Owner Defined Value: A Lean Perspective.

Good Afternoon from Texas. The AGC Conference is rocking and rolling down in San Antonio. This morning I sat in on an educational session called “How do Owners Define Value in their Construction Projects. A Lean Perspective” Steve Jones of Dodge Data and Analytics and Victor Sanvido of Southland Industries are conducting research on what impacts an owner’s perception of value and success.

The numbers they put together show a dramatic difference between what owners think about projects and what architects and contractors think. Previous research shows that when it comes to scheduling, quality, and cost there is a major disconnect in the perception of performance between project owners and the project practitioners. Only 12% of owners are happy with with schedule performance all the time, but architects and contractors think they are performing well 36% of the time. The numbers on quality are owners 20% of the time to contractors 49%. When it comes to cost, owners are always happy 11% of the time versus 31%. This disconnect is a big problem. The authors are taking the next step to explore the influence of LCI framework on project performance.

They are looking for owners to compare their best projects with their typical projects in order to find the factors that correlate to higher performance. To owners the performance metrics that are the most important when defining value are: Project Schedule, Cost/Budget Control, Quality, Safety, etc. Project schedule was the most highly valued, with 28% of the best projects finishing ahead of schedule.

The results so far show that using (at least) the following six project/team management methods are the most impactful on performance. Last Planner System®, Co-Location big room, target value design, 3D BIM Coordination, conceptual/continuous estimating, and visual management.
At this point in the research they have questionnaires from 32 owners and are looking to expand the sample size. If you or an owner you know would like to participate in this project please contact the authors at [email protected] or [email protected].