Recipes for Standardized Capital Projects’ Performance Success

Abstract

Currently, facility design standardization is a well-established and quotidian strategy, especially in the manufacturing and shipbuilding industries. Even so, the construction industry, specifically the capital project sector, has been ineffective in successfully implementing standardization strategies with the desired achievements in cost and schedule performance. This paper examines the collaborative and interactive effects of standardization critical success factors (CSFs) on project performance (cost and schedule). The study employs a crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) that utilizes real-life capital sample projects and develops conjectural causal links between CSFs and project performance. The results of this study substantiate that combinations of CSFs collectively affect cost and schedule performance. The most ubiquitously appearing CSFs in the results for both cost and schedule success are: discipline to maintain standardization; operations and maintenance considerations; definition of the standardization approach; applied knowledge; and recognition of the risk of standardization. This research helps build on existing literature on standardization CSFs and improves understanding by identifying the necessary CSFs for cost and schedule success, as well as a combination of sufficient CSFs for cost and schedule success. Furthermore, this study will not only help practitioners better understand the impact of standardization CSFs, but also to better execute standardized capital projects for better project performance. Eventually, the findings help to better comprehend standardization CSFs and their combined effects that can help the construction industry, especially capital projects, achieve a better schedule and cost performance.