The value of visual 4D planning in the UK construction industry

Abstract

Performance measurement in the construction industry has received considerable attention by both academic researchers and the industry itself over a past number of years. Researchers have considered time, cost and quality as the predominant criteria for measuring the project performances. In response to Latham and Egan reports to improve the performance of construction processes, the UK construction industry has identified a set of non-financial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). There is an increased utilisation of IT based technologies in the construction industry and in particular 4D (3D+time). Literature reviews have revealed that there is an inadequacy of a systematic measurement of the value of such systems at both quantitative and qualitative levels. The aim of this ongoing research is to develop a systematic measurement framework to identify and analyse key performance indicators for 4D planning. Two major issues have been addressed in the research: the absence of a standardised set of 4D based KPIs and the lack of existing data for performance evaluation. In this context, the objective of this paper is to establish the benefits of 4D planning through identifying and ranking a set of KPIs on the basis of semi-structured interviews conducted with UK based project managers. The ultimate objective of this research is to deliver a set of industry based 4D performance measures and to identify how project performance can be improved by the utilisation of 4D planning. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.