Analyses are made of procurement strategies capable of leading to cost reduction and higher quality through the contribution of specialized firms. An exploration is made of the literature concerning the procurement of manufactured goods and progress by analysing two case studies: the East Bridge...

It is unusual to find that housing refurbishment projects have been undertaken with a clear focus on customer orientation directed towards the tenants, or owners of cooperative flats or condominiums. Only recently have researchers in construction management begun to look closer at the...

An investigation of occupational stereotypes in the construction industry provides insights into the perceptions and expectations which different occupational groups have of each other. The results are valuable in the reduction of uncertainty, misunderstanding and conflict within construction...

Biased research results occur when allowances are not made for the cultural perspectives of researchers and respondents. Occupation is a strong source of cultural differentiation in the construction industry, and this paper investigates the potential for bias to arise from people's association...

Continuing a survey of contractors' perceptions about alternative dispute resolution (ADR) this paper seeks to report an investigation of the level of involvement of legal advisors to the construction industry in the dispute resolution process and the perceptions that legal professionals have...

The annual survey of corporate real estate practices in Europe and North America conducted by the Corporate Real Estate Management Research Unit at the University of Reading and Johnson Controls Incorporated includes information on outsourcing trends of several property-related management...

With the adoption by construction firms of BS EN ISO 9000 there has been much debate concerning its effectiveness and value as a quality management system. In spite of the reported benefits of ISO 9000 certification, however, concerns regarding its overall benefit to construction firms due to...

The emerging concept of lean construction is concerned with the application of lean thinking to the construction industry. The ideas of lean thinking seem set to dominate the UK construction industry's quest to improve quality and efficiency. However, the current debate is based on a highly...

The objectives of this research are to represent construction activities accurately, and to provide a means for assessing the impacts from using innovations. The research approach is the detailed characterization of construction processes, and the development of system and material specific...

This paper reports on recent research the aim of which was to study, model and simulate the information flow at the conceptual and schematic stages of building design. The development of a generic model of the conceptual and schematic design process for buildings is described. This model...