Partnering ethos comes under fire

Partnering is an act of "seduction with an iron fist" with no construction client or contractor truly adopting the correct methods.

Professor Stuart Green, director at the Innovative Construction Research Centre at Reading University, told delegates at the South West division of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association in Taunton last week that partnering in construction is "rhetoric and not reality".

He said: "I have yet to see the debate on partnering start in the industry. Currently the buying power of major clients obliges contractors to echo partnering rhetoric, behind which lurks an iron fist.

"Partnering is not passed down to suppliers, with dissenters being denied access to a substantial work as partnering becomes an essential pre-requisite of doing business."

Green added that the calls from clients such as BAA and Sainsburys (which asks contractors to adopt an "instilled culture of Total Quality Management") for tough and steadily improving targets "are similar to the rantings of Mussolini".

Echoing Green's views, Neil Jarrett, a director of the Collaborative Working Centre for Be, said key performance indicators are a "complete waste of time" and hold no relevance for those on the ground undertaking daily duties.

He also slammed the current use of continuous improvement targets as "bullshit".

Commenting on historical partnering guides such as Sir John Egan's Rethinking Construction report, Green said that none of the proposed changes to improve efficiency involved people.

"It seems that the only important people factor of this document was keeping them alive," he added.

For more on partnering see next week's issue for coverage of CJ's Supply Chain Management conference.