This ongoing research, under the banner “A Compilation to Lead the Way”, has been provided for ELECTRI International by ELECTRI Council member MCA, Inc.

Book Two explores ways to maximize the transfer of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge and develop a full-scale operational model for an electrical contracting firm to compete in the industrialized environment. Industrialized construction is truly a different business model than the traditional electrical contracting business model of “bid the work”, “do the work”, and “collect”, in which the better the workers, the better the job turns out.  This publication explores how the model required in Industrialized Construction centers around managing the work independent of who does it, where it is done, and when it happens.  It starts with knowledge transfer and simplified capture of the knowledge. 

To achieve a competitive advantage, a firm’s planning, prefab, vendor relationships, productivity tracking, and other current tasks must be accomplished systematically across the company by the person responsible for work outcome – a foreman, general foreman, superintendent, etc.  Book Two is informative and valuable for a firm…

• If the foreman is not spending at least 10% of the job’s labor hours on pre-job planning

• If prefabrication ideas come only from a catalogue or after visiting other contractors

• If labor management practices do not include a company, project, and crew level assessment of what classification of labor is needed for what tasks, and;

•  If current labor tracking consists of measuring hours or quantities only to compare to the estimate.

Industrialized Construction is truly a different business model than the traditional electrical contracting business model of “bid the work”, “do the work”, and “collect”, in which the better the workers you have, the better the job turns out.  The model required in Industrialized Construction centers around managing the work independent of who does it, where it is done, and when it happens.  It starts with knowledge transfer and simplified capture of the knowledge.