Clients: their role in the procurement of infrastructure projects

This thesis reports on research undertaken into the effectiveness of the procurement activities undertaken by clients within projects for the construction of infrastructure. Current theory and practice is reviewed by means of a study of the available published literature, documentation and personal views of personnel within various companies. An analysis of the problems encountered by using current methods has suggested that project success is contingent upon a range of factors which are not normally considered and, furthermore, are under the control of the client. This has given rise to a wider view of construction procurement and a variety of new concepts have been identified. This has resulted in the postulation of a unifying theory of procurement and the proposal of better methods of procuring construction projects. Data has been collected from 24 projects; 12 discrete project programmes within one client and the overall project programmes of 9 client organisations. The data was collected using interviews with a wide range of personnel, interrogation of corporate financial and project management information systems and document analysis. 24 Case Studies of projects are also presented. A model has been developed that enables the comparison of the procurement activities of a wide range of companies. The model integrates the effects of client programme activities and considers income, costs and risks. This particularly enables the value added by the procurement and other functions to be determined. This has been used to analyse and test the procurement undertaken by several organisations and can be used as a tool for continuing improvement within a client's infrastructure construction programme.