NEWS: Perception of procurement in construction needs to change

Will a fit for purpose approach to procurement and implementation of a standardised system by construction clients help the industry reduce costs, save programme time and increase labour productivity?

The perception of procurement in the Construction industry needs to change, from its current position of being seen as a barrier to progress and to become the ‘enabler’ of productivity, says the UK's Constructing Excellence in their latest report, Nuclear Factory Thinking

With major clients now increasingly reliant on the expertise of external contractors to deliver complex outcomes. It is not sufficient to just simply implement improvement initiatives within client organisations. The network of organisations that are required to come together to deliver an infrastructure project need to be coordinated and managed effectively. Therefore, the role of procurement needs to move beyond getting the contracts in place, to managing boundary-spanning enterprise-wide activities. 

Developing suppliers’ capabilities by implementing training and continuous improvement programmes, forming collaborative relationships not only with its own supplier network, but also between all of the suppliers in the construction sector supply chain. 

It should be acknowledged that procurement, or acquisition, as it is sometimes referred to, has come a long way in recent years. However, there is still far to go and still much to do

The objectives of this report are to address the four main deficiencies that are a recurring theme of current procurement practice: 

• The complexity of the process (particularly in public contracts)
• Failures in proper application of evaluation criteria
• Too much emphasis on cost, over value
• The amount of time/resources/money spent on PQQ & ITT returns

To read the full report click here