Introduction
Revay has pondered how best its construction industry clients can minimize the impact of the current economic turmoil. This special edition of the Revay Report encapsulates some of that thinking and lays out a number of useful pointers for the reader. To Revay, the economic health of its clients is paramount - we gratefully acknowledge that your business enables us to proudly state that we have been serving the needs of the construction industry for almost 40 years.
The perennial contradictions created by the aspirations of owners, designers and contractors have gone "mission critical" in the current economic climate. Pressure is mounting on owners to save cost and time in all aspects of construction, whereas designers are struggling to keep utilization rates at satisfactory levels and contractors are scrambling to maintain a healthy order book and cash flow.
The typical owner has always expected an expeditious, quality build with maximum functionality for the least capital cost. From the designer, the owner invariably wants sound design at minimal cost and often in an overly optimistic timescale. These aspirations have never dovetailed with the immediate objectives of contractors and designers. Presently, with so many of them going into survival mode, this mismatch has never been more detrimental to the potential success of our clients.
Of the many issues currently facing participants in the construction process, in Revay's opinion, the most pressing are:
- Cash flow;
- Changes;
- The culture shift involved in moving away from cost reimbursable contracts will be applicable in the Prairie provinces;
- Value for money;
- Coping with uncertainty;
- Communications;
- Scheduling;
- Performance monitoring;
- Effective, fast and inexpensive dispute resolution; and
- How best to use any down time.
These issues are the focus of this report.
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Editor's
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