Procurement embraces the acquisition of services, goods and materials, which together make up a project. There are several approaches possible for procuring construction facilities in a project. At one extreme a client wishing to construct a facility may undertake to execute the work through his organisation (do-it-himself departmentally). At the other end of the spectrum is to get the entire work done on turnkey basis through a contractor. There are many in between. In general, procurement in construction can be divided into three main categories, i,e. contractual approach, departmental approach and consultant [including professional construction manager - (CM)] approach.
The contractual option has many advantages. Some of which are :
- Contracted works usually cost less than the departmentally executed work.
- In contracted projects, the owner utilities the services of the contractor's experts/specialists/suppliers rather than training his own staff and facing teething problems in specialist fields.
- The client's risk of variations in cost is covered in contracted work.
- The client can limit his manpower to supervisory roles.
- The client saves on the investment needed to procure the expensive capital equipment.
The competitive construction business of the day requires special resources for different types of construction work and the contractors tend to specialize in a specific area of construction. From this functional angle, the contractors can be classified into different categories. These include general contractors, building contractors, specialist heavy infrastructure contractors, specialist industrial works contractors and contractors offering specialist utility services including electrical, water supply, sewage disposal and HVAC services.
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