Towards a framework for understanding and describing the product value delivered from construction projects

Abstract

For the physical construction of buildings delivering maximum value basically boils down to delivering what has been designed with no waste. An imperfect understanding of what actually constitutes value for the customer is therefore of no great consequence. The same cannot be said for the design process, where the specific value that is to be delivered is defined. It is therefore important that people involved in the design of building have proper grasp of what value is, both specifically on the project that they are working on and in general. Within LC workshop approaches are often employed to determine what constitutes value for the client. This can be useful on specific projects, but is not helpful for developing an intuitive understanding of value in general. Neither are the current definitions of value employed by the community. It has been our experience that they are too abstract to be sufficiently accessible for students and practitioners. In this paper we present a draft of a framework for understanding and describing the value of the end product of the construction process, the finished building, centered on the customer’s business model and processes.