Effects of Daily Management on Design Reliability

Abstract

Building Design Management (DM) is challenging due to the fragmentation of project partners, the iterative nature of design and the tradition of informal management of designers. Therefore, many contractors do not trust the promises of designers and protect the construction schedule with schedule buffers that increase project lead times. To act upon this situation, several researchers have suggested using the Last Planner™ System (LPS) as a method for DM. Using two case studies, we present how the use of the LPS method as a tool for Daily Management (DAM) increases the reliability of the design and how, correspondingly, not using it can affect design reliability. So far, very little attention has been paid to the role of DAM in DM, and this short article seeks to provide new insights into this research gap for both researchers in the field and DM professionals. These early and exploratory results, despite the limited number of cases, can be utilised in further research as well as in practical project management, especially when the reduction of schedule buffers between construction and design is targeted.