Integral Project Approach (IPA) is a project delivery approach that brings together and integrates people, systems, business structures, stakeholders and experts from planning to delivery. The process leverages the talents and insights of all parties to optimize project outcomes, increase client value, reduce failure costs and maximize efficiency throughout all phases of the project. A tightly integrated team, driven by the latest advances in information management, technology and modeling, can prove to be a very powerful project delivery method. For this type of delivery system to succeed, all members of the team must engage with trust and partnership.
Benefits & Insights:
1. IPA processes and strategies can be implemented to varying degrees, depending on the complexity of the project and the client's project objectives.
2. A project team must be carefully assembled at a very early stage in the process to ensure success.
3. All key parties should join the joint effort to set clear goals.
4. All project stakeholders must be and remain involved throughout the project, communicating openly and frequently.
5. The key participants should use the right technology to promote joint design and construction.
The client benefits from the following IPA advantages:
1. The client receives information about the cost estimate at an early stage, sometimes even during the conceptual design.
2. The client can make use of additional services such as:
Feasibility studies
Valuation
Life cycle costs
3. A lot of time is saved because the design is emphasized and finalized earlier in the process, and because construction can start before the design is fully completed.
4. Architects' and engineers' fees can be reduced through the early involvement of the specialist contractor.
5. Construction costs are minimized by including evaluation moments at regular intervals. In addition, the team knows their areas of expertise, they know which materials, construction methods and systems are more cost-effective, and therefore more profitable.
6. Operating costs can be reduced by providing options to strongly influence long-term energy and resource use through design.
7. Capital costs can be reduced through clearer and better coordinated construction documents, minimizing the number of change orders that affect both cost and time.
8. Misunderstandings between the parties are minimized when the IPA team works well together during the planning phases of the project.
9. Risk to the owner is minimized as the IPA team typically focuses on early identification of potential conflicts and issues through the use of modeling tools (BIM). This early identification results in the timely resolution of (potential) problems through the use of models, as opposed to solving problems on site as they arise, losing time and generating unnecessary costs.