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Towards a theory of construction as production by projects

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 34; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09613210500491472

1466-4321

Graham Winch,

Construction Project Management and Performance

Abstract This paper responds to the invitation to debate the theory of production in construction from the advocates of lean construction. In particular, it is a response to Koskela and Ballard's critiques of the theory of project management represented in the Project Management Institute's (PMI) PMBoK, and the 'economics-based' approach to construction project management presented by Winch. The paper reviews the theoretical and practical contributions of lean construction before addressing the specific criticisms made. It then suggests that lean construction theory has its own limitations and requires further development in the areas of the definition of process, the concept of organization, the theorization of risk and uncertainty, and its unitary concept of value. Cet article est la réponse des défenseurs de la construction « au plus juste » lorsqu'ils ont été invités à la théorie de la production dans la construction. Il réagit, notamment, aux critiques de Koskela et Ballard sur la théorie de la gestion de projet représentée dans le PMBoK du Institut de Gestion de Projet et à l'approche basée sur l'économie de la gestion de projets de construction présentée par Winch. Cet article passe en revue les contributions théoriques et pratiques de la construction 'au plus juste' avant de traiter des critiques spécifiques faites à ce sujet. Il suggère ensuite que la théorie de la construction 'au plus juste' a ses propres limites et nécessite d'autres développements dans les domaines de la définition des procédés, du concept d'organisation, de la théorie des risques et des incertitudes et de son concept unitaire de la valeur. Mots clés: construction 'au plus juste', gestion de projet, gestion des risques, économie des coûts des transactions, incertitude, valeur Keywords: lean constructionproject managementrisk managementtransaction cost economicsuncertaintyvalue Notes 1 All citations in this section are to (Koskela et al., 2004 Koskela, L., Ballard, G. and Howell, G. 2004. "Project management reconceived from a production perspective". In Proceedings of the CIB World Congress Toronto, , Canada [Google Scholar]) unless otherwise specified. 2 Winch (2006) Winch, G. M. 2006. "The governance of project coalitions: towards a research agenda". In The Commercial Management of Complex Projects: Defining the Discipline, Edited by: Lowe, D. 324–343. Oxford: Blackwell. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar] provides an analysis of UK rail maintenance projects, arguing how the failure to take into account transaction costs in outsourcing led to a serious inflation of total costs. 3 The four are: defining the project mission; riding the project life cycle; leading the project coalition; and, under discussion here, mobilizing the resource base. The fifth is maintaining the resource base, which in not project orientated and hence not covered in MCP. 4 They do recognize that there are practical limitations to this condition – the argument here is about epistemological limitations. 5 'Tectonic' in this context means 'a series of arts which form and perfect vessels, implements, dwellings and places of assembly' (Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edn). 6 Brave, because it was presented by Greg Howell at the Project Management Institute Research Conference. 7 Other project management bodies of knowledge have much in common with the US one.