Cl Pasquire

Benefit evaluation for off‐site production in construction

Evaluating to what extent a component or building system should be produced off‐site is inadequate within the industry. The potential benefits of off‐site production (OSP) are commonly cited when justifying an OSP approach, yet holistic and methodical assessments of the applicability and overall benefit of these solutions, to a particular project, have been found to be deficient. Common methods of evaluation simply take material, labour and transportation costs into account when comparing various options, often disregarding other cost‐related items such as site facilities, crane use and rectification of works. These cost factors are usually buried within the nebulous preliminaries figure, with little reference to the building approach taken. Further, softer issues such as health and safety, effects on management and process benefits are either implicit or disregarded within these comparison exercises. Yet it is demonstrated that these issues are some of the most significant benefits of OSP. A series of case studies demonstrated that evaluation focus is almost solely on direct material and labour costs of components, without explicit regard for the wider cost or soft issue implications of OSP on a project. The paper argues that until evaluation is more holistic and value‐based rather than cost‐based, OSP uptake in construction will be slow.

Target value design: using collaboration and a lean approach to reduce construction cost

Target costing is an effective management technique that has been used in manufacturing for decades to achieve cost predictability during new product development. Adoption of this technique promises benefits for the construction industry as it struggles to raise the number of successful outcomes and certainty of project delivery in terms of cost, quality and time. Target value design is a management approach that takes the best features of target costing and adapts them to the peculiarities of construction. The concept of target value design is introduced based on the results of action research carried out on 12 construction projects in the USA. It has been shown that systemic application of target value design leads to significant improvement of project performance—the final cost of projects was on average 15% less than market cost. The construction industry already has approaches that have similarities with elements of the target value design process or use the same terminology, e.g. partnering and target cost contracts, cost planning, etc. Following an exploration of the similarities and differences target value design is positioned as a form of target costing for construction that offers a more reliable route to successful project outcomes.

Constraints to the use of off-site production on construction projects

Abstract Off-site production (OSP) has been promoted as one of the solutions to the industrys performance problems. Numerous works have demonstrated the possible benefits of adopting such approaches to construction projects, yet uptake has been slow. Addressing these concerns, a series of factors were identified that affect the use of OSP within construction projects. From these factors a pattern emerged in which some factors drove OSP adoption, whereas others constrained its implementation. These constraints were investigated further using a questionnaire survey that was sent to all major stakeholders, ranging from clients through to end manufacturers. The extent to which the constraints inhibit the use of OSP were ascertained, scored and ranked. Four broad constraint themes emerged from the findings, namely process, value, supply-chain and knowledge constraints. A model illustrating the relationship between the four themes provides further insight into the constraints to OSP uptake. The authors further suggest that a broader understanding of the constraints is required, arguing that although OSP can contribute to change in the industry, it itself depends on change in order to be widely adopted.

Delivering sustainability through value management: concept and performance overview

Purpose – The attention on sustainability issues within value management (VM) practices is uncertain due to the scarcity of information on this subject in the available literature. As a value enhancement technique, VM should incorporate sustainability issues as they would affect the quality of the outcome. By exploring VM as a means to uplift sustainability issues at the early construction stages, it shall shed light to its potential and current practices and thus stimulating wider attention to this field in the future.Design/methodology/approach – This paper begins by presenting the underlying concept of integrating sustainability within VM. The potential of VM to uplift sustainability issues is highlighted and the relationships between these two are discussed. Field studies were conducted to investigate the existing practices of VM and its practitioners’ attitudes towards sustainability.Findings – It is confirmed that sustainability consideration is already inherent in the VM workshops but the level of ...

Analysis of factors that drive brief development in construction

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors that drive changes to the construction project brief and the background to those factors. The founding argument, that incorporating these changes is paramount for achieving client satisfaction, introduces the concept of dynamic brief development (DBP), which permits changes throughout the project life cycle. The understanding and attitude of the major construction project stakeholders towards DBP are investigated along with identifying the originators of brief development and the value and risk sources.Design/methodology/approach – A threefold method was used comprising a comprehensive questionnaire survey followed by structured interviews. The results of these were further investigated though a brainstorming session with major construction project stakeholders. A total population of 266,434 units for the survey was identified, reduced to a random stratified sample of 530. The response rate was 49.2 per cent and the responses were analysed usin...

Value theory in lean construction

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the common perspective of value for lean construction (LC) researchers and practitioners. Thus, this paper aims to generate a future discussion in the construction sector about the huge impact of construction projects over the entire society and, consequently, to underline the need of an expansion of current value perspectives moving from a local context (project level) to a global context (society).Design/methodology/approach – The paper critically reviews the concept of value from LC perspective. As such, literature review has been conducted as a main task.Findings – LC value perspectives lack in a common idea to be applied in the construction industry as a whole. Customer‐focused construction practices, where satisfaction of customer requirements predominates over societal welfare.Research limitations/implications – The work described forms part of a larger study intended to expand common value perspective to the wide society. Therefore, a future gl...

Introducing the Concept of First and Last Value to Aid Lean Design: Learning from Social Housing Projects in Chile

Value for the customer through efficient production processes is a fundamental principle of lean thinking. In lean construction, value to customers is largely delivered through project planning and control activities only. Thus, it can be argued that lean construction overlooks the opportunity to address value from the early stages of a project. Aimed at improving this, lean design arose as a new approach for design management promoting customer and end user involvement from the early stage of projects. However, even here environmental and social issues are postponed over individual requirements. As a result, lean potential in general skips the opportunity to address value from a wider perspective in which the return of value from the construction industry to society is considered. This paper proposes dividing the wider understanding of the performance of the (global) built environment from the particular (local) project requirements calling the former first value and the latter last value. The theory is triangulated through observation of how a developing country (Chile) is resolving social issues through the use of the built environment. The work described develops lean design management by providing a clearer vision of value to reduce waste and aid sustainability in the built environment.

Examination of relationships between building form and function and the cost of mechanical and electrical services

This paper describes analysis work undertaken to examine relationships between building function, building form and mechanical and electrical services cost, including the collection of raw data, and the transformation work undertaken to enable analysis. Relationships are identified between building form parameters, e.g. perimeter of external walls, gross floor area, storey heights, percentage of glazing, and the mechanical and electrical services costs for buildings of different functions (commercial, industrial and residential). There are relationships between the costs of the mechanical and electrical services installations and some building form descriptors, but the particular descriptors and the strength of the relationships vary according to the function of the building.

Is good enough “making do”?: An investigation of inappropriate processing in a small design and build company

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to address behaviour that often leads to inappropriate processing in a small design and build contracting organisation that employs direct labour. The objective was to reduce process waste and improve the value delivered to clients. This formed part of a larger knowledge transfer project (KTP) to improve performance on construction sites through the application of lean thinking.Design/methodology/approach – Action research was used to identify and bring about change within the contracting organisation. The method was applied to live construction projects in the social housing sector in the greater London area. The intervention was to raise the awareness of site personnel to the importance of finishing tasks through informal discussions and visual management techniques.Findings – Raised awareness of the importance of finishing work to allow other trades to follow on unimpeded, leading to significant improvements in the quality and flow of work. This helped to contribu...

Applying lean thinking in commercial management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop two hypotheses explaining the role of commercial management in the lean business model: lean construction is a viable choice of commercial strategy; and lean commercial management is an integral part of lean construction system subordinate to the project delivery. This is completed as a part of conceptualisation of the lean commercial management discipline in construction on the abstract level and followed by deriving its main principles.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on the direct observation of the companies pursuing lean strategy in construction as well as of those following non‐lean business models, review of case studies and literature.Findings – Traditional commercial arrangements do not comply with the lean construction requirements and may hamper the exploration of its full potential. Lean commercial management differs in the way that its primary role is to support the production process thus it is subordinated to it.Research l...