LEAN PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF BUILDING CONSTRUCTION FIRMS IN NAIROBI CITY COUNTY, KENYA
Abstract
This researcher sought to find out the inefficiencies that could be the cause of underperformance in order to fill the gap through applications of more efficient and cost effective methods. The researcher therefore sought to analyse the experiences of construction companies in terms of the problems of wastes, high costs, bottlenecks, inventory control and how performance has been impacted. The research was done in Nairobi City County because many of the construction operation were conducted in Nairobi. The finding showed a low application of methods in the construction process. The respondent indicted no policy known to the employees of the company that connected to the waste minimization programs. The researcher also noted that most of the firms did not visualise their process, so as to identify non-value adding processes in the stream or remove the bottlenecks within the construction stream. The few big companies that were in category 1-3 had value stream maps but the mapping of most of these companies lacked the input of the experts. Most companies however, indicated to have specific methods to regulate inventory, however the methods were not good enough to help in inventory related costs like stock out costs. Most of the firms had quality management methods of ensuring a continuous improvement in the firm. This was a good indicator that training and development for most of these firms was key to solving emerging issues within the construction industry. The researcher concluded that the major costs that the respondents indicated was as a result of non-application of better operational management methods in the building construction. The researcher therefore recommended the application of the lean project management to improve the performance.
Keywords: Waste Minimization Programs, Value Stream Mapping, Building Construction
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adenuga, O. A. (2013). Factors Affecting Quality in the Delivery of Public Housing Projects in Lagos State.International Journal of Engineering and Technology.Vol.3 No. 3 ISSN 2019-3444.
Alsehaimi, A., Koskela, L.(2008). Critical evaluation of previous delay studies in construction, Proceedings of the 8th International Postgraduate Conference, Prague.
Alsehaimi,A., Koskela.(2008). What can be learned from studies on delay in construction, Proceedings of the 16th IGLC Conference, Manchester, UK.
Ambituuni, A. (2011). Causes of Project Delay and Cost Overrun, and approach.Abardeen, U.K.Robert Gordon University.
Bertelsen, S.,Sacks, R. (2007). Towards a New Understanding of the Construction Industry and the Nature of its Production. IGLC 15, Lansing, Michigan
Bjornfot, A., Jongeling, R. (2007). Application of Line-of-Balance and 4D CAD for Lean Planning. Construction Innovation 7 (2), pp 200-211.Carlifornia: Sage.
Charagu, E. (2013). Thesis on Collapsing Building Structures in Kenya. Nairobi: JKUAT
Chena, J. C., Lib, Y., Shadyc, B. D. (2010). From value stream mapping toward a lean/sigma continuous improvement process: an industrial case study. International Journal of Production Research.Vol. 48, No. 4.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Carlifornia: Sage.
Demircioğlu E.N., Demircioğlu M. and Küçüksavaş N. (2010). The Relationship of The Theory of Constraints with Other Accounting and Management Techniques. Journal of Çukurova University, 14(1), 42-55.
Egberi, K.,(2011). Competitive Iintelligence and Markrting Effectiveness of Corporate Business in Nigeria. International journal of Economic Development research and investment, vol 2 No.2
El-Ghazali, Y., Lafebvre, E., &Lafebvre, L. A. (2011).Enabled Materials Management in the Industrial Construction Supply Chain. Proc. of the 5th International Conference on Communications and Information Technology, pp. 79-84.
Ergen, E. &Akinci, B. (2007).An Overview of Approaches for Utilizing RFID in Construction Industry.IEEE Xplore Digital Library.
G.O.K. (2011).National Construction Authority Act 2011.Nairobi: Government Press.
Garrett, D. and J. Lee (2011)."Lean Construction Submittal Process." Quality Engineering, Taylor & Francis 23(1): 84-93.
Garson,D (2008). Data imputation for missing values.
Gwaya, A., Wanyona, G., &Masu, S. M. (2014, January). The Need for a Change in the Practice
Hosseini, S., Nikakhtar, A., Wong, K., and Zavichi, A. (2012)."Implementing Lean Construction Theory into Construction Processes' Waste Management."International Conference on Sustainable Design and Construction.
Holweg, M 2007).The geneology of lean production. Journal of Operations Management,25(2), 420-437.
Howell,G., Koskella L., (2013).The theory of project Management:Gramando Brazil.
Hyerle, (2009).Visual tools for transforming information into knowledge, 2nd edition., Corwin Press 2009, p.58
IBM., (2008). Making Change Work.New York: IBM Infrastructure Group. Middle East & North Africa, International Incorporated.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, (2011) state of Construction in Kenya. 1st quarter Report.
Kenya Urban RuralAuthoruty, (2013). 2nd quarter report.
Koskella,L.,(2007).Lean production in construction.Lean construction, 1-9.
Kothari, C., (2008). Research Methodology:Methods and Techniques, 3rd Edition , New Delhi,New Age International (P) Ltd.
Lapinski, A., M. Horman, (2006). "Lean Processes for Sustainable Project Delivery." Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 132(10): 1083-1091.
Lu, W., Huang, G. Q., & Li, H. (2011).Scenarios for Applying RFID Technology in Construction Project Management. Journal of Automation in Construction, 20, pp. 101-106.
Maxwell, J. A. (2012). Qualitative Research Design: An interactive approach (3rd ed.).
Method is challenged
Mike A.,Howell, G., & Ballard, G. (2011). Implementing lean construction: reducing inflow variation. Lean construction.Journal of Future State of Construction pp 200-203.
Minja, (2009).Handbook of Human Performance Technology, San Francisco.
Mogere, K.M.,Oloko, M.,&Okibo, W.,(2013).Effects of Inventory Control System on Operational Performance of Tea Processing Firms. The international Journal of Business and Management.Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.ISSN 2321-8916
Molnar, M., Andersson, R., &Ekholm, A. (2007).Benefits of ICT in the Construction Industry - Characterization of the Present Situation in House-Building Processes.Proceedings of the W78 Conference, Maribor.
Mugenda, O. M. and Mugenda, A. G. (2013).Research Methods: Quantitative
and Qualitative Approaches. Nairobi: Acts Press.
Musa N.,(2012). Effects of Total Quality Mangaement in Construction Companies in Kenya. Case study:Inter build company Ltd
Nahmens, I. (2009). “From lean to green construction: A natural extension.” Construction Research Congress :Building a Sustainable Future, ASCE, Reston, VA, 1058–1067.
Nasir, H. (2008). A Model for Automated Construction Materials Tracking. University of Waterloo: Master Thesis.
Navon, R. &Berkovich, O. (2006).An Automated Model for Materials Management and Control. Journal of Construction Management and Economics, 24, pp. 635-646.
Obeidat, M. S., Al-Aomar, R., & Pei, Z. J. (2014).Lean Manufacturing Implementation in the Sewing Industry. Journal of Enterprise Transformation, 4(2), 151-171.
Odek,S.(2013). An assessment of applicability of lean construction in Kenya and its contribution to performance of construction projects in Kenya: A perspective of contractors, research project submitted to Nairobi University, Kenya
Project Management Institute. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). (5th Edition ed.). Newtiwb Square, Pennsylvania:
Rumane, A. R. (2011). Quality management in construction projects. New York: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
Sacks, R., &Partouche, R. (2010). Empire State Building Project: Archetype of “Mass Construction”. Journal of construction Engineering and Management, 136(6), 702-710
Salem, O., Solomon. J..Genaidy, A. and Minkarah. I. (2006).Lean construction: from theory to implementation, Journal of Management in Engineering. Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 168-75. 5 4
Sayer, N. and B. Williams (2007).Lean For Dummies. New Jersey, Wiley Publisher, Inc.
Seddon, J. (2008). Systems Thinking in the Public Sector: The Failure of the Reform regime and a manifesto for better way. Station Yard, United Kingdom: Triarchy Press
Senaratne, S., and Wijesiri, D. (2008). Lean construction as a strategic option: testing its suitability and acceptability in Sri Lanka. Lean Construction Journal, 34-48. Sloan School Students, 3rd Ed, Pearson Education Limited, England
Seymour, T., Hussein, S.,(2014). The History Of Project Management. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (IJMIS), p. 233-240.
Sicat,S. (2012).Lean construction Management. Available from htpp://www.fgould.com/lean approach/American Journal.
Sorooshian, S., (2014).Assessment of environmental risk in construction project.University of Malasia.Malasia.
Strenman J. D. (2012). System dynamics modelling for project Management .The Earth Institute of Colombia. (2012). Thika Highway Improvement Project; The Social Community Component of Analysis. Nairobi
The Standish Group.(2013). Chaos Manifesto 2013; Think Big, Act Small.The Standish Group
Thompson, J. L. (2012). Why Are Projects Late? Everything, but the Project Management.Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Thyssen, Mikael H. (2010): Facilitating Value Creation and Delivery in Construction. PhD Thesis, DTU Management, Technical University of Denmark
Vandevoorde, S., &Vanhoucke, M. (2006).A comparison of different project duration forecasting methods using earned value metrics. International journal of project management, 24(4), 289-302
Walliman, N., (2011).Your Research Project: a step-by-step guide for the first-time researcher. SAGE Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi
Wang, G., Huang, S. H., (2006). Product driven supply chain selection using intergrateddecission making. International Journal of production economics,pp 1-15.
Weil, D. (2005). The contemporary industrial relations system in World Bank, Infrastructure Assessment, Finance, Private Sector
Yu, H., T. Tweed, (2009). Development of Lean Model for House Construction Using Value Stream Mapping. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 135(8): 782-790.
Zahir, E., Love, P.,& David, E. (2007). Learning to reduce rework in projects: analysis of firm’s organizational learning and quality practices, Project Management. Journal 1 (September) (2007) 13–25.
Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., & Griffin, M. (2010). Business research methods (8th ed.).Mason, HO: Cengage Learning.
Zulu, S. (2007). Impact of project management on project performance: a structural equation modelling approach. In: Boyd, D (Ed) Procs 23rd Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2007, Belfast, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 651-660
http://www.nca.go.ke/index.php/contractors-center/search-registered-contractors
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v5i3.816
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
PAST ISSUES:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.