Gregory A. Howell

The Underlying Theory of Project Management Is Obsolete

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

COMPETING CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT PARADIGMS

The Lean Construction Institute’s (LCI) goal is to develop and deploy a new way of thinking about and practicing project management. Projects are conceived as temporary production systems, to be designed in light of the relevant ‘physics’ of the task to be accomplished. It is claimed that complex, quick, and uncertain projects cannot be managed in traditional ways. Detailed CPM schedules, after-the-fact tracking, earned value analysis, and competitive bidding are inadequate to the challenge of today’s dynamic projects. There are four roots of this Lean Construction approach: success of the Toyota Production System, dissatisfaction with project performance, efforts to establish project management on a theoretical foundation, and the discovery of facts anomalous (impossible to explain) from the perspective of traditional thinking and practice. The last of these four is explored in this paper, which presents the current state of construction management thinking as one of conflict between competing paradigms.

Uncertainty and project objectives

The idea that project objectives can be set ‘once and for all’ is challenged by recently-collected data which shows that significant uncertainty remains as late as the start of construction. Findings from the data raise questions which are answered by an examination of the role and nature of objectives.

Construction Engineering—Reinvigorating the Discipline

Construction engineering is all about production, and producing something useful is the very reason for projects to exist. How then to explain why construction engineering has progressively fallen out of focus in construction project management education and research? For an answer, the development of the discipline of construction management since the 1950s must be understood, a development that yielded a non-production-oriented approach to project management, one that provides the currently accepted operating system for managing the work in projects. This paper first traces the history of the development of the traditional operating system and related commercial terms and organizational practices. It argues that traditional practices rest on an assumption that careful development of a project schedule, managing the critical path, and maximizing productivity within each activity will optimize project delivery in terms of cost and duration. Subsequently, an alternative operating system, developed and prop...

Motivation and incentives in relational contracts

Purpose – Lean projects seek to optimise the project rather than its parts and to maximize value to the customer. To better align the behaviour of project participants with a Lean project delivery model, the purpose of this paper is to argue for compensation structures that better address the economic and non‐economic motives that impact project performance.Design/methodology/approach – Social science research increasingly shows that non‐economic human motives play a key role in job performance and that they interact in complicated ways with economic incentives. By reviewing and extrapolating from relevant literature, this paper explores certain key non‐economic human motives and their impact on project performance, how these non‐economic motives interact with economic incentives, and strategies for structuring effective incentives.Findings – The paper identifies certain contract incentive principles that the authors believe should promote non‐economic motivation.Research limitations/implications – The pa...

Three modes of short-term construction planning

Short-term construction planning requires more than simple interpretation of the project schedule; it rests on the organizations ability to collect information, identify and solve problems, and implement change. Each of three different modes of short-term planning — foreman planning, supervisor quality circles, and operations/systems analysis — makes a unique contribution to detailed short-term planning. The need for effective short-term planning is great, since numerous factors exist which can be identified only after construction begins. These uncertainties mean that detailed work plans for individual crews can be completed only near the start of a specific job, and can cover only a limited period of time. Each of the three separate planning modes involves different functions, different sources of data and different problem-solving techniques — hence, three unique planning products. Using these modes in combination takes advantage of their powerful cumulative effect, assures short-term project objectiv...

Case Studies of the Allocation and Reduction of Time Buffer through Use of the Last Planner System

AbstractBuffers are used in construction to absorb variation caused by the inherent complexity and uncertainty present in construction projects. The case studies presented here focus on time buffer added to construction task durations. For this research, time buffer is defined as extra time added during planning to individual task durations to compensate for uncertainty and protect against workflow variation. Two case studies were conducted with one involving a mechanical contractor and the other involving a large general contractor. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by: (1) investigating the time buffer impact on project performance; (2) empirically demonstrating the effect of last planner system (LPS) on reducing time buffer and increasing percent planned complete (PPC); and (3) examining the buffer trends of different trades and activity types. The findings demonstrate LPS as an example of an effective planning strategy for construction managers in improving project performance and hel...

New Operating System for Project Management: Consequences and Opportunities

This paper follows “Construction Engineering: Reinvigorating the Discipline.” That paper argued that a new flow-based operating system was poised to replace the activity-centered operating system of traditional project management and that a coherent organizational and contractual approach would evolve. Shifting to a new operating system based on the theory, principles, and practices of production system design will reduce waste, spur learning and innovation, and deliver more value to clients and other participants. After a reflection on a model for making sense, the paper explores the consequences of this shift from a number of perspectives and speculates on the impact on practice and research. The paper closes with a brief reflection on teaching in times of rapid change.

Rethinking Safety: Learning To Work Near The Edge

Construction safety has substantially improved, but has reached a plateau. A breakthrough transcending “Best Practice” is required. This paper considers current “Best Practice” to reveal its underlying theoretical assumptions. An alternative theory is proposed, based on the work of Jens Rasmussen, a leading thinker on risk management in dynamic environments. A research program is put forward to test and develop a new approach to safety management.

ACCIDENT PREVENTION STRATEGIES: CAUSATION MODEL AND RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

This paper presents an accident causation model that identifies the production system factors affecting the accident process, and proposes accident prevention strategies. The model builds on descriptive rather than prescriptive theories of work behavior and acknowledges the inevitability of exposures and errors. It also focuses on the operation as the level of analysis—that is, it focuses on the factors that influence the number of accidents during a construction operation. The model first identifies the production factors that affect the frequency of hazards during a construction activity, and emphasizes the importance of task unpredictability. Then we examine how the production pressures and the tendency to minimize effort increase the workers’ efficient behaviors and their exposure to hazards, while safety efforts try to prevent such exposures. Finally, the model acknowledges that exposure to hazards only leads to accidents, if errors or changes in the situation “release” the hazard. Based on this conceptualization of the accident process, the paper proposes accident prevention strategies that do not focus on compliance with safety rules: (1) reduce task unpredictability to reduce the frequency of hazards; (2) improve the work conditions to enable more productive behaviors without increasing the safety risk, and (3) develop error management strategies to prevent, trap and mitigate the consequences of errors. These strategies provide direction for safety research.