Title: The application of early contractor involvement and its impact on project performance

Authors: Xianhai Meng; Peter Humphreys

Addresses: School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Queen's University Belfast, David Keir Building, Stranmillis Road, Belfast, BT9 5AG, UK ' Fulton Hogan, Port Phillip, South Melbourne, Australia

Abstract: Early contractor involvement is a topic that has attracted attention from construction practitioners and researchers in the UK since the 1990s. It has been adopted to introduce construction knowledge and experience to the design process, and to integrate design with construction. In contrast with the limited number of previous studies on early contractor involvement, which used case studies, a questionnaire survey was conducted in this study, to investigate the application of early contractor involvement in current practice and its impact on project performance in terms of time, cost and quality. From an analysis of the questionnaire results, early contractor involvement is found to be increasingly used in the construction industry, and to have a significant impact on cost and time performance. This research provides empirical evidence related to the practice of early contractor involvement. It demonstrates the major influence of early contractor involvement on management processes and working relationships during a project, which contribute to performance improvement and project success.

Keywords: early involvement; contractor involvement; project performance; design process; construction industry; construction knowledge; construction experience; UK; United Kingdom; cost; time; quality; project management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPOM.2015.073139

International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 2015 Vol.7 No.4, pp.339 - 351

Received: 06 Dec 2011
Accepted: 21 Dec 2012
Published online: 25 Nov 2015 *

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