Modeling for Productivity Improvement in Project Team Operations

Abstract

Past studies on project team productivity improvement were based on indirect approaches because productivity measurement indicators could not be applied to such studies. This paper proposes a model for productivity improvement in project team operations by applying the productivity measurement indicator proposed by Nakata et al. The authors suggested two hypotheses concerning factors affecting productivity in project team operations. First, from the viewpoint of the management process, the main factor is team activity planning. Second, as the project moves forward and importance shifts from theoretical research to implementation, the priority of team activity planning shifts from theoretical research to implementation. The authors investigated eighteen project teams whose goal was to reform the head office division or operation division in a certain enterprise at two points in time (the third month from the start of activity and the ninth month), and studied the productivity factors in project team activities and the relations between these factors and productivity in order to investigate the validity of the above two hypotheses. Findings showed that team activity planning accounted for sixty percent to eighty percent among the factors contributing to productivity increases. In the third-month investigation, team activity planning that focused mainly on theoretical research was the most important factor affecting productivity, and in the ninth-month investigation, team activity planning that focused mainly on implementation was most important. These findings verified that there was a difference in priorities of team activity planning between the two points.