The importance of dedicated and effective change control

THE BRIEF

‘Changes’ within the construction industry are unavoidable, and should be kept to a minimum, however, when they do arise, they should be managed and controlled vigorously. For this is the reason the NEC contract completely separates changes from the other areas of the contract and ideally, they should be run in parallel to your day-to-day system and not be thrown in the mix with expected events and day-to-day delivery of the project works.

By having a dedicated resource focusing completely on change and being able to allow for that resource’s time within the quotations can effectively be cost-negative to a Client.

THE CHALLENGE

Our Client who were on the NEC3 Option C contract were experiencing a significant increase in cost, leaving them extremely exposed. This was predominately due to not being able to manage the change on the project effectively as they did not have a dedicated resource to manage the change.

THE SOLUTION

After consulting ADEO, it was agreed that they would provide a dedicated resource to help manage the change process on the project in addition they we instructed to clear any change events to which the Client was still entitled to.

The ADEO Change Management resource focused specifically on:

Liaising with all the appropriate personnel to ensure early warnings were effectively raised and communicated
Notifying of compensation events.
Pricing of the compensation events and negotiating the reasonable implementation of the compensation events.

THE RESULT

The initial contracted target cost value for the project was set at £30m. The site had a rich historical background which mainly involved remains of works developed by the former rail engineer Brunel in the 1800’s. Due to the delays caused while uncovering them ADEO’s initial role was to investigate and assess what impact these archaeological findings had on the project. ADEO’s initial assessment found that this event had an impact of circa £3m on the project. On completion of their comprehensive assessment ADEO were appointed to manage the change of the project. During the following twelve months they agreed circa £15m worth of change. It must be stated that being able to allow for our resource time within the quotations ADEO’s appointment was effectively cost negative and limited any exposure for our Client.

At a Glance

Challenges

Our client, operating under the NEC3 Option C contract, was facing a significant increase in project costs due to ineffective management of changes. They lacked a dedicated resource to handle change management, leaving them highly exposed to financial risks.

Benefits

By providing a dedicated change management resource, ADEO successfully managed and controlled project changes. This not only mitigated the client’s financial exposure but also resulted in the management of approximately £15 million worth of change events, making ADEO’s involvement effectively cost-negative for the client.

Phil landman

Commercial Manager – Client Lead

ADEO provides support in Pre and Post-Contract requirements, and Claims & Dispute Resolution Services, so if you would like to see how we can help your project please contact us for more information:

📧 plandman @adeo.uk.com

☎ 01403 821770