1 Define your criteria

Before you start looking for potential IPD partners and suppliers, you need to define your criteria for what you expect from them. These criteria should reflect your project goals, values, and vision, as well as the technical and financial requirements. Examples of criteria include experience and expertise in IPD and similar projects, commitment to collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement, the ability to integrate with the project team and use common tools and platforms, flexibility and adaptability to changing needs and conditions, transparency and accountability in performance and cost, and a willingness to share risk and reward based on project outcomes.

2 Conduct a prequalification process

Once you have your criteria, you can conduct a prequalification process to narrow down your options. This process can include requesting information, proposals, or qualifications from potential IPD partners and suppliers, as well as conducting interviews, site visits, or references checks. The purpose of this process is to verify the capabilities, compatibility, and credibility of the candidates, and to assess their fit with your project culture and expectations. You can use a scoring system or a checklist to compare and rank the candidates based on your criteria.

3 Engage in early involvement and alignment

After you have shortlisted your preferred IPD partners and suppliers, you can engage them in early involvement and alignment activities. These activities can include co-design workshops, value engineering sessions, risk analysis, target value design, lean planning, and contract negotiation. The aim of these activities is to foster trust, mutual understanding, and alignment among the IPD partners and suppliers, as well as to establish the scope, schedule, budget, quality, and performance goals of the project. You can use these activities to evaluate how well the IPD partners and suppliers work together, communicate, solve problems, and deliver value.

4 Monitor and evaluate performance

Finally, once you have selected and contracted your IPD partners and suppliers, you need to monitor and evaluate their performance throughout the project. This can include regular feedback, reporting, auditing, and reviewing of the project progress, costs, quality, and outcomes. You can use key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, or scorecards to measure and compare the performance of the IPD partners and suppliers against the project goals and expectations. You can also use incentives, penalties, or rewards to encourage and recognize the performance of the IPD partners and suppliers.

Choosing the best IPD partners and suppliers is not a one-time decision, but an ongoing process that requires clear criteria, thorough prequalification, early involvement and alignment, and continuous monitoring and evaluation. By following these tips, you can increase your chances of finding and working with the right IPD partners and suppliers for your project.