Is Construction Industry Still Performing Worse Than Other Industries?

Is Construction Industry Still Performing Worse Than Other Industries?

2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.60164/h5e4g9e7i

Authors: Jan A. Elfving, Olli Seppänen

Citation:

Elfving, J., & Seppänen, O. (2022). Is Construction Industry Still Performing Worse Than Other Industries? Lean Construction. In Lean Construction Journal pp. 130–141.

Abstract:

Research Questions: Is the construction industry improving performance in Finland? Is construction industry performing worse than other industries? Why is the industry scoring high on customer satisfaction, even if it scores low in many other cross industry performance measurements? What is different from other countries?

Purpose: Is to introduce a set of benchmarking measurements that the industry and academia have agreed to report annually in Finland and to review other industry level metrics in use.

Research Method: A design science approach was used. The first step was to review industry metrics typically collected in Finland. Then a group of companies co-created the performance metrics in collaboration with the researchers. The developed metrics were validated by collecting data from construction sites.

Findings: We established a baseline for the Finnish construction industry regarding reliability, user experience, sustainability, productivity, and customer satisfaction, and also compared to other industries. There are already some interesting points to be lifted, like schedule reliability in Finland seems to be higher than in studies in other countries. Another interesting observation is customer satisfaction and Net Promotor score, where construction industry scores higher than most other industries.

Limitations: The study is limited to Finnish construction industry. After first year of measurement, it is too early to say if the industry has improved compared to past years.

Implications: The study proposes to continue the measurement and analysis of results at least in Finland and encourages to conduct similar studies in other countries.

Value for Practitioners: Practitioners will understand how their perform against their peers. The real success of the measurement will be tested in the future if the industry and academia together can learn and improve the baseline results.

Keywords: Benefits realization, continuous improvement, lean construction, waste