Setting stretch targets for driving continuous improvement in construction: analysis of Brazilian and UK practices

An effective way to promote a continuous flow of ideas for improvement in production systems is to challenge people with “stretch targets”. This should generate a creative tension between a desired situation and the present situation. In the UK, the potential of this approach has been recognised by the Construction Task Force in their report, Rethinking Construction, which recommended that construction companies should establish challenging targets for improving the quality and efficiency of their processes. Investigates to what extent construction companies are currently using targets for driving continuous improvement in their production processes. The analysis is based on the empirical evidence collected on six Brazilian and UK construction sites. The analysis shows that most construction managers in the case studies did not use “stretch targets” as a strategy for driving continuous improvement in construction processes. “Stretch targets” were generally contingent to project constraints and were not supported by other fundamental complementary practices.