The development of a project process evaluation (PPE) framework that aims to measure the effectiveness of implementing a new design and construction project process

Lee, A

Abstract

Increased globalised competition and the need to meet continuously changing
customer requirements has forced the UK construction industry to consider its
practice. The industry has been repeatedly criticised for its inefficiency,
fragmentation, profitability, and lack of co-ordination and communication by
many governmental and institutional reports (Phillips, 1950; Emmerson, 1962;
Banwell, 1964; Gyles, 1992; Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998). Latham and Egan cited
that process improvement and learning from the manufacturing industry could aid
the prevailing situation. Following such recommendations, a number of
construction clients started developing their own design and construction process,
including BAA (British Airports Authority), BAe (British Aerospace) and London
Underground, as a way to improve the prevailing situation. An appraisal of these
industrial approaches highlighted a common structure that contributed to the
development of the Generic Design and Construction Process Protocol (GDCPP).
This research project, led by the University of Salford, proved to be the impetus
for a flurry of other construction companies to remodel their processes.
However, the success of a construction project is not always directly attributed to
the performance of the new project process, and vice versa. Framed in these
terms, how can the effectiveness of implementing a new design and construction
project process be measured in recompense to this growing trend of process
improvement?
Construction performance measurement today is myopic. For too long,
construction organisations have focused on short-termism. If they are to remain
competitive, they need to embrace broader issues other than the traditional time
cost and quality metrics of construction performance (Love & Holt, 2000). They
must also consider the performance of the project process itself (Neely et al, 2000)
as to determine the true barriers to success, be that the process itself or
implementation factors. However, there is at present a lack of understanding on
how the measurement of project processes should be approached. This is attributable in part to the absence of publicly available information, and in part to
the inherent difficulty of measuring a complex and creative process. This thesis
describes the development of the project process evaluation (PPE) framework that
aims to address this research gap.
Literature reviews and a scoping survey questionnaire were used in this research
investigation for the discovery and building of the PPE framework. The
framework consists of five steps, which guides the user from the identification of
performance indicators governing the selection of the new project process,
through into a knowledge-learning domain in order to improve upon future
projects. A case study research strategy was then used to test and validate the
model, which employed various research methods to collect both qualitative and
quantitative data for the study; the Process Protocol was deployed on the case
studies in order to certify the framework. The resulting PPE framework provides
an original, prototypical solution to assessing the effectiveness of implementing a
new design and construction project process.

Citation

Lee, A. The development of a project process evaluation (PPE) framework that aims to measure the effectiveness of implementing a new design and construction project process. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2002