The principles of ‘Partnering’ are by no means a new concept for Stewart and Shields. We are a regional construction company operating in a localised area and therefore it is imperative that we maintain a good working relationship with our local client base in order to ensure a high incidence of repeat business.

We always embark on a non-adversarial approach on every project we undertake because we believe confrontation to be non-productive and detrimental to the project performance.

Through collaborative working and effective supply chain management, all knowledge can be shared to offer best practice advice and value engineering solutions, providing best value through improved efficiency and continued improvement.

The following basic features characterise a good partnering agreement: -

Mutual objectives

· Agreed and committed to at the outset of the project

· Benefits from open book relationships

· Treated with mutual confidentiality which results in working for each other’s success

Solution Solving

· Based on win-win solutions

· A systematic approach to solutions

·  Mutual acceptance of the principle that adversarial attitudes waste time          and money

·  A systematic approach to solutions

Continuous Improvement

· Specific quantified targets, measured progress, reviewed performance

· Customer focused, adding value, eliminating waste

· Identifying and aiming for best practice