The importance of the Project - Execution of Works interface
Construction was considered for a long time as a craft activity, where the builder was the designer, the one who chose the types of materials, the one who received them on site and the one who decided how it was going to be built. But with the growth of construction and with the creation of new materials and equipment, these functions have been divided among a greater number of people.
Unlike other industries, which if they need a clear direction of how to manufacture products, civil construction has been an activity that manufactures its product (buildings) without a clear definition of how to produce it and the consequence of this is that it has been generated waste on site, expenses in re-processes, poor quality and poor productivity.
In recent years, the need to reduce costs, unnecessary work and the need for an interaction between the phases of conception - project and the execution of works has been seen, as a means to achieve greater competitiveness; The consequence of this is that many construction companies have integrated their management-project-works areas.
One of the functions of production is to allow the translation of the technical specifications of the product into production procedures and sequences, minimizing the inadequate or incomplete execution of those specifications. The production projects, whose main objective is to integrate the project and the work, present suitable solutions to improve the execution processes of a certain construction activity.
The traditional way of projecting a work is that one stage of the process continues at the end of another and so on, causing a sequencing of activities and a lack of integration and feedback of said process. The great failure of this mere way of projecting is the lack of communication and coordination of activities. (See figure 1)
Figure 1 Traditional project process - Sequence of activities and barriers between process agents. (RUSSEL, TAYLOS, 1995).
In our environment, it is often customary to carry out projects in different offices (architecture, structures, facilities, etc); there being no communication or coordination of the case; and therefore there are expenses in transportation, transfer and communication services, re-processes, and all this originates deficient, incomplete and more expensive projects.
This traditional philosophy focuses on the functional characteristics of the product and places little emphasis on how the product will be manufactured.
Simultaneous project approach
Companies today compete in increasingly demanding markets, which forces them to differentiate themselves and innovate new products, customers are increasingly important in deciding the characteristics of the product, suppliers are essential to maintain the quality of materials and services provided.
The simultaneous project values the integration between the agents of a process so that in the end the product satisfies the needs of the customers, based on the assumption that this lack of integration generates uncertainties in the process and compromises the quality of the product.
With the simultaneous project approach, the works that were executed simultaneously are replaced by the work of the teams, with the elimination of the boundaries that separate them. (See figure 2).
Figure 2 The barriers of departmentalization are replaced by multidisciplinary teams. (RUSSEL, TAYLOS, 1995).
The simultaneous project presupposes that there is teamwork, systematic communication and training of human resources. All team agents must state their needs and expectations throughout the process. In the philosophy of simultaneous project, the production engineers (residents) are posted to work with the project engineers, in multidisciplinary teams, promoting the best performance and shortest deadlines in the development of the project.
In this way, each member of the team can contribute with their experience and knowledge of the specific area to reduce potential failures, both in the product and in the production process. (See figure 3)
Figure 3 Multidisciplinary team of simultaneous project (FABRICIO; MELHADO, 2004).
The main benefits obtained by adopting a concurrent project are:
- Greater integration between the various agents of the process, due to the formation of multidisciplinary teams Reduction of time in project preparation Continuous improvement of the product and the process Reduction of costs
Not always the simple placement of specialists in multidisciplinary teams guarantees obtaining good results; rather, it depends on the performance of efficient coordination.
The following figure shows a satire of the distortions that a project can present, about the different points of view of the participants in a project. See figure 4
Figure 4 The lack of integration between the various agents of a process (SCHROEDER, 1993).
For civil construction, the simultaneous project is proposed through the integration of the main interfaces. The presentation of these interfaces is reproduced by the following figure. See figure 5
i1: Interface with the market (program)
i2: Interface with product projects
i3: Product-production project interface (Project for production)
i4: Project execution feedback
i5: Client interface (performance feedback)
Figure 5 Main interfaces in the project process (FABRICIO, 2002).
Figure 5 shows the main interfaces of the project in which simultaneous cooperation practices can be established. These interfaces are represented as i1, i2 and i3. To these, a feedback interface of the execution phase (i4: interface with the work), and another phase of use (i5: interface with the performance of the product and the use by the client) is increased. This figure also shows the philosophy of ISO quality processes, since the project begins with a client, observing their needs and expectations, and ends with the client - user, with the performance of the product or service, which they must attend. the initially formulated needs and expectations.
Summary
Construction today is considered as one more industry, which produces a very complex and very particular product (buildings), which has suggested us to call it today "The construction industry", which like manufacturing industries have processes and are closely related to the demands and needs of customers, by whom they are forced to improve the quality of their products and improve their production systems to keep up in a competitive world.
It is for this reason that many construction companies have seen as a need to optimize the relationship between projects and the execution of works, in order to improve productivity and the quality of these; since until today they are considered two activities that are developed separately and there is little coordination between them. This article presents a way to integrate these processes through a new philosophy of "Simultaneous Project" and show the benefits of "Projects for Production", as an integration methodology.
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