Tucker, S N and Ambrose, M D (1998) Innovation and evaluation in process improvement. In: Hughes, W (ed.) Proceedings of 14th Annual ARCOM Conference, 9-11 September 1998, Reading, UK.
Abstract
Perceived problems of inefficiency in the building process have resulted in development of a range of innovative procurement strategies to overcome problems. Many of the individual strategies have attempted to solve at least one of the inefficiencies in the process, with some more successful than others. An apparently innovative procurement system was examined in an effort to understand the difficulties in re-engineering the procurement process. The project highlighted several problems in trying to be innovative in the design development phase of a project, in particular whether the desired features can be identified and assessed before implementing a new procurement system. The aim of a methodology for assessing a procurement system is to provide a procedure to evaluate the appropriateness of a particular procurement system (or systems) for a specific project and the objectives of the client. A range of factors has been identified as describing the requirements of a procurement system and thus influencing the decision on which procurement system to use. A re-engineered procurement process must be measured against the existing systems and must rate more highly if it is to qualify as an improvement. The approach described here incorporates a number of factors through an interaction matrix, which determines their relative contributions to the success of a project. This interaction matrix is used to combine the strengths of the factors into a single value by which the possible procurement systems can be ranked taking into the account the client objectives and the characteristics of the project.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction re-engineering; procurement; project delivery methods |
| Index terms: | procurement system, methodology, project delivery, interaction, building process, design development, procurement process, process improvement, procurement strategy, strategy |
| Subjects: | behavioral psychology, building construction, design process, management, research methods, contractual arrangements, project delivery |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Site Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Procurement |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here