Management of building services. Procurement for highly|| serviced healthcare facilities.
The question of whether design and build is the best||| procurement system is hard to tell as other procurement alternatives||| (main-contractor and principal services contractor coupled with project||| management team, and construct management method plus good building team) can||| also give satisfactory results. Besides, it is also known that there is no||| standard solution or best buy amongst procurement systems. Indeed, there is no||| single method of procurement which can be suitable for every project for all||| time. It is also accepted that the choice and use of an inappropriate||| procurement system is not the only reason for inefficient project management,||| people and experience are far more important than strategy. Coordination of||| building services has a direct bearing on the success of a hospital project.||| Services must be fully integrated and coordinated. One thing is clear, as far||| as building services coordination is concerned, the traditional procurement||| system is not conducive to effect coordination process, however, the integrated||| nature of D&B has relieved all the burdens on the client's design team,||| and, from the face of this procurement path, all coordination problems that the||| client would normally encounter from the traditional method will no longer||| exist. Of course, the technical and managerial problems in relation to||| coordination still exist but they would all be passed to the contractor side.||| To protect the contractor's interest, all coordination problems would still||| have to be managed and controlled by D&B contractor and his specialist||| contractors expeditiously. Indeed, if design is not fully integrated, and||| construction and services are not completely coordinated, no matter how||| integrated is the team, D&B method will not work. To sum up, the author's||| discussions can be summarized as follows: Project success can be enhanced by||| engendering a team spirit and a high degree of cooperation between project||| participants. This can be achieved by the use of non-traditional procurement||| systems. Building services and hospital engineering systems must be properly||| coordinated at both design and installation stages. Coordination must be seen||| as both technical and managerial issues. A professional building team can||| manage the complex issues of services coordination. But it is known that an||| integrated building team can give better result. D&B is not a panacea,||| other procurement paths with adequate project management can provide a better||| alternative than either the traditional or the design and build||| system.
Lam
KC
Department of Building Services Engineering Faculty of|| Construction and Land Use, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.