Going an Extra Mile to Innovate the Procurement System
To secure competent and reliable business partners, the Housing Authority (HA) has been striving to adopt equitable procurement principles and mechanisms. A multi-disciplinary project team of the Housing Department has thus developed a new procurement approach in a bid to further improve the quality of public housing design and construction. The team's effort has won itself an award in the Department's Extra Mile Plan 2009/10. Members of the team -- Chief Architects Theresa Yim and Rosa Ho, Senior Architect Sonia Yung, Senior Manager/Environment Rosman Wai, Senior Manager/Procurement Alan Hui, Senior Structural Engineer Danny Chung, Senior Building Services Engineer T K Ng and Senior Quantity Surveyor/Contract Advisor K M Yeung were invited to share with Housing Dimensions how they have gone an extra mile to improve the procurement model for the public rental housing development in Kai Tak Site 1B.
Theresa Yim, head of the project team, provided the background, "Under the conventional two-envelope procurement model, there is no mechanism for tenderers to propose innovative ideas in their tender submissions which are evaluated for their technical proposal and price only. We have made a breakthrough by introducing the Integrated Procurement Approach (IPA) which involves a three-envelope tendering system, requiring tenderers to submit innovation proposals, in addition to their design / technical and price proposals." She noted, "Kai Tak Site 1B, one of the recent largest development projects with over 8 000 flats and a contract sum of 2.9 billion dollars, offers a unique opportunity for the implementation of the IPA."
The new approach is innovative in various aspects. K M Yeung said, "To meet our goals of further enhancing public housing quality and meeting customer expectations, we started to involve the contractors at the early stages when developing the IPA. This has allowed us to make good use of the expertise from designers, builders and manufacturers, etc." He added, "An external consultant was also appointed as Dispute Avoidance Advisor to provide independent advice for dispute mitigation at the pre-tender stage. This helps minimise potential disputes in the construction stage and sets a good example of risk management for the industry."
Upon completion of the tender award procedures, the project team organised some workshops for all concerned tenderers to share their experience. "That was our first attempt to involve both the successful and unsuccessful tenderers. The workshops served to forge meaningful exchanges between the practitioners and our colleagues," Alan Hui said. Happy to see that the tenderers found the new model very effective, T K Ng remarked, "The IPA facilitates our interaction with the contractors while enabling them to better understand our design concept and requirements."
The new procurement system encourages tenderers to propose green ideas for environmental sustainability. "An exceptionally innovative idea is the introduction of the iCreteTM System, an environment-friendly concrete design and production system, which enhances sustainability by reducing cement content and hence carbon emission on the one hand, while also improving durability of the cement," Danny Chung pointed out.
"The benefits of this IPA exercise are far reaching. Some green ideas developed in the Kai Tak project can even be applied to other projects. These include reusing the power generated by the lifts, combining the rain water harvesting and root zone irrigation systems into one, etc," Sonia Yung remarked.
Theresa Yim shared her feeling when working on the project, "We worked intensely as if we were rushing to beat the deadline of a group project during our school days. Our project team, headed by the Deputy Director and all the assistant directors of the Development and Construction Division, was one of the largest ever. We got together frequently for brainstorms and exchanges, even during lunchtime and very often till late at night."
"We were able to accomplish the task, from establishing the new model, preparing the tender documents, assessing the tenders, to commencing the contract, within only 14 months. The process was challenging, as many things were new to us. It was tough but we did enjoy it," Rosman Wai said.
The successful implementation of the IPA is attributed to the joint and committed efforts of the whole team. "The task was thought to be difficult but the tendering process turned out to be surprisingly smooth. Thanks to the unfailing support of our senior management and the dedication of all the team members, we have been able to unleash our potentials and give our best," concluded Theresa.
