Cost-Cutting Strategies in Middle East Construction
Rising Middle Eastern construction costs can be mitigated by strategic tactics and leveraging technology.
The Middle Eastern construction industry is flourishing, and construction expenses are expected to significantly increase in 2024-2025. This offers everyone a chance to make financial cuts and put some strategic plans in place to reduce wasteful spending.
We at Business Lobbies, are trying to shed light on this topic through the lens of Mr. Vivek Sinha, the esteemed Founder and Chairman of Vision Catalyst (https://vision-catalyst.com), a pioneering construction contractor in the UAE.
Founded in 2008, Vision Catalyst soon established itself as a reliable and qualified engineering and construction contractor across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa regions. Their footprint extends to countries including the UAE, India, Tanzania, and Italy. Vision Catalyst has built an excellent reputation over the past one and a half decades - they are recognised for their professionalism, ethics, high-quality work, and consistent project delivery. Their dedication to customer satisfaction guarantees success across all aspects of their projects.
Mr. Vivek Sinha, Founder of Vision Catalyst and owner of the Eleven11 Group, is here with us today sharing his valuable insights on this vital subject.
Mr. Vivek, we know you have spent considerable time and effort navigating these waters and we'd love to talk with you today about some of the best cost-cutting techniques you've seen applied, particularly to bigger construction projects. In our discussion, we’ll touch upon several cost-saving strategies, waste management approaches, value engineering, effective procurement procedures, and cost optimisation strategies. Anyone trying to develop wisely and maintain their projects on a budget will find your insights to be highly beneficial.
Q.1. In light of growing inflation and the cost of goods, how would you apply value engineering to maximise design and materials for a project in the Middle East?
Mr. Vivek - We apply our own innovative and tailor-made practices of the engineering and construction industry to control costs associated with construction, logistics, and supply chain. We implement these carefully designed processes with controlled planning and budgeted alternative solutions.
Q. 2. Tell us about your experience in minimising building trash in the Middle East.
Mr. Vivek - To avoid contributing towards increasing building trash, we use green building material that is reusable. In today's world, it is sacrosanct to work towards a sustainable future and as a responsible citizen of the world at the helm of a responsible business, we aim to work in creating a mindful, more carbon-conscious tomorrow.
Q. 3. How would you design a procurement process for a project in the Middle East to derive the greatest value out of it?
Mr. Vivek - We operate our international procurement procedures by working with pre-qualified vendors. We choose vendors who embrace new technologies that add value and quality to the project in terms of budget as well as time. We are actively and continually making newer strides towards innovation. From planning to delivery, we follow and monitor each stage of the process with due diligence and complete integrity to ensure that every material that is delivered meets the utmost quality and specification standards as agreed.
Q. 4. What other methods of cost optimization would you apply during construction, aside from value engineering?
Mr. Vivek - It depends on the project at hand, but I do believe that proper planning is the key to it all. We ensure that there are no losses in regards to manpower, man-hours, machine hours, equipment, methods or any other situational losses. We control and monitor everything at our end.
Q. 5. On a project in the Middle East, how would you promote communication to proactively address cost issues?
Mr. Vivek – Clear communication is critical to control costs. Through well-drafted engineering practices, we ensure that each department works seamlessly without any hurdles. We communicate through an ERP system which lists all project updates. Each system is monitored by intelligence techniques of the logistics and supply chain.
Q. 6. In what way could you apply BIM to control expenses and boost productivity on a project in this region?
Mr. Vivek - We use BIM in all our construction projects to keep a check on the mistakes and coordination errors in the engineering practices across different building integration systems, including construction, MEP, interiors and exteriors. With the proper application of BIM, we can forecast and visualise the construction methods and take preventive action, avoiding costly errors, duplication of work and losses.
Q. 7. How can Middle Eastern construction achieve long-term cost savings through sustainable practices?
Mr. Vivek - Construction projects in the Middle East can benefit greatly from using green building construction, recycled materials, the fastest construction methodologies, and environmentally friendly materials. This needs to be supplemented with skilled manpower, proper supply chain management, strategic resource planning, incorporating advanced project management software and project implementation technology. These practices come together to translate into long-term cost savings, durability, and sustainability for construction projects.
With this, we come to the end of our discussion on this important subject. We thank Mr. Vivek for sharing his experience, thoughts and opinions on the topic of Cost-Cutting Strategies in Middle East Construction. We wish him the very best in all his future endeavours and wish for his organisation to reach new heights and break barriers in the Middle Eastern construction sector.
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