LEAN INFORMATION FLOW IN COMPLEX HEALTHCARE PROJECTS AND THE ROLE OF THE “INTEGRATOR” ROLE AS INFORMATION FLOW MANAGER
Open Access
- Author:
- Phelps, Andreas Floros
- Graduate Program:
- Architectural Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 22, 2008
- Committee Members:
- Michael Horman, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Michael Horman, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
David R Riley Ii, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
John Messner, Committee Member
Madhu Reddy, Committee Member - Keywords:
- healthcare facilities
Construction
integration
lean
information flow
social factors
ethnography
sustainability - Abstract:
- As our society demands more from the built environment, the design and construction of buildings has become more complex and requires project teams to process increasing amounts of information. Nowhere is complexity and information management more critical than in the design and construction of healthcare facilities. However, the construction management literature represents limited knowledge of information flow on projects. To address this deficiency, this research uses an ethnographic study of the design and construction of two complex healthcare facilities to address the two main research aims: 1) To understand the mechanisms and moderators that affect information flow, and 2) To develop a model that can be used to explain and evaluate processes for information flow management. Because of its long-term, in-depth nature, this study enables the industry to gain a better understand of both the social and technical factors that affect the management of information. Specifically, the analyses found four significant socio-technical factors (i.e. trust, commitment, learning, and common understanding) that have a profound effect on team interactions and the resulting effectiveness of information flow. The key contribution of this research is the development of a conceptual model that illustrates how these four factors interact to affect information flow. The interaction model that was developed links a trust/commitment cycle to a learning/understanding cycle. These two cycles together influence information flow on projects and can be used to explain how characteristics of a project team interaction will affect information flow. In addition, this model is used to analyze why certain mechanisms (e.g. behaviors, techniques, or processes) resulted in effective information flow while others did not. There are two important implication of these findings is addressed in this dissertation. The first is related to what these findings mean in terms of the implementation of lean production management principles for information flow. The second is related to the development of a more comprehensive understanding of the “coordinator” or “integrator” role (often called the “project manager”). While traditionally, project managers bring together technical information on the project, there is a significant aspect of social coordination that significantly affects information flow. To this issue, the following research also creates a definition of the integrator based upon both the social and technical aspects of information and information flow. In this capacity, an integrator is responsible for understanding both the factors affecting information flow and how the use of certain tools or techniques can create an environment that fosters the development of trust and learning among the team. The combination of developing descriptive conceptual models and providing more comprehensive definitions of the integrator role make this research critical to furthering our industry’s understanding the mechanisms behind information flow and how project teams can make better use of information to improve project outcomes.