Introduction
The construction sector faces a significant challenge in continuously improving its efficiency, especially when compared to other industries that have made substantial progress in this area. Despite numerous efforts and studies focused on implementing Lean management practices within this sector, most of these approaches have not highlighted the core obstacle preventing the construction industry from achieving sustainable improvement. This article will examine the bottleneck that we believe is hindering the sector's progress toward continuous enhancement.
PDCA Cycle in Today's Construction Industry
The PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, originally developed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, is a methodology centered on continuous improvement. It involves a systematic approach to planning, executing, evaluating, and refining processes to boost efficiency, effectiveness, and overall performance within an organization. The PDCA cycle consists of four key stages: Plan, Do, Check, and Act. Each stage is essential for driving continuous improvement. First, an effective plan must be created; then, the plan is executed. Afterward, the execution is assessed against the plan, and finally, the plan is refined in an ongoing cycle for continuous enhancement. Now, let’s examine the PDCA cycle in the construction sector today. The Critical Path Method (CPM) is currently the most widely used planning methodology in construction projects, especially in large-scale projects. Its associated software, Primavera, is widely employed in the field and is the most preferred choice among university students. Therefore, when examining the key issues related to the continuous improvement cycle (PDCA), we are specifically addressing the Critical Path Methodology (CPM) and its widely recognized software, Primavera.
Plan stage
• Low involvement of stakeholders in preparing schedule • Schedule can be prepared without resource loading • CPM is NOT a location-based Methodology. • Sequences and relationships are not clear. • Complex schedule/ Not visualized (sometimes exceed 500 pages). • Difficult to communicate and to have team alignment. • Most of construction team do not know the logic of schedule.
Do (Execution) Phase
• Only the planning team is interacting with the schedule • Detailed lookahead cannot (not Real) created from CPM software's • Many missing activities in procurement and engineering and the percentage of completion is misleading (not a zone based) • Difficult to learn the team how to read the schedule • Critical activities in a mega project led to a loss of management focus. • Too many idle resources
Check (Follow Up) Phase
• impossible to have instant nor daily update. • Because of too long activities duration, then the monthly update is subjective and then will have out of sequence schedule results. • missing activity in procurement and engineering, then usually will have misleading in their updates • Always, the cut of date for the update is usually before one week or one month.
Act Phase
• Too late decision-making process • Impossible to see the whole picture • Decision made over inaccurate data (% of completion) • Impossible to reach for root cause or bottleneck of progress problems • Focus only in meeting targeted plan not in having continuous improvement • If client request to deliver the project before the completion date, the first thing will come to mind is claiming for additional cost and this is against the meaning of having efficiency improvement mindset.
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About Mahmoud Badawneh
A construction management professional specializing in TAKT planning, Lean construction, operational efficiency, and continuous improvement.
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