Delivery Partnership Model

Based on the information from the sources, here is a detailed summary of the Delivery Partner model, particularly addressing how it relates to a PMC company managing a project from start to finish.

The Delivery Partner model is a recent development in collaborative contracting that combines aspects of the Managing Contractor, Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), and Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management (EPCM) models. It enables a client (often referred to as the Principal or Owner) to enhance its internal project management capabilities by engaging one or more Delivery Partners.

The core function of a Delivery Partner is to assist the client with various project delivery services, including project planning, programming, design management, procurement, and construction management. The Delivery Partner provides specialist project delivery resources, systems, and processes, augmenting the client's existing team. Typical activities include managing engineering and design, performing procurement and packaging options analysis, implementing tender processes for work packages, and overall project and construction management, including interface coordination and claims management.

In this model, the client adopts a sophisticated-client procurement strategy involving direct engagement of suppliers and subcontractors. The Delivery Partner does not typically perform design or construction services themselves. Instead, the client enters into direct contracts with the numerous suppliers and construction contractors required for the project. The Delivery Partner then assists the client in managing these direct contracts and coordinating the various parties.

This approach leads to a disaggregated project structure, where the overall project scope is broken down into multiple, more granular packages procured under separate contracts, potentially using different delivery models like Construct Only, D&C, S&I, EPC, PPP, or Alliance Contracting for individual packages. The disaggregated approach is often used for large, complex mega projects where contracting market capacity constraints or competition issues make procuring the entire scope under a single contract challenging.

Key features of the Delivery Partner model include:

• Supplementing Client Capability: The model's primary driver is providing access to an additional pool of highly specialized project delivery resources and leveraging the Delivery Partner's established systems and processes.

• Staged Engagement: The Delivery Partner is often engaged early in the project lifecycle, from feasibility onwards, with their engagement proceeding in stages aligned with the client's investment approval stage gates. The client usually has the option to terminate the engagement at these gateways.

• Disaggregated Procurement: The model facilitates the progressive procurement of project scope through multiple work packages, often to increase competition and access a broader range of contractors.

• Focus on Overall Critical Path: Project resources, activities, and procurement are prioritized based on the overall critical path to project completion, rather than focusing solely on achieving specific contractual or financial close milestones.

• Remuneration Structure: The Delivery Partner is typically remunerated on a cost-reimbursable basis, with a fixed fee covering profit and overheads, and a gainshare/painshare component tied to performance against Key Result Areas (KRAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These incentives aim to align the Delivery Partner's commercial objectives with the client's project objectives.

• Limited Self-Performance: Delivery Partners are generally precluded from performing design or construction services themselves; this work is competitively tendered and awarded to separate contractors.

• Risk Allocation: The client retains overall project delivery accountability and control, including managing the complex interfaces between multiple work packages and taking the end-to-end project integration risk. The Delivery Partner does not typically take overall project completion, integration, or performance risk. The Delivery Partner's liability for poor performance by subcontractors and suppliers is often limited, primarily impacting their gainshare entitlement or painshare liability.
  

From the perspective of a PMC company aiming to manage a full project "Turnkey Project Management":

It is crucial to understand that operating as a Delivery Partner does not equate to being a single, consolidated head contractor responsible for the entire project's design, construction, time, cost, and performance certainty. Models like EPC or D&C typically centralize such responsibility. In contrast, the Delivery Partner model is used when a single head contractor either cannot or will not take on the full scope, risk, and liability.

As a Delivery Partner, a PMC company would manage the project "a to z" in the sense that it provides expert support and management services to the client across the entire project lifecycle, from initial planning through to commissioning. However, this management is performed on behalf of and under the ultimate control of the client. The PMC, acting as Delivery Partner, would not be the single legal entity contracting for and undertaking all design and construction activities.

Instead, the PMC, as Delivery Partner, would be instrumental in:

• Assisting the client in defining the scope and developing the design.

• Developing and implementing the disaggregated procurement strategy.

• Managing the tendering and contracting processes for numerous individual work packages, where the client is the direct contracting party.

• Providing overall project and construction management, coordinating the activities and interfaces between all the separate contractors and suppliers.

• Implementing and managing project-wide systems and procedures for planning, programming, cost control, quality, safety, and reporting.

• Monitoring progress and performance against the overall project critical path and objectives.

• Managing contract administration and claims for the numerous direct contracts between the client and the work package contractors.

• Assisting the client in managing retained risks, particularly the complex interface and integration risks inherent in a disaggregated project.

The PMC's "a to z" management role as a Delivery Partner is therefore one of expert support, resource augmentation, process management, and coordination acting for the client, rather than being the single entity contractually responsible for the physical delivery of the entire integrated project. The client retains the ultimate decision-making authority and accountability. The success of the project depends heavily on the PMC's planning, estimating, and project management skills and resources, as well as the effective integration of the PMC team with the client's team.