Cooperation in Construction

in the USSR, the planned organization of stable production links among construction organizations and among these organizations and the indus-trial enterprises that manufacture construction components and assemblies; cooperation is established for joint erection of buildings and structures and joint installation of equipment.

Cooperation in construction is organically linked to the development of specialization in construction organizations and is an important form of the social division of labor. It is carried out on the basis of economic contracts, plans for the delivery of output, and appropriate instructions by ministries and departments. The forms of cooperation include intraregional cooperation, set up among the construction organizations of a single economic region, usually for such common types of construction work as earthwork and finishing; interregional cooperation, set up among the construction organizations of different economic regions, ordinarily for installation and narrowly specialized jobs; and intersectorial cooperation, set up among construction organizations and enterprises that manufacture assemblies and components. A typical feature of cooperation in construction is that many organizations work together at one time at a single construction site, particularly in industrial construction.

There are two principal indexes of the level of cooperation in construction: the proportion of subcontracting work done by specialized organizations, including the volume of work on direct contracts, in the total volume of work of the general contractor; and the proportion of the value of building assemblies and components recieved from outside on a cooperative basis in the total value of construction output. An indirect index is the number of construction organizations that are specialized by types of work (subcontractors) and cooperate with the general construction organizations (general contractors).

The development of cooperation in construction fosters growth in labor productivity, an improvement in the use of technology, and the introduction of flow methods of production, which speeds up the rate of building and reduces the prime cost of construction and installation work.