Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

To meet the challenges of productivity in construction new technologies and management techniques have been introduced. Building Information Modeling (BIM) has shown signs of increased efficiency on projects. Lean Construction is founded in the principles of Lean manufacturing and is focused on reducing waste at all steps in the construction process. Construction robotics has emerged as a viable solution to skilled labor shortages. Each of these solutions are based on consistency of product installation and tolerance use will be vital to success. Although each of these initiatives shows progress they have failed to meet the expectations of the customer or increased worker production rates. The latest innovations in the industry rely on the increased use of precise tolerances. Moving from a craft based worker model to tolerance model driven merits study. This research sought to study the impact of systematically deploying a construction industry reference standard at the trade worker level to measure impact it had on production and quality. In addition, the research sought to measure the change in perception of quality when these standards are actively used by inspection. As a surrogate the researcher investigated the impact on quality and production for gypsum board installation when tolerances of ASTM C 840 are actively incorporated. This study has shown use of a reference standard with established tolerances can be used to reduce waste and improve productivity. Lean construction is based on the reduction of waste in all resources and it may prove fruitful to investigate the Industry Standards in other phases of the construction process.

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