Specialist contractors: A review of issues raised by their new role in building

The paper describes a study of the newly emerging role of specialist contractors in the UK building industry. It identifies a common strategy employed by specialists in dealing with the complexity and diversity of modern building. This is to maintain a consistent operating core insulated from the firm's environment. It also highlights particular problems which arise in current practice in respect of contracts, design responsibilities, coordination of work on site and the incidence of variations. It also shows that opportunities and problems arise from the power of modern information and the demands for quality assurance. All these individual issues give rise to a need to review the training of operatives and specialists’ investment in research and development. For the rest of the industry, the study suggests a need to develop better ways of evaluating competitive design proposals from specialists.