Relationship between standardization critical success factors (CSFs) and project performance

Facility standardization strategy is defined as the development and use of consistent designs to align project stakeholders, objectives, and scope to capture and optimize schedule, cost, and value. The implementation and proper execution of this strategy can lead to considerable benefits, such as design once and reuse multiple times, along with learning curve benefits in fabrication, operations, and construction, as well as accelerated responds to schedule needs. Although standardization strategy is not a new idea; capital projects have failed to achieve high levels of facility standardization. The primary reason for this is the industry's struggle to execute standardized projects successfully. To address this issue, the Construction Industry Institute (CII) identified 15 standardization Critical Success Factors (CSFs) to help practitioners achieve higher levels of facility standardization in capital projects. However, there is a need to better understand the standardization CSFs comprehensively, as well as their relationship with project performance by analyzing data from actual standardized projects. This study attempts to fill the gap in the body of knowledge by examining the relationships between standardization CSFs and project performance as well as investigating the current status of CSFs accomplishments in standardized projects. The results show that if more CSFs are accomplished, project performance is improved for the capital projects. In addition, this research identifies which CSFs are commonly accomplished and which CSFs are challenging to accomplish. The research findings will help the industry to better understand standardization CSFs, so as to help standardized projects accomplish more CSFs appropriately, and therefore, improve project performance. Furthermore, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by building on the conceptually underlying principle of associations between standardization CSFs accomplishment and project performance.