An investigation into simulating the procurement process in the United Kingdom construction industry

This paper develops a contingency approach to the selection of an appropriate procurement path for construction projects in the UK construction industry. After a review of the recent UK literature and construction industry reports on procurement, the design, development and testing of a construction procurement simulator is described. A description of the simulator, which requires participants to select an appropriate procurement path for four different types of client, and the procedure for running it are outlined. The results of the testing of the simulator with a sample of 172 construction managers and professionals indicate that the selection of an appropriate procurement path is not as obvious as it sometimes appears and divergent choices are sometimes argued. It is argued that the development of a science of procurement, based on completing simple matrices of client and project characteristics, is unlikely to be realised. The simulator offers the opportunity to develop skills in analysing and translating a client's needs into an apposite procurement path. The results also confirm that exposure to a course of study in which procurement approaches are examined in detail improves the consistency of the selection process due to a predictable learning curve.