TOPICS
Small
Firms in the Construction Industry
"Turnitin.com"
Motto
of the Month
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Introduction
I am aware of
efficiencies being made with staff on the "client" side of
the industry as well as the "production" side.
When the work does pick up, as it surely will, it will be interesting
to see the nature of the staff they recruit to replace the experienced
boys and girls who have left.
There are some aspects of the "job" that cannot be provided
by machine surveys, ticking boxes, specifications, certificates
or QA procedures, you actually have to know what they all mean.
I can see the "skills" shortage becoming worse in our
industry and I have to seriously consider that this is the intention
of those in charge.
The certificates and QA procedures I am aware of, that may replace
knowledge of a product, have very large disclaimers on them. So if the
situation of "corporate manslaughter" is progressed by the
police authorities to include local highway authorities as well as private
companies it will be interesting to see who is regarded as responsible
for a perceived failure of a highway surface that results in a
fatality.
Small
Firms in the Construction Industry
May I
draw your attention to a small, but very important article "Small
firms should get more public work- MP's" on page
nine of the journal New Civil Engineer (NCE) dated 21/10/2004.
The article can be accessed on the "INFOPLUS" that NCE
provide at
www.nceplus.co.uk
but you do have to provide them with your life history before you are
allowed in.
In the article it highlighted a number of pertinent issues relating to
small and medium size businesses (SMEs), such as, "contractors
backed calls from the Commons public accounts committee to make it
easier for small and medium sized firms to bid for public sector
work" .
"The MPs also urged departments to improve in-house procurement
skills by using professionally qualified staff."
"SMEs may be able to offer better value for money through
increased competition, local supply lines and greater flexibility and
innovation."
There is a great deal more worthy of study in this small article
and I urge you to read it.
I thought I would contribute a more practical approach to this debate
by including a few images of equipment that has been developed by
small firms local to my area, and that I have some knowledge of.
These firms have invested a considerable amount of time and money in
developing the plant items below, and as far as I am aware, without
any grants or other financial support.
I am not trying to sell these machines for these companies just highlight
the skills and commitment that is provided by small firms in the
industry.
I know these are commercial ventures, entered into to to make a
financial return, but a little more encouragement
of good ideas by central bodies would not go amiss, especially as this
work is in manufacturing, not the service industry.
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Both these
machines I regard as truly innovative. The Remixer allowing what
I believe is the optimum method of recycling bituminous
materials. With a considerable reduction of lorry movements to
tip and from the quarry, as well as saving on newly quarried
stone.
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The Offset Paver speeds up the
placing of materials into haunching to an extent that is hard to
believe (I was told 350 tonnes of binder course and base had been laid on the
day I was present), and it was deliveries that were holding them back.
Imagine the potential in reducing road closure times. Placement tolerances were also excellent.
I particularly appreciate the speed that hot bituminous material can
be placed so that it is compacted in a truly hot condition.
I am not a
commercial website so I am not supplying any further information, if
you are interested there are enough clues for you to locate these
companies.
I am pleased to read that the Commons public accounts committee is
aware of the contribution small to medium businesses can provide, and
hopefully put procedures in place to provide more encouragement.
"Turnitin.com"
I think that I
ought to bring it to your attention that the organisation
www.turnitin.com
regularly
"crawls" my website, which is quite a compliment.
This organisation "crawls" thousands, maybe millions of
websites to provide a service to teaching and lecturing communities so
that those marking submissions may be confident that it is the
students work they are appraising.
I am aware that many sessions on my website are through teaching
establishment servers which would suggest that a number of students
are consulting this website (it might be the lecturers).
I would like to think that the information they gain from the relevant
pages will go towards a composite piece of work constructed by
themselves from a number of sources, hopefully including site
work.
Many other types of service are available from "Turnitin.com",
their website is well worth a visit.
Motto of the Month
"The louder
he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons."
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