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Final Recommendations of the RICS & Autodesk white paper on Industrialised Construction

This report is a call to action for industry, government and academia to join forces to ensure the adoption of industrialized construction for transformational change in our industry. Each stakeholder: academia, the private sector, and [...]

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The Role of Industry and Academia in Industrialised Construction

The biggest challenge for recruitment into the new roles is the lack of candidates’ practical experience in the construction sector. The experts point out that there is still a lack of exposure to new [...]

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New Industrialised Construction related roles

According to the experts, these new roles will optimize existing businesses and adapt them to the changing technology environment, giving construction companies a competitive edge. The implementation of new technologies like artificial intelligence or robotics [...]

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New Teams within IC (Industrialised Construction)

Industrialized construction requires a fully integrated team. You need a design team that is accountable to manufacturing and designs for production. You need specialized manufacturing teams to optimize agile factory production that serve dynamic construction projects. Supply [...]

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Future IC (Industrialised Construction) Teams, Roles and Skills

Driven by technology and a need to enhance efficiency, construction companies are creating new teams and functional roles. Existing roles are being revised to incorporate the usage of the five megatrends of IC. [...]

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Top Benefits of Industrialised Construction IC

IC is a chance to bring a positive shift and competitive edge for the companies that adopt it. [...]

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Why Industrialised Construction (IC)?

The adoption of modular or offsite construction in the US and Europe is growing , and it is estimated that this adoptionalone can lead to savings of $22 billion a [...]

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Industrialized Construction and the Future of Work

In the Fall of 2019, Autodesk and RICS conducted a study on the Future of Work (FOW) in Construction that aimed to define the impact of industrialized construction (IC) on the work, the worker, [...]

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Construction must change

Coronavirus acts a key catalyst for this change in terms of technological investment, social distancing and productivity challenges. [...]

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The White Paper on the Future of Work in Construction – Brought to you by RICS

"Trends such as adopting design-to-make production processes alongside digital technologies, within industrialized construction can bring much needed certainty of cost, schedule, and scope to the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) [...]

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Covid 19 and NEC contracts in South Africa

At times like these, affected organisations look to their contracts of supply for what happens next as well as any relief that may be available to them in terms of [...]

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NEC documentation needs getting the scope right

Assumption is made that many of the core clauses in NEC contracts have been dealt with the relevant matters in the contract data. This is frequently the case when referring [...]

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Procurement Practices Solutions

We are proud to have both Andrew Baird on our executive team. Andrew formed part of the original drafting team of the NEC system as noted in each NEC document, [...]

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Procurement Processes in a Collaborative Framework

Collaborative procurement processes are recommended by the The UK Government Construction Strategy Committee. They recommend that public projects adopt, design and build private finance initiative or prime-type contract procurement [...]

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Construction Costs and Time Comparisons

The potential for construction costs savings in both time and cost through design partnering is well illustrated by a comparison between the construction of two identical chemical plants in Japan [...]

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Contract strategies – the design hiatus

Traditionally there is a hiatus in the contract strategies, when the design professionals package up drawings and specifications and ‘fail safe’ clauses for passing to contractors to develop their price [...]

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Contract documentation

In the final analysis everything is executed through a contractual framework – contract documentation. No matter how good all the other practices are, the process can go off-track if the [...]

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Best practices for clients – The catalyst for a culture change and cost savings

There are certain best practices which a client can introduce, most of them based on practicality and good management practice. Management, first and foremost An intelligent customer who considers his [...]

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Changing client culture

Changing client culture involves the client becoming a leader and not a dictator or a passive bystander.  “Example is not the main thing in influencing others.  It is the only [...]

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Clients in the construction industry are inadequately informed

Many clients are either ill advised, think they know the answers, or don’t know what they don’t know (very common).  However, implementation begins with clients.  Clients are at the core [...]

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Client Behaviour in the construction industry

Client Behavior As with any transaction there is generally a process of negotiation and ultimately a meeting of the minds (consensus ad idem). The outcome of the transaction is often [...]

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Collaborative Contracting using the NEC system of standard form contracts

Collaborative Contracting using the NEC system of standard form contracts Understanding Clients Objectives It is common knowledge that in any procurement process, particularly of major assets with a considerable life [...]

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Change starts with Clients

Background. 1)  With low growth levels the engineering and construction sectors are experiencing tough times and order backlogs are reducing.  Add to this the generally poor performance demonstrated on major [...]

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Collaborative Contractual Frameworks

With rising energy demand and widespread desire to access more power, Africa’s energy and natural resource sectors are set for significant growth, whilst undergoing rapid clean energy innovation. Collaborative contractual frameworks provide the best solution [...]

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‘Dysfunctional’ EPC contracts are a threat to the infrastructure boom.

According to an article written by Oliver Probert for Rail Express, published July 10, 2019  – ‘Dysfunctional’ EPC contracts are a threat to the infrastructure boom. The old school engineering, procurement and [...]

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Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase 11

ECS Associates is proud to be supporting Mkhulu EDP in implementation of the construction of a 132kV power line in Lesotho as part of Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase II [...]

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Collaborative “One Team” Approach

Across Sub-Saharan Africa we have a team of infrastructure and energy professionals specialising in project management, contract and commercial management, claims management, project controls, risk management and health, safety and [...]

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Experience Counts

With a dedicated and multi-disciplined team we are able to advise clients, throughout the region, continuously through the life cycles of Energy and Infrastructure Projects. We have hand-on core capabilities in Water, Oil [...]

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Dealing with contract disputes

Irrespective of the best contract documentation, the nature of engineering and construction projects is such that changes, delays and unforeseen events are inevitable. Dealing with these changes in a proper [...]

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Formal partnership deal with SAICE to deliver NEC Accredited Project Management

The NEC Project Management Accredited Programme throughout Sub-Saharan Africa is to be delivered by ECS Associates . It is pleased to announce that it has concluded a formal partnership deal [...]

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ECS Associates sign a 1 year strategic consultancy contract with PWC

A strategic consultancy contract has been signed between ECS Associates and PWC. ECS Associates will be supporting PWC on thier Capital Project advisory and specialist consultancy services. The agreement covers [...]

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ECS Associates assists CCQ International

Project management and contract management services by ECS Associates have been retained by CCQ International to provide for their demining works at the new Sasol gas wells in Temane and [...]

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Aecom Training on the NEC Suite of Contracts

ECS Associates (Pty) Ltd recently provided training to Aecom www.aecom.com) on the NEC suite of contracts, including the new NEC 4 contract which has been recently introduced into the country.Stefan [...]

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Accredited NEC Project Manager Course

ECS Associates recently won the privilege to deliver Accredited NEC Project Manager courses in South Africa. This is the widely acclaimed as the gold standard for NEC Project Management and [...]

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NEC4 – Training and Documents

NEC NEC3 has been transformative on the South African Construction industry. The adoption of NEC3 contracts put collaboration and collective risk sharing as the foundation for modern  procurement. These high [...]

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Mozambique LNG

Mozambique LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) development was recently approved.  It is a huge game-changer for the local Engineering and Construction industry in Mozambique. In terms of capital value the development [...]