Benefits of Working with a Single Contractor

When undertaking a complex industrial capital project involving control systems, plant instrumentation/electrical systems and the necessary construction services and field services to install them, the fewer contractors you need to directly deal with, the better. It can already be a challenge integrating your processes with one contractor, let alone a range of organizations who all have different internal protocols for handling their workflow with you.

Many facility owners/operators are accustomed to working with a large number of contractors for a single capital project. However, streamlining a project with a single contractor that can offer turn-key support offers tremendous value.

Consider four areas of improvement that can result from working with a single contractor for your capital project:

1. Cost savings

Times are tough and money is tight! Writing and managing contracts and purchase orders costs time and money for owner and operators. However, the overhead cost of doing business will naturally be lower when you work with as few companies as possible.

In fact, the amount of time and effort expended on dealing with more than one contractor’s back office can end up derailing a project before it begins, bogging it down with extra administrative workflows and more chances for misunderstandings and misalignments between companies and individuals.

Construction costs are reduced because of fewer miscommunications, or people misunderstanding the design, and the resulting re-work.

Best of all, your organization will no longer deal with multiple pricing contracts.

2. Improved Quality

When a single company has ownership of the project, it makes for better accountability, which in turn translates to improved quality. This eliminates the issue of one contractor disagreeing with or blaming another contractor for their work, or issues arising from the work performed.

Conversely, when in-house construction personnel are involved in the design, it allows them to give valuable feedback and results in significantly higher-value engineering solutions. This prospect alone is enough to convince organizations that a sole contractor is the best way to go for the overall bottom line.

3. Improved Scheduling

Scheduling for capital projects can be intense and difficult to manage – even under ideal circumstances – with multiple organizations. If you have had to explain to project stakeholders and sponsors that the project you’re managing is going to be delayed due to scheduling conflicts between your contractors, you know how uncomfortable that feeling is!

By allowing one company to “own” the schedule, the burden on owners and operators is vastly reduced. Without as many touch points between parties – often with competing interests that lead to even further delays – the project will move faster, with fewer bureaucratic obstacles.

4. Commissioning and Close Out Improvement

When one party is responsible for engineering, procuring, constructing, programming and integrating operational and business systems, and commissioning a project, the benefits are immeasurable. Change management is improved and lessons learned are transmitted in real-time to all concerned parties with faster response-time.

At this stage of a project, when questions about the design intent arise during commissioning, the company can obtain answers faster. When the same organization that engineered the system can also train users of the system, the benefits to owners and operators are clear and immediate.

To learn more about our approach to control systems integration, construction and industrial field services, or to arrange for a consultation about how we can improve your industrial process, please contact SYCON International today.