In the past decade, technologies and concepts like the Building Information Model (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) have accelerated construction projects, save money, and increased productivity overall.

What Is Integrated Project Delivery?

According to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), IPD “is a project delivery approach that integrates people, systems, business structures and practices into a process that collaboratively contributes to optimize the project results”.

IPD reinforces the interoperability between all the stakeholders, increasing the efficacy of construction projects from project design to building maintenance. There are three main aspects to IPD: leadership, information, and processes.

The most important difference between the IPD method and traditional ones lies in the use of a single multi-party agreement between the owner, architects, engineers, etc. With construction projects, the owner usually holds the responsibility and the ultimate profit, but using IPD, all of the stakeholders share the project risks as well as the benefits, namely profit. Thus, having a joint venture incentives the stakeholders to work together so that they can benefit from the cost savings. of less time and it is in the best interest for all of the stakeholders to work together because of the added cost savings.

Overview of the Benefits of IPD

To understand the outcome of the IPD implementation, it is essential to define what parameter could really make an impact on the construction industry. That parameter is productivity. In fact, productivity in construction has been declining since 1978, in the USA and abroad, what could be explained by the lack of evolution associated with the process. The lack of efficiency of a lean construction methodology and the need of improvement far from the other industry’s sectors development are responsible for this decrease. Even the evolution of the equipment used and implementation of new processes replacing obsolete ones was not enough to optimize the processes.

There remains a deficiency between the time spent to complete a specific task and the cost associated with it. This is due to the lack of automation tools for construction projects and the lack of technological skills from contractors.  Collateral damages like weather conditions as well as the interoperability between the stakeholders are also weighed in IPD’s impact on the construction industry.

In fact, the interoperability that the concept offers allows to manage and detect issues during the time where the interventions and alterations will not have a significant cost. Focusing on the conceptualization until the detailed design phase, IPD reduces the risks appropriately managed on a strategic timeline. Therefore, the impact will be less severe.

Conclusions

Beyond technology and knowledge, IPD is pivotal because it addresses industry-specific issues in construction projects like contractor’s lack of education and creating a collaborative work environment between multiple parties.