Improving the Performance of Building Construction Firms through Addressing the Gap of Building Production Management: A New Production Model Approach

Abstract Gap of building production management (BPM) is a serious issue that influences project success and building construction firms’ (BCFs) performance. Hence, the call for BCFs performance improvement using a new production model approach is a necessity. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of the new production model concept as a method for enhancing the performance of BCFs through addressing the gap of BPM in Nigeria. To attain this aim, a research procedure was designed to achieve two objectives which include: (i) exploring the nature of Nigerian construction industry, gap of BPM and new production model concept; (ii) investigating the awareness and application of the new production model concept as a method for enhancing the performance of BCFs in the study area. To accomplish the aforementioned aim, a research method comprised of a literature review and questionnaire surveys was designed to address the objectives. The study identified unproductive/ineffective BPM, lack of buildability and maintainability analysis, professionalism mismatch, and unauthorized practices as the gap of BPM. This study revealed that the gap of BPM is the main reason behind building failures/collapses, bad debts, low productivity, low level of clients satisfaction, high labour turnovers, and barriers to economic fortune. The study also revealed poor cash flow, lack of experience in the construction field, unprofessionalism and a high number of unskilled employees in a company, lack of co-operation from subcontractors and suppliers and poor labour relations, as the top five causes of BPM gap. BCFs in Nigeria have adopted several approaches to arrest these issues, but the challenges still occur. Thus, the new production model concept that has not been well adopted by construction firms in Nigeria, and which emphasizes on-site production, and aims at enhancing production management is a key to tackling these issues. Based on the survey findings, the study recommended that the issue of the gap of BPM must be correctly identified and clearly understood so as to enable BCFs to bridge the production management gap which will influence their performance positively.