Towards a Model for Planning and Controlling ETO Design Projects

- In the modern engineering environment design projects have become increasingly complex; this calls for an updated perspective on how to plan and coordinate design projects. This paper describes the identified premise that will lay the foundation of the development of a model for planning and controlling such projects. The premise includes principles, requirements, and methods derived from theories around subjects, such as, production theory, lean and agile. The distinctiveness of the design process has been central when setting the premise for the model.

Lessons Learned from Managing the Design Process of a Large and Complex Construction Project Seen in a Lean Construction Perspective

The construction project being studied is a government investment related to a relocation of a biomedical institute delivering research-based knowledge and contingency support in the fields of animal health, fish health and food safety. The project covers a total of 63,000 m2 distributed over 10 buildings. The buildings have a very high degree of complexity due to a large proportion of special areas, great ambitions to the minimize environmental impact in addition to strict compliance to Infection Prevention and Control in order to achieve a world class product in its field. The project is procured as a design-bid-build project divided into 40 different execution contracts. The design alone…

Various Approaches to Early Contractor Involvement in Relational Contracts

Abstract The main rationale for involving contractors is to apply collaboration to mitigate risk and to harvest opportunities to reduce cost and to increase the project owner’s value. In the paper we argue in the applied analytical model that there are four levels of early contractor involvement (ECI), which are 1) Preparation of the project (before sparking off competition); 2) During the procurement phase (development of what to build); 3) Project delivery model (before construction contract, but after the contractor and designers are selected); 4) Project delivery model (where involvement also continues in the execution phase). In the paper we argue that category 4 have the largest poten…

Comparative Analysis of Mega Road Construction Projects in Term of Innovation

Purpose This paper examines, using critical realism, the causes and mechanisms of innovation in three civil road construction projects. Its focus is to examine how value can be created within the design process through innovation. Emphasis is placed on Best Value Procurement (BVP) as a procurement strategy where the preferred contractor is considered the expert, as it is the first case of its use in Norwegian road construction projects. Data was collected through surveys and interviews. Findings indicate that procurement using early involvement is innovative in the design process yet must be adapted, to allow for early planning of innovative ideas that help, to foster innovative solutions. …

3B Birkeland : en bedrift i prosessindustrien, erfaringer fra arbeidet med å innføre lean basert forbedringsarbeid

The emergence of lean construction in the Norwegian AEC industry

Lean construction has inspired the AEC industry globally over the last decades, and this manifests within a wide array of contexts. The purpose of this paper is to provide a narrative-based qualitative analysis of the emergence and impact of Lean construction on a national level, notably in the Norwegian AEC industry. The analysis is based on the concept of paradigm shift and on empirical knowledge in the form of narratives. The narratives of practitioners and researchers provide deep insights into how Lean Construction has inspired the Norwegian AEC industry and academia, respectively. The reflections indicate that the introduction of the Lean construction principles and tools in the Norwe…

Bridging Strategic Project Planning with Tactical Planning in the Design Process

The paper studies the issue of bridging strategic planning with tactical/operative planning in the design process of complex AEC-projects. The paper present user-friendly planning methods on a tactical level which gives the planner intuitive control over dependent, independent, and interdependent tasks during the design process. In our understanding the planning process starts at the strategic level using integrated milestones as a prerequisite for handling progress and strategic coordination in projects. Moving forward in the planning process towards the operative level, the process requires flexible and agile methods which ensures robustness in the various plans that must be made. In this…

Editorial

Suppliers and Strategies for Upgrading in Global Production Networks: The Case of a Supplier to the Global Automotive Industry in a High-cost Location

The paper analyses the possibilities for a Norwegian supplier incorporated into global production networks in the automotive industry to perform knowledge upgrading and innovation activity. A consistent finding is that different departments of the supplier are parts of different types of global network. The serial production of the supplier is distinguished by quasi-hierarchical governance by customers and by lean forms of work organization in the production that stimulate continuous, incremental upgrading of the production process. The development department has network relations with customers and learning forms of work organization, which triggers production and functional upgrading. The…

Collaborative innovation: the decade that radically changed drilling performance

This article sheds light on key factors associated with innovations that are mainly based on experiential learning. The history of a company engaged in the offshore oil and gas industry exemplifies the points: Hitec started out as a small company with limited financial resources, but over a 10-year period, its innovations and improvements radically transformed offshore oil and gas drilling operations. An evolutionary methodological approach is balanced by theoretically informed analysis. A main finding is that customer–supplier interaction was crucial. Hitec's success, crowned by its eventual acquisition by American capital, can be attributed in part to the know-how and technology provided …

A critical perspective on Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) applied in a Norwegian public hospital project

Does the IPD concept deliver as required and expected, and if not, how can that be explained? This paper is a critical realist inspired methodology based on a combination of the inductive and deductive approaches used in case study research. IPD is based on relational contracting between multiple parties, in this case between the Owner, Contractor, MEP subcontractors and a group of Consulting engineers who share control of the project. At the core of the concept is shared risk and opportunities among the parties in the IPD contract. Our theoretical perspectives are based mainly on the Principal-Agent theory (PA), Transaction Cost theory (TC), and its related incentives. This paper reports o…

Continuous Improvement on Detailed Design Phase : A Process Perspective

The construction project being studied is a government investment related to the relocation of a biomedical institute delivering research-based knowledge and contingency support in the fields of animal health, fish health and food safety. The project covers a total of 63,000 square meters distributed over 10 buildings with a very high degree of complexity. The design alone has required 1 million hours, which relates to a client cost of about 100 million Euro. The purpose of this paper is to study the applied methodology for managing the detailed design to identify lessons learned from the project. The theory underlying the study is inspired by lean design management and design theory linked…

Principles as a Bridge Between Theory and Practice

Development of target cost – By the owner or together with Contractors - Target Value Design

Abstract Cost growth and cost overrun of projects is a well-researched topic, but still a recurring problem. Some of the problems may be attributed to the difficulties of setting a realistic cost estimate in the early phase of the project. This paper aims to give insight o the challenge of setting realistic cost targets. We particularly focus on large and complex infrastructure projects in the context on the Norwegian construction industry. Four large infrastructure projects have been examined, all used a variation of target cost and was more or less successful in their implementation of this approach. Through interviews and document study we identified that when setting cost targets for pr…

Ranking and comparing key factors causing time-overruns in on-site construction

For years, the construction industry has looked for ways to avoid time-overruns in construction. Despite previous research mapping the factors affecting time performance, site-managers have difficulties in reducing the time-overrun. In order to create a clearer guidance on how to control time-performance, this study investigates the resource related factors because they are within the site-manager’s control. Three Case studies were followed and a survey including 36 participants where conducted. Both investigated and ranked the likelihood of delay due to the seven different resource factors. The ranking of the resource factors was identified as: (1) Construction design, (2) Connecting works…

The Last Planner System Style of Planning: Its Basis in Learning Theory

The objective of this article is to contribute to creating a better understanding of the Last Planner System (LPS) - which is associated with Lean Construction - in the light of the learning processes at the basis of knowledge development, and of change and innovation. Founded on a theoretical discussion, three research questions are asked, namely: In what ways can the LPS be expected to alter the learning arenas compared to conventional project management in construction; according to learning theory, what are the main challenges associated with implementing the LPS; and, finally, what kind of learning can be linked to an implemented LPS that functions as intended? The implementation of th…