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A Process for Change - the Development of a Generic Design and Construction Process Protocol for the UK Construction Industry

It is believed, and reaffirmed by Latham (1994), that significant savings can be made from reducing variations and confrontation, and thereby improving the performance of the design and construction process. However, in the UK construction industry, there does not exist a means by which to do this. The current perception is that flexibility is difficult within the process of construction because (inter alia) the supply chain changes for every project, and relationships are dynamic (i.e. the client on one job may be a competitor on the next). Despite this, it can be argued that the underlying design and construction process remains broadly consistent. Several existing models of the construction process (for example the RIBA Plan of Work, British Property Federation manual, Higgins & Jessop (1965), and others) confirm this. To achieve the objectives of Latham, a consistent, integrated construction process model, which encompasses the entire supply chain, is required. This paper will consider manufacturing process principles, as a starting point in the development of an improved working process for construction. In manufacturing, benefits have been achieved through matrix management by project, the application of concurrent engineering techniques and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems (Mitchell, 1991), Just-in-Time and Total Quality Management. Approaches to manufacturing maintain the quality and the performance of the process via stage (or phase) reviews (proposed by Cooper, 1990) and latterly through the conduct of 'fuzzygate' reviews (Cooper, 1994). The fundamental benefit of the improved design and construction process should be to optimise predictability. This could only be ensured when a truly co-operative project environment exists. The process should therefore look to facilitate teamworking and effective communication between participants. Following the examination of comparable manufacturing approaches, and the existing processes in construction today, a draft process model for construction will then be presented. The model will be partly validated following questionnaire and interview based studies of several key participant organisations in the UK construction industry, in addition to the findings of a workshop held in February 1996. To date, work conducted by the authors in this area has developed a preliminary model which may ultimately use IT in order to facilitate a fundamental change (a re-engineering) of the design and construction process.