The scope of the Egan report entitled Rethinking Construction, published in1998 aimed at making UK construction more efficient and high-grade. It is sure that UK construction displays some degree of excellence, however it is by far not at its best therefore much improvement is needed in this field. In fact, this industry will require dramatic improvements in order to meet today’s demands of quality and efficiency.
This report makes some proposals adopted from other industries, such as car manufacturing, grocery retailing, steel making, and offshore engineering that have set new goals and recently applied new changes managing to raise their efficiency and quality standards. It also attacks the issue of meeting the value requirements of the customers, as well as acknowledging the waste and poor quality of the existing structures.
The Egan report also makes mentions of that the Government should ideally be their largest client, so that they might keep the industry well sustained and prepared for the future. In such manner a framework for the UK construction industry has been set, and most sectors of the construction industry have tried to adhere to this agenda. Unfortunately some of them did worse than others on this task.
Constructing Excellence report introduces some innovations that correspond to the Egan report agenda in their 2004-2006 prospectus. First of all they set four strategic objectives that correspond with the regulations mentioned in the Egan report: “set itself clear measurable objectives, and then give them focus by adopting qualified targets, milestones and performance indicators” (Rethinking Construction, 14). The strategic objectives set in the report of Constructing Excellence include improving performance through increased productivity and competitiveness, acting in order to create a step change in culture, engaging the community and customers, as well as closer engagement with businesses, individuals, organizations, and other industry associations.
For the purpose of fulfilling these milestones, Constructing Excellence report proposes integrated activity programmes for their personnel. The offered programmes include innovation, productivity, best practice knowledge, and engagement. In general these improvements correspond to the agenda of the Rethinking Construction report and demonstrate signs of willingness to make changes in the industry’s culture, identify and exchange best practices, as well as improve competitiveness of the British construction industry.
The Constructing Excellence report also introduces various sector specific programmes, one of which is the Housing Forum. Its main objective is to radically change the house construction based on the agenda provided by the Rethinking Construction report. This feature deals with such issues as shortages of labour and skills, introducing new methods of construction, and promoting partnership, especially with the government on long term projects.
The Housing Forum adheres to the propositions made in the Egan Rethinking Construction report (34). Constructing Excellence report sets a course for innovation in other than housing sectors of the industry by introducing Local Government Task Force, and Infrastructure Task Force programmes. It also claims that it will work with the Government as their central client in order to deliver better value and benefits for the public.
The Industry Progress report published in 2002 shows the results of the Rethinking Construction agenda implementation. Its results claim that more than two thirds of the organizations have reported improvements in partnering, as well as in procurement management skills. Furthermore, over 50% of organization have made confirmations that they have made changes in eight specific business areas, and also that they felt themselves being at the construction’s cutting edge. These opinions indicate positive effects of Egan report agenda implementation into this industry.
The results demonstrated in Figure 3 of the Industry progress report indicate an overall improvement, in particular an increased profit if one-third of the industry take up = £420m, reduced costs for construction if one-third of the industry take up = £840m. The Rethinking construction report urged to develop quality assessment tools for design and construction. Construction industry council had initiated their development back in July, 2002.
The report entitled RIBA Constructive Change: a strategic industry study into the future of the Architect’s Profession produced by RIBA in response to the Rethinking Construction project outlines various view points on several issues that touch upon the architectural industry. One of the concerns of this report is the modern procurement methods that are currently being used by architects. It is said that procurement methods introduced within the last decade, such as PFI and PPP are today’s main concern for medium and small practices.
Nevertheless the report stresses the need of new procurement methods development for modern architectural practice, as these methods have served as key factors of driving change during the last ten years, and for the future the Sustainable Communities programme is being designed in order to meet social needs and be the impulse toward industrial reforms.
The aforementioned report also makes notice of the significance of standardization and industrialization of buildings. Certainly during the last decade the innovations of technology have accelerated industrial changes. These technological innovations are directly related to the level of standardization and industrialization of buildings, therefore these factors are extremely important in modern architectural practice. Another vital drive for change is the rise of consumer ability. The consumers demands are increasing along with the level of global competition, which increases the need of delivering buildings of higher quality more efficiently.
The Review of Government R&D Policies and Practices stresses the need of government R&D procurement as it will encourage more companies engaging in collaborative research and sustain the investment of best companies, already participating in the programme. In the same review it is said that in the modern society it is very important for architectural practices to change the way of doing business in order to receive a more effective partnership that would meet the rising expectations of the customers.
For the purpose of ensuring sustainable design and construction a project called Environmental Performance indicators has been launched in order to bring sustainability to design and construction practice. It was clear that the quality of design and quality of construction have to be viewed as one. In July 2002 several measurement tools have been developed by the Construction Industry Council for assessing the quality of construction and design.
Having analyzed the above reports and reviews it became clear that the government’s role in the construction industry must be reconsidered, especially according to its investment levels. Furthermore, it is necessary for the government to refocus its existing resources towards better utilized work which will improve the productivity and clientship of the architectural industry.
Works Cited
“Accelerating Change.” Strategic Forum for Construction (2001).
“Constructing Excellence, a Strategy for the Future.” Prospectus 2004-2006.
Fairclough, John. “Rethinking Construction Innovation and Research.” Department of Trade and Industry (2002).
“Rethinking Construction. The report of the Construction Task Force.” Department ofTrade an d Industry Crown (1998).