Coordinating Specialists: A Challenge to the Quality Transformation of Construction Project Organizations

专家的协调是一项具有挑战性的管理任务，特别是当他们来自多个独立的公司时，他们每个人都在扩展的价值链中扮演专门的角色，而没有先验的保证未来的合作。建筑项目提供了产品开发和价值链生产问题的具有挑战性的组合。设计和建造生物技术实验室、微电子工厂或化学处理设施涉及到一系列专家，从开发设计和规范的建筑师和工程师到设备和材料供应商，最后是安装设备的众多专业贸易承包商。学习如何将这种复杂的临时组织转变为高质量的组织是有趣而具有挑战性的困难，可以作为开发具有更广泛应用范围的概念和技术的试验场。本研究的重点是与工业设计公司（IDC）进行一系列“计划-研究-行为”实验周期，工业设计公司是一家主要的设计/建造公司，在世界各地都有项目，在建造微电子设备方面有着杰出的记录。UC Berkeley/IDC团队将共同探索专业承包商选择和准备的替代流程，并将在项目执行期间测试生产计划和控制的替代流程。精益生产的技术将在建筑行业进行调整和测试。将开发离散事件模拟计算机模型来模拟工业实践，并允许对替代生产控制技术进行进一步的实验。这项研究预计将为专业承包商管理提供模型，该模型将适用于协调专家任务中出现的更广泛的问题。

The coordination of specialists is a challenging management task especially when they are drawn from multiple, independent companies, each of them performing a specialized role in an extended value chain with no a priori guarantees for future collaboration. Construction projects offer a challenging combination of product development and value chain production problems. Designing and building a biotechnology laboratory, a microelectronics plant, or a chemical processing facility involves a chain of specialists, from the architects and engineers who develop the design and specifications to the equipment and materials suppliers and finally the numerous specialty trade contractors who install the equipment. Learning how to transform such complex, temporary organizations into quality organizations poses interesting and challenging difficulties and can serve as a testing ground for the development of concepts and techniques having a broader range of application. This research focuses on conducting a series of `Plan Do Study Act` experimentation cycles with Industrial Design Corporation (IDC), a major design/build firm with projects throughout the world and an outstanding record for constructing microelectronics facilities. The UC Berkeley/IDC team will jointly explore alternative processes for specialty contractor selection and preparation, and will test alternative processes for production planning and control during project execution. Techniques from lean manufacturing will be adapted and tested in the construction industry. Discrete event simulation computer models will be developed to mimic industry practices and allow for further experimentation with alternative production control techniques. The research is expected to produce models for specialty contractor management that can will be applicable to the broader range of issues that emerge from the task of coordinating specialists.