G.K. KULULANGA and R. McCAFFER
The greatest challenge facing construction executives is how to manage their intellectual capital. The business environment has now entered a knowledge era, where knowledge has…
Abstract
The greatest challenge facing construction executives is how to manage their intellectual capital. The business environment has now entered a knowledge era, where knowledge has become power and learning rapidly and competently has become a pre‐eminent strategy for success. Thus, knowledge is rapidly becoming more important to organizations than financial resources, market positions, technology and other tangible assets. However, the management of intellectual capital is still an under‐charted territory within construction organizations. Managing know‐how, know‐what, know‐why is unlike managing finances or construction plant, yet intellectual
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Udayangani Kulatunga, Dilanthi Amaratunga and Richard Haigh
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of performance measurement (PM) within construction research and development (R&D) activities to enhance its efficiency…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of performance measurement (PM) within construction research and development (R&D) activities to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive literature review is used as the methodology of this paper where it will look into two main areas. First, the paper discusses R&D work in construction industry with particular reference to its role, main contributors, and the issues which hinders its successfulness. From this section the paper arrives at a definition for construction R&D and the scope of the study. The second section of the paper defines PM and identifies the importance of it in general. Finally, the paper justifies how the issues within construction R&D could be minimised by implementing PM system.
Findings
The paper justifies the implementation of PM within construction R&D and identifies how PM could enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of construction R&D through: identifying requirements of the parties involved within the research process; defining clear aims and objectives; evaluation of the successfulness of activates/confirmation of milestones; providing information for the research funders regarding the utilisation of resources; improving the communication and coordination of the parties involved; and providing feedback for future improvements of the research work.
Originality/value
The paper reveals the impact and influence of PM towards the construction R&D activities.
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David J. Edwards, Junli Yang, Ruel Cabahug and Peter E.D. Love
The productivity and output levels of construction plant and equipment depends in part upon a plant operator’s maintenance proficiency; such that a higher degree of proficiency…
Abstract
The productivity and output levels of construction plant and equipment depends in part upon a plant operator’s maintenance proficiency; such that a higher degree of proficiency helps ensure that machinery is maintained in good operational order. In the absence of maintenance proficiency, the potential for machine breakdown (and hence lower productivity) is greater. Using data gathered from plant and equipment experts within the UK, plant operators’ maintenance proficiency are modelled using a radial basis function (RBF) artificial neural network (ANN). Results indicate that the developed ANN model was able to classify proficiency at 89 per cent accuracy using 10 significant variables. These variables were: working nightshifts, new mechanical innovations, extreme weather conditions, planning skills, operator finger dexterity, years experience with a plant item, working with managers with less knowledge of plant/equipment, operator training by apprenticeship, working under pressure of time and duration of training period. It is proffered that these variables may be used as a basis for categorizing plant operators in terms of maintenance proficiency and, that their potential for influencing operator training programmes needs to be considered.
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Silas B. Yisa, Issaka Ndekugri and Brian Ambrose
The external, social, economic and political environments determine the opportunities for work and thereby potential profit. Clients’ needs and attitudes, like the external…
Abstract
The external, social, economic and political environments determine the opportunities for work and thereby potential profit. Clients’ needs and attitudes, like the external environment itself, are never static and therefore organizations need to adapt and respond to these fluctuations. Situated between the external and internal environment of an organization and operating at the boundary of the organization is the marketing function. There are many changes occurring in the UK construction industry: a levelling of the trade cycle; methods of placing contracts; increased emphasis on quality, experience and innovations; and increasing competition among firms; clients’ buying behaviour due to changes in the clients’ organization; and developments in technology. Evaluates the role of marketing in seeking to regulate the construction organizations’ relationships with changes within the industry and the external environment.
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Adnan Enshassi, Sherif Mohamed, Peter Mayer and Karem Abed
Labor productivity is one of the most important factors that affect the physical progress of any construction project. In order to improve labor productivity, site production…
Abstract
Purpose
Labor productivity is one of the most important factors that affect the physical progress of any construction project. In order to improve labor productivity, site production should be measured on a regular basis, and then compared to acceptable standard benchmarks. The objective of this paper is to measure masonry labor productivity in Gaza Strip, Palestine, using a consistent benchmarking approach.
Design/methodology/approach
Production data were collected from nine different construction projects located in Gaza. For each project, values for baseline productivity, disruption index, performance index and project management index were calculated.
Findings
Based on the nine targeted projects, the baseline productivity of masonry works in Gaza seems to range from 0.29 to 0.80 work‐hours per square meter. Calculated values were utilized to develop a correlation between two project benchmarks (i.e. disruption and project management indices). AS only four out of the targeted nine projects performed reasonably well, the paper strongly recommends developing a benchmarking standard for each local construction firm in Palestine which may lead to an improvement in the national construction productivity.
Originality/value
The outcome of this research will improve the national construction productivity in Palestine and highlights the benefit of improving benchmarking standard.
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The purpose of the paper is to consider whether the benefits that construction organisations achieve by adopting a supply chain management approach to their specialist partners…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to consider whether the benefits that construction organisations achieve by adopting a supply chain management approach to their specialist partners outweigh those that are derived from a market‐driven approach.
Design/methodology/approach
This editorial adopts a transaction economics perspective to evaluate the external environment facing contracting organisations within the UK, especially as a result of the recent economic downturn. One of the consequences of the reduced demand for construction work is that clients now prefer a market‐based approach to the procurement of their contractors; this assertion is supported by analysis of recently published survey data on client procurement approaches and price and cost data.
Findings
The transactional economic implications of these changes to the supplier/contractor relationship are presented for discussion. The research implications of this indicate that further empirical data is required on: the economic benefits of supply chain management, how the benefits are derived from the different sub markets that exist in construction, and the influence the external economic environment has upon the contractor/subcontractor transaction interface.
Originality/value
This work seeks to encourage researchers to empiricise the theoretical constructs of new institutional economics in line with the dynamics of the subcontracting/supplier market. In doing so, a better understanding of the economic factors that can influence the bilateral dependencies that exist between large and small organisations may result.
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Udayangani Kulatunga, Dilanthi Amaratunga and Richard Haigh
The aim of this study is to explore performance measurement applications within construction research and development (R&D) to develop a structured approach to measure the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to explore performance measurement applications within construction research and development (R&D) to develop a structured approach to measure the performance of a collaborative construction R&D project during its lifecycle from initiation, conceptualisation, development, and launch stages, and during project management.
Design/methodology/approach
During the exploratory phase of the study, semi‐structured interviews and a questionnaire survey were carried out to develop the performance measurement system (PMS). During the explanatory phase, the developed PMS was refined with a series of semi‐structured interviews. The data were gathered from principal investigators, researchers and industrial partners involved in collaborative construction R&D work.
Findings
The main finding is the developed PMS to measure the performance of construction R&D that consists of critical success factors, performance indicators and performance measures during the lifecycle of a R&D project.
Practical implications
The PMS developed through the study provides critical success factors, performance indicators and measures that need to be considered during construction R&D projects to measure the performance. Thus, through the implementation of the PMS, this study contributes to practice by assisting the performance improvement within construction R&D projects.
Originality/value
The developed PMS to measure the performance of construction R&D projects will provide value for those who are engaged in R&D work (principal investigators, researchers and industrial partners) to ensure the success of their projects.
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E.W.L. Cheng and H. Li
The main purpose of this study is to provide some empirical evidence to support the consistency measure as an essential component in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which is…
Abstract
The main purpose of this study is to provide some empirical evidence to support the consistency measure as an essential component in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which is known to be a research method useful to both decision making and empirical research in construction information and management. The measure helps to affirm that individual decision makers capture logical and reasonable preferences when making decisions. It also supports empirical research conducted by either practitioners or academic researchers to ensure that the questionnaires are not poorly answered. Measure of the consistency level is expected to be able to detect inconsistent responses. In this study, strategies have been adopted to compare the AHP with the simple rating method to justify the criticality of consistency using data from a study of construction supply chain information. Three groups of responses (overall, consistent and inconsistent) based on the consistency measure were compared. Results indicate that responses to the AHP method having acceptable consistency (the consistent group) were shown to be consistent with the responses from the simple rating method. This supports that the consistent responses are reliable. Suggestions are given to improve the undertaking of AHP research.
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Construction contract auctions are characterized by (1) a heavy emphasis on the lowest bid as it is that which usually determines the winner of the auction, (2) anticipated high…
Abstract
Construction contract auctions are characterized by (1) a heavy emphasis on the lowest bid as it is that which usually determines the winner of the auction, (2) anticipated high outliers because of the presence of non‐competitive bids, (3) very small samples, and (4) uncertainty of the appropriate underlying density function model of the bids. This paper describes a method for simultaneously identifying outliers and density function by systematically identifying and removing candidate (high) outliers and examining the composite goodness‐of‐fit of the resulting reduced samples with censored normal and lognormal density function. The special importance of the lowest bid value in this context is utilized in the goodness‐of‐fit test by the probability of the lowest bid recorded for each auction as a lowest order statistic. Six different identification strategies are tested empirically by application, both independently and in pooled form, to eight sets of auction data gathered from around the world. The results indicate the most conservative identification strategy to be a multiple of the auction standard deviation assuming a lognormal composite density. Surprisingly, the normal density alternative was the second most conservative solution. The method is also used to evaluate some methods used in practice and to identify potential improvements.
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Temidayo Oluwasola Osunsanmi, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa, Wellington Didibhuku Thwala and Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke
The idea of implementing supply chain management (SCM) principles for the construction industry was embraced by construction stakeholders to enhance the sector's performance. The…
Abstract
The idea of implementing supply chain management (SCM) principles for the construction industry was embraced by construction stakeholders to enhance the sector's performance. The analysis from the literature revealed that the implementation of SCM in the construction industry enhances the industry's value in terms of cost-saving, time savings, material management, risk management and others. The construction supply chain (CSC) can be managed using the pull or push system. This chapter also discusses the origin and proliferation of SCM into the construction industry. The chapter revealed that the concept of SCM has passed through five different eras: the creation era, the use of ERP, globalisation stage, specialisation stage and electronic stage. The findings from the literature revealed that we are presently in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. At this stage, the SCM witnesses the adoption of technologies and principles driven by the 4IR. This chapter also revealed that the practice of SCM in the construction industry is centred around integration, collaboration, communication and the structure of the supply chain (SC). The forms and challenges hindering the adoption of these practices were also discussed extensively in this chapter.