The core premise of Lean Project Delivery is intensive collaboration based on trust. Critical to its successful implementation is free flowing communication between team members. Construction and design participants are brought into the project at the beginning of the design. This allows critical dialogues to take place during design rather than later, when changes become more expensive.
This collaboration is the antithesis of traditional methods, where silos of responsibility isolate and allegedly protect parties from risk. The seminal contract for lean projects, the Tri-Party Agreement, allows parties the option of choosing to waive liability amongst themselves for decisions reached collaboratively. Such a provision is starkly at odds with the traditional “fault-based” programs under which projects are insured.
Fortunately, a new insurance product that would overcome this hurdle is on the horizon. A few project owners and an insurer are contemplating a “no-fault” insurance policy for errors and omissions, commercial general and builder’s risk liabilities that might arise among lean team members. A second tier of insurance would be in place for traditional third party claims. Such an innovative insurance program would offer the chance to fully align the team. All aspects of the project would be coherent with the high level of trust and cooperation that is at the core of Lean Project Delivery.
« Back to newsSubscribe
