Action Research: the Use of Enterprise Resource Planning System in Construction Engineering and Project Management

Abstract

Although information communication technology (ICT) is long regard as very useful tool in today`s construction engineering and project management environment, organizations must not only operate based upon its original setting, but also requires on-going observation, additional features and fine-tuning actions before the desirable outcome can be achieved. However, it is a very common phenomenon that organizations purchase the licensed off-the-shelf-software package and customize it to suit their own business need. Due to the incapability of such software and inefficient customization, the possible result is making that ICT tool not user-friendly and sometimes the whole system becomes obsolete. The purpose of this paper is to review and report those actions taken (between February 2006 and December 2010) by a construction organization to enhance the performance of its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system launched in December 2002. Such actions include: improving data inputting method; removing the transition bottleneck; introducing crystallization function; revising the organization`s Delegation and Limits of Authority; publishing the League Table amongst users; integrating the 3D Mode into the system and upgrading hardware. Whilst the ultimate goals of such system are well beyond the time limit of this research study, an obvious interim result, achieved by this case studied organization, was winning a landmark project worth US$500 million after the ERP system was functioned properly and effectively. Their experience and success becomes an exemplar which can be borrowed by those companies, from managerial perspectives and as a roadmap, planning to adopt information technology (IT) strategy and use ICT tool in the construction engineering and project management framework. Singapore, where public housing provisions have been a major concern of their citizens as the building stock gets older.