Discussion on Paper 4

D. S. Elbourne

John Laing Construction Ltd

Supervision is a most important subject. Contractors are constantly pre-occupied with reducing the cost and quantity of supervisory staff and at the same time increasing their effectiveness. The interface problem is of such importance that it could be the subject of a symposium in itself.

Dr Kerensky refers to trust but from Part 2 of the Paper I suspect that there is less than perfect understanding of each other's problems. Through greater understanding could come trust. I agree that a contractor's principal objective is to make a profit, but the impact of that objective on day-to-day affairs is rather different from that postulated.