A production control model for commercial construction

The poor coordination and control of crews many times leads to an inefficient work environment, unproductive work methods and decreased productivity. Inadequate support by designers, fabricators, suppliers and construction managers can also have a negative impact on productivity. Maximizing the productivity of construction crews is a key concern for projects with critical time-to-market requirements and when the industry experiences a shortage of skilled labor. The objective of this exploratory research was to define a model that incorporated modern production management theories to manage, control and support field crews. The model consists of three levels: construction crew, work area interactions and project functions. This model was developed by supplementing existing models of the building process with rules to control interactions between field crews and other project functions. These rules were developed by exploring modern production philosophies from the manufacturing industries. The hypothesis of this research was that a project with a closer fit to the model would perform significantly better than a project with less fit to the model. Performance was evaluated in terms of cost, schedule and quality. Case studies were used to measure the closeness of fit of construction projects to the model and to identify project performance. The focus was on the electrical trades. Seventeen projects from two major electrical contractors were studied. The level of model fit of the projects studied ranged from 50–78%. The data showed evidence that projects with a higher fit to the model had better cost, schedule and quality performance. Five individual rules were identified as having significant correlations with project performance.