A typology for describing and assessing visual management in construction projects

Visual Management (VM) is a strategy to make information clear and accessible, strongly related to the lean production principle of increasing process transparency. VM also plays a very important role in promoting effective communication and collaboration among team members. It is not an end in itself, but consists of practices that improve production system performance. VM practices include both VM devices (the observable part of a management system) and the non-visual work involved in producing information. The VM system is a set of interconnected and deliberately designed practices to facilitate information sharing. This set of practices must be complementary and have common purposes, which increases the impact of VM compared to isolated VM practices. In this way, VM seems particularly useful to support the management of construction projects, which can be considered a complex socio-technical system (SSC). In an SSC, there are many elements interacting dynamically, which, combined with their wide diversity, can cause unforeseen variability and be an asset for resilience. Several studies on VM in construction have been developed. However, instead of being based on a solid theoretical foundation, VM tends to be implemented in construction projects mainly through trial-and-error efforts, often simply copying applications from other contexts, such as manufacturing. Therefore, there is a need to expand the development of theory related to VM. Furthermore, it is also important to find innovative ways to disseminate related concepts through active methodologies, such as serious games. The objective of this thesis is to propose a typology for describing and assessing VM in construction projects. Design Science Research is the methodological approach adopted in this investigation, which is based on three academic papers. In the first paper, the first version of the typology is developed, expanding the contribution of taxonomies previously proposed in the literature by emphasizing the role of collaboration and communication, as well as the need to integrate VM practices into managerial routines and other practices. The second paper is focused on a serious game, called VM Game. It is a tool for learning and discussing a set of VM taxonomies related to purposes, role of communication, role of collaboration, and requirements. In the third paper, a set of propositions is developed to explain the role and impact of VM systems in construction projects, highlighting their purposes and how they help deal with complexity. Thus, it was possible to refine the typology to a final version, which presents ten analysis types divided into three main levels, from the lowest to the highest level of complexity and context-dependence: device, practice, and VM system. The target audience for using the artifacts conceived in this investigation is the academic community interested in advancing prescriptive knowledge about VM, in addition to construction companies that use VM as an information management strategy.