Promoted content: Are capital projects too complex to change?? 

Across the world, there is surging demand for new infrastructure. Rising global populations and concerns about economic slowdown are making infrastructure investment a top priority for government. In the UK, capital projects like Crossrail, HS2 and new nuclear power generation plants are all high-profile, but not always for the right reasons.

Capital projects, such as these across industries, not just infrastructure, typically overrun cost and time projections by significant margins. The Financial Times recently reported that Crossrail is expected to require further cash injections of almost £2.5 billion and is likely to start operations nearly two years behind schedule¹.

Crossrail is far from being the only capital project that’s run into difficulties. So, why is this happening and what can be done to overcome these issues? While there is no single solution, a more concentrated focus on ecosystem collaboration, workforce and digital transformation can combine to have a major, lasting impact.

By nature, capital projects are hugely complex. They involve large goals within the overall plan and require many parties to deliver them. Across industries, there are owners, EPCs (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) and sub-contractors, third-party logistics providers, expediters, quality assurance organisations and other service providers. These parties manage multiple functions individually or collectively: from project planning to supply chain and logistics, execution and commissioning. These groups all have different commercial objectives, ways of working and measures of success, which makes coordinating them a huge task. These differences also often lead to a lack of transparency, which limits collaboration. That means: