The Significance of A Shared Breakdown Structure For Work Preparation Planning For A Predictable Execution

Abstract

This research investigates the role of work preparation planning in enhancing cross-disciplinary communication and collaboration within construction projects, focusing on two case studies involving the assembly of rooftops. The design documentation in construction projects has increased and become more detailed with the increasing complexity of construction sites and projects. Thus, setting clear objectives to achieve a shared information structure with a joint project language are increasingly important to manage construction projects. In Sweden, there is an industry wide developed structure for work-preparation planning. This has resulted in standardised work preparation tasks for most of the general activities found during construction. These documents are not regularly applied to routine tasks, and detailed planning is typically reserved for new or particularly risky activities. However, there is a gap between the detailing of the construction documents and the work planning. The hypothesis of this paper is that a shared breakdown structure between disciplines and documents increases traceability and predictability regarding work preparation planning and execution. This is studied through two cases of rooftop assemblies. These cases were documented through semi-structured interviews and a thorough analysis of the project documentation of the planning and execution phases. The findings show disconnection between idealized work preparation plans and their practical execution. The cases differed in how they used the breakdown structures. Only one of the cases used the shared breakdown structure to further detail the rooftop assemblies. This created an interoperability between costing, schedule and documentation that was not seen and could not be reproduced in the other case. This also enabled a traceability with regards to costs and the schedule and helped to build a predictability in the planning of future iterations of the roof assemblies. Thus, a systematically classified information structure promises to bridge the gap between theoretical planning and on-site execution.