Infrastructure Client Group

Established under ICE's guidance, the Group helps to support the implementation of the Government's Infrastructure Cost Review Report 2010. This highlighted the opportunity to improve the delivery of major infrastructure projects and make efficiency savings of at least 15 per cent by 2015.

The group addresses client organisation and supply chain issues. These are often barriers to innovation and sustainability of the supply chain and significant drivers for higher cost. So far, opportunities to reduce costs and deliver greater value have been identified. These include:

• improving the commissioning, procurement and delivery of projects
• more effective collaboration at all levels of the infrastructure supply chain

From Transactions to Enterprises

ICG has just launched this major report that sets out a new strategic approach to delivering high performing infrastructure.

Meet the group

The Infrastructure Client Group is made up of experts from across a range of sectors, not of all of whom are ICE members. Find our more about the group chair and details of individual members.

• Panel chair: Andy Mitchell

  

  In May 2014, Andy Mitchell was appointed Chief Executive of Thames Tideway Tunnel Limited. He brings to the role almost five years’ worth of experience as Programme Director of Crossrail.

What are we working on?

The group is a forum for driving client-led initiatives. It enables major infrastructure clients to share experience and develop guidance and best practice materials in order to improve delivery of UK infrastructure. Recent work includes:

• Effective project governance and stakeholder alignment
• Best Practice in Alliancing - the Alliancing Best practice in Infrastructure Delivery report
• The Alliancing Code of Practice, with a step-by-step guidance and nine case studies and a excel-based Alliancing self-assessment tool too, to identify areas that need improvement when conducting an Alliance, either before or during the Alliance.
• Supplier performance measurement
• Collaborative project teams - These collaboration products may have a different area of focus, but do set out a consistent set of collaborative principals, which the ICG endorse. They are equally useful for Alliancing and for wider collaboration. They are not sufficient, on their own, but are a good start. For more information on these, please contact management@ice.org.uk.
• Implementing Alliancing using NEC contracts: Clear guidance on how to use NEC3 contracts for alliance arrangements has been produced. Find out more and download the free guide.

The Group’s work has 4 themes. These include:

Improved pipeline visibility and certainty:

• Project 1 - Published pipelines and work programmes
• Project 2 - Reducing the impacts of cyclicality and stop-start investment

Improving project initiation and procurement:

• Project 3 - Re-launch and implement the Project Initiation Routemap
• Project 4 - Procurement 'common principles' and new models
• Project 5 - Collaborative project teams. Outputs have included:
  • The Production Management in Design and Construction guide guide describes how collaborative methods can be used to improve the design and construction of infrastructure projects.
  • A series of webinars including:
    • Lean Construction Management and BIM: How to speed up construction by Patrick Theis, DS Consulting, and Martin Cowell, TfL;
    • Managing Change in Complex Projects: Configuration Management, Asset Information and Big Data by Jennifer Whyte, with Miles Ashley
    • The role of the owner Graeme Winch

Whole life planning and cost control

• Project 6 – Incentivising whole life planning and delivery outcomes
• Project 7 - Managing risks and contingency
• Project 8 - Modelling and mitigating the risk of cost inflation
• Project 9 - Infrastructure carbon
  • Carbon Reduction workshop – explained the principles of the Infrastructure Carbon Review.
• Project 10 - Standards and codes

Supply chain skills and construction delivery

• Project 11 - Modelling and mitigating supply chain 'pinchpoints'
• Project 12 - Supplier performance measurement
• Project 13 – Delivering high performance infrastructure, From Transactions to Enterprises

Read the event report. You can find out more about the Group's work by downloading the work programme.

Related work

IUK was responsible for the National Infrastructure Plan 2011 and the Infrastructure Cost Review 2010. The IUK Cost Review is a three year efficiency programme targeting a 15 to 20% reduction in the cost of infrastructure delivery in the UK. The latest update report was published in July 2014 and is available to download.

Water cyclicality

A sister group of the Infrastructure Client Group is addressing the issue of water investment cyclicality. In July 2012 they produced a report Smoothing investment cycles in the water sector.

Infrastructure UK and Ofwat wrote this study after conducting detailed interviews with three water companies; Anglian Water, Southern Water and United Utilities.

Work continues to develop and implement the recommendations set out in this report. It is estimated that the effect of cyclicality in water investment is between three and five per cent lower productivity.

The group's members include British Water, the Civil Engineering Contractors' Association, DEFRA, the Environmental Industries Association, ICE, Moody's Investors Service, SBWWI, UKWIR, Water Industry Form and Water UK.

Project Initiation Routemap

The Project Intitiation Routemap enables a client organisation to assess their delivery capability in relation to the complexity of their project or programme.

The Project Initiation Routemap is part of the suite of assessment tools that IUK put in place in 2014. It provides a coherent approach to assessing and building an effective delivery environment, combining best practice tools and case studies:

• The Project Initiation Routemap handbook  and factsheet
• The Project Initiation Routemap Governance module
• The Project Initiation Routemap Organisational Design and Development module
• The Project Initiation Routemap Execution Strategy module
• The Project Initiation Routemap Requirements module
• The Project Initiation Routemap Procurement module
• The Project Initiation Routemap Asset Management module
• The Project Initiation Routemap Risk Management module

IUK has formed a Steering Group to support the development of the Project Intitiation Routemap and address issues during early adoption, with members including:

The University of Leeds, Crossrail, The National Audit Office, Transport for London, Anglian Water, Constructing Excellence, Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme (HMEP), Major Projects Authority, ICE and IUK Client Working Group.