Double delivery

Since Sir Michael Latham published his influential report "Constructing the Team" in July 1994, everyone in construction has been trying hard to replace the confrontational and litigious reputation of the industry with one revolving around the word "partnership". Even the clients – especially those from government – have striven to co-operate with these initiatives, which now are led by Sir John Egan's Strategic Forum, supported by the Department for Trade and Industry. (Before this June's election, the staff were in the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.)

The materials supply side was not one of the first to participate, mainly because the big issues of construction conflict involve designers, contractors and subcontractors. The material manufacturers and distributors have tended to keep low profiles and get on with the job of ensuring that the right materials arrive on site at the right time. Usually this is done in a smooth and amicable way.

Design stage
However, "the times they are a changin", and practices have evolved to such an extent that some merchants are asking their contractor and housebuilding clients whether they can partner on specific projects. This means merchants want to be actively involved at the design stage to ensure that greater efficiencies and cost savings are achieved.

For staff in contractors' buying departments, this might appear to be a sly way for a merchant to maximise sales without facing competition from other merchants. However, the experience of James Burrell, a well-established independent merchant in Gateshead, would suggest otherwise. After research into the changing practices within its larger clients, James Burrell has developed a closer working relationship with key firms that are seriously interested in the Egan principles. It has integrated its own sales staff within the onsite teams of its customers. These staff are there to advise on value engineering, product selection and supply-chain management/ logistics, as well as the day-to-day problem-solving that is the core of many site managers' jobs.

Forms of commitment
The benefits for the contractor include having a partner with exclusive responsibility for delivering savings and efficiencies in the purchase of materials for each part of the contract. In the case of Burrell, this is possible because the merchant has been involved from the design stage and has staff fully devoted to the contract. That does not happen in the normal relationship between a merchant and a contractor, because the former only reacts to a specific demand for materials rather than having knowledge of the entire building. Obviously such a time commitment from the merchant means that the project has to be a sizeable one, although the principle can easily be adapted to smaller contracts and for small housebuilding sites.

The flagship of Burrell's partnering project is a school and community college in Blyth, Northumberland being built by Gleeson for £14m. It is currently about halfway through a 52-week contract. The client, Northumberland County Council, is so pleased with how the project has progressed that it applied to the Movement for Innovation for the contract to be granted M4I demonstration project status, and it was.

Even if a contractor does not wish to forge such a close relationship with the merchant, there are many lesser forms of partnering which enable the builder to introduce the knowledge of a merchant at no extra cost. Perhaps readers of this article might like to give it a try and report back to me on their experiences?