Federal construction teams are under enormous pressure right now — aging facilities, mission demands, workforce constraints, and a delivery system that often struggles to move at the speed the mission requires.
On Tuesday, May 12th SAME's Construction COI is collaborating with Warfighting Acquisition University to tackle one piece of that conversation head-on: Industrialized Construction and alternative delivery methods in the federal space.
What I'm most excited about this session is that it’s not a sales pitch for “the newest thing.” It’s a practitioner discussion focused on lessons learned from real federal projects — including Ft. Meade barracks delivery and the realities of acquisition, design, manufacturing, approvals, risk allocation, and execution.
Some of the questions we’ll explore:
• Where does the “federal premium” actually come from?
• Why do traditional review cycles often erase schedule gains?
• How can Progressive Design-Build, DFMA, OTAs, and industrialized construction work together?
• What has to change in acquisition and governance — not just construction methods — to improve outcomes?
One point from the presentation that really stood out to me:
“The procurement question is not ‘which tool is newest?’ — it is ‘which tool solves this project’s problem?’”
If you work in federal facilities, acquisition, engineering, construction, contracting, planning, or installation support, I think this will be a really valuable discussion.