No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (MTech(Business Administration))--Cape Technikon, Cape Town, 2004 / The procurement of goods and services in the public sector accounts for a huge portion of domestic spending. An improvement in government procurement has a direct effect on the country's economic performance. Government procurement systems are subject to increasing scrutiny and reform due to domestic and international pressure. Procurement reform is being driven by the principles of democracy and fairness, the opening of the global market, and the small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) that have been excluded from government procurement. Research has been done on the development of SMMEs in South Africa, highlighting the barriers experienced by these enterprises. As only limited research has been done on the barriers experienced by the sub-category of African black SMMEs, this study focuses on those barriers experienced by African black SMMEs in the construction industry in the Western Cape, with specific emphasis on the Emerging Contractor Development Programme (ECDP) of the National Department of Public Works in Cape Town. The purpose of this study was to determine the reasons why African black contractors cannot find the opportunities that they seek. The opportunities may be available, but the financial capacity of these contractors is limited. The lack of finance or the lack of access to finance causes these contractors not to be able to perform as anticipated. The survey was done among African Black contractors to determine from them what their experiences were with the Emerging Contractor Development Programme. It also focused on the number of opportunities given to them by the National Department of Public Works and the effect of the lack of finances.

The poor trust culture in the construction sector is often considered an inhibiting factor to collaboration success in the United Kingdom (UK) despite reform efforts. Numerous reform initiatives tend to have focused on improvements in client and main contractor aspects of construction supply chain relationships, prompting claims that failure to integrate subcontractors, suppliers and consultants into collaborative arrangements remains a major shortcoming. Main contractor and subcontractor relationships therefore continue to be typified by such problems as late payments, charging fees to tender for work, award of contracts based on cheapest price rather than best value, negative margins and demand of retrospective discounts and cash rebates; all of which negatively impact on trust. Some main contractor organisations however, continue to embed supply chain management practices as a strategy for levering value from subcontractors. Such collaborative practices and their implications for inter-organisational trust development, and indeed overall project outcomes, have nonetheless received limited attention in construction management research, raising significant questions on the empirical basis for their implementation. This research was thus undertaken to investigate strategic supply chain management practices adopted by UK main contractors and its implications for inter-organisational trust development during projects. The study adopts a multiple case study design so as to unravel complex subtleties of inter-organisational trust development in the main contractors’ supply chain during projects. With four purposefully selected UK main contractor organisations that had implemented strategic supply chain management, data was gathered through a supply chain workshop, semi-structured interviews, passive observations and documentary analysis. From analysis of the data, it was revealed that strategic supply chain management practices of the main contractors were instrumental for trust manifestation across cognition, system and relational based dimensions. These practices served as constitutive elements of face-to-face interactions through which inter-organisational trust developed, whilst providing the institutional framework to which respective supply chain parties directed their psychological expectations. These findings highlight the importance of maintaining a core of subcontractors from which the main contractor can leverage long-term value irrespective of economic climate. This can be achieved by adequately prioritizing relationally trusted subcontractors for sensitive and high risk work packages whilst ensuring that strategic supply chain management principles can be used to engender impersonal (cognition and system-based) trust dimensions amongst other subcontractors used on a project. Accordingly, a supply chain management oriented framework for engendering inter-organisational trust during projects has been developed based on the study findings and evaluated through semi-structured interviews with selected target participants. This framework does not only provide a systematic and coherent approach for implementing or benchmarking strategic supply chain management in a main contractor’s organisation, but can also be used to prioritize and promote different trust dimensions and their associated behavioural consequences on projects, depending on perceived work package risks.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: One of the most difficult and more important decisions taken by a client is the selection of the most appropriate contractor. It requires the assessment of various factors, often conflicting, in order to determine the most appropriate contractor and are therefore classified as a problem that can be resolved by using multiple criteria decision making methods. The act of decision making is never an easy one and requires a sound understanding of the requirement, the alternatives and the model used to assess the alternatives in terms of the requirement in order to instil confidence that the most appropriate alternative is selected. The appropriateness of the methods used in contractor evaluation has a vital impact on the cost of the transaction. The three broad categories, or schools of thought, relating to multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are assessed in terms of their applicability to the contractor selection problem within a quasi-government organisation, namely Armscor. Of the three categories, only the methods of the value measurement category were found to be appropriate within the current legislative framework of the Preferential Procurement Act, which seeks to express the performance of an offer as a unique numerical function. The old contractor selection model of direct point allocation on a qualitative scale is shown to be inappropriate, especially in terms of the additive utility assumption of single dimensional units. The proposed new model makes use of the weighted product model that is not restricted by the additive utility assumption as it results in dimensionless analysis of the criteria. The utility functions associated with the quantitative criteria uses curves which are raised to the power of the confidence variable. The arithmetic mean of these variables represents the group’s confidence level associated with each contractor’s offer in the correctness and/or its ability to maintain the stated level of performance. Furthermore, the analytic hierarchy process is used for the assessment of the qualitative criteria. The new model, although not perfect, is an improvement over the old model with regards to the understanding of the requirement as well as the assessment of contractors’ proposals. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die keuse van ‘n kontrakteur is een van die moeilikste besluite wat ‘n kliënt moet neem, dit is egter ook een van die belangrikste besluite wat geneem word. Ten einde die mees geskikte kontrakteur te kies, moet daar ‘n waarde geheg word aan verskeie faktore, menigmaal teenstrydig, wat kontrakteur seleksie klassifiseer as ‘n probleem wat deur middel van meervoudige-kriteria-besluitnemingsmetodes opgelos kan word. Die handeling van besluitneming is nooit ‘n maklike een en vereis deeglike kennis van die behoefte, die alternatiewe, asook die model wat gebruik word om die alternatiewe in terme van die behoefte te waardeer in orde om vertroue in die gekose alternatief te hê. Vir die doeleindes van hierdie studie is die drie kategorieë van meervoudige-kriteria-besluitnemingsmetodes vergelyk in terme van hul toepaslikheid op die voorafgenoemde probleem binne ‘n Semi-Staatsinstelling, naamlik Krygkor, met die oogmerk om die beste metode te identifiseer. Slegs die metodes vervat in die waarde-meting kategorie is geskik binne die Wet op die Raamwerk vir Voorkeurverkrygingsbeleid wat die evaluasie van ‘n aanbod uitdruk as ‘n unieke numeriese funksie. Uit die studie blyk dit dat die vorige kontrakteur seleksie model van direkte punt allokasie op ‘n kwalitatiewe skaal onvanpas is, veral in terme van die sommerings-nutfunksie aanname van enkel dimensionele eenhede. Die model wat eerder aanbeveel word, maak gebruik van die geweegde-produk-model wat nie beperk word deur die bogenoemde aanname nie, aangesien dit dimensielose analise tot gevolg het. Nutfunksies wat geassosieër word met kwantitatiewe kriteria, word voorgestel deur kurwes wat tot die mag van die vertrouensvlak-veranderlike gehef word. Die rekenkundige gemiddelde van hierdie veranderlike verteenwoordig die groep se vertrouensvlak met betrekking tot elke kontrakteur se akkuraatheid en vermoeë om die gespesifiseerde vlak van werkverrigting te handhaaf. Die kwalitatiewe kriteria word beoordeel deur gebruik te maak van die analitiese hiërargie proses. Die gevolgtrekking wat uiteindelik gemaak word is dat die nuwe model, alhoewel nie foutloos, tog ‘n verbetering is op die vorige model, veral met betrekking tot die insig wat verkry word deur die ontleding van die kontrakteurs se voorstelle in terme van die bepaalde behoefte wat bevredig moet word, ten einde die beste keuse uit te oefen.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Construction Project Management

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration