The House of the Rising Value

Jarkko Leinonen1 & Pekka Huovila2

1Research Scientist, VTT Building Technology, P.O. Box 1801, FIN-02044 VTT, + 358 9 456 4555 (voice), +358 9 456 6251, [email protected]
2Group Manager, VTT Building Technology, P.O. Box 1801, FIN-02044 VTT, + 358 9 456 5903 (voice), +358 9 456 6251, [email protected]

Abstract

Construction is a practice-oriented business, partly due to its long history. The practice-oriented approach leads to the fact that the focus of management is on getting the building constructed i.e. on transforming inputs to outputs. When the focus has been heavily on transformation, enough weight has not been given to value generation process to fulfill customers’ needs and expectations. Recently a new vision of the theory of construction has provided us the basis to understand the problems and essence of value generation. Value process consists of three phases: (1) finding out the customers’ requirements, (2) creating solutions to conform these requirements and (3) verifying during the project that these requirements are met in the best possible manner. Even though interest in value generation is rising among practitioners, lack of practical and applicable tools still causes problems. This paper presents the current problems in the value generation of the design phase and discusses their consequences to the project and to the end product. A tool providing assistance in the project definition phase is introduced. Experiences from piloting the tool, EcoProP, in building construction projects are described. The tool is based on a generic classification of building properties. The tool supports documentation of requirements in a form of values or classes so that their conformity in design can be verified. Its intended use is to produce the design brief and to serve as a guide for designers. The decision-making procedure with EcoProP is transparent and the well-documented objectives can be revisited in need of change. The tool is currently implemented in projects of different building types with the emphasis on eco-efficient facilities.

Keywords

Construction, value, performance approach, customer, ecoefficiency

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Reference

Leinonen, J. & Huovila, P. 2000. The House of the Rising Value, 8th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , -. doi.org/

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