Ruth Dowsett, Martin Green, Martin Sexton and Chris Harty
This paper aims to provide insights into how supply chain integration may occur for small housebuilders adopting modern methods of construction (MMCs). The process of creating an…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide insights into how supply chain integration may occur for small housebuilders adopting modern methods of construction (MMCs). The process of creating an empirically informed road map is described, whereby the practical day-to-day challenges of adopting a timber-frame solution on a small housing development in Southeast England were fed into a road map of future supply chain integration scenarios. The intention is to better position small housebuilders to contribute in addressing the shortfall in housing that continues to face the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews with supply chain members along with on-site observations captured key aspects of integration. Findings were used within two collaborative forums to guide discussion in a dual approach; discussing the challenges of timber-frame on the project and what would be needed on future projects for the firms analysed.
Findings
Empirically informed malleable roadmaps, of the kind developed within this study, provide feasible options for small housebuilders and suppliers of MMCs to collectively collaborate when transitioning towards fully integrated supply chains. Practically, the roadmapping approach, and the roadmap itself, would help small housebuilders and suppliers of MMCs transition towards full integration. Opening up avenues of integration that are spread across yet connected through numerous phases, firms and technologies helps construction professionals use more sophisticated modular and volumetric off-site solutions.
Research limitations/implications
Data collection took place over the course of a year. Future research could expand this relatively short duration to analyse the potential for construction professionals within the supply chain to integrate further over a longer period of time.
Originality/value
The novelty and contribution of this paper lie in the development and application of an alternative approach to roadmapping that departs from the normative linear examples of roadmaps found within the technology-roadmapping literature. The authors present a structured yet flexible approach to roadmapping that is both representative of the strategic planning and innovation activities that occur within small housebuilding firms and open to adaption to account for firm-level characteristics and contingencies. Positioned alongside firm-level dynamics (e.g. business cases and approaches to design), the roadmapping approach also reinforces the potential of incremental rather than whole-scale transitions.
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Tony Hopkin, Shu-Ling Lu, Martin Sexton and Phil Rogers
Maximising the benefit of learning from defects is regarded by UK housing associations (HAs) as a key opportunity to meet their challenges of building more homes with reduced…
Abstract
Purpose
Maximising the benefit of learning from defects is regarded by UK housing associations (HAs) as a key opportunity to meet their challenges of building more homes with reduced government funding and rent incomes. Despite learning from defects being a frequent recommendation to reduce defects in the construction literature, there is scarce empirical evidence into how HAs actually learn from defects. The purpose of this paper is to better understand how HAs learn from past defects and induce change to reduce defects.
Design/methodology/approach
Guided by organisational learning (OL) as the theoretical lens, a 21-month action research (AR) project explored one HA’s defects management and learning processes.
Findings
OL has the potential to reduce defects in new homes but is a secondary task which is reliant on a defects management team analysing defect data to identify priority areas. As such, learning from defects can be reduced due to peaks in workload if data analysis is a manual process. Furthermore, a dual learning approach plays a significant role for HA’s learning consisting of designing out defects (codification) supported by networking (personalisation) to tackle issues of workmanship on site and those defects that cannot be designed out.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates OL has the potential to reduce defects in new homes but is a secondary task in HA’s practice; and highlights the practical challenges of academia and industry co-production in AR in construction.
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Tony Hopkin, Shu-Ling Lu, Phil Rogers and Martin Sexton
Research on housing defects has limited its enquiry to the classifications of defects, potential impact of defects, and their detection and remediation during construction and the…
Abstract
Purpose
Research on housing defects has limited its enquiry to the classifications of defects, potential impact of defects, and their detection and remediation during construction and the builder’s liability period, without considering the warranty period. The purpose of this paper is to better understand which impacts of defects are perceived as important by the key stakeholders involved in their detection and remediation over the construction, builder’s liability and insurer’s warranty periods.
Design/methodology/approach
The questionnaire survey approach was used. The questionnaire distribution list was drawn from the UK’s largest warranty provider (WP) and approved inspector’s records. The questionnaire was distributed to 2003 people, receiving 292 responses, a response rate of 15 per cent.
Findings
This research challenges the assertion that the house building industry (i.e. house builders (HBs), building inspectors and WPs) is predominantly cost focussed and finds that the potential impact of defects on home occupants (HOs) are their primary concern. In contrast, the HOs’ appear solely focussed on the disruption defects caused on their daily lives and perceive a lack customer focus in the house building industry.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence of the contrasting view of the house building industry and HOs with respect to the prioritisation of the impacts of defects. Further, this research offers HBs an alternative approach to determine which defects should be targeted for reduction purposes which may lead to improved levels of customer satisfaction.
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Whitney Bevan, Shu-Ling Lu and Martin Sexton
The prevailing literature argues the need for “new” skills to deliver energy-efficient buildings. The concept of new skills, however, has not been subject to empirical…
Abstract
Purpose
The prevailing literature argues the need for “new” skills to deliver energy-efficient buildings. The concept of new skills, however, has not been subject to empirical investigation. This paper aims to provide insight on the required new skills, and their development and application, for the successful delivery of energy-efficient school retrofit buildings.
Design/methodology/approach
The research employed a case study approach of a school retrofit building project in the early stages of the adoption of energy-efficient measures. Through the application of the socio-technical network approach (STNA) as the data collection and analysis framework, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and a review of relevant organisational documentation and were analysed using thematic coding.
Findings
The findings reveal key actors (i.e. the local authority, energy contractors and school end-users), their principal interests and the required communication, project management, energy management, technical and research skills during their interactions in the successful delivery of the school retrofit building project. The results further reinforce the crucial role of the local authority in driving energy performance improvement of school buildings.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates empirical evidence of the principal actors and skills required for the delivery of energy-efficient school retrofit buildings, contributes to new theoretical insights at the identification of key micro-level development of construction skills through the project network and evidences on how the STNA can be mobilised in construction skills research.
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The local property tax is the oldest tax in the United States, as well as being the only substantial tax on landed wealth, a major part of the housing expense of most American…
Abstract
The local property tax is the oldest tax in the United States, as well as being the only substantial tax on landed wealth, a major part of the housing expense of most American families, and the most important revenue source for local governments. It is also increasingly limited by state law. This chapter presents a synthetic review of the literature on property tax limitation laws. Property taxation is a crucial resource for local governments because it is primarily a tax on real estate, and land is the least mobile tax base. A tax on the market value of real estate may have the effect of transmitting real estate price shocks to individual land users. Property tax limitation laws provide some homeowners with social protection from such market-induced economic shocks, but they do so at the price of a substantial reduction in state capacity. A meta-regression analysis of published studies finds that property tax levy limitations, on average, reduce local government budgets by as much as 5%. The potential implications for provision of other public goods, including social protection for other groups, are discussed.
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Martin Sexton and Peter Barrett
Findings were drawn from an 18 month research project involving in‐depth case study and action research fieldwork with seven small construction companies to understand the role…
Abstract
Findings were drawn from an 18 month research project involving in‐depth case study and action research fieldwork with seven small construction companies to understand the role and significance of innovation for them. A key finding of the work has been the importance of the role of effective technology transfer in the innovation process. The “organizational factors of innovation” model is presented as an analytical and prescriptive tool to assist small construction firms to understand better and manage the technology transfer process. The utility and application of the model is illustrated with a case study.
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MICHAIL KAGIOGLOU, RACHEL COOPER, GHASSAN AOUAD and MARTIN SEXTON
The complexity of construction projects and the fragmentation of the construction industry undertaking those projects has effectively resulted in linear, uncoordinated and highly…
Abstract
The complexity of construction projects and the fragmentation of the construction industry undertaking those projects has effectively resulted in linear, uncoordinated and highly variable project processes in the UK construction sector. Research undertaken at the University of Salford resulted in the development of an improved project process, the Process Protocol, which considers the whole lifecycle of a construction project whilst integrating its participants under a common framework. The Process Protocol identifies the various phases of a construction project with particular emphasis on what is described in the manufacturing industry as the ‘fuzzy front end’. The participants in the process are described in terms of the activities that need to be undertaken in order to achieve a successful project and process execution. In addition, the decision‐making mechanisms, from a client perspective, are illustrated and the foundations for a learning organization/industry are facilitated within a consistent Process Protocol.
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Kirti Ruikar, Lauri Koskela and Martin Sexton
At the heart of knowledge management (KM) are the people – an organisation's important knowledge asset. Although this is widely acknowledged, businesses seldom understand this…
Abstract
Purpose
At the heart of knowledge management (KM) are the people – an organisation's important knowledge asset. Although this is widely acknowledged, businesses seldom understand this axiom in terms of the communities through which individuals develop and share the capacity to create and use knowledge. It is the collective learning that takes place within the social systems, i.e. communities of practice (CoP) that are of particular significance to an organisation from a KM perspective. This paper aims to review, critique, and raise some pertinent questions on the role of CoPs; and with the help of case studies shed light on the “goings‐on” in construction practices.
Design/methodology/approach
After critically reviewing the literature on CoPs and querying some underlying assertions, this research investigates how these issues are addressed in practice. A case study approach is adopted. Three organisations operating in the construction sector are interviewed for the purpose of this paper.
Findings
Case study findings highlight the potential challenges and benefits of CoPs to a construction organisation, the role they play in generating and delivering value to the organisation and their contribution towards the collective organisational intelligence. From the findings, it is clear that the question is not whether communities exist within organisations, but how they deliver value to the organisation. From an organisational perspective, the key challenge is to provide an environment that is conducive to developing and nurturing such communities as opposed to merely creating them.
Practical implications
Challenges and benefits demonstrated through the case studies should be taken in context. The findings are not intended to be prescriptive in nature, but are intentionally descriptive to provide contextual data that allow readers to draw their own inferences in the context of their organisations. They should be applied taking into account an organisation's unique characteristics and differentiators, the dynamics of the environment in which it operates and the culture it harbours within.
Originality/value
Investigating the role of CoPs in the context of case study construction organisations forms the prime focus of this paper.
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Martin Sexton, Jack Goulding, Xiaonan Zhang, Mike Kagioglou, Ghassan Aouad, Rachel Cooper and Peter Barrett
The purpose of this paper is to identify interdependent barriers to the search and selection of new technologies by design engineers at industry, organisation and individual…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify interdependent barriers to the search and selection of new technologies by design engineers at industry, organisation and individual levels. A “proof of concept” HyCon tool is presented to demonstrate the role of information technology design support tools in supporting designers to overcome these inhibitors, in this case for hybrid concrete, by providing immersive and interactive, information‐rich environments to explore design solutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The HyCon tool was developed through a prototyping methodology encompassing a testing, analysis, design and coding iterative cycle. This was supported by case studies and industry workshops.
Findings
The results of a collaborative research project are presented, which describes the HyCon design support tool to promote the understanding and use of hybrid concrete in structural frames. This tool is built around a knowledge creation, application, storage, and retrieval cycle to envision and support the use of this new technology.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to integrate technology management and design process considerations within the context of an information technology design support tool, and offers a “proof of concept” HyCon tool to demonstrate key issues and potential utilities and applications.
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Bingunath Ingirige and Martin Sexton
This paper aims to prove that alliances in the construction industry can be used as vehicles to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to prove that alliances in the construction industry can be used as vehicles to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper first sets out a theoretical proposition through a literature review and synthesis, then details an empirical case study in the construction industry to investigate the theoretical proposition.
Findings
The findings indicate the existence of the “project based mindset”, within the working practices of the different players in construction alliances. This overly narrow project focus constrains the process of achieving sustainable competitive advantage for alliances.
Research limitations/implications
This research, in broad terms, provides insights on the value of long‐term orientated collaboration in construction alliances and specifically target practitioners by identifying benefits of balancing alliance tasks and activities among senior executives and project managers in an appropriate way.
Originality/value
The paper makes an original contribution to the general body of knowledge on alliances and specifically to construction alliances by identifying the core value addition in the process of long‐term orientated collaboration so that the processes are carefully designed, interpreted and nurtured in practice. Also, recommends initiatives by the alliance management to redesign tasks and activities such that collaboration becomes part‐and‐parcel of senior executives and project managers’ daily routine, rather than considering collaborative encounters as extra activities that need “slack” time.