TY  - CONF
TI  - Assessing the Effects of Structural Differences on Action, Reaction and Conformation in Construction Projects
C1  - East Lansing, Michigan, USA
C3  - 15th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
SP  - 380
EP  - 389
PY  - 2007
AU  - Filho, Antionio N. de Miranda
AU  - Costa, Jorge Moreira da
AU  - Heineck, Luiz F.M.
AD  - Civil Engineer, M.Sc., Ph.D. candidate, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal, Scholarship Holder of the Brazilian Government (CAPES), anmirandaf@yahoo.com.br
AD  - Civil Engineer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal, jmfcosta@fe.up.pt
AD  - Civil Engineer, Ph.D., Senior Professor, Production Engineering Department, Federal University of Ceará, Brazil. freitas8@terra.com.br
ED  - Pasquire, C.L, Christine L.
ED  - Tzortzopoulos, Patricia 
AB  - Research studies indicate the existence of three generic ways for dealing with uncertainties: control, flexibility and buffers. These are the ways of assuring organizational robustness to support the proactive and reactive management of events that occur during the project. Traditionally, project management practices have strongly relied on the combined use of control and buffers. However, the increasing notion of project complexity has changed paradigms and pushed structural changes towards the development of flexibility capabilities. One such change is the adoption of a more flat organizational structure characterized by autonomy and decentralization, being its most visible aspect the multi-functional teams working as mobile production cells. This paper focuses on structural changes required for this type of flexibility and its effects on managers’ interventions and use of buffers. Interviews were conducted with project managers from five high rise building firms who adopt different organizational structures and a parallel between their distinct practices was established. The analysis of strategic contents shows the successful implementation of this type of flexibility as the result of strategic choices accompanied by bundles of best practices at the operational level and by proper decisions regarding the use of buffers at the tactical level.
KW  - Flexibility
KW  - production cells
KW  - best practices
KW  - strategic choices.
PB  - 
T2  - 15th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
DA  - 2007/07/18
CY  - East Lansing, Michigan, USA
L1  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/510/pdf
L2  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/510
N1  - Export Date: 25 April 2024
DB  - IGLC.net
DP  - IGLC
LA  - English
ER  -