Choo, H J (2003) Distributed planning and coordination to support lean construction. PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Abstract
Construction planning is a complex process that involves coordination between many project participants on- and off-site. As projects have been increasing in size and complexity, the number of participants involved in a single project has also increased. Numerous studies have suggested that the traditional project management tools, which are often used in a centralized top-down control environment, do not meet the production management requirements of today's projects. They have reported that the current communication tools do not adequately support the coordination efforts required to successfully deliver projects. This research presents a Distributed Planning and Control (DP&C) method based on a distributed control paradigm. The DP&C helps in improving production planning performance by adopting the Last Planner System (LPS) and thereby providing reliable communication channels in order support the creation of coordinated schedules at appropriate levels of detail. The DP&C method is supported by a tool called WorkMovePlan, which extends the Last Planner tools, WorkPlan and DePlan. WorkMovePlan uses synchronization technology for the collaborative creation of coordinated production plans based on explicit resource and space assignments. As proven during the conceptualization, development, and validation of WorkMovePlan, technology is no longer a barrier to implementing distributed planning and coordination thanks to wide acceptance of personal computers, wireless computing, Internet connectivity, and programming frameworks. The main barriers to implementation are (1) acknowledgement of uncertainty and approaches for managing it, (2) acceptance of the underlying, distributed control paradigm, and (3) willingness to break with traditional contractual arrangements, organizational structures, and common practices of the construction industry. These barriers suggest that many aspects of project management still need further investigation in order to achieve better alignment with production management. It is the author's belief that project management and production management tools need to work hand-in-hand in order to support the successful delivery of projects. It is expected that the DP&C method or similar methods will gain in acceptance in the construction industry as the shortcomings of the centralized control paradigm become increasingly evident and as Lean Construction continues to prove that it is a theoretically sound, though radically different alternative to how projects are delivered.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Tommelein, I D |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | complexity; coordination; uncertainty; communication; computing; construction planning; lean construction; production planning; programming; organizational structure |
| Index terms: | production planning, connectivity, lean construction, production management, organizational structure, complexity, last planner system, programming, validation, computing, implementation, internet, construction industry, project management, coordination, construction planning, paradigm, planner, investigation |
| Subjects: | contractual arrangements, project delivery, construction planning, data collection methods, profession, programming, computing systems, networking, project controls, building construction, sociology, industry analysis, systems engineering, education and knowledge transfer, management, professional development, project management theory and practice |
| Topics: | Digital Applications, Site Management, Organizational Design, Time Control, Research Practice, Information Management, Roles and Professions, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Procurement |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
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