Measuring Construction Readiness for Project Restarts after Covid-19

A second take on pre-construction planning

Across the world, capital construction projects are in various states of completeness – some are proceeding at a much slower pace, while others are postponed indefinitely or even cancelled. This in itself is not unusual, however; industry experts predict that project restarts are going to happen all at once.² This presents a new challenge that project leaders must be ready for. FMI suggests “the best approach is to view this restart as a second chance at proper pre-construction planning.” ²

Construction Readiness Assessment

The Construction Readiness Assessment developed by CII serves as an excellent starting point for your restart strategy.

If adopted organization-wide, this comprehensive assessment provides consistency on all projects being reviewed for restart.

The assessment tool offers flexibility to incorporate new considerations related to today’s environment. For example, health and safety measures for preventing the spread of Covid-19 are easily added.

Construction readiness factors that are expected to be critical during this restart phase include:

1. Budget & Schedule impacts of Covid-19

• Appropriate tracking of additional costs
• Scheduling revisions due to delays, labour shortages, health & safety protocols ²

2. Health & Safety

• Disease prevention protocols (worker screening, site cleaning, physical distancing, PPE) ^2,3

3. Human Resources

• Labour demand and availability ²
• Labour productivity (current distancing requirements, extra screening, cleaning and hygiene protocols) ²
• Wages and overtime premiums ²

4. Procurement & Material Management

• Supply chain stoppage – impacts on material manufacturing and delivery^1,2

5. Contract reviews

6. Tools & Equipment availability

7. Risk Assessment and Management

Ensuring a Productive Construction Readiness Assessment during Covid-19 Restrictions and Beyond

Alignment between Project Team, Owners and Contractors

Key to a successful restart will be making sure owners, consultants and contractors are aligned.¹ “… owners, consultants and contractors should work together to ensure a smooth reboot.”¹

Clients consistently find the Construction Readiness Assessment a valuable alignment exercise for all project stakeholders.

Data capture and visualization

With project teams operating virtually, project information has the potential to become disparate. Having one central, consistent repository for capturing and analyzing project readiness is key to continuous improvement.

Utilizing a web-based Construction Readiness Assessment tool enables project stakeholders to easily access project information. Users gain a clear understanding of their projects’ status in relation to industry benchmarks as well as other projects within the organization.

Virtual Meeting Facilitation

With meetings being held largely online, there are some key considerations to planning and facilitating a productive construction readiness/restart session.

[VIDEO SERIES: Facilitating Engaging Virtual Workshops]

In such an important session, having engaging visuals to encourage participating and interaction is critical. Carve for Construction Readiness enables project leaders to facilitate an engaging readiness session with clear, visual graphics. As the session proceeds, participants clearly see the readiness status through a colour-coded gauge.

Carve provides a clean, user-friendly interface that is easy for the facilitator and scribe to manage during a virtual session.

Communicating project status and action items

Ensuring next steps are taken to complete readiness steps relies on formal, consistent communication. This becomes even more important with teams operating virtually.  Using a tool like Carve for Construction Readiness delivers a consistent report output summarizing the assessment results and action items which can easily be distributed to project stakeholders. This ready-made report means that project leaders can focus on the next steps, rather than creating the documentation.

Construction Readiness is a practice that delivers a staggering ROI. Getting started with the Construction Readiness Assessment today will position your projects for a productive re-start when Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

Recommended presentation:

On-Demand Webinar:
A Strategic Approach to Project Restarts with CII’s Construction Readiness Assessment

Additional Resources:

1. A Business Case for the Construction Readiness Assessment
2. How to Implement the Construction Readiness Methodology
3. Web-based Assessment tool for Construction Readiness Assessments – Carve for Construction Readiness

Sources:

1. Slowey, Kim. (2020, April 8). “Post-coronavirus contingency planning for contractors, owners” ConstructionDive: https://www.constructiondive.com/news/post-coronavirus-contingency-planning-for-contractors-owners/575586/
2. Schoppman, Gregg. (2020, April) “Critical Project Restart Strategies” FMI: https://www.fminet.com/reports/critical-project-restart-strategies
3. Korman, Richard. (2020, April 10). “Pandemic Brings New Risk Controls to Jobsites, Plus Regular Blasts of Bleach” Engineering News Record (ENR): https://www.enr.com/articles/49135-pandemic-brings-new-risk-controls-to-jobsites-plus-regular-blasts-of-bleach