Evaluating Innovative Construction Management Methods

Poor construction productivity is commonly caused by a lack of resources at the crew level. Providing proper resources is an important planning issue, requires significant effort, and is necessary to properly manage a construction project. Anecdotal data indicate that reducing these delays through effective management can significantly decrease total craft work hours expended on a project by as much as 20%. Considering the annual volume of construction in the United States, this reduction represents a significant potential cost savings. Our research indicated that some projects employ innovative management methods in order to improve productivity. These methods deserve study in order to identify and disseminate their fundamental elements. This paper briefly describes a procedure used to document and evaluate innovative management methods that improve construction productivity through the qualitative and quantitative assessment of intermediate impacts. Communication, empowerment, metrics, planning, and training emerged as common elements of the management methods. The paper emphasizes the structured short-interval planning efforts observed in two of the four case studies. The scope of this research was limited to active construction projects in the United States, and included union and merit shop contractors.