Management

Building Procurement

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'Building procurement' has become a fashionable subject. It seems that
hardly a week goes by without my receiving a note that a student is
writing a dissertation on an apparently new angle to the subject or that
a course, conference, seminar or whatever is offering to explain the
challenge of con struction procurement now and in the future. Consultancies
and contractors who should know better words are using fourletter
words, like 'best', in hyping the arena by offering to reveal 'which
method of building procurement is best'.
Definition of terms as always is important.
'Bui ld ing' is or should be easy - the dictionary at its simplest says (i)
something built with a roof and walls and (ii) the act, business, occupation
or art of building things (that is, houses, offices, boats and the like).
'Construction' is the business or work of building houses, offices,
factories and so on. Building and construction are for all practical purposes
virtually synonymous.
'Proc urement' should also be easy but it is less familiar. When I was
a boy procurement was not a word often, if ever, used by quantity
surve yors or , I think, regularly by anyone else in the construction industry.
Standard textbooks such as Elements of Quantity Surve ying and
More Advanced Quantity Surve ying by A.J. Willis did not even contain
the word, presumably because procurement was not then an element
of quantity surveying or of any other build ing activity at ordinary or
advanced level.

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Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

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Publisher

: ., 1997

Collation

1-125

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

978-1-349-14398-6

Classification

NONE

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

Second Edition

Subject(s)

Building Procurement

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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