After nearly 20 years' development in China, general contracting has made many achievements and accumulated some experience. But generally speaking, China's general engineering contracting is still in the development stage, and there are many problems worth exploring, such as basic concepts, capabilities, market mechanism, operation mode, personnel training and so on. This paper only discusses the concept of general contracting enterprise.
What is a general contracting enterprise? This is the first problem that must be clarified in developing and cultivating engineering general contracting enterprises. This paper makes a theoretical discussion on this issue from the following aspects in order to broaden the thinking of general contracting of projects in China.
1 customer (or owner, this article does not distinguish) demand angle
Under the condition of market economy, customers are the basis for the survival of enterprises and the driving force for the development of construction industry. Enterprises must meet the needs of customers now and in the future, and strive to satisfy customers, in order to achieve their own business goals. Customer demand is constantly changing and presents some new features. At the Reading International Construction Industry Development Strategy Forum, the participants agreed that customers have higher and higher requirements and expectations for the construction industry, and hope that construction enterprises can provide the whole process service of construction products. The so-called "the whole process of building product formation" has two meanings: first, it refers to the project product creation process (referred to as the creation process) including project feasibility study and decision-making, survey, design, procurement, construction and trial operation (completion acceptance); Second, it refers to the above project management process (hereinafter referred to as management process). Therefore, in order to meet the needs of customers, any enterprise that can provide all the above services in the process of creation or management should be a general contracting enterprise. Of course, whether the general contracting scope includes all the above contents needs to be decided and defined by the customer according to the actual situation of the project and its risk degree. According to the different needs of customers, there are the following different general contracting methods:
(1) Design and Construction General Contract (D-B): The contractor undertakes the design and construction of the project as agreed in the contract, and is fully responsible for the quality, safety, construction period and cost of the contracted project.
(2) General Design and Procurement Contract (E-P): The contractor undertakes the design and procurement of the project, and other contractors are responsible for the construction.
(3) epc: The contractor is responsible for the general contracting of the whole process of engineering design, procurement, construction and installation, and is also responsible for the debugging service (debugging is carried out by the owner).
(4) Turn-key project general contracting (LSTK): The contractor is responsible for the whole process of project design, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning services, and delivers the project with conditions for use to the owner.
(5) Design, Procurement and Construction Management Contract (EPCm): The contractor is responsible for the design, procurement and construction management of the project. The construction contractor signs a contract with the owner, but accepts the management of the design, procurement and construction management contractors. EPCm contractor is fully responsible for the progress and quality of the project.
(6) Design, Procurement and Construction Supervision Contract (EPCs): The contractor is responsible for the design and procurement of the project, and supervises the construction contractor to carry out the construction according to the standards and operating procedures required by the design and meet the schedule requirements, and is also responsible for the management of materials and commissioning services.
(7) Design, procurement contracting and construction consultation (EPCa): The contractor is responsible for the design and procurement of the project and provides consulting services to the owner during the construction stage.
2 construction project life cycle perspective
The life cycle of construction project refers to the whole process or time span from the conception of construction project to the scrapping of construction project. During this period, the construction project has gone through four stages: preliminary planning, design planning and construction and operation (see figure 1).
Of course, each stage in the life cycle can be further subdivided. For example, pre-planning can be divided into opportunity research, feasibility study, project decision-making and other processes, and construction process can be divided into scheme design, construction drawing design, procurement, construction, installation, debugging and other processes.
As can be seen from the above figure, the traditional contracting method is relatively independent contracting at all stages, most of which are concentrated in the construction process. This method implements and manages the interrelated activities and tasks in the whole project life cycle as separate processes or objects, which will cause problems such as discontinuous management, fragmentation of project information, inability of owners to obtain complete building products and services, and inability to achieve global optimization. One of the ways to solve these problems is that contractors provide high-level comprehensive general contracting services, that is, the business scope covers two or more project stages; The time to enter the project is extended forward, and even the project concept is included in the contract scope; The business scope is expanded backward, which not only completes the project construction task, but also undertakes the project operation management (property management) and maintenance service task; The contractor participates in project financing; The ideal situation is to provide turnkey services for the whole life cycle. Therefore, compared with traditional enterprises, enterprises that can provide the above services should be called general contracting enterprises. According to the different life stages of the project covered by the business scope, different general contracting methods can be divided. In addition to the above methods, there may be:
(1) D+D+B (development+design+construction), that is, the contractor is responsible for the planning management+design+construction in the early decision-making stage of the project;
(2) D+B+FM (design+construction+facility management), that is, design+construction+property management;
(3) F+P+D+B+FM (finance+procedure+design+construction+facility management), that is, financing+procurement+design+construction+property management; Wait a minute. From a global perspective, these general contracting methods can find cases.
3 Virtual architecture perspective
The concept of virtual construction comes from the application of virtual enterprise (or virtual organization) and computer technology including virtual reality in engineering project construction. 1996 The American Inventors Association put forward the concept of virtual construction, that is, virtual construction is a method that combines electronic connection and top-down management technology to design the construction process. The main points of understanding are as follows:
(1) Engineering project is the object and carrier of virtual construction, and project construction is realized through a series of interrelated processes, which are combined to form a product supply chain; At the same time, the project construction process is also a value-added process, so it also forms a value chain (see Figure 2). The circle in the figure not only indicates the interlocking process of the rings in the project construction process, but also indicates the design, procurement, construction and other capabilities needed to implement the project.
(2) Due to scientific and technological progress, social division of labor, intensified market competition and other reasons, most enterprises do not have all the professional capabilities required for project construction, that is, they are only one or several links in the above supply chain. Without the cooperation of upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain, it is impossible to complete all the construction tasks of the project. However, customers in the construction market put forward higher and higher requirements for the ability of enterprises, hoping that enterprises can provide the whole process of building product molding. Therefore, in order to meet customer needs, these enterprises have to cross organizational boundaries, cooperate among enterprises with different core competencies, and integrate and utilize external resources in the form of "virtual enterprises", thus rapidly expanding their ability to meet customer needs. The core enterprise in the picture can be called brain enterprise, which has advanced technology and scientific management, plays the role of integrating and integrating the supply chain and occupies a core position in the supply chain; Partner enterprises can be called trunk enterprises, which are located in other positions of the supply chain, but they can contribute to the project implementation process by virtue of their own professional knowledge and are indispensable links in the supply chain.
(3) Comprehensive application of modern science and management technologies, especially computer information technology, network technology and virtual reality technology, and integrated management of the project construction process can achieve the purpose of efficiently implementing the project.
The core enterprises in the figure have the following characteristics:
(1) has the core competence recognized by the customer, and the customer is willing to entrust it to undertake the general contracting task of project construction;
(2) The core enterprises may only occupy one or several links in the supply chain, but they do not have all the capabilities required for project construction. However, they can integrate the upstream and downstream enterprises of the supply chain through partnership, cooperation, establishment of project joint ventures or general subcontracting relationship, and quickly form a complete engineering general contracting supply chain.
(3) Capable of integrated management of supply chain.
According to the above concepts, it can be considered that the core enterprise is the general contracting enterprise.
Virtual construction has been applied in China. For example, Beijing Construction Engineering Group signed a cooperation agreement with Beijing Architectural Design and Research Institute, and both parties promised to make use of their respective advantages in engineering construction and design, implement strong alliance and complement each other's advantages, so as to take the initiative in the competition with their counterparts at home and abroad.
4. Reference from international big contractors
In the middle of each year, ENR (engineering news-record) of the United States ranks 225 construction contractors around the world. There is no doubt that listed companies are the top enterprises active in the international construction market today, and should be well-deserved international engineering companies and general contracting enterprises. Analyzing the characteristics of these companies can provide the most realistic standard for defining engineering general contracting enterprises. Through analysis and comparison, we find that these international big contractors have the following characteristics:
(1) is a multinational company with business all over the world, and its foreign turnover accounts for a considerable proportion of its total turnover. In 2003, the foreign turnover of the top 20 companies with the largest 225 contractors accounted for about 50% of their total turnover on average.
(2) Franchise (or main business) project. The business income of enterprises mainly depends on providing services for owners to implement engineering projects, including engineering contracting and project management services.
(3) The business scope is wide, involving housing construction, transportation, industry, petrochemical, manufacturing, energy, water conservancy, telecommunications, garbage disposal and other fields, and the enterprise has strong risk resistance.
(4) The business scope covers the whole process of project construction, including pre-project consultation, design, procurement, construction, start-up service (trial operation), project general contracting and project management contracting (PMC), project management services, etc.
(5) There are various general contracting methods, including EPC, EPCm, EPCs, EPCa, LSTK, bot, etc.
(6) The organizational structure and professional settings meet the requirements of business development. Generally, there are permanent institutions such as project management department, project control department, quality management department, design department, purchasing department, construction management department and driving service department (trial operation).
(7) There are a large number of high-quality professionals, especially those who master the knowledge and technology of project management and general contracting, such as project manager, design manager, purchasing manager, startup manager, project control manager, schedule planning engineer, cost control engineer, project finance manager, contract management experts (including risk management and claim experts), lawyers, etc. In addition to being proficient in business, key personnel at all levels should also have the ability to skillfully use foreign languages and computers. High-quality professionals are the most precious wealth of engineering companies, and the quality and level of professionals represent the quality and level of engineering companies.
(8) It has a sound project management system and passed the international management system certifications such as ISO9000:2000 (quality), ISO 14000 (environment) and OHSAS 18000 (occupational health and safety). The project management system includes the responsibilities of the organization, departments and posts, the necessary resources for implementing project management, project management procedure documents, project management operation guidance documents, post "Work Manual" and so on.
(9) Advanced technology and engineering technology. Have the ability to obtain patented technology and carry out engineering design. Attach importance to technology development, be good at transforming patented technology into process design and basic design, and form their own technological advantages.
(10) has high-level information management technology and computer application technology. The implementation and management of engineering projects are supported by a powerful basic database. High-level computer-aided design system and comprehensive project management system are widely used and play an important role in the project implementation process.
(1 1) has the financing capacity corresponding to the company's business scale. International engineering companies have strong financing capabilities, including borrowing general contracting liquidity, issuing letters of guarantee, and helping owners to finance. Among them, helping owners to raise funds is usually the key for engineering companies to obtain projects.
Except the feature (1), all the above features can be used to define the general contracting enterprise, so it can be said that all enterprises with these features are general contracting enterprises. For the engineering contracting enterprises in China, these characteristics are not only the basic standards to define the engineering contracting enterprises, but also the ability requirements for the engineering contracting enterprises.
5 concluding remarks
To sum up, the so-called general contracting enterprise should have the following characteristics:
(1) can provide all the services required by customers in the project creation process or management process with the current and future needs as the center;
(2) Having the concept of the whole life cycle of a construction project, and being able to undertake the contracting tasks in several stages of the whole life cycle of the project;
(3) It has the core ability to integrate upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain through partners, cooperation and alliances, and implement efficient virtual construction.
(4) Have the same characteristics as international big contractors:
At the same time, these defining standards can be regarded as the capacity requirements for general contracting enterprises. China construction contractors can make a comparative analysis from all angles, constantly adjust their business structure, broaden their business scope, and pay attention to cultivating the capabilities required by each stage of the project, especially the integrated management capabilities of multi-stage contracting, so as to lay a solid foundation for eventually becoming an international engineering company.
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