Project controls have traditionally been focused on after-the-fact detection of variances. This thesis proposes a control system, the Last Planner system, that causes the realization of plans, and thus supplements project management’s concern for management of contracts with the management of production. The Last Planner system has previously been successfully applied by firms with direct responsibility for production management; e.g., specialty contractors. This thesis extends system application to those coordinating specialists, both in design and construction, through a series of case studies, one of which also explores the limits of unilateral implementation by specialists. In addition to the extended application, two questions drive this research. The first question is 1) What can be done by way of tools provided and improved implementation of the Last Planner system of production control to increase plan reliability above the 70% PPC level? Previous research revealed substantial improvement in productivity for those who improved plan reliability to the 70% level, consequently there is reason to hope for further improvement, possibly in all performance dimensions, especially with application across an entire project rather than limited to individual specialty firms. That question is explored in three case studies, the last of which achieved the 90% target. The second question is 2) How/Can Last Planner be successfully applied to increase plan reliability during design processes. That question is explored in an extensive case study, which significantly contributes to understanding the design process from the perspective of active control, but unfortunately does not fully answer the question, primarily because the project was aborted prior to start of construction. However, it is argued that Last Planner is especially appropriate for design production control because of the value-generating nature of design, which renders ineffective traditional techniques such as detailed front end planning and control through after-the-fact detection of variances. Issues for future research are proposed, including root cause analysis of plan failures and quantification of the benefits of increased plan reliability for both design and construction processes.

There is overwhelming evidence that the development of new, technically sound, engineered and fit-for-purpose critical physical infrastructure is vital for economic growth and stability. With many countries targeting significant levels of capital investment in energy, transport, communications, flood management and water and waste water infrastructure, there is a vital need for asset management frameworks that can provide both robust and resilient asset support. Currently, asset management tools focus predominantly on data management, deterioration modelling, condition assessment, risk, as well as economic factors (such as whole-life costing and developing investment plans). Some also consider the vulnerabilities of a network to climate change and extreme weather events such as flooding. However, rather than taking a long term view, asset management strategies are often short term, typically five years or less. What is needed is a long-term approach, which will ensure assets are safe, secure and resilient to what the future may hold in 20, or even 50 years’ time. The thesis describes the development of a ‘Resilience Assessment Framework’ which provides a platform to appraise resilience of geotechnical assets in the planning stage of asset management by considering how geotechnical assets (specifically for transport infrastructure) designed and built today will perform in the light of socio-economic, environmental, political, technological changes and shock events in the future. This framework intends to assist in strategic level decision-making by enabling long term planning and management of geotechnical assets and help future proof transport infrastructure. The proposed framework is validated using two real case studies to demonstrate its use and applicability in the field of geotechnical asset management.

For Command and Control teams Situation Awareness forms an important part of their ability to execute their tasks. It is therefore a crucial consideration in Command and Control systems to understand how best to support and design these systems. Despite a considerable amount of attention since the 1980s no consensus has yet been reached concerning the nature of team SA. Three schools of thought on SA: the Individualistic, the Engineering and the System Ergonomics, provide three different approaches to understanding the phenomenon of SA and its measurement. This thesis argues that the System Ergonomics school of thought, with the theory of Distributed SA, provides the most resilient approach to understanding team SA. This thesis advances and validates the theory of Distributed SA. A review of SA theory is presented, in which particular attention is given to Distributed SA. Drawing on the distributed cognition and systems theories Distributed SA takes the interaction between agents and their environment into account when exploring how SA emerges, followed by a review of measures utilised for assessing Distributed SA. The methods utilised in this work, namely the Critical Decision Method and Communications Analysis, are assessed in terms of their reliability and validity of eliciting Distributed SA. The findings suggested that methods to assess team SA can be tailored to collect data at different phases of activity. It was concluded that the Hierarchical Task Analysis may be applied before, Communication Analysis during and the Critical Decision Method after Command and Control activity. An experiment was performed to test the assumption that a relationship exists between organisational structure and team performance and between Distributed SA and team performance. Conclusive differences were found between different organisational structures and performance lending support to the literature. Distributed SA was found to be strongly correlated with good task performance and moderately negatively correlated with poor task performance. The relationship appeared to be mediated by organisational structure. Furthermore, a series of case studies are used to explore the components of Distributed SA, i.e. transactional and compatible SA. The analysis showed that more effective teams were characterised by a high volume of communications and had a different pattern of transactions compared to less effective teams. The findings are used to contribute to the existing debate concerning team SA and to advance the theory of Distributed SA.

The thesis considers one of the central problems of corporate planning for a construction company, the project selection and bidding decision, and a model is developed for the entire decision environment. The nature of decision systems is examined and considered to consist of the identification, evaluation and selection from a range of options. Corporate decisions are discussed leading to the conclusion that a suitable model is needed. A basic model is proposed in which three outcome criteria consisting of people, money and property are required to be assessed, the values of the outcome criteria being determined by four project characteristics. Some approaches to the solution of multiple criteria problems are examined. The implications of time are next considered and the use of Gottinger's sequential machines examined as a means of modelling the complexities involved. Non-deterministic aspects of the problem are introduced which, together with dynamical considerations, suggest a model of intermediate complexity to be appropriate. The final chapters of the thesis concentrate on some ways in which the computational burden associated with the model can be reduced. The role of decision strategies is examined as a means of identifying the most suitable options. The suitability of probabilistic approaches to modelling non-deterministic aspects is investigated and an empirical analysis of three sets of bidding data is made to examine some possible simplifying assumptions.

Sustainable competitive advantage (CA) is a necessary requirement of a rational economic business organisation. Without this CA a business does not have a rational source for appropriating added value in the form of retained profit. Various management research papers have identified numerous factors that may create a source of competitive advantage. Other researchers have shown how industries have changed through time. This thesis shows a temporal development of competitive advantage for the construction industry (CAC). The thesis will structure sources of CA to show the significance of each source during the lifecycle of the business and the industry. The thesis shows how the identified sources vary over time. The thesis will develop the concept of a temporal hierarchy as a model for identifying and developing potential sources of CA at any point in the lifecycle of a particular business entity. The research identifies which sources of CA may be most appropriate (at a given point in the lifecycle) to sacrifice in order to create a further (and higher) source of CA. The proposed temporal hierarchy suggests four 'dynamic' epochs, Factor, Investment, Innovation and Wealth and when these epochs are combined with the 'detail' hierarchies of internal 'detail', distinctive capability 'detail' and external 'detail' a comprehensive anatomy of competitive advantage within the construction industry is presented. The conclusion of the thesis includes examples of the application of the temporal model to a small sample of case studies, showing the representativeness of the model to 'real-life' businesses. The phenomenological reservations implicit in the study are evaluated and recommendations are made for further research.

This report investigates what the main price drivers are for commercial real estate rentals in Stockholm and Gothenburg. The mathematical method applied in this thesis is multiple linear regression and statistical analysis. The models are built from data provided by Datscha, a commercial market information provider. The data sets contains 922 observations across 9 different metrics from 2019. The response variable used to explain the price drivers is taxated monthly rental. The most significant driving variables common to all three final models where market value, location, and taxated value. These results align with current macroeconomic theory; revenue streams stand in direct proportion to underlying asset, i.e market value. Furthermore, location stands out as significant due to its attractiveness to all interacting entities. The models constructed had satisfying predictabilty, with R2-values ranging from 0.725 − 0.896. / Denna rapport undersöker de signifikanta faktorer som driver prisnivå vid uthyrning av kommersiella fastigheter i Stockholm och Göteborg. De matematiska metoder som tillämpas är multipel regressionsanalys samt statistisk analys. Modeller bygger på data från Datscha, en kommersiell leverantör av fastighetsrelaterad marknadsinformation. Slutgiltigt dataset har 922 observationer över 9 variabler, alla från år 2019. Den responsvariabel som används för att förklara prisdrivarna är taxerad månatlig hyra. De mest signifikanta drivande variablerna som är gemensamma för samtliga tre slutmodeller är marknadsvärde, plats samt taxerat värde. Rapportens resultat ligger i linje med kontemporär makroekonomisk teori; intäktsflöden står i direkt proportion till den underliggande tillgången, dvs. här fastighetens marknadsvärde. Vidare är variabeln plats signifikant givet fördel med närhet för samtliga inblandade entiteter. De konstruerade modellerna innehar satisfierande prediktabilitet, med R2-värden mellan 0.725 − 0.896.