Briggs, B (2021) An improved earned value management method integrating quality and safety. PhD thesis, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College, USA.
Abstract
The construction industry invests significant time and money to improve quality and safety while reducing cost and schedule impacts. The industry has a sincere desire to improve construction project management methods to improve efficiency. Historically, quality and safety underperformances result from undermanaged quality control and safety activities. The cost and schedule impacts associated with poor quality work have always had an impact on construction operations. The unprecedented challenges and uncertainties of COVID-19 highlighted the need to improve the Earned Value Management (EVM) method within construction to reflect these quality and safety activities. The central goal of this dissertation is to present an improved EVM method, which is named the Earned Value Construction Management (EVCM) method. EVCM integrates quality and safety as scheduled activities to capture costs as they occur. EVCM incorporates a new index-linked to quality control activities and improves the accuracy of reporting on the project in normal or pandemic construction environments. The methodology used in this dissertation includes detailing engineering and administrative safety protocols during COVID-19, evaluating effective PPE during a pandemic, and statistically analyzing project data to demonstrate EVCM. The project data collected before and during COVID-19 of similar projects were statistically tested for significance using a one-tailed t-test. The p-values of the three tests were all less than 0. 05, indicating a significant difference was found in actual cost, the actual cost divided by budget, and total project performance using EVCM compared to EVM. The results show, despite the known increase in cost associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the application of EVCM resulted in a statistically significant improvement in project performance. The contribution of this dissertation is field-validated information addressing the cost and schedule impacts in industrial construction during a COVID-19 environment. Additionally, EVCM was formulated to predict cost and schedule impacts aligned with quality and safety activities. The knowledge developed in this dissertation ultimately enhances the construction industry’s ability to respond to a pandemic and incorporate quality and safety activities in a schedule to economically track and manage progress.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Friedland, C |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | accuracy; efficiency; construction project; quality control; safety; value management; project performance |
| Index terms: | methodology, construction project, project data, earned value management, accuracy, COVID-19, actual cost, construction industry, industrial construction, quality control, dissertation, value management, construction project management, project performance, construction operation, efficiency, pandemic |
| Subjects: | building construction, production management, research methods, construction operations, research dissemination and communication, industry analysis, professional development, project management theory and practice, health risk and incident analysis, management, performance management, project delivery, financial and cost management, control systems, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Site Management, Research Practice, Information Management, Cost Management, Quality Management, Value Management, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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