It is not enough for researchers and developers to create new products and processes; they should also consider how to get their improvements adopted. The financial pressures experienced by transport organisations in recent decades are producing tightly defined and restricted processes for developing and managing projects. These restrictions are aimed at creating competitive situations in which proposals from different service providers can be assessed and compared objectively. While the process works well in a technologically mature environment, it can hinder the introduction of major innovations. The individual components in most transport engineering systems have been highly optimised as a result of continued financial pressures from the client organisations and competition between the service providers. It is now reaching a point where the most likely way in which major improvements are going to be achieved in the future is by re-engineering total systems; that is, by starting with a clean slate and developing completely new ways of undertaking projects. Re-engineering changes the boundaries between planning, design and construction; responsibilities for various tasks change; whole stages in the project process can be eliminated and feedback loops introduced, where none existed previously; and it can change the relative costs of the remaining stages. Further, major innovations create a monopoly situation until competitors can catch up, and the client has to deal with one service provider if wishes to capture the benefits immediately. In brief, it conflicts with just about all the control mechanisms established to ensure that the existing system operates efficiently and economically. This paper addresses the scope and the magnitude of the problem and looks at various ways of resolving the conflict. (A)
Samenvatting