Tender rules and trust influence on cooperation in the building industry

The building industry has for many years been criticized for not having as efficient
and effective co-operation as other industries. Some parties in the building sector try
to use a new form of collaboration as i.a. partnering. In a big part of those partnering
projects a good working relationship exists, the building owner is satisfied, the involved
companies earn money and the project finish in time. A lot of projects do not
use partnering or other new forms of collaboration. In these projects the general impression
is that the parties in the building sector are fighting instead of co-operating.
A questionnaire survey including building owners, contractors, suppliers, architects,
engineers and client design advisor has been accomplished. The survey shows that
the problem with co-operation among others is the way the tendering rules normally
are used, where the normal assignment criterion is the lowest cost instead of the economically
most advantageous bid. The involved parties do not always trust each
other; the parties are not good enough at involving each other in the beginning of a
project and the building sector is not ready enough for new forms of collaboration initiatives