Challenges for implementing collaborative practices in industrial engineering projects

Abstract

Collaborative project delivery models were introduced in North Sea oil and gas projects. Recently, they have been successfully applied in the context of construction and infrastructure projects but their application in industrial engineering project context has been limited. We analyze empirically which type of challenges there are in applying collaborative practices in two projects. The key challenges include the divergent objectives of the actors that hamper common goal setting; collaborative models and rewarding mechanisms which are perceived as inappropriate; the limited funding before investment decision when early involvement of key actors should be secured; the emphasis on collaboration capabilities with every actor which are not possible in tendering; and the collaboration with governmental authorities which needs a different approach from that with the other actors. Collaborative practices have a potential to improve project performance and identified challenges should be taken into account when implementing collaboration in industrial engineering projects.

Keywords

• Industrial engineering projects
• Collaborative practices
• Interorganizational collaboration
• Challenges
• Front-end loading