From silo-ed to integrated

We continue to hear our clients express interest in Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), where owners, architects and contractors work together as a unified team under a single, joint contract to deliver a project. The basic premise behind the concept is that a higher level of collaboration generates new ideas, and shared risk and reward produce better outcomes.

In as much as people talk about an integrated approach among team members, few, if any companies, are talking about an integrated approach within their organizations. Contractors present a list of services, and though each contributes to a specific project plan, they are often delivered by silo-ed departments.

Try as we might, it's sometimes hard to get past the "way we've always worked." Safety develops the safety plan, while quality develops the quality plan, and the virtual model is created by another group of specialists, often operating in another vacuum—separate and apart from the rest of the team.  What if, instead, we start talking in terms of one plan, one model and one integrated team. 

At Pepper, we're positioning our services in a different way. We Integrate high performance and sustainability with quality, estimating with MEP assist, and quality with safety. We are leveraging technology to bring it all together. In many ways we are able to accomplish this because of advancements in virtual design and construction.

What are the results? Solutions that go beyond single projects to lifecycle and total-cost-of-ownership analysis, productivity planning, better safety performance, reduced re-work and higher performing buildings.

In the next few weeks we will share some stories about how we have improved our service to our customers and advanced our offering by re-engineering how we provide preconstruction and construction services. Gone are the days of the estimating department delivering an estimate on their own. Now, quality, safety, virtual design and construction, MEP assist and high performance groups of specialists are key contributors in developing the best estimates.

This is just one of many examples we will explain over the next few weeks. Follow us on social media to learn more and contact us with specific feedback and questions.