Roy, R; Low, M and Waller, J (2005) Documentation, standardization and improvement of the construction process in house building. Construction Management and Economics, 23(1), pp. 57-67. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
There is growing interest in the industrialization of house building methods in the UK. Much of the focus has been on the use of manufactured structural components, which addresses the inherent problems of reliance on 'wet trades' but not of the quality and efficiency of the assembly and 'fitting' processes on site. The house building process has tended to develop more through custom and practice rather than formal analysis of methods. There is a lack of standards, and of mechanisms for process review or sharing knowledge and good practice. The result is significant process variability on site. Process documentation is a rigorous description of a process, procedure or policy to facilitate training, and development of consistency of operations and standards. The paper presents work on a process documentation system, and discusses the organizational changes needed to create the cultural environment for process standardization and improvement.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | build process; change management; house building; information system |
| Index terms: | efficiency, good practice, standardization, variability, organizational change, documentation, change management, industrialization, construction process, building process, information system |
| Subjects: | economic development, management, performance measurement, performance management, professional development, building construction, information systems, statistical analysis, business |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Site Management, Digital Applications, Quality Management, Sustainability, Research Practice, Information Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
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