An empirical study of information flows in multidisciplinary civil engineering design teams using lean measures

Achieving smooth and continual flow of information among teams of independent designers is one of the central difficulties in detailed design of complex civil engineering projects. Lean production flow phenomena such as bottlenecks, rework, large batches and long cycle times are common. This research sought correlation between the degree of success achieved, in terms of design document effectiveness, meeting budget and schedule targets, and participant satisfaction, on the one hand, and the occurrence of information flow problems, on the other. Extensive data describing the communication of design documents between team members were collected in the detailed design phase of 14 civil engineering projects, all of which were part of a major airport construction project. The degree of effectiveness of the design documents, the extent to which budget and schedule targets were met, and participants' evaluations of their success were measured. The results confirm positive correlation between the quality of information flows and the effectiveness of design documents, and confirm that unstable information flows are associated with unpredictable project outcomes. No correlation was found between information flow problems and design managers' subjective views of the processes, nor between their performance evaluations and their fulfilment of budget or schedule targets.