Author: S Austin et al
Pages: 225
Available from: Construction Books Direct, 01344 630810
CBD Stock Number: 3463
Price: £50
I was attracted to Design Chains because I thought it might help solve the site manager's most recurrent crisis – late, incorrect and unworkable design information.
I was disappointed. The diagrams are impressive, but they are not explained very well and there are no practical examples. The book is very academic, and construction people – architects, engineers, construction managers and site agents – will find it difficult to read and probably won't try out the suggested approaches.
Design Chains sets out to explain how to create collaborative working between designers, contractors and specialist suppliers. It also explains how to create strategic teams for multi-project delivery - what the authors call design chains.
This leads me to the best thing about this book: its attempts to provide a road map for getting to integrated working, both on project and strategic levels. It sets out the principles for integrated collaborative design and guides the reader through the steps. The team can assess its progress using a very simple diagnostic tool.
The problem with Design Chains is that it lacks the practical examples needed to make it an interesting read and to ground the principles in reality. I just couldn't make sense of many of the concepts. I regularly had to look in the glossary of terms for clarification - in many instances without success. For example, the"value adding toolbox" (sounds very useful) is referred to throughout the book, but you have to wait until the second last page to get examples – the glossary description is gobbledygook.
I can't imagine a site manager, designer or subcontractor having the time or patience to read this book. Who will? Academics and maybe the odd contractor's design manager or someone like me with offline time on their hands to engage in blue-sky thinking.
It's a pity, because if readers could interpret the practices and facilitate the team along the road map it might just make a significant difference to the way design and construction are managed. My guess is, though, that implementing the book's approach will be too hard and take too long for organisations working under pressure to deliver results.
Source
Construction Manager
Postscript
Dave Stitt runs his own performance coaching company. Visit www.dsabuilding.co.uk
No comments yet