Necessary and unnecessary complexity in construction

The nature of complexity varies as construction progresses. This paper presents concepts and practices with which project (knowledge) management must foster complexity when it is necessary and dampen complexity when it is unnecessary in order to generate value and control time and costs. Complexity management has to be adjusted to the current state of the project. Before and during programming the building as a solid object can not be predicted; the user activities, extent, mass and materials are unknown. We might renovate, build a new building or we might not invest at all. The problem is inductive since there are several correct answers, not right or wrong but good or poor. After design and before on-site construction we know the object and its performances, the single “right answer” for construction. The system is deductive. The building process is initially inductive and becomes predominantly deductive, being complex all the time. The destruction of an inductive system can be avoided only if there is enough variety in the controller. Only a management system which contains variation can produce alternatives in a creative way to keep to goals in spite of disturbance. It is called necessary or requisite variety. If a problem “do we need an activity?” is dealt with simultaneously as the question “where would it be located in a plan?”, there are limitless possible alternatives. If we first answer “no” to the first question, there are no alternatives left. Does the “Where it will be” answer create more valuable information to the question “do we need it”? If not, the variables are orthogonal. Combining orthogonal variables causes more iterations and can be called unnecessary complexity. In the beginning of construction the building as an object can be predicted. However, due to the peculiarities of construction, there is a lot of complexity confronting the production phase. The issue is to consider whether any peculiarity could be eliminated or at least reduced. In operations management, three different conceptualizations should be simultaneously used: production as transformation, flow and value generation. From these, the transformation model is in an auxiliary position, whereas the flow model addresses the time-dependent complexity and value generation addresses the time-independent complexity. In the framework of these conceptualizations, the insights and principles of complexity thinking should be applied as appropriate

Last planner and critical chain in construction management: comparative analysis

This paper endeavours to compare the Last Planner System of production control and the Critical Chain production management method. This comparison is carried out in the context of construction management. The original prescription and the evolution of the practice are examined regarding both approaches, and the similarities and differences are noted. Based on these considerations, gaps in the two approaches are identified and the potential of a synthesis of them is explored

Reforming Project Management: The Role of Lean Construction

Project management as taught by professional societies and applied in current practice must be reformed because it is inadequate today and its performance will continue to decline as projects become more uncertain, complex and pressed for speed. Project management is failing because of flawed assumptions and idealized theory: it rests on a faulty understanding of the nature or work in projects, and a deficient definition of control. It is argued that a reform of project management will be driven by theories from production management that add the management of workflow and the creation and delivery of value to the current emphasis on activities. Of all the approaches to production management, the theory and principles drawn from Lean Production seem to be best suited for project management. Promising results in this regard have been reached already in one project management area, namely in Lean Construction

Consistency of Bayesian nonparametric inference for discretely observed jump diffusions

We introduce verifiable criteria for weak posterior consistency of identifiable Bayesian nonparametric inference for jump diffusions with unit diffusion coefficient and uniformly Lipschitz drift and jump coefficients in arbitrary dimension. The criteria are expressed in terms of coefficients of the SDEs describing the process, and do not depend on intractable quantities such as transition densities. We also show that products of discrete net and Dirichlet mixture model priors satisfy our conditions, again under an identifiability assumption. This generalises known results by incorporating jumps into previous work on unit diffusions with uniformly Lipschitz drift coefficients.Comment: 20 page

Exhibiting and visiting Egypt of glory:knowledge construction of ancient Egypt in Amos Rex museum in the fall of 2020

Abstract. This thesis is about the ways in which knowledge is constructed in a museum context. It is based on a case study of Egypt of Glory -exhibition, which was on display at the Amos Rex Art Museum in Helsinki from the 9th of October 2020 to the 21st of March 2021. The research data was gathered during a period of one month, beginning from the 5th of October 2020 and ending on the 5th of November 2020. The main research objective is to explore ways in which knowledge about ancient Egypt is constructed in the Egypt of Glory exhibition. This objective is divided into smaller research questions aimed at examining the educational and exhibitionary practices of the exhibition as well as the principles and goals which guided the staff who created them. Visitor perspectives are also considered to find out how the exhibition design influenced visitors’ learning and how visitors themselves participated in the knowledge construction processes. Qualitative data was gathered with ethnographic methods, namely interviews and participant observation. Of the staff members, the museum director, head of curation, two curators, the consulting Egyptologist, the head of education, a curator of education, the communications intern, and two guides were interviewed (n=10). Visitors were observed in the gallery, and participatory walking sessions were arranged with consenting visitors. These sessions were preceded and followed by interviews regarding the participants’ perceptions of ancient Egypt and their visitation experiences. Quantitative data was also collected with questionnaires, which received 196 respondents. The questionnaires focused on demographic factors as well as visitors’ opinions and thoughts on the exhibition and its topic. Research data is analyzed through a constructivist lens by examining the poetics and the politics of exhibiting. Visitor experiences are dissected through the theoretical frameworks of the Contextual Model of Learning (Falk & Dierking 2012) as well as The Object Knowledge Framework (Wood & Latham 2014). The contextual model of learning is designed to examine the totality of the visitor’s experience (Falk & Dierking 2012). The object knowledge framework zeroes in on the interaction between the objects on display (the objectworld) and the visitor’s persona (the lifeworld) (Wood & Latham 2014) The study finds that the objectives and principles of the staff emphasize respectful discussion on ancient Egypt with an aversion to mystifying and exotifying display practices. This led to specific exhibitionary and educational practices directed to communicate the diverse and changing culture of ancient Egypt over the 3000-year period of its existence. Guided by their own interests, pre-existing knowledge, and prior experiences, visitors interacted with the exhibition in individual and unique ways. While the visit did result in changes in perception of ancient Egypt, their interpretations of the exhibition’s messaging diverged somewhat from that of the staff. Therefore, this thesis concludes that knowledge about ancient Egypt was constructed in a collaborative process which resulted in diverse and individualized narratives

The interaction of lean and building information modeling in construction

Lean construction and Building Information Modeling are quite different initiatives, but both are having profound impacts on the construction industry. A rigorous analysis of the myriad specific interactions between them indicates that a synergy exists which, if properly understood in theoretical terms, can be exploited to improve construction processes beyond the degree to which it might be improved by application of either of these paradigms independently. Using a matrix that juxtaposes BIM functionalities with prescriptive lean construction principles, fifty-six interactions have been identified, all but four of which represent constructive interaction. Although evidence for the majority of these has been found, the matrix is not considered complete, but rather a framework for research to explore the degree of validity of the interactions. Construction executives, managers, designers and developers of IT systems for construction can also benefit from the framework as an aid to recognizing the potential synergies when planning their lean and BIM adoption strategies