INTEGRATED CONCURRENT ENGINEERING AND APPLICABILITY TO CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS DURING DESIGN PHASE

Sammanfattning: The construction sector has been struggling with low productivity issues during the last decades, mainly due to relatively low Research & Development investments compared to other industries, old-fashioned practices, and a fragmented market structure with Clients, Designers and Contractors.    The construction sector urges a digitalization revolution in order to overcome the aforementioned old-fashioned practices, but this digital revolution should go along with adequate methodologies that allow the digitalization to achieve its full potential. The work presented in this thesis aims to improve the efficiency of the construction sector by having a look on more collaborative approaches between Clients, Designers and Contractors in Construction Projects. The collaborative approach researched in this thesis is the Integrated Concurrent Engineering methodology, which covers aspects of Project Management, Organization, Communication and Leadership, exploiting the digitalization capabilities that nowadays’ Technology offers. This thesis develops a theoretical framework for Integrated Concurrent Engineering in Construction Projects, with the aim to enhance their efficiency. The theoretical framework is based in literature research as well as experiences from project managers in the construction sector. The result of this study includes guidelines and recommendations on how to effectively implement the principles of Integrated Concurrent Engineering. The guidelines are applicable for Clients, Designers and Contractors, and can be seen as a tool for the Project Management Team to improve construction project’s efficiency, especially in the design phase.