Conceptual Planning Process for Electrical Construction
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 132, Issue 12
Abstract
The competitive nature of the construction industry has motivated many specialty contractors to search for ways to improve efficiency by increasing their quality and decreasing their costs in order to strengthen their market share. As a result, contractors are turning to “better planning” as a method for improving their efficiency and, consequently, increasing their profitability. In fact, a consensus exists in the construction industry that more formalized preconstruction planning is necessary to remain successful in an increasingly competitive industry. This paper presents a model electrical preconstruction planning process that was crafted from outstanding processes used on several successful electrical projects. Furthermore, a method to evaluate the effectiveness of planning, by comparing actual planning to the model process, is briefly introduced. From this assessment, “effective planning” was correlated to project outcome, and evidence is provided that better planning is, indeed, related to successful performance.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Gibson, G. E., Jr., and Hamilton, M. R. (1994). “Analysis of pre-project planning effort and success variables for capital facility project.” Source Document 105, Construction Industry Institute, Austin, Tex.
Gibson, G. E., Jr., Kaczmarowski, J. H., and Lore, H. E., Jr. (1993). “Modeling pre-project planning for the construction of capital facilities.” Source Document 94, Construction Industry Institute, Austin, Tex.
Gigado, K. (2004). “Enhancing the prime contractor’s pre-construction planning.” J. Constr. Res., 5(1), 87–106.
Kerzner, H. (1989). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling, 3rd Ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
Laufer, A., and Cohenca, D. (1986). “Factors affecting construction planning.” AACE Transactions, A.1.1–A.1.4.
Laufer, A., Shapira, A., Cohenca-Zall, D., and Howell, G. (1993). “Prebid and preconstruction planning process.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 119(3), 426–444.
Laufer, A., and Tucker, R. L. (1987). “Is construction project planning really doing its job? A critical examination of focus, role and process.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 5, 243–266.
Oglesby, C., Parker, H., and Howell, G. (1989). Productivity improvement in construction, McGraw–Hill, New York.
Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors (PHCC) National Association. (2002). “Pre-construction planning, Part 1.” http://www.phccweb.org/ContentItem.cfm?ContentItemID=59 (March 18, 2002).
Sanvido, V. (1988). “Conceptual construction process model.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 114(2), 294–310.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 132 • Issue 12 • December 2006
Pages: 1306 - 1313
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 22, 2005
Accepted: Apr 13, 2006
Published online: Dec 1, 2006
Published in print: Dec 2006
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.