Investigation to Discover Most Effective Method of Teaching Target Costing to Construction-Minded Individuals

The construction industry is in the midst of a progressive change in the way projects unfold from design and development to closeout and maintenance. There is a greater demand on contractors to build projects faster, with higher quality and an increased level of detail, while keeping costs lower than ever. Therefore, to meet such demands contractors must turn to an alternative approach of improving product and process with target costing. However, the adoption of target costing by the construction industry has been slow due to limitations in user understanding of the system.

The objective of this paper is to identify an effective approach for teaching target costing to construction-focused individuals, by establishing improved user understanding with visual aids, and by determining if user comprehension is influenced by the complexity of the visual supports provided in the lessons. The study challenged the long-implied assumption that the construction community is composed of visual learners, while also differentiating between the levels of success for supporting figures based upon their degree of detail. Results of this study will provide the basis for the development of target costing material that is designed specifically for use in the education of construction industry professionals in Target Cost Estimating.