Abstract
Waste in engineering design has many facets, from partial utilization of the solution space, to wasteful management of design resources, and creation of erroneous and ineffective design documents. In the detailed construction documentation design phase of construction projects with teams comprising multiple independent designers, slow and interrupted information flows lead to significant waste. Applying lean principles, such as reducing batch sizes, cycle times and work in progress inventories, to the management of information flows may improve processes and reduce waste in this phase of the design process, but the lack of a method for measuring the volume, rate and effectiveness of information flow is an obstacle to research. This study proposes measuring the flow of information in the process of detailed design where construction documents are prepared. Measures and indices of flow were formulated based on examination of empirical data compiled by monitoring flows of design information in the detailed design stage of each of fourteen construction projects. Data describing the flows was drawn from the database logs created through practitioners’ use of a project extranet service. Indices for identifying information flow bottlenecks, large batch sizes and accumulation of work in process were computed and validated for four of the projects by comparing them with the results of independent observations of design coordination meetings. An index for measuring rework was also computed but could not be validated. The indices and information flow graphs are intended to assist in identifying faults or bottlenecks in the process either as they happen or in retrospective study, indicating disruptions in the information flow. As such, they are important tools for research of engineering design and may be of practical use in design management if incorporated in future online design management tools.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alarcon LF, Diethelm S, Rojo O, Calderon R (2005) Assessing the impacts of implementing lean construction. In: Kenley R (ed) 13th conference of the international group for lean construction. UNSW, Sydney, Australia, pp 387–393
Austin S, Baldwin A, Newton A (1996) A data flow model to plan and manage the building design process. J Eng Des 7(1):3–25
Baldwin AN, Austin SA, Hassan TM, Thorpe A (1999) Modelling information flow during the conceptual and schematic stages of building design. Constr Manage Econ 17(2):155–167
Ballard G (1998) Positive vs. negative iteration in design. Sixth annual conference of the international group for lean construction (IGLC-6), Guaruja, Brazil, 12
Ballard G (2000) The last planner™ system of production control. Ph.D. dissertation. The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Ballard G, Howell GA (2003) Lean project management. Build Res Inf 31(2):119–133
Bashford HH, Walsh K, Sawhney A (2005) Production system loading—cycle time relationship in residential construction. J Constr Eng Manag 131(1):15–22
Bashir HA, Thomson V (1999) Metrics for design projects: a review. Des Stud 20(3):263–277
Caldwell BS, Palmer RC, Cuevas HM (2008) Information alignment and task coordination in organizations: an ‘information clutch’ metaphor. Inf Syst Manag 25(1):33–44
Cooper R, Aouad G, Lee A, Wu S, Fleming A, Kagioglou M (2004) Process management in design and construction. Blackwell, Oxford
Davis JG, Subrahmanian E, Konda S, Granger H, Collins M, Westerberg AW (2001) Creating shared information spaces to support collaborative design work. Inf Syst Front 3(3):377–392
Drucker P (2001) The essential drucker: selections from the management works of Peter F. Drucker. Harper Business, New York
Eastman CM, Teicholz P, Sacks R, Liston K (2008) BIM handbook: a guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, architects, engineers, contractors, and fabricators. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Eckert C, Clarkson J, Stacey M (2001) Information flow in engineering companies: problems and their causes. In: Culley S (ed) International conference on engineering design ICED 01. Wiley, Glasgow, pp 43–50
Eppinger SD, Whitney DE, Smith RP, Gebala DA (1994) A model-based method for organizing tasks in product development. Res Eng Des 6(1):1–13
Fisher N, Shen LY (1992) Information management within a contractor-a model for the flow of data. Thomas Telford Publications, London
Freire J, Alarcon LF (2002) Achieving lean design process: improvement methodology. J Constr Eng Manag 128(3):248–256
Fyall M (2002) When project information flow becomes turbulent: toward an organizational reynolds number 138. CIFE—Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, Stanford
Goldratt EM (1997) Critical chain. North River Press, Great Barrington, MA
Goldratt EM, Cox J (1993) The goal: a process of ongoing improvement. Gower Publishing, Aldershot, Hampshire
Gray C, Hughes W (2001) Building design management. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK
Hicks BJ (2007) Lean information management: understanding and eliminating waste. Int J Inf Manag 27(4):233–249
Hopp WJ, Spearman ML (1996) Factory physics. IRWIN, Chicago
Hughes WP (2003) A comparison of two editions of the RIBA plan of work. Eng Constr Archit Manag 10(5):301–311
Huovila P, Koskela L, Lautanala M (1997) Fast or concurrent: the art of getting construction improved. In: Alarcon LF (ed) Lean construction. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 143–159
Josephson PE, Hammarlund Y (1999) The causes and costs of defects in construction: a study of seven building projects. Autom Constr 8:681–687
Kalay YE (2006) The impact of information technology on design methods, products and practices. Des Stud 27(3):357–380
Kenley R (2005) Dispelling the complexity myth: founding lean construction on location-based planning. 13th conference of the international group for lean construction. Sydney, Australia, pp 245–251
Koskela L (1992) Application of the new production philosophy to construction. Technical report # 72. Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford
Koskela L (2000) An exploration towards a production theory and its application to construction. D. Tech, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo
Koskela L, Ballard G, Tanhuanpaa V-P (1997) Towards lean design management. 5th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
Krovi R, Chandra A, Rajagopalan B (2003) Information flow parameters for managing organizational processes. Commun ACM 46(2):77–82
Lee G, Eastman CM, Sacks R (2007) Eliciting information for product modeling using process modeling. Data Knowl Eng 62(2):292–307
Liker JE (2003) The toyota way. McGraw-Hill, New York
Love PED, Mandal P, Smith J, Li H (2000) Modeling the dynamics of design error induced rework in construction projects. Constr Manag Econ 18(5):567–574
Love PED, Edwards DJ, Irani Z (2008) Forensic project management: an exploratory examination of the causal behavior of design-induced rework. IEEE Trans Eng Manag 55(2):234–247
Manavazhi MR, Xunzhi Z (2001) Productivity oriented analysis of design revisions. Constr Manag Econ 19(4):379–391
Moreau KA, Back WE (2000) Improving the design process with information management. Autom Constr 10:127–140
Morgan J, Liker JK (2006) The toyota product development system: integrating people, process and technology. Productivity Press, New York
Ohno T (1988) Toyota production system: beyond large-scale production. Productivity Press, Cambridge
Ostergaard KJ, Summers JD (2007) Resistance based modeling of collaborative design. Concurr Eng 15(1):21–32
Pektas ST, Pultar M (2006) Modelling detailed information flows in building design with the parameter-based design structure matrix. Des Stud 27(1):99–122
Prasad B, Morenc RS, Rangan RM (1993) Information management for concurrent engineering: research issues. Concurr Eng 1(1):3–20
Sacks R, Goldin M (2007) Lean management model for construction of high-rise apartment buildings. J Const Eng Manag 133(5):374–384
Sacks R, Eastman CM, Lee G (2004a) Parametric 3D modeling in building construction with examples from precast concrete. Autom Constr 13:291–312
Sacks R, Eastman CM, Lee G (2004b) Process model perspectives on management and engineering procedures in the precast/prestressed concrete industry. ASCE J Constr Eng Manag 130(2):206–215
Smith RP, Eppinger SD (1997) A predictive model of sequential iteration in engineering design. Manag Sci 43(8):1104–1120
Smith RP, Tjandra P (1998) Experimental observation of iteration in engineering design. Res Eng Des 10:107–117
Steward DV (1981) The design structure system: a method for managing the design of complex systems. IEEE Trans Eng Manag 28:71–74
Thomas HR, Korte C, Sanvido VE, Parfitt MK (1999) Conceptual model for measuring productivity of design and engineering. J Archit Eng 5(1):1–7
Tommelein ID (1998) Pull-driven scheduling for pipe-spool installation: simulation of lean construction technique. ASCE J Constr Eng Manag 124(4):279–288
Torbett R, Salter AJ, Gann DM, Hobday M (2001) Design performance measurement in the construction sector: a pilot study. University of Sussex, Brighton
Womack JP, Jones DT (2003) Lean thinking: banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. Simon & Schuster, New York
Womack JP, Jones DT, Roos D (1991) The machine that changed the world. Harper Business, New York
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the architects, engineers and project managers who made the data collection possible and to the referees for their thorough reviews and sound guidance.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tribelsky, E., Sacks, R. Measuring information flow in the detailed design of construction projects. Res Eng Design 21, 189–206 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-009-0084-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-009-0084-3