The role of the NEC Project Manager is a crucial one in ensuring the success of a construction project. One specific and important aspect of their role is the need for a proactive approach, rather than a reactive one. By taking a proactive approach, the NEC Project Manager can anticipate and address potential issues before they become problems, leading to a more efficient and effective project delivery.
A proactive approach allows the NEC Project Manager to stay ahead of the game by actively monitoring and evaluating the project’s progress during site visits, progress meetings, by inspecting programme submissisons / narratives and by continued liaison with the Client, Contractor and NEC Supervisor to foresee future problems. Whenever new potential risks or issues are identified and/or foreseen, detailed early warnings can be raised, where risk reduction proposals can be collaboratively discussed with the right audience to find the best solution in good time to avoid additional costs and programme delay.
More and more clients are seeing the benefits of providing dedicated, experienced, registered NEC Project Managers to support their scheme Project Managers. For example, a stretched scheme Project Manager is not going to be able to continue to undertake their role and reply to hundreds or even thousands of contractual communications on time, adding value, in accordance with the contract. In this scenario, where an oversight, or insufficent scheme Project Manager time leads to just 1-week of delay to the critical path, then the associated additional costs to the scheme could well be more than the annual cost of a dedicated NEC Project Manager, who may have been able to avoid or minimise such delays. It’s not uncommon for £500k to be lost to prolongation costs that could’ve been avoided on even medium sized projects.
Having an NEC Project Manager on board will take the pressure off the scheme Project Manager, allowing them to continue adding value, whilst the NEC Project Manager can then provide the proactive approach described above. Being on time and on budget is much more likely in this scenario.
MPI provide NEC Project Manager support to various public sector projects worth over £1bn in highways, rail and utilities. If you are interested in our services and how we can be procured, please get in touch, using our Contact Form.