- Author
-
Hui, P.
|
Davis-Blake, A.
|
Broschak, J. P.
- Title
- Owner/Contractor Organizational Changes: How Outsourcing Knowledge Work Affects Project Performance.
- Coporate
- Construction Industry Institute, Austin, TX
- Report
-
Center for Construction Industry Series 10
April 2000
29 p.
- Distribution
- For more information contact: Heather Wesling, The University of Texas at Austin, College of Engineering, Center for Construction Industry Studies, ECJ 5.202, Austin, TX 78712-1076. Fax: 512-471-3191
- Keywords
-
construction
|
surveys
|
costs
- Abstract
- This document contains the findings of a study based on the data gathered from the first three versions of the Benchmarking and Metrics Survey which is administered to member firms of the Construction Industry Institute (CII). At the present time, 323 individual projects completed since 1994 have been received and analyzed. The primary focus of this report is to use this data to test the effect of outsourcing on project costs. Research and theory in this area discusses both potential benefits of outsourcing: flexibility, focus, and access to an increased knowledge pool, and also potential drawbacks: lack of coordination, lack of communication, lowered safety standards, and interpersonal conflict. The report describes and tests the following two hypotheses about the use of outsourcing on major capital facility projects: 1. Moderate outsourcing levels of engineering detailed design and pre-project planning will result in poorer current project outcomes than low or high outsourcing levels. 2. Moderate outsourcing levels of engineering detailed design and pre-project planning will result in poorer future project outcomes than low or high outsourcing levels. The results of the analysis support the two hypotheses above for the outsourcing of the Pre-Project Planning (PPP) phase of project management. In other words, moderate levels of outsourcing for the PPP phase increases not only the cost of the PPP phase but also the cost of all subsequent project phases. Similar but weaker results were found for the level of outsourcing during the detailed design phase. We discuss these results and their implications for project management.