About this Presentation
TOC practitioners are well aware of the power of CCPM. On-time in less time, on-budget at lower cost, without compromising on scope, quality or risk. So why is its application in the field of construction and capital expenditure (‘capex’) projects very limited? Wasn’t CCPM originally developed just for this kind of project? Wasn’t one of the first successes before the book, Critical Chain, was published on road construction? And this industry certainly suffers from the UDEs that CCPM was developed to overcome. Both Ian and Robert’s early careers were in this field, and they were initially baffled as to why the take up of CCPM had been so slow. In this presentation, they will share their analysis of the situation, and will suggest how to overcome the core problems they found. Their hypothesis is that with projects where most of the work is carried out by third parties – such as capex projects – CCPM by itself is not sufficient to guarantee success. CCPM assumes a collaborative project team, where there are no obstacles to sharing buffers to cover time and cost uncertainty and variability. However, with the prevailing procurement and contracting strategies adopted in this industry, this assumption is not valid. The predominant use of fixed price contracting and adversarial contract terms are fundamentally incompatible with CCPM. But there is an alternative. The presentation will describe a commercial approach to forming a truly collaborative project team, known as a Project Alliance (in the US construction sector this is known as IPD - Integrated Project Delivery). Ian and Robert will show how this method works, show how it overcomes most of the obstacles to using CCPM, and how this combination of CCPM and a Project Alliance, can deliver significant benefits to capex projects. This presentation will be similar in content to the one delivered at TOCICO 17 in Berlin, though it will share more thoughts about this industry in general, using the TOC thinking processes (TP). Video length: . PDF: slides.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
Instructor(s)
Ian Heptinstall
Ian is an Associate Professor of Project Management at the University of Birmingham (UK).
He is a late-career academic, joining the University after 35 years of working in project management, procurement and management consulting.
His project & procurement experience primarily in the capex, construction & engineering fields.
He has been a regular TOCICO Conference attendee since 2011, and in 2020 he helped set up the annual Critical Chain virtual conference, to share CC real world experience with project management practitioners who have little or no knowledge of TOC or critical chain.
In 2016 he published “The Executive Guide to Breakthrough Project Management” about overcoming obstacles to using critical chain on capital/construction projects, in collaboration with Robert Bolton, and he supported Rene Nibbelke in producing the APM’s “Senior Managers’ and Project Managers’ Guide to Critical Chain” (2024
Ms Alka Wadhwa
Alka Wadhwa is an experienced consultant and process improvement expert with over 24 years of expertise in the Theory of Constraints (TOC), Lean Six Sigma, and organizational performance optimization. She has successfully led projects in healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing, driving significant improvements such as a 67% boost in hospital operations and a 140% increase in outpatient visits.
Previously, Alka Wadhwa spent 17+ years at GE Global Research Center, where she led initiatives to enhance various GE businesses through advanced technologies, process redesign, and system optimization. Founder of Better Solutions Consulting, LLC, she specializes in using TOC, Six Sigma, and data analytics to streamline operations and build high-performance teams.
Her work has earned her multiple accolades, including the Empire State Award of Excellence in healthcare.
Dr Gary Wadhwa
Dr. Gary Wadhwa is a Board Certified Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon with extensive experience in the field. He completed his Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery training at Montefiore Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY, and has served as an Attending at prestigious institutions like St. Peters Hospitals, Ellis Hospital, and Beth Israel Hospital in NY. With a career spanning over two decades, he was the former CEO and President of a group specialty practice in NY from 1994 to 2015. Dr. Wadhwa holds an MBA from UT at Knoxville, TN, and has undergone additional training in System Dynamics at MIT, Health System Management at Harvard Business School, and Entrepreneurship and healthcare innovations at Columbia Business School. Committed to expanding access to Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery care, he is currently engaged in a meaningful project to provide healthcare services to underserved populations in inner city and rural areas through non-profit Community Health Centers.