Doing it Differently: Systems for Rethinking Construction
1st Edition
Published on 3. March 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-0-7277-2748-0 (ISBN)
Description
"This is a serious and impressive work. It will help those who are committed to changing the industry to create structures to do so, whether in one area or in totality. It offers a whole range of powerful tools, which will be particularly useful to those with the personal drive to apply them to rethinking construction. It is packed with examples that help to flesh out a rigorous analysis of how the industry can improve."David Fison, Kvaerner Construction
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Emerald Publishing Limited
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 297 mm
Width: 210 mm
Weight
1020 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7277-2748-0 (9780727727480)
DOI
10.1680/didsfrc.27480
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Preface
Part 1:
The need to do it differently
Meeting the challenge
Part 2:
Thinking differently
Focussing on process
Finding leverage
Hardand soft
Practical foresight
Part 3: Making the difference
Business cases
Managing the team
Managing the life-cycle
Looking to the future
Reviews
This is a very unusual book. In every respect it is worthy of our serious consideration. Just as Egan has challenged our industry to seek new, better means of delivering our products to the market-place, this book challenges us as individuals to seek to `raise our game' in the way we do our work.The authors are an interesting team. David Blockley manages to combine leading Bristol University's Department of Civil Engineering with a healthy degree of involvement with industry - as well as being a Vice-President of our Institution, whereas Patrick Godfrey of Halcrow is one of the leading edge thinkers in the UK construction industry, working with a range of major clients. They originally worked together developing approaches to risk management and their partnership has flowered into a wide vision of how new techniques can be used on our projects.The resulting publication is not adequately described by the word `book'. What you get for your money is in fact a manual, a programme of learning which will challenge you and set you thinking your own thoughts about ways of rethinking what you do. This is not for the faint-hearted; there are about 300 pages of A4 text to work your way through - and that's what you have to do, as the text is a journey which takes you on a logical profession from one set of ideas and techniques, to the next. To give you a flavour of the topics covered, here is a small selection:
Integration of purpose and people with process
Understanding `process'
Holistic thinking
Hard systems and soft systems
Use of `the Italian flag'
Analysis of `engineering' wisdom and judgement
Team working
Use of `time boxes'
Part 1:
The need to do it differently
Meeting the challenge
Part 2:
Thinking differently
Focussing on process
Finding leverage
Hardand soft
Practical foresight
Part 3: Making the difference
Business cases
Managing the team
Managing the life-cycle
Looking to the future
Reviews
This is a very unusual book. In every respect it is worthy of our serious consideration. Just as Egan has challenged our industry to seek new, better means of delivering our products to the market-place, this book challenges us as individuals to seek to `raise our game' in the way we do our work.The authors are an interesting team. David Blockley manages to combine leading Bristol University's Department of Civil Engineering with a healthy degree of involvement with industry - as well as being a Vice-President of our Institution, whereas Patrick Godfrey of Halcrow is one of the leading edge thinkers in the UK construction industry, working with a range of major clients. They originally worked together developing approaches to risk management and their partnership has flowered into a wide vision of how new techniques can be used on our projects.The resulting publication is not adequately described by the word `book'. What you get for your money is in fact a manual, a programme of learning which will challenge you and set you thinking your own thoughts about ways of rethinking what you do. This is not for the faint-hearted; there are about 300 pages of A4 text to work your way through - and that's what you have to do, as the text is a journey which takes you on a logical profession from one set of ideas and techniques, to the next. To give you a flavour of the topics covered, here is a small selection:
Integration of purpose and people with process
Understanding `process'
Holistic thinking
Hard systems and soft systems
Use of `the Italian flag'
Analysis of `engineering' wisdom and judgement
Team working
Use of `time boxes'