Concurrent engineering in the construction industry

The construction industry has been suffering from low productivity and poor performance. In an attempt to improve its performance, industry practitioners and researchers have looked at the manufacturing industry as a point of reference and a source of innovation. Consequently, the industry has acquired and adapted the Concurrent Engineering (CE) approach to manufacturing, to construction: Concurrent Construction (CC). The motivation for importing a CE approach to construction is presented in this paper. To assist in overcoming the industry's poor productivity and performance, this paper suggests that construction processes need to be carried out concurrently. Furthermore, people involved in the project need to be integrated into a unified development process by becoming a multi-disciplinary team. Thus, all downstream aspects of the design and construction process and non-value adding activities (waste) can be considered throughout the design stage of the project.