Judging from the overall market development of the construction industry, "reform" is comprehensive and systematic, including builders, supervision engineers, cost engineers, fire engineers, and even the "eight big players" in the construction industry, all of which are facing different degrees of development and changes. However, the policy change, landing promotion, industry and market influence of the regulatory system reform are relatively great.
1, policy background and practice environment
As early as 20 14, Shenzhen took the lead in "canceling mandatory project supervision" in China. Since then, a number of key cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Xiamen, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanxi and Tianjin have joined the pilot ranks, and issued a document clarifying that some projects will no longer be subject to mandatory project supervision. The scope of canceling compulsory supervision has been expanded from "some public projects" to "some residential projects and real estate development projects".
At the same time, various pilot areas put forward alternative means such as "internal management of the construction unit", "supervision and inspection service", "IDI project quality hidden danger insurance" and "whole process engineering consulting service" to explore and construct a brand-new construction project management system.
Although "canceling compulsory supervision on a small scale" in some areas is not enough to shake the foundation of supervision system, the current construction market is increasingly showing a reform trend of "diluting the important project management role of project supervision", which is undoubtedly heavy for the development of supervision industry.
From the perspective of supervision practice environment, although the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the Notice on Adjusting the Registered Personnel Index of Grade A Qualification Standard of Engineering Supervision Enterprises, the Provisions on Supervision Engineer's Professional Qualification System and the Implementation Measures for Supervision Engineer's Professional Qualification Examination in February 20 18 and March 2020 respectively, the threshold of qualification management and professional qualification examination of supervision enterprises was lowered. However, the requirements for supervision practice in various places are more stringent, and the requirements for the chief supervision engineer are higher from the aspects of working years, education and professional experience.
In addition, the long-standing problems in the supervision market such as "low fees", "unequal rights and responsibilities" and "irregular market competition" still need to be solved urgently.
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On the one hand, the supervision market is already "more people than porridge". After the cancellation of the compulsory supervision pilot, the business space of the supervision market has been further squeezed, and the competition in the supervision market has become more intense, especially due to the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020. In order to ensure the survival of enterprises, it is necessary to continue to reduce market prices and increase additional services in exchange for market living space;
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On the other hand, although since 2020, the central and local governments have continuously issued policy documents to compact the main responsibility of the construction unit, and the supervision industry association has also actively played the role of self-discipline supervision and resisted the "low-price bid" in the supervision market, it still cannot quickly change the long-standing status quo of the supervision industry.
2. Industry transformation: pressure and challenges coexist.
In the severe market development environment, the supervision industry urgently needs to seek new opportunities for transformation and development and reactivate the vitality of the supervision market. At present, it is the main direction of the transformation and development of supervision industry to carry out "supervision inspection service", "whole process engineering consulting service" and participate in "engineering quality and safety insurance". However, in the process of transformation and development, it still faces enormous survival pressure and transformation challenges.
Supervision and inspection service
The government's purchase of supervision and inspection services is one of the alternative management schemes after the abolition of compulsory supervision. Specifically, in the pilot area and within the scope of the pilot, several supervision units are determined by the local housing and construction bureau through the government's purchase of services. If the construction unit needs to hire an external supervision unit, it needs to apply through the government website and choose from the above supervision units.
From the perspective of rectifying the supervision market, winning the bid at a low price and ensuring the quality of supervision service, the qualification strength and service quality of supervision units can be effectively guaranteed through the overall arrangement of the government; At the same time, the supervision service fee is submitted to the financial department through the housing and construction department according to the procedure to avoid the irregular market phenomenon that the construction unit used the supervision fee to "hold" the supervision unit.
But there is no doubt that the market competition will be fierce, and only a few supervision enterprises with strong qualifications, strong market adaptability and strong public relations ability can be satisfied. Most supervision enterprises can only try to transform and develop in the form of "whole process engineering consulting service" or "engineering quality and safety insurance" risk management service, or accept the survival of the fittest in the original supervision market competition.
Whole process engineering consultation
Whole-process engineering consultation is a brand-new engineering management mode that conforms to international practice, and it is an innovative application in the field of construction engineering. It is also the main direction and way for the transformation and development of the supervision industry. Because the essence of supervision service is an engineering consulting service, the whole transformation process has natural advantages.
However, the whole process engineering consulting service is quite different from the existing supervision service in terms of service scope and service content. For example, the whole process engineering consulting service can cover the whole process of construction project management, and the service content includes four important management contents: investment, progress, quality and safety, while the supervision service has long focused on quality and safety control in the construction stage. Therefore, for many supervision enterprises, it is still difficult to provide engineering consulting services during the whole transformation process.
In addition, supervision enterprises also face the competitive pressure from the upstream and downstream of the industry to carry out the whole process engineering consulting business. Although according to international practice, the leading role of whole-process engineering consulting is mainly the role of consulting engineer, in practice, design enterprises are equally capable and even more advantageous to participate in the whole-process engineering consulting market business.
Engineering quality and safety insurance
In addition to supervision inspection service and whole-process engineering consulting service, "engineering quality and safety insurance" risk management service is also the main direction of transformation and development of supervision industry.
Engineering quality and safety insurance is a kind of "package" insurance, which transfers the economic responsibility caused by possible quality defects and safety hazards in the construction and use of the project. According to the Work Plan of Quality and Safety Insurance for Small Low-risk Pilot Projects (1.0) issued by Guangzhou Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau on February 3, 2020, the project quality and safety insurance consists of a series of insurance products that transfer the project quality and safety risks, including potential defect insurance, production safety liability insurance, construction engineering all risks, installation engineering all risks, personal accident insurance, construction engineering group insurance and occupational liability insurance (legal person, construction engineering all risks)
In fact, both xiong'an new area and Beijing have proposed to use insurance to manage engineering construction, instead of the management role of engineering supervision. The IDI project quality potential defect insurance is mainly based on "quality control", while the project quality safety insurance proposed by Guangzhou is a combination of multiple quality safety insurance types, which gives full play to the risk management role of insurance in the two control tasks of "quality" and "safety".
However, regardless of IDI engineering quality potential defect insurance or engineering quality and safety insurance, its risk management services must be supported by professionals with comprehensive engineering quality and safety management capabilities, which provides a good opportunity for the transformation and development of the supervision industry. At the same time, the project quality and safety risk management service organization exists as an independent third party, the service fee is paid by the insurance company, and the service standard is strictly guided and controlled by the government regulatory agencies and industry associations, effectively avoiding the problems faced by the previous regulatory services.
On the whole, the regulatory system and industry development are experiencing the inevitable pain of transformation and development. On the one hand, most supervision enterprises try their best to maintain the business operation of the original supervision market, on the other hand, they seek new opportunities for transformation and development outside supervision services. Opportunities and challenges coexist in the transformation of supervision market, and market competition has spread from the inside of the industry to the upstream and downstream of the industry. With the arrival of 202 1, the economic development of the construction industry continues to accelerate, the market-oriented reform of the construction industry continues to deepen, and the development environment of the supervision industry changes rapidly. "Engineering supervision" can not be eliminated in the increasingly fierce competition only by constantly improving its own ability, standardizing its participation in market competition and taking the initiative to seize the opportunity of industry reform.