| 1. |
-
31 recommendations for increased profit - reducing waste
- 2010
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Those companies and organizations that wish to ensure long-term profitability must successively decrease resource use in both product development and in product usage. Primarily, it is waste that must be reduced, i.e. the consumption of resources that do not add to customer value or to the organization. Waste is widespread in all operations. Even in well-functioning processes, more than half of the resource consumption can be classified as waste. One obstacle to waste elimination is that most waste is hidden. Thus, executives, middle management and specialists must prioritize efforts to uncover the waste in their operations.Building and construction activities consist of a complex system of decisions, components, organizations and processes that must be coordinated. There are therefore many explanations as to why waste arises, or does not. Based on a series of discussions with experienced builders, consultants, contractors and materials providers, five main groups of factors that characterize effective operations were found. In this report these factors are illustrated in the form of a “value pyramid”. A holistic view of long-term customer benefits is the apex of the pyramid. Structure, competence, leadership and culture act as the driving forces at each corner of the pyramid’s foundation. Should one of the corners gives way, then the pyramid risks toppling over.With the value pyramid as support, 31 recommendations for what should be done to reduce waste are presented. These are aimed at standardizing the product from an overall perspective (five recommendations), defining and standardizing processes (ten recommendations), developing the organization and its competence (seven recommendations), disciplining management (five recommendations), and driving continuous improvement work (four recommendations). Reducing uncertainties and increasing effective time utilization are the red threads, as the Swedes would say, that run through all the recommendations.Everyone who uses resources has a responsibility to reduce waste. By systematically monitoring one’s own use of time, one can gain insights that will help improve one’s work situation. However, the burden of initiating and driving improvements overall obviously lies with management. How this should be done depends on the nature and purpose of the activities as well as on the organization’s capabilities. It is to manage this progress and achieve profitability that managers are appointed. It is in the interest of all enterprises and organizations to develop the ability and an interest to detect and understand what work/task is value adding what is not. This ability will provide possibilities to develop new competitive advantages and new business concepts.
|
|
| 2. |
- Adam, Abderisak, 1988, et al.
(författare)
-
Developing Capabilities for Public Construction Clients
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on the Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate, 7-9 Nov 2014, Chongqing.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Clients in the public sector face a large number of challenges in designing, procur-ing and managing major construction projects in a manner that is conducive to the organization’s overall goals. The role of the client in bringing about successful project completion has more recently been emphasized with a growing number of studies focusing on developing dynamic client capabilities that facilitate the han-dling of a project through all of its different phases. Though the capabilities of the client carries immense importance in all con-struction projects, the importance is further exacerbated by the sheer scale of the projects involved in major construction projects, a development which has prompted governmental agencies to inquire into ways to improve processes in the client organization. To address such inquiries, this paper which is based on a literature review, ex-plores the types of dynamic capabilities that emerge with respect to public con-struction clients and in particular, if and how a specific client capability influences a specific project outcome. The mapping of capabilities constitutes a theoretical foundation for a forthcoming empirical study on the same topic.
|
|
| 3. |
- Adam, Abderisak, 1988, et al.
(författare)
-
Implications of cost overruns and time delays on major public construction projects
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on the Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate, 7-9 Nov 2014, Chongqing.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- For decades, the construction industry has been characterized by costs exceeding budgetary limits and completion times reaching further than what was set out ini-tially. This has been particularly noticeable for large public construction projects where cost overruns and time delays have long been regarded a common occur-rence. Due to the magnitude and frequency of these overruns, they have come to pose a significant financial risk to both clients and contractors, in addition to the impact exerted on the sustainability of the project. In dealing with this, researchers, auditors and practitioners have suggested a broad range of solutions, ranging from technical and economical to psychological and political approaches. In doing so, the contractor’s role has been emphasized whereas the role of the client organization has often been overlooked. This paper which is based on a literature review investigates the occurrence of and the expla-nations for cost overruns and time delays in major construction projects from the public client’s perspective. It also explores the implications of cost overruns and time delays; the purpose of which is to offer an extended understanding of the re-lationship between the client’s actions and effects on cost, time and sustainability parameters.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Dahl, Jonathan, 1990, et al.
(författare)
-
Managers and craftsmen perceptions of operational strategies based on lean philosophy: The case of a large Swedish construction company
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of The 19th International Symposium on the Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate, 7-9 Nov 2014, Chongqing.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organisations implement operational strategies in order to develop and stay competitive in a changing business environment. However, the strategy needs to be anchored and understood by the employees in order to become successful on a long-term basis. This paper is based on a case study of a large construction company specialised in new construction of multi-dwelling buildings. Five years ago, the company initiated Structured Production, which is an operational strategy based on lean philosophy. The aim of the paper is to identify how middle managers, lower managers and craftsmen perceive how operational strategies is implemented in the company. First, the strategy and the rational behind the decision to implement the strategy is presented. This section is based on document analysis as well as on interviews with upper managers in the company. Then, middle managers, lower managers and craftsmen’ perceptions of the strategy is presented. This section is based on a questionnaire study made 2014. The study shows that the strategy is perceived to focus on structuring and standardising products and processes, while less focus is on the organisation and its members.
|
|
| 8. |
- Frödell, Mikael, 1981, et al.
(författare)
-
Integration barriers for purchasing organisation in a large construction company: towards requisite disintegration
- 2013
-
Ingår i: The IMP Journal. - 0809-7259. ; 7:1, s. 46-58
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Developing the purchasing organisation is an ongoing challenge for large contractors where internal and external perspectives need to interplay. The aim of this paper is two-fold: firstly, the development of a theoretical framework to characterise the purchasing organisation and secondly, to analyse the limited adoption of integrated purchasing through an analysis of barriers to integration. The theoretical standpoint is underpinned by purchasing organisation theory and by literature on internal and external integration as well as barriers to integration. Based on a two-year case study, the paper presents the status of the purchasing organisation and the barriers to further integration as originating from the strategic purchasers of the contractor. The perceived barriers question full integration internally and externally. The perceived barriers encompass low framework agreement status compared to orders, inconsistent ways of working in the projects and dispersed geographical location and sub-markets. The barriers to integration stem from both attitudinal and industrial matters, whilst institutional barriers are not identified. The paper therefore proposes a differentiated, requisitely disintegrated, purchasing organisation designed to manage the diverse supplier population. In contrast to those advocating a tighter internal and external integration, this paper suggests a requisite balance between integration and specialisation of the purchasing activities.
|
|
| 9. |
- Frödell, Mikael, 1981, et al.
(författare)
-
Reproduction of exchange relationships: Changing focus from organisations to individuals
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the Joint CIB International Conference: Management of Construction: Research to Practice, 26-29 June 2012, Montreal, Canada. - 9782981335517
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- That organisations collaborate on a firm to firm basis is an assumption which underpins much of theliterature on inter-organisational relationships and supply chain integration, both in the genericliterature as well as in the construction oriented. The exchange relationships on an organisationallevel, however, are constituted of one or several interactions on interpersonal level. With theinterpersonal level as unit of analysis, this paper aims to answer how dyadic exchange relationshipsare produced and reproduced.Investigation of dyadic exchange relationships between contractors and subcontractors has beenconducted through 15 interviews with site managers from the contractors and foremen from thesubcontractors. Findings show that the individuals within both dyads of the exchange relationshipplay important roles in the outcome of the project and the specific relationship. Despite this, theorganisational focus of procurement of subcontractors tends to be highly price-driven. Site managersand subcontractors’ foremen, however, tend to bypass the price-driven procurement approaches byoffering their preferred counterparts possibilities to recalculate their quotations and adapting pricesaccording to individuals.By narrowing the range of procured subcontractors and focusing on the use of core teams based onmatching of individuals within the teams, a potential improvement in the construction supply chaincan be seen. By changing the focus of the concurrent research within construction management fromorganisational level towards interpersonal level, new perspectives may also be elucidated andexchange relationships between contractors and subcontractors might be better understood andexplained.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
