Value chain management in construction: modelling the process of house building

Construction companies today find it hard to handle the complexity of the house building process, in terms of differentiating between value and non-value adding activities. The research project ‘Value chain management in construction’ includes an investigation of time, cost and quality improvements within one such company. Project success is believed to be linked to the extent to which companies are able to manipulate their supply chain to add value for the customer, whilst at the same time improving their own internal management. In order to be in a position to understand the true extent and complexity of the process, extensive functional models have been created using a computer-based tool. This first pass through the organisational infrastructure has produced detailed ‘as-is’ IDEF0 models. The next steps are to transform these into ‘to-be’ IDEF0 models and then to decompose them into workflow models using the IDEF3 standard. Other tools and techniques were used during this first mapping of the process: analysis and audit of company specific documentation, including the quality assurance system, and interviews with key personnel. The preliminary results of this two and a half year project show that already there is considerable scope for improvement, specifically the research has pinpointed areas where little added value is derived from the process ‘as-is’. Other areas are under examination.