Optimizing organisational strucures in real estate and construction management

Recent management issues are dominated by the term of efficiency. In particular, when it comes to projects in Real Estate and Construction Management, resources, namely time and budgets are running short. Thus, increasingly complex projects need nevertheless to be carried out in less time and on tight budgets. On this background, methods to optimize the consumption of goods and services are being developed using the given computational power on numerical techniques. These are based on the formulation of systems via the theory of systems or graphs down to a level where each variable is represented by an element and all interdependencies can be written as functions of all other variables. If one of the variables is declared to be optimized, a state-vector (set of parameters) can be found which matches the given demands respectively, absolutely or at least heuristically close to the optimal situation. Yet, all this rests on the fundament of a pre-set structure which is not subject to optimization but has a major influence. E.g. the predefined hierarchic setup of responsibilities allows only for a limited degree of optimization, while further development would possibly demand fundamental changes of the underlying structure. Only few optimization algorithms, e.g. derived from the traditional transport or assignment algorithms, address this situation by formulating all-encompassing structures where parameters represent the strictness of impact and are thus subject to structural optimization to some degree. In this paper we propose a set of criteria which allow to build truly sensible, i.e. optimized structures, before optimization methods with focus on parameters are applied to the system. Based on fundamental aspects like reduction of complexity, sensitivity towards modifications, stability and long-term behavior, optimization of structures instead of parameters will be available providing an appropriately predefined organization in particular for unique Real Estate and Construction Management projects. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Diamond Congress Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2018.