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| Introduction |
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| "Partnering involves two or more organisations working together to improve performance through agreeing mutual objectives, devising a way for resolving any disputes and committing themselves to continuous improvements, measuring progress and sharing the gains” - Sir John Egan |
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 Partnering comes in many forms, to some it is the ‘re-badging’ of an existing relationship, the contractor or subcontractor ‘nailing’ down a partner to pass on any benefits to their client. Possibly a ‘strategic alliance’ exists and is used as an umbrella for partnering. However true partnering is no longer a catch phrase but a tool to reduce costs in many areas, make the most of efficient skills, innovations, resources and substantially improve competitivity, quality and communications. True partnering exists where the client leads.
"20% of people will be against anything" - Robert Kennedy (US Attorney General)
The ‘multi - billion pound’ public sector market place has a vital role to play in leading development of a more sophisticated and demanding customer base for construction. Public sector bodies are being led towards the goal of becoming best practise clients seeking improvements in efficiency and quality through linking elements of funding to the Egan report ‘rethinking construction’ 1998 & ‘Accelerating change’ 2002. |
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| “The UK construction industry is under achieving, both in terms of meeting its own needs and those of its clients. Construction accounts for approximately 10% of GDP generating some £58billion, employing 1.5 million people and is therefore too important to be allowed to stagnate. UK construction is at best excellent, at worst poor quality, unreliable and inefficient. In particular, |
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- There is a low and unreliable rate of profitability
- There is little invested in R&D in capital
- A crisis in training exists
- Too many clients are undiscriminating and still equate price with cost, selection based on lowest tendered price.
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| Recommendations and targets for moving the industry forward can be summarised as follows: |
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| From "Accelerating Change", published by the Strategic Forum for Construction |
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| Partnering the supply chain - A very difficult role exists for the supply chain including merchants, critical to driving innovation and to sustaining incremental and sustained improvement in performance. Partnering is not the easy option however, it is in fact more demanding, requiring open relationships, effective measurement of performance, commitment to improvement and a sharing in the rewards of improved performance. |
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