Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
6
6
Clients and Contractors
In
Chapters 4
and
5
we discussed two central ideas in explaining the market:
demand and supply (see the Key Points in these chapters). In terms of construction
economics, it is important to appreciate that those making the demands are referred
to as clients and those who respond to their instructions by supplying the products
are referred to as contractors. Both groups can take many forms, and it is common
to emphasise that each project is a one-off. The analogy of a film set is sometimes
employed to illustrate how the various contractors move in, do their work (complete
a project) and then leave for another location to do 'similar' work for another client.
Hence the industry is characterised by a fragmented approach, with each sub-group
concentrating on its own specialism.
Extending an idea of Ive and Gruneberg (2000: 151),
Table 6.1
tries to represent
the innumerable projects that contractors could meet in response to their clients'
demands. The location of a particular project, its design and production are some of
the reasons why each project is unique. In the table, we also emphasise the fact that
the construction stage is carried out by a vast combination of firms selected from the
thousands comprising the industry. On each project there will be various teams of
labour on site, working with different sets of people. This is in stark comparison to
manufacturing and service industries where the work is usually repetitious and the
workforce is normally permanent.
Table 6.1
Contractors involved in construction
Project Types
CIVIL
ENGINEERING
REPAIRS AND
MAINTENANCE
BUILDING
REFURBISHMENT
A B C D
E F G H I J K L M N O P etc.
DESIGN
CONSTRUCTION
220,000 FIRMS
OWNERSHIP
USE
Source:
Adapted from Ive & Gruneberg (2000) and Construction Statistics Annual (ONS 2011a:
Table 3.1)
