Keynote paper Joint International Conference on Construction Culture, Innovation and Management (CCIM) November 2006 Dubai, United Arab Emirates CIB/British University in Dubai IMPROVING CONSTRUCTION: WHY INNOVATION TARRIES Ronald McCaffer and Francis Edum-Fotwe Department of Civil and Building Engineering Loughborough University, LE11 3TU, UK

ABSTRACT The role of innovation in driving significant improvements and productivity gains in manufacturing prompted the adoption of an initiative to reform the construction sector in the UK to reflect a more manufacturing outlook for its operations and business activities. Whilst this initiative produced several notable developments, there have been queries raised in recent times on how the sector's performance can be improved on a sustainable basis. For any sustainable improvement scheme to work effectively, it has to be accompanied by a shift in the cultural perspectives for improvement construction. The paper explores the general concept of innovation and the nature of innovation in the construction. It explores the apparent slow rate of innovation that has been associated with construction for several decades. It argues much of the transformation that the sector would have to undergo to enable construction attain the same levels of innovation as obtains in the manufacturing sector would have to be a cultural re-orientation to make innovation the norm, rather than the exception. A framework to support the formal execution of continuous innovation is presented. Keywords: construction, innovation, improvement, culture, systems

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