PhD Final Thesis April 2013.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Thesis Keith Gale 2013CHAPTER 12: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS12.1 IntroductionPerformance of the construction industry, during engagement, construction orcompletion, has been a significant concern for clients and particularly those withinthe public sector. Added into this mix are the demands of public finance, wherechallenges of accountability and transparency are wrapped within a political arena.The opening chapter of this thesis identified a number of recurring themes frompublished government reports, professional practice and academic studies criticisingselection of suppliers by price alone with a myriad of differing controls and lack ofstandardisation throughout the industry. The wide fluctuations in workload volumeshad created an industry with a transient workforce – where skills and experience aregained and lost to a cyclical pattern. Solutions suggested improving performance byselection of suppliers through price and quality, application of consistentmanagement standards and contractual terms, and access to stable volumes of work.A response from clients to criticism from the reports included introduction offramework agreements by engagement of suppliers over a long term period with theintention of improving overall performance of public sector projects.The aim of this study is to assess whether the use of framework agreements forconstruction projects can result in significant improvement with performanceoutcomes when compared to traditional discrete methods. In particular, the objectiveof this research considers specific elements of performance as follows:• Investigation into construction project outcomes for the difference betweenthe two methods of procurement.• Determine variances between production and transaction (engagement andperformance monitoring) costs for projects procured within frameworkagreements and those engaged through traditional procurement.• Identify performance drivers within the procurement process by developing aprocurement performance model to ensure continuous improvement inperformance with the engagement and construction stages of a frameworkagreement (a priori) and then review the model against results collected fromthe case study research (a posteriori).273