The Strategic Need For Speed

In capital projects, time isn't just money, it's also market position, operational agility, and stakeholder confidence. Whether you're a decision maker overseeing market expansion or a manager responsible for project execution, minimizing time to market delivers tangible competitive advantages and protects your reputation. At Hansen-Rice, we know that compressing project timelines without compromising quality is essential.

With today's volatile supply chains, evolving regulations, and tight labor markets, accelerating project delivery requires aligning every phase, from planning to commissioning, to deliver value sooner.

This article describes some of the root causes, practical solutions, and how prioritizing capital project speed helps you improve ROI, reduce risk, and gain a competitive advantage.

Avoiding the Cost of Delays

A peer-reviewed study published in the International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology found that construction projects often experience up to 30 percent cost overruns primarily due to time delays (IJERT, "Causes of Delay in Construction Projects: A Systematic Review").

These delays are frequently attributed to late decision-making, inadequate planning, and unforeseen design issues.

To reduce time-to-market, it is critical to anticipate and address the most common project delays early in the development process. These include:

• Permitting Delays: Waiting for local or federal approvals can stall projects before they begin. Engaging regulatory experts during planning can streamline this process.
• Scope Creep and Late Design Changes: Mid-project changes often force costly redesigns or rework. Aligning stakeholders during initial scope definition helps avoid change orders later in the project.
• Procurement Disruptions: Long-lead equipment and material shortages can halt progress. Early identification and procurement of critical items are essential.
• Construction Phase Threats: External, emerging, or unexpected threats (weather, unknown site conditions, political upheaval, etc.) can derail timelines. A complete SWOT analysis, adaptive scheduling, contingency planning, and real-time communication mitigate the risk (or can even open up new unexpected opportunities).
• Workforce Shortages and Supply Chain Constraints: A 2023 industry survey by Associated General Contractors of America found that 85 percent of construction firms experienced delays due to labor availability and material disruptions. These systemic issues underscore the importance of early engagement with trades and strategic sourcing.

The effects of these bottlenecks compound across project phases. According to the IJERT review, projects can face cascading disruptions that multiply cost and schedule impacts when procurement or design delays intersect with labor shortages or permitting backlogs.

Client-Centric Value Delivered Sooner

A client-centric, speed-focused project strategy can proactively mitigate many of the drivers of delays and deliver real benefits, such as:

• Accelerated ROI: Every month of delay postpones revenue generation. A facility operational in Q3 instead of Q4 means an additional quarter of output and sales.
• Reduced Exposure to Risk: Shorter project durations minimize the risk window for market shifts, cost escalations, or regulatory changes.
• Agility and First-Mover Advantage: Getting to market faster means seizing new opportunities before competitors, whether responding to a trend in consumer preferences or expanding distribution in a growth region.
• Operational Efficiency: Delays can compound costs through extended overhead, idle equipment, or disrupted production. Timely execution preserves alignment with logistics, staffing, and procurement plans.

How To Get Speed with Confidence

Hansen-Rice's integrated project delivery approach enables us to bring unmatched speed-to-market capabilities.

We achieve this through:

• Integrated Planning: Our project development phase identifies potential roadblocks early, from permitting risks to procurement needs, and aligns all disciplines around a unified plan.
• Proactive Risk Mitigation: We build resilience into your project timeline from day one with careful SWOT analysis and contingency strategies for weather, labor, and material lead times.
• Transparency and Collaboration: We coordinate and communicate with executive leadership, project teams, regulatory authorities, and supply partners at every level to advocate for the client and meet schedule commitments.
• Digital Tools and Real-Time Monitoring: Tools like Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), Building Information Modeling (BIM) for clash detection and dynamic scheduling allow us to spot and solve issues before they cause delays, improving coordination from start to finish.
• **Progressive Design-Build Delivery: Overlapping design and construction phases accelerate execution. Early contractor involvement ensures decisions support both constructability and schedule.

**According to the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), Progressive Design-Build (PDB) enhances speed and risk management by enabling early contractor involvement and collaborative planning between all stakeholders. This phased approach allows for more flexible decision-making and cost certainty while maintaining schedule discipline (DBIA, "Deeper Dive: Progressive Design-Build 2023"). Hansen-Rice leverages this advantage through our tailored and transparent project execution model.

Across all facility types, our clients rely on Hansen-Rice to move fast and deliver without compromise.

Conclusion: Faster Projects, Stronger Outcomes

Speed to market is more than a project metric. It is a strategic multiplier that drives confidence, revenue, resilience, and reputation. By aligning goals early, anticipating delays, and leveraging integrated delivery, businesses can move quickly from vision to operation.

At Hansen-Rice, Inc., we have experienced how collaborative project development and progressive design-build project delivery unlock fast, high-quality results. When speed matters (as it almost always does) we are ready to deliver the confidence of a project completed right and ready, on time.

Discuss your capital project priorities with Hansen-Rice. Together, we can explore meeting critical deadlines without compromising scope or quality.