Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to propose a comparative environmental analysis of conventional and prefabricated construction techniques utilizing a building information modelling (BIM) technique.
Design/methodology/approach
A set of indicators are selected to assess the environmental emissions throughout the construction life cycle, based on BIM platform. An existing project involving ten apartment buildings in Shanghai is selected as a case study.
Findings
The results reveal that prefabricated construction demonstrates environment-friendly performance with some exceptions of acidification and mineral resource consumption. Environmental impacts can also be further reduced by increasing the projected area ratio and percentage of project prefabrication.
Originality/value
Overall, the proposed method can be used to identify relevant environmental merits and for decision-making of appropriate construction techniques in building construction projects.
Details
Keywords
Hong Xian Li, Zhiliang Ma, Hexu Liu, Jun Wang, Mohamed Al-Hussein and Anthony Mills
The operational phase of a building's lifecycle is receiving increasing attention, as it consumes an enormous amount of energy and results in tremendous detrimental impacts on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The operational phase of a building's lifecycle is receiving increasing attention, as it consumes an enormous amount of energy and results in tremendous detrimental impacts on the environment. While energy simulation can be applied as a tool to evaluate the energy performance of a building in operation, the emergence of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology is expected to facilitate the evaluation process with predefined and enriched building information. However, such an approach has been confronted by the challenge of interoperability issues among the related application software, including the BIM tools and energy simulation tools, and the results of simulation have been seldom verified due to the unavailability of corresponding experimental data. This study aims to explore the interoperability between the commonly used energy simulation and BIM tools and verifies the simulation approach by undertaking a case study.
Design/methodology/approach
With Autodesk Revit and EnergyPlus selected as the commonly used BIM and energy simulation tools, respectively, a valid technical framework of transferring building information between two tools is proposed, and the interoperability issues that occur during the data transfer are studied. The proposed framework is then employed to simulate the energy consumption of a single-family house, and sensitivity analysis and analysis on such parameters as schedule are conducted for building operations to showcase its applicability.
Findings
The simulation results are compared with monitored data and the results from another simulation tool, HOT2000; the comparison reveals that EnergyPlus and HOT2000 predict the total energy consumption with a difference from the monitoring data of 8.0 and 7.1%, respectively.
Practical implications
This research shows how to efficiently use BIM to support building energy simulation. Relevant stakeholders can learn from this research to avoid data loss during BIM model transformation.
Originality/value
This research explores the application of BIM for building energy simulation, compares the simulation results among different tools and validates simulation results using monitored data.
Details
Keywords
Peter Sutterby, Xiangming Wang, Hong Xian Li and Yingbo Ji
Effective maintenance of construction supply chains is paramount to business continuity during the pandemic. Focusing on a large private Australian construction company, this…
Abstract
Purpose
Effective maintenance of construction supply chains is paramount to business continuity during the pandemic. Focusing on a large private Australian construction company, this research aims to investigate to what extent the current pandemic has affected the daily operations of this company. This research touches on the broader effect on the industry, while it narrows the focus on how effective construction supply chain management can minimise a pandemic's negative impact on a company. The critical question will be how private contractors that primarily rely on social infrastructure projects can fortify their supply chains and general operations during the global pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed qualitative and quantitative approach is employed in this research. Based on literature review and question design, data is collected through interviews with various stakeholders. Moreover, operation data is also collected from the case company to support the results and findings.
Findings
The respondents have generally agreed that the case company has effectively managed its supply chains to this point of the pandemic through the implementation of supply chain monitoring processes and maintaining stable relationships with stakeholders. This is supported by the operation data of the case company.
Originality/value
This is timely-conducted research, and it is original research with invaluable operation data. This case study is conducted during a pandemic and provides lessons learned for global supply chain management in the post-pandemic period.
Details
Keywords
Jianguo Li, Yuwen Gong and Hong Li
This study aims to investigate the structural characteristics, spatial evolution paths and internal driving mechanisms of the knowledge transfer (KT) network in China’s…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the structural characteristics, spatial evolution paths and internal driving mechanisms of the knowledge transfer (KT) network in China’s patent-intensive industries (PIIs). The authors' goal is to provide valuable insights to inform policy-making that fosters the development of relevant industries. The authors also aim to offer a fresh perspective for future spatiotemporal studies on industrial KT and innovation networks.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors analyze the patent transfer (PT) data of listed companies in China’s information and communication technology (ICT) industry, spanning from 2010 to 2021. The authors use social network analysis and the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) method to explore the problem of China’s PIIs KT from the perspectives of technical characteristics evolution, network and spatial evolution and internal driving mechanisms.
Findings
The results indicate that the knowledge fields involved in the PT of China’s ICT industry primarily focus on digital information transmission technology. From 2010 to 2021, the scale of the ICT industry’s KT network expanded rapidly. However, the polarization of industrial knowledge distribution is becoming more serious. QAP regression analysis shows that economic proximity and geographical proximity do not affect KT activities. The similarity of knowledge application capacity, innovation capacity and technology demand categories in various regions has a certain degree of impact on KT in the ICT industry.
Originality/value
The current research on PIIs mainly focuses on measuring economic contributions and innovation efficiency, but less on KT in PIIs. This study explores KT in PIIs from the perspectives of technological characteristics, network and spatial evolution. The authors propose a theoretical framework to understand the internal driving mechanisms of industrial KT networks.
Details
Keywords
Ji Li, Kevin Lam and Ping Ping Fu
Past research has suggested the influence of family‐oriented collectivistic culture on the behavior and performance of traditional Chinese manufacturing firms. However…
Abstract
Past research has suggested the influence of family‐oriented collectivistic culture on the behavior and performance of traditional Chinese manufacturing firms. However, insufficient empirical research has been conducted to empirically test the influence. More importantly, insufficient research has been conducted to test how the collectivistic culture in Chinese societies would affect the performance of manufacturing firms. This paper addresses these issues by comparing the behaviors and performance of two groups of firms in China, i.e., investment from overseas Chinese firms and investment from non‐Chinese Western firms, in one of China's fast‐growing manufacturing industries. Interesting differences are found between the overseas Chinese firms and those from other foreign countries. The findings support the influence of societal culture on firms' behavior and performance, but do not support the predictions on performance based on the arguments of cultural distance. This paper concludes with a discussion on implications of the findings for both researchers and practitioners.