Construction industry performance improvement programmes: the UK case of demonstration projects in the 'Continuous Improvement' programme

There has been a range of initiatives across many countries over the last 10 to 15 years to introduce reform to the construction process in order to improve performance. The so-called UK 'Continuous Improvement' programme is evaluated as a case study through an analysis of demonstration projects. These projects symbolically represent best practice for others to follow directly in the UK and through influence indirectly in other countries. This raises methodological challenges, yet the scant empirical attention given to this field justifies such attention. The main conclusion is that there have been improvements, yet these seem not to have been continuous. Contractors are distant from direct value creation, increasingly relying upon others in the supply chain. Improvement measures have not penetrated most supply chains. This suggests that contractors need to develop learning and competency capacity; especially stakeholder management and/or clients need to identify new solution providers. There has been little direct evidence of this and the current environment is placing emphasis upon price rather than value. Capacity and capabilities for continuous improvement appear largely transient and insufficiently embedded to persist where present.