Negative effects of design-bid-build procurement on construction projects

Abstract

The construction industry is famous for its poor performance. Despite multi-party contractual agreements acknowledged by the lean construction community as enablers of better communication and performance, design-bid-build (DBB) still dominates the construction industry in Germany, UK and other countries. This study describes design-bid-build procurement and explores its negative effects on construction projects, environment and project participants through a review of existing literature. Understanding the influence of design-bid-build on construction environment should give practitioners an insight into the potential of using the Last Planner ® System and other lean tools. The direct and indirect effects of DBB on the construction environment are presented in the form of a tree diagram. It can be hypothesized that if the internal dispositions of project participants can be determined and the behavior of project participants can be positively influenced, for example, by lean management tools such as the Last Planner ® System5, the situational context in which project participants operate can be influenced too, meaning a shift to more positive, collaborative environment.