Corley, J; Rowe, A; Tranfield, D; Smart, P; Levene, R; Rogerson, J and Deasley, P (2001) Customer-centred construction: Bringing a service approach through cultural change and team-working. In: Akintoye, A (ed.) Proceedings of 17th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2001, Salford, UK.
Abstract
Previous research into the Construction Management Process has concentrated on promoting "win-win" partnering, alliancing and Concurrent Engineering. The BriC (Building Responsiveness into Construction) team at Cranfield University, working on an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) project, believes that the introduction of the Private Finance Initiative/Public Private Partnership types, superimposes a view of Construction as a Service delivery system encompassing both the delivery of a Real asset plus a guaranteed service over a fixed period of years. However, it seems that the project orientation of the Construction Industry is ill designed to respond to new customer needs. This accent on Service and whole-life management rather than Asset Delivery requires radical re-evaluation of traditional methods of contracting. Responsibility for full life cycle management requires fundamental changes to the project concept. Design for operability therefore becomes of paramount importance when considering the viability of the project. The research team will draw on such concepts as team working, knowledge management, organizational learning and high reliability organizations. By conducting real world case studies the team will formulate its requirements for a prototype methodology to facilitate responsive behaviour.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | culture; private finance initiative; public private partnership; service delivery focus; teamworking; customer-centred |
| Index terms: | life cycle management, prototype, science, service delivery, case study, organizational learning, alliancing, partnering, knowledge management, public private partnership, whole-life management, construction industry, cultural change, concurrent engineering, methodology, private finance initiative |
| Subjects: | research methods, engineering methods, professional development, service delivery, asset management, sociology, partnership management, industry analysis, data collection methods, value management, specialized education, modelling and simulation, contractual arrangements |
| Topics: | Education, Organizational Design, Research Practice, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Information Management, Business Strategy, Procurement, Stakeholder Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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