hubs will extend this involvement and support modern methods of construction. These sites are key to kickstarting the nationwide benefits that Heathrow expansion would bring – creating jobs and economic opportunities up and down the country, years before the additional trade and tourism that would follow from unlocked runway capacity. 
John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow, spoke at the WEF’s 2020 annual meeting in Davos in a session with industry executives and government officials, and highlighted the collaboration benefits of being a Project 13 early adopter. 
As Project 13 principles have been adopted by various organisations, the learning process has been extended and it has progressed from an initiative to a movement. The task now is to continue this collective learning and knowledge-sharing process, ensuring existing and future Project 13 network members are supported with current understanding and knowledge as they go on their enterprise journey. The WEF partnership is a significant enabler in this overall aim.

Exploring the principles behind Project 13

By Adam Kirkup, in News,

What are the Project 13 principles and how can they be applied?
In the two years since the publication of the original report in 2016, Project 13 developed from an initiative to a movement. The direction advocated by Project 13 in Transactions to Enterprises clearly resonates across a broad swathe of our industry.
This has led many organisations to test their capability and strategy against the initiative. The formal early adopters have committed to use the Project 13 approach to deliver all or part of their programmes, including Sydney Water as the first international adopter.
Then there are those who have used the maturity matrix to test their current approach, with the resulting gap analysis used to inform capability development plans.
The five pillars of Project 13, identified as features in the research phase and that operated as workstreams in the development phase, underpin the Project 13 principles:
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Project 13 is a new approach to delivering infrastructure – it's not a form of contract or a detailed tick list. The pillars and principles are clear but their application will clearly vary in line with the required outcomes, organisations and relative starting points.
To develop ever-increasing levels of specific detail would restrict the circumstances under which the principles could be adopted and make the framework relevant to fewer organisations.
Moving to this new approach can be managed effectively by using the pillars and principles as the framework for change, provided this doesn't become a selection of those principles that feel achievable and avoidance of those that look more challenging. The principles describe an overall approach and a shift and aren't intended to be a pick list.
This webinar adds more depth for those who want to get a better understanding of the Project 13 principles.
 

NEC and Project 13 gain traction in Australia

By Adam Kirkup, in News,

ICE and government representatives share how Project 13 principles can be put into action in New South Wales.
Published 29 March 2019
The Australian infrastructure industry has gained more insight into Project 13 and NEC thanks to a visit from senior ICE, government and NEC4 representatives. 
ICE, international law firm Minter Ellison in Perth and Michael Ward, British consul general and UK Department for International Trade in Sydney, recently hosted two boardroom discussions led by ICE Director General Nick Baveystock, Steven Evens, Australia NEC representative and Peter Higgins, NEC4 board chairman from the UK.  
 
Project 13 is an industry-wide and industry-led movement to change infrastructure delivery models and provide better outcomes for the public and customers while moving to a more sustainable and collaborative business method.
The NEC is a suite of collaborative contracts used extensively in infrastructure projects in the UK, Hong Kong, New Zealand and many other countries. 
Baveystock said: “The launch of Project 13 is the chance for industry and government to change how we deliver our infrastructure. Developed between industry, clients and government over a number of years, it places customers at the heart of our national infrastructure programme, focusing on the social and economic value that infrastructure can provide over the long term.” 
Why Project 13 is important
Project 13 sets out a delivery model based on effective collaboration between client organisations, contractors and other delivery partners.  
It’s backed by several significant promoters in the UK, including Anglian Water, the Environment Agency, Heathrow Airport and National Grid.   
The Project 13 website provides organisations with the tools and training to adopt this new business model. These include the Commercial Handbook and the Project 13 Blueprint, which provide detailed guidance to help businesses shift their thinking and commercial strategies. 
 
NEC and collaborative contracting 
Evans and Higgins discussed the benefits of collaborative contracting and how adopting the NEC suite of contracts could help the New South Wales (NSW) government to achieve the aims of the Construction Leadership Group (CLG). 
The Premier of New South Wales established the government CLG, led by Infrastructure NSW, to drive reform in the development, procurement and delivery of government-led infrastructure and building projects.  
As part of that reform, in June 2018 the CLG prepared and issued the NSW Government Action Plan, a 10-point commitment to support the construction sector.  
Point 1 of that plan is a commitment to more collaborative contracting arrangements. 
 
Plain English contracts 
While traditional contracts are complicated and penned in legalese, the NEC suite is written in plain English and founded on the three key principles of clarity, flexibility and stimulating good management.  
NEC promotes proactive collaboration, transparency, early warning and appropriate allocation of risk. It offers a range of pricing models including incentives for early completion and sharing of cost savings. 
Evans said: “With the NSW government recognising that collaborative arrangements in construction result in better project outcomes, I hope to build on the initial interest in NEC to encourage more widespread adoption of the contract for the benefit of all stakeholders.” 
Peter Clayton, partner at Pinsent Masons (HK), shared his experience of the introduction of NEC to Hong Kong.   
After a period of trials, the Hong Kong government now joins the UK government in mandating the use of NEC for all of its construction spending. 
He said: "The adoption of NEC in Hong Kong has led to a step change in levels of collaboration and engagement in the industry.  It has better aligned stakeholders to common goals and introduced a welcome diversity of options for strategic procurement and future initiatives." 

ICE director general meets with first international Project 13 early adopter

By Adam Kirkup, in News,

Australia's Sydney Water joins the UK's Anglian Water, Environment Agency, Heathrow, National Grid, Network Rail and  Sellafield in adopting Project 13.
Published: 25 March 2019
Nick Baveystock, ICE director general and chair of the Project 13 board, has visited Sydney Water, the first international early adopter of Project 13. 
The director general met with Mark Simister, head of delivery management at Sydney Water, to learn more about its journey in embedding Project 13 and the early lessons learnt that could prove useful for the wider early adopter programme. 
Project 13 is an industry-wide and industry-led movement to change infrastructure delivery models, providing better outcomes for the public and customers while moving to a more sustainable and collaborative business method.
By becoming an early adopter, Sydney Water joins Anglian Water’s Capital Delivery Alliances, the Environment Agency’s Next Generation Supplier Arrangements, Heathrow’s expansion, National Grid’s London Power Tunnels project, Network Rail Track Alliances and Sellafield Ltd's Programme and Project Partners model. 
Together, they have committed to implementing the Project 13 principles on a programme or project as part of a strategy to deliver better customer outcomes. Sydney Water will be using the principles for its Partnering for Success (P4S) programme.
Transforming its business
Sydney Water has set an exciting and ambitious vision for the future of its business. Through Partnering for Success and establishing long-term partnerships, Sydney Water is looking not just to change the way it procures services but to transform the way that it does business.

To enable this, in 2019 Sydney Water will appoint three Regional Delivery Consortia (RDC) to partner with it for a 10-year period and to undertake an organisational transformation process to support, enable and integrate the RDC.

Given the decade-long term of these contracts, this is an almost once-in-a-generation change that will have a lasting impact on Sydney Water, the industry and its customers. 

The scale, complexity and impact of this change cannot be underestimated and, done right, will create an enduring legacy.

Baveystock said: “Project 13 is a movement about building a sustainable future for the construction industry, creating a more highly skilled workforce and creating infrastructure that represents better value for all.

“I am delighted to see Sydney Water embed the Project 13 principles into its work on the P4S strand and help the delivery of infrastructure move from a transactional business model to a more collaborative and sustainable one.

“This approach is being applied by some of the UK’s largest projects and seeing that activity move into an international context goes a long way in illustrating that we are on the right path. I look forward to hearing how Sydney Water progresses and what lessons it can share with the Project 13 community and other early adopters.” 
Shared learning
Simister said: “We’re really excited to be the first international early adopter for Project 13. Through our Partnering for Success programme, we’re looking to use the Project 13 principles to benefit Sydney Water, its partners and ultimately our customers by incentivising high performance and increasing productivity. 

“By doing this, we’ll give our partners more certainty and drive better decision-making across the whole lifecycle of our assets, improving our productivity and delivering value for our customers. Being part of Project 13 will allow us to share our experiences and take advantage of lessons learnt by other member organisations.”

The principles of Project 13 are to move away from a transactional approach encouraged by current procurement models that engender a damaging set of behaviours to an enterprise model that: 
Focuses on customer outcomes Brings together skills and technologies in a collaborative environment Properly integrates teams across projects Fosters long-term relationships The early adopters commit to sharing their experience of adopting the principles and the first four recently spoke about their learning at the six-month mark with the Project 13 community. 

Project 13 welcomes 2 new organisations

By Adam Kirkup, in News,

By signing up, early adopters show a commitment to changing working practices and creating a new approach to delivering infrastructure projects.
Published: 20 November 2018
Network Rail and Sellafield Ltd were announced as Project 13 Early Adopters at an event at ICE’s London headquarters yesterday. 
Early Adopters are organisations which commit to implementing the Project 13 principles on a programme or project as part of a strategy to delivery better customer outcomes.  
For Network Rail, this will be its next-generation track alliances: North Alliance (Scotland Route); Central Alliance (London North West, London North East and East Midland routes); South Alliance; (Anglia, South East, Wessex, Western and Wales routes). 
Sellafield will use it on its Programme & Project Partners (PPP) model. 
Network Rail and Sellafields join the four existing Early Adopters: Anglian Water’s Capital Delivery Alliances, the Environment Agency’s Next Generation Supplier Arrangements, Heathrow’s expansion, and National Grid’s London Power Tunnels project. 
The Pioneering Principles in Practice – Early Adopters panel discussion, organised by the Infrastructure Client Group (ICG), was an opportunity for the Project 13 community members to hear from the initial four Early Adopters six months on from the commitment to join. 
How Anglian Water is using Project 13 principles 
James Crompton, Strategic Projects Director at Anglian Water, gave an overview of the forecast water supply capacity issues that the company could face in the coming years and how Project 13 principles were being used to mitigate them.  
He spoke about how Anglian Water is creating a new alliancing enterprise which will operate as the P13 Integrator in a shareholding model. As it engages in the early procurement stages, it’s creating an incentivised commercial model which drives outperformance and delivery of customer outcomes. 
Even at this early stage, Crompton highlighted that there’s a real sense of opportunity and building excitement, particularly around the potential enabled by focussing on outcomes and engaging early.  
Digital, he said, plays a big part in this, both in terms of enabling greater intelligence in how they deliver outcomes and in the provision of a digital twin. It’s also focused on understanding the range of capabilities needed to deliver through world-leading production systems.  
How Heathrow is adopting Project 13 
Matt Palmer, Development Q6 Director, Heathrow Airport Expansion Project outlined the long-term nature of the project and the need to develop and nurture the required skills to last the entire length of the project and beyond. 
He spoke about Heathrow’s role as a ‘capable owner’ and how Heathrow will ensure the right infrastructure is created, operated and maintained.  
It will do this not only by articulating the voice of the consumer, community, operations and key stakeholders, but by maintaining a value-driven mindset and developing talent among colleagues, suppliers and customers.  
Palmer also expressed how Heathrow recognises that the role of the integrator will not be consistent across the expansion programme.  
The significant variation in the characteristics of the scope, in terms of asset ownership, system complexity, geographical location and value drives, will dictate the extent to which integration will be necessary. 

Project 13 launch will improve how infrastructure is delivered

By Adam Kirkup, in News,

Project 13 aims to establish a new enterprise-based approach to deliver better results for the public and customers of infrastructure.
Published: 1 May 2018
ICE and the Infrastructure Client Group (ICG) have launched Project 13 to improve the way high-performing infrastructure is delivered and managed.

The industry-wide change programme aims to deliver better outcomes for the public and customers of infrastructure, a more highly skilled, innovative workforce and lead to a more sustainable, productive construction industry.

Four organisations have been announced as ‘Early Adopters’ of Project 13, forming an implementation group to share experiences and learnings of the new principles.

The Early Adopters are Anglian Water’s Capital Delivery Alliances, the Environment Agency’s Next Generation Supplier Arrangements, Heathrow’s expansion and National Grid’s London Power Tunnels project.

Robert Jenrick MP,  Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, speaking at the Project 13 launch said:
"We are investing record amounts in infrastructure to help boost our national productivity and build an economy fit for the future.

“But we are clear that we need to get the most out of every penny of taxpayers' money we spend and the construction industry has to do more to close its own productivity gap if we are to succeed.  We welcome this important industry response that will help drive improvements."

Dale Evans, Chair of the ICG and Director of @One Alliance said: “We are pleased launch the implementation phase of Project 13. This project has bought together individuals and organisations from across the sector and within government to think seriously about how we can better provide infrastructure for the future.

“We hope that industry will embrace this approach so we can begin working towards a more sustainable and productive future for our sector.”

Nick Baveystock, ICE Director General said: “The launch of Project 13 is the chance for industry and government to change how we deliver our infrastructure. Developed between industry, clients and government over a number of years, Project 13 places customers at the heart of our national infrastructure programme, focusing on the social and economic value infrastructure can provide over the long-term.

“We look to government to continue to support a solution developed by and with the industry with all the potential benefits for the public and the taxpayer. This is a win-win. We should just ask ourselves why wouldn’t we want to use Project 13 principles to deliver better value?"

Project 13 is sponsored by the ICG with support from ICE and is aligned with current UK government and industry initiatives to improve infrastructure performance. The ICG is a joint group of industry figures, academics and infrastructure owners with 19 members from 16 different client organisations. These represent public, private and regulated infrastructure sectors including Highways England, Network Rail and National Grid.
 

Project 13: From Transactions to Enterprises

By Adam Kirkup, in News,

With Project 13 The Infrastructure Client Group is creating a community of infrastructure owners and suppliers committed to change and to unpicking the UK’s productivity knot through new models of working
Published: 27 March 2017
The UK’s productivity is poor compared to other G7 countries – 35% behind Germany and 18% behind the G7 average.
From Transactions to Enterprises outlines a new approach to large project management. It moves it from a purely transactional to community model, which will help to tackle the UK’s productivity problems and deliver major benefits to the public.
By establishing communities of owners and suppliers Project 13 has the potential to deliver a step change in the way projects are managed so that the focus is on long-term value not simply lowest cost.
The Infrastructure Client Group, chaired by Andrew Mitchell, CEO of Tideway, has created five working groups to assess and develop how this new approach can be rolled out. Each group represents a critical feature for delivering the right infrastructure.
These groups cover:
Governance Organisation Integration Capable owner Digital transformation P13 from transactions to enterprises.pdf

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