Client/contractor relationships show the need for supply chain management

John Lofty, BAA Terminal 5 Project to follow

Dr Nick Marshall, Complex Product Systems Innovation Centre, Universities of Brighton and Sussex

and

Dr Mike Bresnen, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

This presentation draws upon research carried out for a two year EPSRC funded project entitled Cultural Change in Construction carried out by Mike Bresnen, Nick Marshall and Geoffrey Trimble. The purpose of this research was to investigate attempts to move away from what are regarded as pathological features of the construction industry, namely, intense fragmentation and damaging confrontation fed by a culture of distrust and adversarialism. Strongly promoted by influential institutional discourses (such as the Latham Report and the work of industry initiatives such as CRINE and ACTIVE) were the advantages of enhanced co-operation and openness, benefits which were thought to flow most strongly from longer term relationships between project participants. Through in-depth longitudinal case studies, the research examined nine projects where attempts were being made to encourage increased inter-firm collaboration. Recognising the diversity of conditions and approaches surrounding such attempts, efforts were made to select the case studies according to differences in sectoral activity (representing building, civil engineering, process plant, power generation, and oil and gas); size (ranging from £9 million to £430); and style of governance (including single project alliances, multi-project partnerships, joint ventures, construction management, and incremental adjustments to more conventional project management approaches).