Opportunities and Challenges for Early Involvement of Trade Partners during the Design Phase of Construction Projects

Outcomes during the execution of construction processes and methods are dependent on the details generated during the design process. A holistic analysis and selection of design alternatives by all key participants early in the design can enhance construction efficiency and outcomes. However, trade partners responsible for implementing more than 80% of building construction scopes are underutilized in developing the detials associated with the system designs. This limitation lowers the ability to optimize the design while the potential to influence cost and other client value items is still high. It also remains unclear how trade partners can be effectively engaged early in this design process. This study seeks to identify how trade partners contribute to the design process to meet anticipated target value outcomes. We collected data through in-depth interviews with seventeen subject matter experts to identify the responcibilities, benefits, and challenges to effective early involvement of trade partners in the design process. The findings suggest that trade partners provide the best value outcomes when their input is sought early, notably from the conceptual design stage. Trade partners with critical scopes can drive the project towards higher cost certainty, better constructability, and streamlined design and construction processes. The commonly cited trades for early involvement are electrical, mechanical, steel, concrete, and plumbing. However, their involvement requires a shift from the current embedded low-bid and siloed culture in the industry to a more value-based collaborative approach. In practice, both design and construction practitioners should better support each other’s roles and responsibilities during this collaborative process.