Optimalisation des formes d'organisation dans l'industrie de la construction

A piece of work carried out by the construction industry, whether a building or a civil engineering project, is not a mass-produced item. It is always a unique piece of work, by dint of its response to the specific needs of the owner and its potential users, its integration or otherwise into a built environment, and its construction on ground whose geo-technical properties are always specific. This unique piece of work, carried out outside on a site subject to numerous hazards, must nevertheless meet the programme's fixed objectives first time round. Unfortunately, unlike most industrial products, it is usually, even nowadays, the outcome of a fragmented approach: designers and builders of the shell of the building and those engaged in the finishings are in fact involved in a segmented and sequential process, without any real interaction between the various disciplines, to the detriment of overall quality and the cost of the end-product. The author of this thesis has had the opportunity, in his professional career in the management of major construction companies, of testing most organisational forms in the sector. He has observed that, depending on the model chosen, they exercise a more or less beneficial effect on quality, costs and time-frames for completing the works, as well as on the capacity for innovation of the participants themselves. The first objective of the thesis was to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the most common organisational models in the construction industry and to identify factors in the success of the construction process. The second objective was to suggest an original organisational model which would make optimum use of these factors, taking into account modern organisational theory and project management. The first section of the thesis is an historical study of organisational forms of construction from antiquity to the modern times, and examines in particular the relationships between those actively and directly involved (owner, designers and builders) and their relationships in turn with those involved indirectly (users, public administration, finance providers, environmental and heritage protection organisations, laws and standards, etc.). This historical perspective makes a useful contribution because, although much has been written on architecture and architects, especially the most famous among them, and sometimes on engineers, work looking systematically at the organisational forms used in the construction industry over the centuries is rare. This study demonstrates that the fragmented organisation of construction characteristic of the 20th century is merely an accident in the long history of construction; the twenty-five preceding centuries almost always favoured close collaboration between designers and builders and the wonderful works they left behind demonstrate the wisdom of this approach. Study of the history also provides us with a list of the main success factors and the demands to which the suc