Factors Militating against Implementation of Value Reengineering in the Construction Industry

Abstract

Production improvement techniques in use by the Construction Industry (CI) in developing countries like Nigerian are yielding sub-optimal value for customers. This necessitated the investigation of techniques to engender maximum efficiency gains. Hence, continuous improvements on new techniques that will give customer satisfaction are required to be implemented to improve the development of the sector. The adoption of Value Reengineering (VRE) could result in a breakthrough solution in resolving the challenges of customer dissatisfaction in the industry. The subjectivist methodology was utilised to establish critical success factors in thirty-four purposefully sampled building construction operators within Abuja using purposive sampling techniques. The deductive/thematic technique was used to analyse the recorded, transcribed, and interpreted interview data after it had been sorted and coded to develop information about any common pattern among the interviewees' evidence on causes militating against VRE deployment in the CI. The results revealed a significant need for the process to be reengineered through the utility of change enablers and the introduction of assistive technologies. The study further reveals that inadequate employee training to implement VRE, lack of understanding of the implementation requirements, top management commitment, quality standards of contractor’s work, and lack of employee consensus to see the implementation through is the key planning, technical and organisational related factors identified. The research concluded that VRE implementation would be achieved if adequate attention is given to the level of awareness of the operator of the technique through training and retraining of operatives in the industry. The study recommends that VRE implementation in all construction projects be encouraged, as it has the potential for the customer to achieve its desired satisfaction on value offering.