Sustainability of continuous improvement in the construction sector. A case of office complex project in the Tamale metropolis
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Date
2021-06-14
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Abstract
Sustainability has become a wide-ranging term that can be applied to almost every facet
of life on Earth, ranging from a local to a global scale and over various time periods. The
existence of more than 70 different definitions for sustainability (Holmberg et al., 1992)
highlighted its importance and illustrated the efforts made by different academic and
practical disciplines to define and understand its implications to their fields. Continuous
Improvement (CI) is a very critical tool in the construction industries today to enhance
customer satisfaction, to become the cost leader and also to remain competitive in the
global world today. The current study explored the sustainability of continuous
improvement in the construction sector in the Tamale Metropolis. The study targeted
thirty-nine (39) construction workers. The instrument for the data collection was
developed by the researcher, preceded by a pilot study. The pilot study was initially
conducted in similar construction industry with same project to ascertain its validity and
reliability. The data for the study was basically from primary source in that closed-ended
questionnaire was designed and distributed to stakeholders. Descriptive statistics was
used to test the data. The study found that functional integration is one of the important
components of sustainable continuous improvement. The study indicated that design for
construction challenges is one major challenge on the project. More importantly, the
study found that implementing standard operations, instructions and checklists and
implementing continuous flow were the most significant mitigating strategies to the
challenges of the project. The study recommended that project implementers Project
implementers use Functional Integration as the main component in implementing
sustainable continuous improvement by designing the project around processes, product
and customers and also having Multifunctional teams to optimise processes and value
streams to deliver product. Further, the study recommended strongly that Constructors
especially, workers on the Office Complex Project have formal analysis of the mitigating
strategies to the challenges associated with continuous improvement.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Construction Technology and Management, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Award Degree of
Master of Science in Project Management.
Keywords
Sustainability, Continuous Improvement and Construction Sector