The number of construction project managers initializing the use of the Last Planner System of Production Control (LPS), an operating system for project management designed to optimize work flow and promote rapid learning, is rapidly increasing, motivated by industry trends and testimonials of its perceived benefits. This study, limited to the building sector, is a systematic literature and testimonial search of the perceived motivations and benefits or challenges for choosing LPS. It substantiates the claims of those perceptions through a structured survey of senior and mid-level managers. Quantitative statistical tools infer that practitioners who use LPS experience more reliable planning, better supply chain integration, and less work flow time. However, managers who directly implement LPS are faced with external resistance from clients and subcontractors, and feel that their organization does not offer the necessary incentives for adopting LPS, indicating a possible clash of paradigms. The case studies and testimonials were available in the literature referenced in the paper, but the survey and the method for analysis are new and have not been published elsewhere, either wholly or in part.

An alternative to the traditional way of designing projects is the process of target value design (TVD), which takes different departure points to start the design process. The TVD process starts with the client defining an allowable cost that needs to be met by the design and construction teams. An expected cost in the TVD process is defined through multiple interactions between multiple stakeholders who define wishes and others who define ways of achieving these wishes. Finally, a target cost is defined based on the expected profit the design and construction teams are expecting to make. TVD follows a series of continuous improvement efforts aimed at reaching the desired goals for the project and its associated target value cost. The process takes advantage of rapid cycles of suggestions, analyses, and implementation that starts with the definition of value for the client. In the traditional design process, the goal is to identify user preferences and find solutions that meet the needs of the client's expressed preferences. In the lean design process, the goal is to educate users about their values and advocate for a better facility over the long run; this way owners can help contractors and designers to identify better solutions. This article aims to inform the healthcare community about tools and techniques commonly used during the TVD process and how they can be used to educate and support project participants in developing better solutions to meet their needs now as well as in the future.

This study explores predictors of female project managers' salary in the construction industry and analyzes the relationship between salaries and specific variables.Although prior research indicates a relationship does exist between certain variables and women's salaries that research does not focus on the construction industry. This research sought to identify correlations between experience, age, marital status, motherhood, having children at home, and the number of children at home, and female project manager's salaries in the construction industry. To our knowledge, this study represents the only research of its kind specific to women project managers in the U.S. construction industry. Utilizing a snowball sampling method, 206 survey responses were collected and analyzed through comprehensive descriptive and statistical analyses. A regression model was constructed to determine the predictive power of the variables studied. Fifty percent of the variability in female project manager's salary can be accounted for by the model produced. The study's sample showed that, being married and having children at home are negatively correlated with female project managers' salaries. As would be expected, age and experience are also correlated and the correlation is strongly positive.

No abstract

While lean tools and an IPD method are preferred to traditional design-bid-build methods, the perception of different stakeholders varies and more work needs to be done to allow a truly shared decision-making model. Learning was identified as one of the biggest advantages.