TY - JOUR
T1 - Visual Management Requirements to Support Design Planning and Control within Digital Contexts
AU - Pedó, Bárbara
AU - Formoso, Carlos T.
AU - Viana, Daniela D.
AU - Tzortzopoulos, Patricia
AU - Brandalise, Fernanda M. P.
AU - Whitelock-wainwright, Andrew
N1 - Funding Information:
Most of the practices that were identified were used in meetings at a tactical planning and control level, i.e., collaborative planning sessions and monthly progress meetings. VM practices at this managerial level were more embedded within the company, as the stakeholders were familiar with practices from previous projects. The tactical level was supported by both manual and digital devices, whereas the operational level had only digital devices implemented in it. For example, the decisions made at face-to-face (FFC) collaborative planning sessions were supported by the manual collaborative visual boards. Activity Tracker 1 and Performance Dashboard 1 implemented in weekly and monthly progress meetings were mostly adopted through synchronous distributed and face-to-face collaboration (SDFFC), as a part of the team was co-located and the other part was working from different offices in the UK. presents a classification of the VM practices according to the collaboration and communication approaches that were adopted to support the managerial routines described above.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/9/1
Y1 - 2022/9/1
N2 - Difficulties in managing the construction design process are strongly related to its nature, as a large number of interdependent decisions are involved, which need to be made by many different stakeholders, in an environment that has a high degree of uncertainty. Moreover, there is a growing use of digital tools to support design. Traditional communication approaches used in design management only partially comply with the requirements of digital contexts, and new methods and tools are necessary to address these challenges. Visual Management (VM) has the potential to increase process transparency in the design stage, in order to support collaboration and communication and facilitate the transfer of information. However, the literature on the implementation of VM to support design management is still scarce. Moreover, there is limited understanding of the connection between VM and information and communication technologies (ICT). This investigation aims to propose a set of requirements to support VM applications for design planning and control within digital contexts, which can potentially contribute to improving the effectiveness of VM. This set of requirements were initially identified within the literature, considering different fields of knowledge, and then refined in an empirical study that was developed in collaboration with an infrastructure design and consultancy company in the UK. The Design Science Research approach was the methodological approach adopted in this investigation, which involved incremental learning cycles for devising the artefact, carried out in three different projects. The main findings include (i) the definition of a set of VM requirements that are applicable to the context investigated in this research study; (ii) an assessment of the relevance of the requirements for different types of visual practices, hierarchical planning levels, and stakeholders that are involved; (iii) the identification of some current limitations and challenges of implementing digital VM in construction design. From a practical perspective, this set of requirements may guide practitioners and academics in devising and assessing digital VM practices
AB - Difficulties in managing the construction design process are strongly related to its nature, as a large number of interdependent decisions are involved, which need to be made by many different stakeholders, in an environment that has a high degree of uncertainty. Moreover, there is a growing use of digital tools to support design. Traditional communication approaches used in design management only partially comply with the requirements of digital contexts, and new methods and tools are necessary to address these challenges. Visual Management (VM) has the potential to increase process transparency in the design stage, in order to support collaboration and communication and facilitate the transfer of information. However, the literature on the implementation of VM to support design management is still scarce. Moreover, there is limited understanding of the connection between VM and information and communication technologies (ICT). This investigation aims to propose a set of requirements to support VM applications for design planning and control within digital contexts, which can potentially contribute to improving the effectiveness of VM. This set of requirements were initially identified within the literature, considering different fields of knowledge, and then refined in an empirical study that was developed in collaboration with an infrastructure design and consultancy company in the UK. The Design Science Research approach was the methodological approach adopted in this investigation, which involved incremental learning cycles for devising the artefact, carried out in three different projects. The main findings include (i) the definition of a set of VM requirements that are applicable to the context investigated in this research study; (ii) an assessment of the relevance of the requirements for different types of visual practices, hierarchical planning levels, and stakeholders that are involved; (iii) the identification of some current limitations and challenges of implementing digital VM in construction design. From a practical perspective, this set of requirements may guide practitioners and academics in devising and assessing digital VM practices
KW - visual management
KW - digitalisation
KW - design management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137875077&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/su141710989
DO - 10.3390/su141710989
M3 - Article
VL - 14
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
SN - 2071-1050
IS - 17
M1 - 10989
ER -
