Ballard, G and Howell, G (1998) Shielding production: Essential step in production control. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 124(1), pp. 11-17. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Effective production control systems are structured around the assignment as the unit of analysis. The quality of work assignments in production units such as construction crews and engineering squads is the key to production control and for determining production unit productivity. Research has revealed that the quality of assignments can be substantially improved by forming and selecting them to meet soundness, sequence, and size criteria. Quality assignments shield production units from work flow uncertainty, enabling those units to improve their own productivity, and also improve the productivity of the production units downstream. The associated reduction in task duration can shorten projects. Further reduction of project duration comes from shortening the buffers previously needed to accommodate flow uncertainty.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | productivity, production control, buffer, shielding, duration |
| Subjects: | project delivery, safety engineering, project controls, management, financial risk |
| Topics: | Cost Management, Project Management, Time Control, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
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