Atkinson, B (2000) Inca: A retrospective performance tool for project management. In: Akintoye, A (ed.) Proceedings of 16th Annual ARCOM Conference, 6-8 September 2000, Glasgow, UK.
Abstract
During an investigation of catastrophic paint failures on a major international building a method of determining the cross links between trade activities during the building process was developed as a post-construction analytical technique. The specially written software was recognised immediately as a possible generic performance tool, and of considerable use to facilities managers where major maintenance and construction problems were evident in buildings under their care. INCA, the name of the software, aptly refers to 'Incompatible Construction Activities' during construction. The first case study that gave rise to this method is described. Data from the project documentation was processed together with the results of other on-site investigations, and confirmed a significant number of unfavourable conjunctions of trades. These effects were found to be associated with the evidence of paint failures found both on site and determined in the laboratory. A multi-million pound litigation case was involved. This paper discusses the application of INCA, which was written by the author, and shows how, combined with traditional investigations, it assisted in a speedy final settlement. The software is equally applicable to similar construction management problems.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building failure; computer analysis; critical path |
| Index terms: | litigation, laboratory, investigation, site investigation, case study, evidence, critical path, building failure, construction activity, project management, building process, project documentation, facilities manager |
| Subjects: | geotechnical engineering, data collection methods, evaluation and assessment methods, practitioner, reliability engineering, construction operations, dispute resolution, building construction, project planning, project management theory and practice, operations research, research management |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Site Management, Project Management, Legal Issues, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here