ECI and its implementation factors in the construction industry

This literature review explores the concept of ECI (Early Contractor Involvement) and its implementation factors in the construction industry. It covers various themes such as procurement routes, procurement selection criteria, ECI procurement strategies, benefits and challenges of ECI, and project life cycle of ECI. The review also includes subject, course code, and college/university if mentioned.

ECI AND ITS
IMPLEMENTATION
FACTORS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION
INDUSTRY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
Introduction.................................................................................................................................3
Theme: 1 - General description of ECI.......................................................................................3
Theme 2: Procurement route......................................................................................................4
Theme: 3 - ECI Procurement Strategies and its influence over the construction project...........5
Theme 4: Procurement selection criteria ..................................................................................6
Theme 5: Benefits and Challenges of ECI..................................................................................7
Theme: 6 - Advantages and disadvantages of ECI.....................................................................8
Theme 7 : Barriers related to ECI..............................................................................................9
Theme: 8 - Motivating factors of ECI.......................................................................................10
Theme 9: Project life cycle of ECI..........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
Books and Journals...................................................................................................................11
Online........................................................................................................................................14

LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The present chapter is based on reviewing the literature associated with ECI (Early
Contractor Involvement) and factors associated with its implementation within the construction
industry. Accordingly, various books, journals, academic sources and other secondary sources of
data will be evaluated in order to critically analyse the concept of ECI and other associated
concepts such as procurement routes and strategies and its influence over the construction
projects, benefits and challenges of ECI, barriers of ECI, motivating factor of ECI and project
life cycle & implementation of ECI. Various themes will be formed to include the aforesaid
literature given by different authors and experts of the field.
Theme: 1 - General description of ECI
ECI or (Early Contractor Involvement) as the name suggest is a type of contract within
construction industry where principal contractor gets engaged in construction project at early
stage, so that their input can be utilized at design phase itself. It is a contrasting concept with
reference to Design – bid – build model where contractor gets involved in the project when the
design phase ended. The aim of indulging contractor at the earliest is to get their input related to
project design, so that suggestions can be obtained with regard to value engineering changes. The
biggest benefit that the project owner gets due to involving contractors in early stages of project
is saving of time and cost by more than 10% and 7% respectively as found out by Ng, Graser and
Hall (2021) in their study. This is because ECI is considered to an efficiency adding factor while
designing and planning for projects related to construction industries such as infrastructure
projects.
According to (Farrell, 2020) ECI allows for utilizing the skills, expertise and
competencies of contractors at early as possible to ensure cost - effectiveness and efficiency in
operations. Further, a better mutual understanding and relationship can be build among all the
stakeholders of the project which render certain benefits such as thinking together to find the best
possible solutions along with using and respecting each other's expertise and opinions.
(Ferme, 2018) has stated that a contractor under ECI contract gets involved in the project
for a fee or commission for their suggestions and recommendations provided comparatively

earlier that is, right from design phase till the completion of the project. Accordingly, project
manager obtains guidance in preliminaries to get enhanced profit and reduced overheads.
Theme 2: Procurement route
(Finnie, 2018) has defined construction contracts as an infrastructure projects that mainly
refers ton airports, roads and ports as well as other civil engineering activities. The duration of
such contract may last for year or months depend on the size of construction. Along with this, it
involves time and cost as well as any kind of underestimated and anticipated may lead to
endless litigation. The contract is an agreement enforceable by law in which both the parties
prefer to protect their interests by using available means. Since contract may expose to risk
related to cost and time as well as procurement process is guided by employee policy and
procedure. Moreover, procurement process start with the subordinate team deciding
procurement route after the project management team have determined the sections of the
contract as well as determine the contractual obligations. (Lefebvre, 2019) has stated that before
selecting procurement route contractor should analyse all the factor that can influence the
construction of project such as weather, altitude and topography. It will help in making right
routes available and find the most suitable as well as beneficial part for the company. (Ng,
2021) has defined procurement is purchase of materials, services and suppliers which is
required for accomplishing the business as well as to achieve project goals effectively.
Although in construction refers to goods and services need to build and start of project.
There are three different type of procurement routes available for construction company
and employers. The most common is Lump sum method of procurement in which a
construction contractor is selected by employer who has a responsibility for success of project
within the agreed limited time. Such contracts by their nature are founded on fixed price
lump sum and it is generally called the contract sum. The amount will be given to the
contractor upon completion of project as well as if there is nay change while working the
amount will be given to the contractor in order to meet the requirements. Along with this, a
contractor will compensate for the additional work that is required during variation as well it
increases their work. (Nwajei, 2021) has defined design and build procurement in which the
contractor has to make design of the construction and completion of construction agreed upon
the contract cost and time frame.

Theme: 3 - ECI Procurement Strategies and its influence over the construction project
There are different strategies or approaches by following which contractors are involved
in the design phase to provide their suggestions on aspects of design and others, so that
construction related project could be accomplished in cost-effective and efficient manner.
Indirect approach as found by (Opoku, 2018, September) involves using in-house
experience related to construction and consultant with the aim of implementing ECI. However
many experts of the field denied this strategy to be a use of ECI concept rather it includes
utilization of competencies of contractors without involving them directly into the project. The
strategy is indirect but still allows for integrating contractor's knowledge within the front-end
project phase.
(Park, 2018) has determined that information meetings is another strategy that most construction
companies are using prior to the selection of contractor for the project where all those contractors
having interest in the project participated in meetings. The project manager gets benefited in
terms of getting most out of such information meetings and generally conducts it as soon as
possible at the earlier stages of the project. However, its benefits can be realized only when the
contractor is willing to share their experience publicly in such meetings along with openness of
project owners to the ideas and experience shared by contractors.
For different nature and type of construction project, different strategies are adopted in
procuring ECI for the project. Accordingly, (Rahmani, 2021) has identified that Design – build
contract allowing for getting guidance of project designing along with building it especially in
case of bridge projects. This strategy is useful when there is very short time available for
executing project and no in – house experience or competencies is available with regard to the
method and materials used in construction. However, this strategy of ECI has been criticised on
the ground of losing control over the project by project owner and it has been determined that
when the control get lost to the hands of contractor in the design phase, it is impossible to regain
the lost control till the construction phase.
As stated in study conducted by (Rahmani, 2018) that Front – end partnering process is
another procurement strategy which is being used to create mutual understanding and common
goals among parties contracting under the construction project. The process of partnering
initiates post signing of the contract and ends prior to the commencement of construction project

by the contractors. The strategy is useful in forming motivated parties for the construction
project in order to optimize pain and gain share arrangements.
Identification of alternative technical solution is a strategy of ECI procurement where
alternative solutions are used by the client by ensuring that the quality of construction should not
be getting affected at any cost. The suitability of this strategy largely depends upon the
willingness of contractor in evaluating various alternatives that the owner has represented and
perform calculation to suggest the cheapest alternative. The alternative so suggested is helpful
influencing production method used and selecting the best quality material for the construction
project at time of project delivery. As per the views of (Wang, 2018) the purpose behind using
this strategy is to increase competition among bidders in order to secure best price while building
the project.
….. has suggested competitive dialogue as a strategy of procuring ECI for complex
projects such as road construction projects. Here tenderer submit solutions on getting
successfully selected and accordingly, negotiation took place between project owner and
contractors with respect to proposed solutions at design stage. Even dialogues can be done with
bidders in cross – border market to get best possible solutions at initial stage.
According to (Watfa, 2021), Best Value Procurement is an ECI procurement strategy
which involves selection of contractor by focusing on their expertise and competencies at the
time of selection in order to enhance the value of the project. Here focus has been given on
improvement of quality by avoiding wastage to a large extent. It is a client – driven program
where client's inefficient decision-making can be avoided by selecting the vendor through an
automated process to satisfy owner's need with the help of filters. Therefore, the best value can
be drawn from a project by using expertise and specialist knowledge of vendors.
In this way, different strategies are being adopted for several reasons and need for
specifications right from the design stage and till the completion of the projects taking place
within construction industry.
Theme 4: Procurement selection criteria
(Wondimu, 2020) has explained that when dealing with contract their two main issue that is
faced by contractor which is procurement path and its criteria while delivering of capital
work. Along with this, while making the project it is important to evaluate the client criteria as
well as their importance in order to seek its performance and match the criteria. For example,

public sector agencies require their construction to be completed on time as well as in
limited budget and there should be no compromise inn quality. Along with this, contractor
can make use of these criteria to guide and assist decision-making and it helps in guiding the
project for selecting the best procurement for the company. In addition to this, --- has defined 9
specific criteria for selecting their priories for the project such as time for early completion,
certainty of time like to which extent it can be increased, cost that organization will be
required. While making the criteria some important aspect need to be taken such as price
competition, flexibility if any variations after work has begun on the site as well as complexity
need to be address as building need any kind of highly specialized, technologically advanced
or highly serviced. Also, quality need to mentioned in the criteria table such as high quality of
the product in terms of material and design. Moreover, the risk need to be assessed so that it
can be e minimized properly as well as proper. --- has stated that selection of a procurement
system is influenced by the client and project characteristics. Also, it is influence by the
external environment and selection criteria need to b considers before making any decision for
the project. However, it is one of the most challenging process that it faced by public
organization while constructing due to various influencing factor that is present external and
internal environment. Thus, in order to keep criteria balance there are various theories and
model have been developed so that highly decision-making can be done.
Theme 5: Benefits and Challenges of ECI
There are various method of procurement and contractual method like design contract and
lump sum that is commonly used in construction industry. Along with this, in this model sub
contractor and contractor were appointed for the construction at first stage only. Finnie, Ameer
This approach is advice to construction organization because of it benefit to the client,
including risk of cost and time as well as objectives. Although the traditional method of
procurement helps in encouraging the contractors to pursue their self-interest so that it can
achieve the goals through collaborative working. It has defined that traditional procurement is
associated to reduce the certainty of achieving project objectives due to poor constructibility
and conflicts. Moreover, another benefit of this approach is that allow contractor to reduce
its dispute, poor collaboration and failure to satisfy the client needs. (Wondimu, 2020) argued
that the major limitation of this approach is that in traditional procurement it removes the
contractor early and to that it create hindrance in the opportunity of utilizing their knowledge

in enhancing the construction as well as to promote innovation. ECI promotes team
building as it gives client, contractor and designer to work collaboratively in order to
accomplish the goal. Along with this, this type of contract in the first stage clearly
articulated and aligned the objective that allow the party to have a goal as well as to
accomplish them. (van der Walt, 2019)has argued that ECI that there is transitional nature
between stages one and two and it creates potential conflicts like risk allocation, budget and
programme. Moreover, the another benefit of ECI is that it helps in building healthy relation
with the parties and client as well as reduces the potential of adversarial relationship as it act
as hindrance in completion of project. And it is better to solve the conflicts before it turn
into bigger dispute. ECI is not suitable for all project types and it success is directly related to
performance and capabilities of company in the external market. It is generally suitable for
large scale and high risk projects. Although it requires huge budget and time it is not good
for small organization as they have low cost saving so it will not be beneficial for them. It
has defined that ECI helps in improving risk management because it involves contractor at
early stage and it acts as an expertise that contribute in identifying, allocating and
understanding the risk.
Theme: 6 - Advantages and disadvantages of ECI
Everything has a dual aspect that is a positive and a negative one. Similarly, the concept
of ECI has several advantages and disadvantages for the project owner as well as the whole
project team.
It has identified several advantages of ECI such as it helps in improving overall
profitability by lowering the time and cost element associated with the construction project
which leads to delivering highly efficient projects. The reason for time and cost savings is due to
the potential inputs offered by contractors at the early stages of the project. Also, contractors
helps spending the set budget on works related to construction only without getting distracted on
several points such as wasting time and money on evaluating the consequences of different
alternatives associated with the project design. Accordingly, contractors on getting involved at
early stages allows for projecting the future results of the projects with great certainty. In this
way, understanding can be developed among contracting parties with regard to sharing of risks
and responsibilities which leads to best value procurement and high quality results in the long
run.

On the other hand, it has identified several disadvantages from which both project owner
and other parties associated with the construction project gets affected with. First of all, ECI
leads to losing control in the hands of contractors at design stage itself by the owner of the
project. Also, when external consultants are hired as a contractor at the early stages of the project
to help project manager in the development of design brief for the project, then it accounts for
additional project cost for using competencies and knowledge of contractors on making various
project related decisions. Conflicting interest may also arise with the involvement of contractor
because owner loses control and all subsequent decision-making is done by the contractors only
because the latter must exercise more focus over his personal interests over the interest of project
owner by designing project according to his personal suitability .
Theme 7 : Barriers related to ECI
(Nwajei, 2021) has defined that there are various barriers in the contract and due to that
project is not completed on time and it creates hindrance in that. Moreover, company need to
define its goal in the beginning of the project so that contractor and other employee have an
idea about things its is working towards. Along with this, (Park, 2018) has stated that barriers
arises through external and internal environment such as less capital, bad relation with party
as well as new laws made by the government that act as an obstacle for organization. As per
the view of Ling, and et.al., (2020) that there are some radical change in working culture as
this type of project involve team in order to achieve the decided objectives. Thus, difference
in culture create toxic environment and due to that employees are not able work properly.
Along with this, if team is not working together then it give rise to allocation of budget and
programme. Moreover, another major barrier is faced by designer as risk is associate with
intellectual property and there is no legal regulation are made for safeguarding the design.
Although due to culture change between the party there is unavailability of guidance for
managing contractor and client relation that lead in delay of the organization (Early Contractor
Involvement makes use of the dredging contractor’s specialised knowledge from the very
beginning of a project – during its design and planning. 2021).
Theme: 8 - Motivating factors of ECI
There are several factors due to which project owner gets motivated towards implementing ECI
within the construction projects such as its suitability, constructibility, innovation and safety.

As identified by (Watfa, 2021) ECI is highly suitable for project that are complex and
large because an integrated team to ensure better understanding of requirements can be
developed which offers certain benefits which includes development of innovative solutions,
mobilization and planning of resources and risk management to improve project delivery and
lower costs. Project that are supposed to be using ECI receives overwhelming support from
market and higher engagement from stakeholders.
Constructability can be ensured by involving contractors earlier in the project because
whatever guidance does the contractor provides at design stage out of their knowledge, expertise
and experience helps in achieving effectiveness and efficiency in accomplishing construction
projects in terms of time and cost respectively. This is because contractors can determine the best
design solution without indulging in trial and error aspects and accordingly, both time and cost
factor can be minimized.
Furthermore, innovation is a big element as contractor helps in developing innovative
solutions at early stages of the project. Also, innovation in supply chain collaboration can also be
seen with the implementation of ECI. This leads to making project more attractive in the market
and accordingly, better bid can be obtained from suppliers of the project which in turn helps in
reducing costs and enhancing profitability.
At last, safety is another motivating factor which allows for safety at the planning stage in
terms of risk management and complying with other legal requirements.
Theme 9: Project life cycle of ECI
(Farrell, 2020) has defined that project manager and project team shared common goal so that
it can carry out the work effectively as well as to meet the purpose objectives. Along with
this, every project has various stage. Such as ECI first stage define business development,
the second phase is project definition and design and this in general discuss strategy for
dealing with the risk. In this stage company also develop the concept so that it can quickly
move forward and after this third step is pre engineering in which company with help p of
contractor design the structure as well as distribute their roles and responsibility so that it
every work together and have an idea where the organization is working. Along with this, (Ng,
2021) has stated that third stage is known as project execution as which include detailed
engineering such as accurate design and raw material is given as well as s appropriate time and
cost is maintain so that project is done properly. Moreover, in the next stage construction and

delivery is done in which each party has to play their role effectively. In addition to this, in
the third stage completion handover is given to the client and in last phase operation need to
be done. (Rahmani, 2021) has stated that in stage of closer proper analysis need and
emphasize is on releasing the final delivery to the customer, handling over project
documentation to the business.
CONCLUSION
From the above chapter it has been concluded that ECI is known as early contractor
involvement it is basically a type of contract that is done by construction company. Along with
this, it has been summarized that ECI is generally used by large scale organization as well as
risk taker as it involve huge cost and time. Moreover, in this type of contract ha benefit also
such as it helps in building team collaboration as well as early involvement of contractor
generally helps in reducing the risk and give innovative idea.
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