Striving for Continuous Process Improvement in Construction – a Case Study

Organisations must constantly monitor, measure, evaluate and improve their processes in order to remain competitive. Construction organisations are no different in this aspect and are increasingly realising the need for process improvement due to external and internal pressures. The construction industry is working towards improving its efficiency by implementing process improvement techniques such as Lean Construction along with information and communication systems. Business processes and information technology are closely associated and better results can be achieved by addressing them in an integrated manner. This paper provides details of a case study where an extensive business process improvement exercise was carried out over a period of five years alongside a major Enterprise Information System implementation. All major organisational units were assessed and its processes were modelled and evaluated with a view to improvement within the lean framework. Finally a continuous process improvement framework was put in place to avoid the risk of stagnation. The lean continuous improvement framework resulted in each organisational unit taking responsibility for their own processes ultimately leading to higher profitability and smoother supply chain processes. The case study also demonstrated that even smaller business units and its processes affected the overall value chain in a major way and the importance to analyse the process interdependencies between organisational units.