Three key characteristics of IPD

There are three key elements to integrated project delivery (IPD) success.

By Raj Daswani, PE, LEED AP, CEM, CPMP; Jack Poindexter, LEED AP; Dean Reed,LEED AP June 19, 2015

By using these important elements to set up the integrated project delivery (IPD) team, project success can be achieved.

The IPD model

  • Early involvement of key participants
  • Rapid prototyping of design options utilizing BIM as a platform
  • Shared risk and reward
  • Collaborative decision-making and control
  • Jointly developed and validated project goals
  • Implementation of principles of Lean construction including target value design.

The team leaders need to understand and buy into the fact that all of the above elements are necessary for project success.

Integration

  • Sharing knowledge, not just information
  • Leveraging each other’s capacities and skills
  • Helping every team member do their best
  • Learning and improving together, not just individually.

The integrated team/organization

  • People with leadership, vision, and mutual trust work together as a team, sharing good and bad news openly and honestly
  • Intentionally designing an effective project delivery organization
  • Lean thinking and practices that leverage BIM to build virtually and make off-site fabrication and reliable on-site workflow possible.

Team members must see themselves as partners who either win or lose together, and not as individual companies.


Raj Daswani is a principal at Arup, Jack Poindexter is a project executive at DPR Construction, and Dean Reed is director for Lean construction at DPR Construction.