Proactive project control of EPC projects. A lean project control system

The construction industry has been suffering from the bad performance or even failure of its projects. Cost overruns and delays have become the normality for EPC projects. The productivity of the construction industry has been therefore declining or in the best-case scenario stagnant. Scientific research refers the failure of EPC projects to weak and inefficient project control system used in the construction industry. Experts underline the pressing demand for developing efficient and flexible of project control systems that fulfil the needs of today’s projects with higher complexities and larger sizes and scopes of work. The demand for such control systems needs to be urgently fulfilled to remain the profitability of the EPC projects, especially in the wake of the large investments poured into the construction industry, which are expected to even grow overtime. This research uses a qualitative secondary analysis to responds to the pressing demand of the construction industry by developing a proactive, efficient, flexible, and proactive project control system that fulfils the needs of today’s mega and capital EPC projects. The newly developed project control model uses the application of “Lean thinking” principles to guarantee a steady and uninterrupted workflow and meet the clients’ requirements in terms of duration, quality, cost and safety while employing continuous improvement and minimizing any kind of waste. Lean principles, that have showed astonishing results in increasing the productivity of the manufacturing industry are used by the developed controls system model with the aim of increasing the productivity in EPC projects. This is achieved by the means of effective flow control, real monitoring and control visual panels and real time reporting and control digital tool, all applied by the proactive project control model developed in this research. This research also provides methods for measuring the performance of the proposed project control model. The proactive project control model developed in this research proofs to have many advantages over other conventional project control system used in the construction industries.

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