However, during the 1990s there has been some interest in ‘emerging’ techniques and
philosophies such as total quality management (TQM), benchmarking, business
process re-engineering (BPR) and business process management that have shifted the
focus from ‘lagging’ towards ‘leading’ indicators of performance. The majority of
those concepts have been imported to construction from the manufacturing industry
(see for example Koskela (1992), Mahamed (1995), Kagioglou et al (1998)).
Furthermore, these measures have tended to concentrate on construction productivity
and those factors that influence it (Motwani et al 1995), with the aim being to achieve
continuous improvement. Therefore, the fourth perspective of the BSC was also
introduced in the ‘organisational learning.’ This however can be problematic since the
participants of construction projects are ‘joined’ temporarily until the completion of
the project where the aim is to achieve consistency of application by the integration of
‘traditional’ and ‘matured’ practices.