eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

1. Introduction 1.1 Topic area and research questions The research is a case study. The aim is to use the data provided by Electro Mechanical Contracting (EMC) Talotekniikka and discover the most important parts of its projects' historical development. This case study was commissioned by the management of EMC Talotekniikka to produce a report to assist them with their current issues of unprofitable projects and forecasting.

Many factors influence the outcome of projects in construction industry. This report will mainly concentrate on the parts that are related to project performance and forecasting methods before and during the project. The issues addressed are: 1. Possible pitfalls of the current EMC Talotekniikka forecasting methods. 2. Possible indicators providing insight into determining said pitfalls in individual projects. 3. Explicit factors enabling the management to make forecasting more accurate.

EMC Talotekniikka's current forecasting methods are somewhat unreliable and thus the management is looking to find ways to improve them. Therefore, in this study certain figures from each project have been analyzed in order to find key performance indicators (KPIs) demonstrating that the project is not going as planned. This report will not focus on analysis of projects started before 2009. Neither does it focus on the methods of leadership employed by EMC Taloteniikka's management.

Major sources of data were: ? Interviews with the project controller of EMC Talotekniikka Esa Ruotsalainen ? A study conducted by the author: Analyzing EMC Talotekniikka's current projects and figures ? Database provided by EMC Talotekniikka, including all the necessary figures

The first part tells about construction industry in general. The second part explains the importance of forecasting and introduces different forecasting methods. The third part introduces the concept KPIs. The fourth part of the report presents the current situation of EMC Talotekniikkas's projects and presents the basics for the study and. In addition, it focuses on analyzing the past data to find aforementioned KPIs to help forecasting. The last part provides recommendations for EMC Talotekniikka on how to make their forecasting more accurate and how to compete and succeed under the current circumstances.