THE PRINCIPLES OF THE COST-PLUS-A-FIXED
SUM CONTRACT AND THE PRACTICE
A principle is judged by its advocates. The men themselvesand especially the manner in which they apply the principle to practice, is the one test the public applies before accepting or rejecting a principle.
That the principle of the cost-plus-a-fixed-sum contract is rapidly coming to be accepted as the fundamentally correct method of contracting needs no demonstration to the man familiar in the least with the present engineering and building situation. The ever-increasing number of contractors who are advertising the merits of the cost-plus-a-fixed-sum contract, the growing number of industrial organizations who place their contracts on this basis as a matter of course, and lastly, the fact that it is on this principle that the Panama Canal will be built, are the facts which demonstrate that the old, inadequate, trouble-breeding, gambling, lump-sum contract has outlived its usefulness.
This change has come within the past few years. It has come because the organization that first announced its adherence to cost-plus-a-fixed-sum and nothing but cost-plus-a-fixed-sum has
FRANK B. GILBRETH
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
MAIN OFFICE
34 W. 26TH ST., NEW YORK
SAN FRANCISCO
604 MISSION STREET
SEATTLE
GEORGETOWN, WASH.
CANADIAN CORRESPONDENT
DOMINION ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION CO. MONTREAL, CANADA
CONCRETE DEPARTMENT
UNDERWRITERS ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION CO.
1170 BROADWAY, NEW YORK
SUM CONTRACT AND THE PRACTICE
A principle is judged by its advocates. The men themselvesand especially the manner in which they apply the principle to practice, is the one test the public applies before accepting or rejecting a principle.
That the principle of the cost-plus-a-fixed-sum contract is rapidly coming to be accepted as the fundamentally correct method of contracting needs no demonstration to the man familiar in the least with the present engineering and building situation. The ever-increasing number of contractors who are advertising the merits of the cost-plus-a-fixed-sum contract, the growing number of industrial organizations who place their contracts on this basis as a matter of course, and lastly, the fact that it is on this principle that the Panama Canal will be built, are the facts which demonstrate that the old, inadequate, trouble-breeding, gambling, lump-sum contract has outlived its usefulness.
This change has come within the past few years. It has come because the organization that first announced its adherence to cost-plus-a-fixed-sum and nothing but cost-plus-a-fixed-sum has
FRANK B. GILBRETH
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
MAIN OFFICE
34 W. 26TH ST., NEW YORK
SAN FRANCISCO
604 MISSION STREET
SEATTLE
GEORGETOWN, WASH.
CANADIAN CORRESPONDENT
DOMINION ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION CO. MONTREAL, CANADA
CONCRETE DEPARTMENT
UNDERWRITERS ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION CO.
1170 BROADWAY, NEW YORK