Defining the dimensions of engineering asset procurement : towards an integrated model

Abstract

Procuring engineering asset management is a critical activity of all types of government, with optimal approaches to procurement still in need of identification. This paper advances a novel approach of exploring the procurement of engineering assets across a number of dimensions: Project rules, organisational interaction rules
and complexity. The dimensions of project rules are held to include cost, quality and time. The dimensions of organisational interaction rules are held to be collaboration, competition and control. Complexity is seen as in the project itself, in the interaction between organisations or in the business environment. Taken together these
dimensions seem salient for any type of engineering asset, and provide a useful way of conceptualising procurement arrangements of these assets.