ABSTRACT
Many companies engaged in construction projects often come
across both formal and informal lessons which are often poorly coordinated or
documented with regards to the effort to obtain lessons learned for
construction management and dissemination as well as their usage. Recognizing
such constraints necessitate discussions on key characteristics that relate to
lessons learned for construction management of projects. This research work was
carried out to investigate the lessons learned for construction management in
the refurbishment of Government funded building projects, using the Conversion
of the State House Building into Offices for the Parliament of Ghana (PoG),
popularly called Job 600, as a Case Study to allow for continuous improvement
in the industry. Grounded on the literature, a questionnaire was designed
containing information on the challenges in the construction management of job
600 project as well as measures to mitigate the identified challenges. A survey
questionnaire was conducted among construction professionals Contractor,
Sub-contractors, Consultant, Implementation Technical Committee (ITC), Ministry
of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) as Sponsor and PoG (End User)
represented by their Technical Outfit (Development Office) who were purposively
selected to elicit information pertaining to the study. Results indicate that
funding for undertaking the project was limited and payment of contractor and
Consultant delayed. Also, poor planning and inadequate preparations for project
construction, incidence of poor planning towards project execution, incidence
of lack of planning for facility maintenance and management, design and
documentation deficiency were identified as the major challenges encountered.
It is recommended that adequate project feasibility studies, adequate project
initiation documentations, and effective communication among client, consultant
and contractor as well as sufficient funding for project construction should
largely be considered.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In the construction industry, it is expected that projects
are executed to meet expected completion time, at reduced cost, not
compromising on quality and ensure that accidents are minimized (Carrillo,
2005). Therefore, the industry is required to improve continuously in its
activities through continual accumulation of knowledge and experience (Doucet,
2007). Lessons learned from execution of projects together with the effective
and operational re-application of existing knowledge derived from already completed
project could contribute immensely to such continuous improvement which
subsequently would result in better performance (Carrillo, 2004).
Dixon (1999) defined learning as the use of processes for
acquiring knowledge at various levels such as individuals, groups or systems to
change the organization in its operations to bring satisfaction to the
stakeholders. It is therefore noted that lessons learned constitutes an
essential part of organizational learning process which encourages collective
learning from well done works or works that could be enhanced (Senge, 1990) and
Pearn et al., 2007).
According to Ackerman et al (2003), lessons learned from
previous experiences constitutes a key element of companies’ information base
and therefore contributes immensely to their development. The authors further
explained that effective means of knowledge management is to store, retrieve
and enhance their logical assets. Consequently, Davenport et al. (1998)
recommended that organization’s internal knowledge repositories of lessons
learned from previous experiences should be easily accessible to the employees.
This research seeks to investigate
the lessons learned for construction management in the refurbishment of
Government funded building projects, using the Conversion of the State House
Building into Offices for the Parliament of Ghana (PoG), popularly called Job
600, as a Case Study to allow for continuous improvement in the construction
industry.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Many companies who are into construction projects often come
across both formal and informal lessons. Orange et al. (1999) identified that
such lessons are not readily made known as there is poor coordination of
retrieving lessons learned and their dissemination for effective construction
management.
Fairclough (2002) attested to the fact that it is very
beneficial for lessons learned to be shared but the evidence to prove that
project teams utilize such lessons are uncommon. Research conducted by Orange
et al. (1999) also pointed to numerous problems identified in the construction
projects but lack of effective response tools to build up on previous works
have made such research limited in their effective use by the Construction
management industry. Ruikar et al. (2007) further indicated that problems are
created when construction industry lack organizational learning.
Recognizing such constraints necessitate discussions on key
characteristics in managing projects and point to the fact that lessons learned
for construction management of projects should be properly recorded, managed
and easily retrieved to facilitate effective improvement in future projects.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The key research questions employed to facilitate the study
were:
What are the possible measures adopted to address challenges
in construction projects?
To what extent do measures adopted in resolving challenges of
construction management applied for similar future projects?
1.4 RESEARCH AIM
The aim of this research is to outline lessons for best
practices from the construction management of the Job 600 project.
1.5 OBJECTIVES
The key objectives of the research are as follows:
To identify challenges in the construction management of Job
600 project; To determine the measures taken to resolve challenges identified;
and
To identify successful strategies to be adopted for similar
future projects.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
Schindler and Eppler (2003) identified that although many
mechanisms generated for lessons learned support the necessity to share lessons
learned for continuous improvement of the industry, there is no compulsion on
construction managers to strictly retrieve such information for adoption whilst
managers interested in such information come to find that assess to such vital
information requires beneficiaries to retrieve applicable lessons on their own.
This seems to be a challenge to most project teams who are busy and thus are
reluctant to do this unless influenced or stimulated to do so. It is therefore essential that
lessons learned on projects are well documented and effectively disseminated
for construction management.
1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY
The study was limited to the lessons learned from the
refurbishment of the State House (Job 600) as a typical example of Government
funded construction projects in Ghana. The study focused on assessing lessons
learned for construction management in execution of the project and obtained
the relevant information from the project stakeholders and construction team
which comprise Contractor, Sub-contractors, Consultant, Implementation
Technical Committee (ITC), Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing
(MWRWH) as Sponsor and PoG (End User) represented by their Technical Outfit
(Development Office). Even though the findings of the study were limited to the
conversion of the state house tower block into offices, these could be
applicable to general construction practices.
1.8 BRIEF METHODOLOGY
Research methodology describes the procedure to be followed
in realizing the goals and objective of a research. Questionnaires were
developed to gather information from project stakeholders and construction team
which comprise Contractor, Sub-contractors, Consultant, Implementation
Technical Committee (ITC), Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing
(MWRWH) as Sponsor and PoG (End User) represented by their Technical Outfit (Development
Office). Respondents were purposively selected for the study. The data
collected were analysed using frequencies and mean score rankings. The results
are presented in the tables and charts.
This research report has been structured in five chapters.
Firstly, chapter one consist the introductory chapter which covered the
background of study, problem statement, aim and objectives of study, research
questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, brief methodology and
organization of the study. The second chapter presents a detailed research on
literature review in relation to the subject in general. Chapter three tackled
the details of the research methods to be used such as sample size and
techniques and method of data collection and analysis. Chapter four presents
the data analysis and discussion of results and the final chapter covered the
summary of findings, conclusions and recommendations.
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===================================================================Item Type: Ghanaian Topic | Size: 75 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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