The On-Site Behavior of a Construction Project Team during the Implementation of the Planning and Quality System

Changing the procedures and process of the traditional system to the new system involves so many problems.

First, staff members of the contractor have many questions with the new system, but they would not want to find the answers.

Second, the payment of the subcontractor is often delayed and uncorrected in accordance with B.O.Q even though the system has applied the earned value concept.

Third, the traditional on-site work processes have not matched with new system because lack of documentation support on-site.

Fourth, many staff members do not understand how to perform their work in better ways; furthermore, some of them are reluctant to change and think that this is a burden.

Fifth, top management needs to review the accurate information but the project site always covers the truth.

Sixth, sharing the values and norms from existing employees to new employees are lacking and so on.

These problems arise from the lack of knowledge about the benefits of the program and what is the process flow from top to bottom. In addition, due to reluctance of some staff to change and play with the new approach, leaders of the team need to play the crucial role to unite all employees in the purpose of motivation and creating the commitment. As a result, the acknowledgment of which process systems are changed in functions of the project site, and who are in the important position to make the change occurring during the new system implementation in accordance with change management concept are unavoidable.

Mr. Janeyut Naiyarat made a case study which primary purpose was to investigate and find out how construction project teams to behave during the implementation of the new system. To achieve the main objective, the following sub-objectives were needed:

 To investigate the on-site behavior of project teams while the implementation of planning and quality system

 To propose the on-site behavior of project teams affecting the success of the implementation of planning and quality system

Conclusion

The on-site behavior of the construction project teams

Organizational Support - Based on the result of data analysis, the organization provided full support from top managers. There is the specific policy for Planning and Quality system. For staff, the new operational procedures are established along with Planning and Quality form in each project. To transfer know-how to all, the new operational form is demonstrated by executives on-site. Moreover, to ensure the continuous use of Planning and Quality system, construction projects are visited periodically by executives and audit team. Finally, the incentive and rewards are given to appropriate staff accordingly.

Top level (Project Manager, Project Engineer, Site Manager) – Results showed that most of the staff in these levels comply with the policy. The enforcement of the new policy is adopted by top level as well as the specific procedure is established regarding with natures of the project.

Middle level (Senior Site Engineer, Senior Office Engineer) – Result showed that all staff are enforced to comply with the policy by the top level. However, while most of them seem to be forced to participate and use Planning and Quality form, senior site engineer as a key leader in the fourth case study perceiving the opportunity to grow will to lead his project to success in the new system implementation. For others, they all emphasize on the progress of work according to their leaders.

Operational level (Site Engineer, Office Engineer) - Most of site engineers are new graduates and lack of experience, so it depends on the leaders to provide any activities to facilitate site engineers. The behavior of site engineer can reflect the understanding of leaders and the group climate of each case study. In case study I and IV, most of them realize about the benefits by using Planning and Quality form and will to collaborate with all activities and use the form continuously in order to improve individual and project performance. On the other hand, staffs in other case studies reluctant to use the operational form because of lack of understanding about the benefits and lack of facilitating from their leaders. However, to submit the form with the consideration for passing the probation, they make the illusion by trying to fill in the form. Therefore, there are both case study I and IV can success in the implementation of planning and quality system.

The behavior affecting the success of the implementation of the new system

Organizational Support - Based on the result of data analysis, the organization provided full support from top managers. There is the specific policy for Planning and Quality system. For staff, the new operational procedures are established along with Planning and Quality form in each project. To transfer know-how to all, the new operational form is demonstrated by executives on-site. Moreover, to ensure the continuous use of Planning and Quality system, construction projects are visited periodically by executives and audit team. Finally, the incentive and rewards are given to appropriate staff accordingly having good performance.

Top level (Project Manager, Project Engineer, Site Manager) - Staff in this level so as the leader of the team have to comply with the policy. The top level is necessary to participate in entire processes in order to show the serious emphasis on the new system and get staff involvement. Other responsibility of top level is to modify the form regarding with the nature of the project for operational level. Also, the tasks should be assigned effectively to subordinates by top level in order to enforce indirectly to use the form and to get understanding. Moreover, to ensure that staff is using the form constantly, monitoring closely at the early stage and periodically at the next stage has to be performed. Importantly, to develop the team during the implementation of the new system, the arrangements of formal and informal activities are strictly concerned.

Middle level (Senior Site Engineer, Senior Office Engineer) – Executives and top level has to comply with the policy. They have to participate and have to use Planning and Quality Form, while the senior site engineer should cooperate between top level and operational level and to lead the project to success in the new system implementation. In addition, the modified documentation designed by agreeing with all staffs in the team should be developed by senior site engineer. Moreover, to get staff using the form continuously, closely monitoring should be adopted in the middle level.

Operational level (Site Engineer, Office Engineer) - Site engineer should listen and comply with the policy. Participating in all activities to be a part of a team and getting understanding the new system. To understand the benefits and to use the form effectively, site engineers should try out using it and learn from mistakes. In addition, asking questions while having problems and proposing idea while finding the better ways are necessary for site engineers. Importantly, to improve the performance of the project, using the form stably and reporting the progress realistically are essential to detect the problems on-site. The weakness of the form can identify in order to amend to be practical and conformant with the uniqueness of each project.

His report summary is shown below.


His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

In construction company especially building sector, there are huge amount of investment by developer while economics expansion; as well, intelligently spending the budget with refined contractor must be concerned. It is the most important for building contractors to improve or change their operational system in order to compete with others. The sample contractor in Thailand is implementing the new system so-called planning and quality system. The purpose of this system is to facilitate staffs on-site via the tools such as the two-week schedule, the cost control plan and the quality checklist. It affected directly to site engineer who normally work with less emphasizing on documentation. To comply with the new policy, staffs in this contractor have to change their working style. Therefore, a change management process is necessary to adopt because the change always has problems, for example, reluctant to change due to lack of understanding and knowledge, lack of sharing information and fear of losing control and overload of current tasks and responsibilities. Moreover, the practical behavior of construction project team during the new system implementation is not well known and the existing literature is very rare in Thailand.

In order to know how to behave of construction project teams during implementing the new system, the objective of this research are established to 1) To investigate the practical behavior of project teams while the implementation of planning and quality system, 2) To propose the behavior of project teams affecting the success of the implementation of planning and quality system.

The data was collected via interview in four condominium projects implementing the new system located in Bangkok and Nonthaburi. The interviewees have classified into three groups of each project. The first group is the top management level that comprises of project manager, project engineer and site manager. The second group is the middle management level that comprises of senior site engineer and senior office engineer. The last group is the operational level having a responsibility to use planning and quality control form that comprises of site engineer and office engineer. The following section is to present the finding of this study.