Adaptive Subcontractor Management

Abstract

Many large engineering projects continue to face late completion dates, budget overruns and technical difficulties. This problem is becoming increasingly relevant as the boundaries of organisation are shifting through companies’ increasing usage of outsourcing. Although offering many advantages, this working model of outsourcing also poses new challenges for main contractors responsible for the realisation of large engineering projects. This master thesis, conducted at luxury yacht builder Oceanco, presents a process design on subcontractor management, which enables main contractors to make an informed decision on their subcontractor management approach. The process design proves to challenge current practises at Oceanco and is valued by project management professionals from several other industries. Additionally, a subcontractor management canvas was developed based on the feedback of executives at Oceanco, which provides more guidance on which subcontractor approach to follow in what situation. This canvas was received well by the organisation of Oceanco, but could not be validated for other main contractors. The potential of this canvas justifies further research in this direction with a variety of case studies of main contractors operating in other markets.