| Author | Afzal, Muhammad |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.CM-06-10 |
| Subject(s) | Construction industry--Pakistan
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Performance measurement is high on the agenda of many companies around the world due to dissatisfaction with traditional financial performance measures. A growing number of performance measurement models have been developed by manufacturing and other industries but the construction industry is still lacking in the development of model similar to those adopted by other industries which could be used by international agencies (e.g. Engineering News Record, Construction Industry Institute etc.) to benchmark the performance and thereby rank the construction engineering companies world-wide. Besides comprehensive performance measurement system, it is necessary to profile a truly world-class construction company to explore various key measures/factors under core areas (e.g. safety, quality, internationalization, research and development etc.); identify general attributes and leadership skills of construction engineering firms that would enable them to achieve world-class and international standard. The current research addressed in detail these two main purposes. The first main purpose of study was further subdivided into two sub-parts (i.e. development of framework and its implementation). Development of framework was based on well-publicized frameworks such as US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), European Quality Award (EQA), Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Canadian Business Excellence Framework (CBEF), Australian Quality Award (AQA), and South African Business Excellence Award (SABEA) after detail review of various awards, TQM theories, and performance measurement systems. Performance factors common to all selected frameworks were elicited and further compared with detail and comprehensive critical success factors of construction engineering organization for the purpose of finding any missing factor and validating with reference to construction. The factors were logical linked and framework was given a title "Construction Industry Excellence Model" (CIEM). The comprehensiveness of the CIEM was evaluated by comparing with International Standards ISO 9001:2000 (quality system), ISO 14001:2004 (environmental system) and OHSAS 18001:1999 (safety system). CIEM was divided into two main parts: Driving Factors (Enablers) and Results Factors (Results) and detail writeup was drafted for each factor. Scoring scheme was also proposed in order to quantifying the business performance in objective terms and finally potential users of framework were identified. The CIEM was implemented within a large construction organization named DESCON to benchmark its business performance. Successful implementation was conducted with detail review of company documents, extensive interviews with the top management, and questionnaire surveys for determining DESCON's score against each factor. Overall performance achievement was remained 66% as per CIEM and performance of DESCON was declared `Very Good' in accordance with performance rating scale. The second purpose is concerned with determining the importance level of 114 key measures enabling the construction companies to become world-class; 36 general attributes of excellence; and 30 leadership skills of CEO. A questionnaire was used to seek the opinion of respondents of construction industry. Most of the measures; attributes of excellence and leadership skills were found important. At the end a general model was proposed for a "Truly World-class Construction Company" |
| Year | 2006 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Civil and Infrastucture Engineering (DCIE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Construction Engineering and Infrastructure Management (CM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Ogunlana, Stephen Olu; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Pannapa Herabat ;Johri, Lalit M.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | His Majesty the King of Thailand ; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006 |