Gonzalez, Alvaro Eduardo (2016) Organisational design & mirroring in construction. MPhil thesis, University of Sydney, Australia.
Abstract
The mirroring hypothesis posits that an intrinsic connection exists between the architecture of a product and that of the organisation which produces it, which can influence operational efficiency. The mirroring hypothesis is applicable to construction wherein organisational design is concerned with the establishment of governance frameworks for the procurement of projects and product design is that of buildings and engineering structures. This thesis investigates the hypothesis that design data architecture mirrors component architecture in a construction project. A general procedure has emerged to investigate the mirroring hypothesis, consisting of three steps: the capturing of product architecture, the capturing of organisational architecture, and comparison of the two. The subject project is a completed building. The capturing of architecture is achieved by modelling functional dependency between components in the form of a node-link network structure. It was found that the subject project did not exhibit a high degree of visible or otherwise mirroring, hence the hypothesis is concluded to be false in this case. An explanation is that two architectures within one have been identified in the model. This makes senses because design data is structured into packages associated with design disciplines which are associated with sub-systems, which in turn corresponds to design team structure. On the other hand, the components model was prepared principally on the basis of physical connectivity. The result implies for organisational design in construction that the design management role should either be carried out by the architect for mirroring alignment, or, to mitigate misalignment, by a third party with design background as opposed to a construction background.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | organisation; procurement; network |
| Index terms: | misalignment, construction project, package, design management, architect, product architecture, organizational design, modelling, product design, design team, efficiency, connectivity, governance |
| Subjects: | innovation and technology management, contractual arrangements, profession, networking, production management, analytical methods, performance management, engineering problems, design process, professional practice, design methods, business |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Organizational Design, Digital Applications, Roles and Professions, Design Practice, Procurement, Governance, Quality Management, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
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