Facilitating Access to Insurance by Self-Employed Builders and Small
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15/09/2011 Facilitating access to insurance by self-employed builders and small building firms so as to stimulate innovation and the promotion of eco-technologies in the European Union N°16/PP/ENT/ASS/11/611 Open procedure, 2011/S 141-233384 (OJ/S S141 of 26.07.2011) CONTENTS Project summary ..................................................................................................................................... 3 1. General context and evolution of the building industry ................................................................. 3 2. Background to tender invitation ..................................................................................................... 6 3. Understanding of the requirements ............................................................................................... 9 3.1. Context ................................................................................................................................... 9 3.2. General approach ................................................................................................................ 10 Data on quality/conformity marks ................................................................................................ 11 Data on pathology ......................................................................................................................... 12 3.3. Place of insurance in Europe ................................................................................................ 14 4. General Methodology ................................................................................................................... 15 4.1. Definition of criterion and assessment of their level of pertinence in terms of quality/conformity marks and inventory of information on existing pathology and their assessment in the insurance sector ...................................................................................................................... 15 4.2. Collect and contact with the parties involved in the pilot project ...................................... 16 4.3. Modalities for collecting information and the establishment of an inventory ................... 16 5. Links with previous activities ......................................................................................................... 17 6. Project management ..................................................................................................................... 23 6.1. Coordination tasks ............................................................................................................... 23 6.2. Management organisation and tasks .................................................................................. 24 6.3. The scientific committee ...................................................................................................... 24 1 15/09/2011 6.4. Risk assessment ................................................................................................................... 25 7. Level of involvement and activity of other stakeholders .............................................................. 27 8. Team proposed for implementation of the contract .................................................................... 34 8.1. List of participants ................................................................................................................ 35 Relevant skills .................................................................................................................................... 47 Language capabilities and regional presence.............................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini. Reference projects ...................................................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini. 8.2. Organisation chart ............................................................................................................... 54 9. A plan of action with description of activities and their timing .................................................... 55 9.1. Work package list ................................................................................................................. 55 9.2. Work planning and timetable .............................................................................................. 58 9.3. Deliverables list .............................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini. 9.4. Work package descriptions .................................................................................................. 61 2 15/09/2011 Project summary 1. General context and specificities of the building industry Any investor in a building project expects the delivery of a flawless building. The record of building defects shows that this ideal situation is rarely, if ever, met. The reasons why this ideal situation is very difficult to achieve have various origins which are not all construction–specific. A general reason is called information asymmetry by economists: within the frame of economic transactions, this concept reflects the fact that one person (agent) has more information than the other (principal). In addition to the problem of asymmetry of information between construction professionals and clients, there is also a question of possible asymmetry of information in the following lines: - between construction professionals and insurers, - information in the framework of cross-border activities, - Information about quality marks and construction pathology which is not adequately diffused and in general not readily available for all market stakeholders. These general considerations must be considered with regard to more construction-specific reasons. Vrijhoef and al. (2001) have shown that many problems in the construction process originated at the interfaces of different parties (see after). Construction is a project-based industry, not a mass- production industry. As such, the construction supply-chain involves many economic actors (client(s), architects, technical designers, contractors, product suppliers, advisers, controllers ...) for a rather short period of time (typically a couple of years). During this short period, the majority of these actors will temporarily work together on project-specific tasks. Most of these actors never worked together before the construction operation and will never work again together for other construction projects. This is not a favourable context for the exchange of information. 3 15/09/2011 - Difficulties finding out client’s wishes - Incorrect documents - Inaccurate data - Inaccurate data - Changes of clients wishes - Design changes - Engineering drawings - Information needs are not - Long procedures to discuss - Extended wait for architect’s not fit for use met changes approval of design changes - Adversarial bargaining - Order changes Purchasing& Client Design Engineering preparation - Inaccurate data - Information needs are not Suppliers met - Unrealistic planning Completion Occupation Site Subcontractors of building - Deliveries not according to Subcontracted work - Unresolved quality planning Problematic not delivered problems - Wrong and defective deliveries completion due to according to main - Delayed occupation due to - Long storage period quality problems design, contract and late completion - Awkward packing planning Large shipments Source : Vrijhoef, Koskela et Howell (2001) Moreover, the great majority of these actors (particularly architects offices, contractors and most of suppliers) are SMEs and very often VSMEs which cannot have the same capacity to access information than bigger economic actors. For contracting companies, these facts are reflected by the statistics of the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC, www.fiec.eu): 3 million enterprises (EU-27), of which . 95% are SMEs with fewer than 20 and . 93% with fewer than 10 operatives 14,9 million operatives : . 7,1 % of Europe`s total employment . 29,1 % of industrial employment The differences between predominant construction techniques also have to be acknowledged to better describe the context of building construction in EU-27. Building production is an age-old human activity. Until the middle of the XXth century and still now to a significant extent, mainly traditional construction techniques have been used to build buildings. These traditional techniques were developed centuries ago from locally available resources (stone, clay, wood ...). Even if any construction project in any EU-27 country is organised in similar main sequences (programme, project, erection, operation), differences do exist in the relations between actors. 4 15/09/2011 These differences reflect the local culture of the concerned human groups: access to the construction professions, products supply chains, location and nature of control during the construction operation vary from country to country. Though it is very traditional and local (it mainly remains local in each of the EU-27 countries) in essence, the construction sector is open to innovations. Very recently (within the last 100 years) innovations (reinforced concrete, elevators, air conditioner, plaster-board, float-glass ...) were introduced on the construction market. Unprecedented buildings were erected using these techniques (skyscrapers, cold storage buildings, flexible office buildings ...). This deeply changed the traditional context from several points of view: level of investments (complex buildings), required skills