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As tower cranes are highly dangerous, the problem of insufficient investment in tower safety needs to be solved urgently, and this study aims to solve the problem of insufficient investment in safety caused by the imbalance of interests of tower safety-related subjects and to propose targeted solutions.

Tower crane rental enterprises, contractors and government departments are selected to construct the game model, calculate the equilibrium point and stability and determine the optimal stabilization strategy. Finally, MATLAB software is used to model and simulate the impact of parameter changes on each party’s choice of strategies.

(1) The optimal combination of strategies is safety input by tower companies, leasing of qualified towers by contractors and providing non-financial incentives by the government. (2) The degree of synergistic coefficient γ, the level of government penalty coefficient α and the increase in accident probability p positively affect the adoption of proactive safety measures by tower crane leasing enterprises and contractors. (3) Excessive differences in safety costs may lead firms to adopt hostile safety measures.

This paper creatively uses safety input and tower crane leasing enterprises as the perspective and object of research on tower security. The research results are of great significance in guiding the government to formulate regulatory and incentive policies and in promoting enterprises to implement safety input to ensure construction safety collaboratively. It also provides new research cases for promoting the entire special equipment industry to realize adequate and effective safety input.

I remember some ten years ago taking my children north across the Woolwich ferry, making for the highest tower block of flats we could see, and taking the lift to the top floor as this was the only way to get a good view into London's docks. Stretched out below were the oblongs of water, holding the ships etched in black and white with vivid bands of colour round their funnels, overhung with the tracery of cranes and derricks. Today there is no need for such complications: one can drive straight through Gate 19 into King George V docks, along the wide empty roads to the waterfront. I saw two ships moored on the north side, “Bunga Orchid”, carrying containers which were handled by the traditional cranes, and “El Flamingo”, carrying timber. Each was some 6,000 tons and each was importing — historically the trade was either import or export at one berth, not both, for congestion precluded the double operation. Today there is no congestion. The great sheds and lines of grey cranes are still there, and with them the small brick block offices of the shipping companies who have long gone. In one such block on the south side, a small firm, Advanced Battery Systems (Pb) Ltd, has taken up residence, having started originally in temporary accommodation at what was once the Medical Centre of the National Dock Labour Board. From the upper floor of the company's new home the skyline of tower blocks, chimneys, cranes and the occasional church spire is bright on a sharp December morning.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).

IN a departure from usual practice this issue concentrates to a large extent upon a single subject — Mechanical Handling. It coincides with that industry's exhibition at Earls Court from the 9th to 19th of this month, to be opened by the Rt. Hon. Christopher Chataway, M.P., Minister for Industrial Development. In consequence it was necessary to defer some regular features for a time, for which we apologise.

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

In recent decades, infrastructure has continued to develop as an important basis for social development and people's lives. Resource management of these large-scale projects has been immensely concerned because dozens of construction enterprises (CEs) often work together. In this situation, resource collaboration among enterprises has become a key measure to ensure project implementation. Thus, this study aims to propose a systematic multi-agent resource collaborative decision-making optimization model for large projects from a matching perspective.

The main contribution of this work was an advancement of the current research by: (1) generalizing the resource matching decision-making problem and quantifying the relationship between CEs. (2) Based on the matching domain, the resource input costs and benefits of each enterprise in the associated group were comprehensively analyzed to build the mathematical model, which also incorporated prospect theory to map more realistic decisions. (3) According to the influencing factors of resource decision-making, such as cost, benefit and attitude of decision-makers, determined the optimal resource input in different situations.

Numerical experiments were used to verify the effectiveness of the multi-agent resource matching decision (MARMD) method in this study. The results indicated that this model could provide guidance for optimal decision-making for each participating enterprise in the resource association group under different situations. And the results showed the psychological preference of decision-makers has an important influence on decision performance.

While the MARMD method has been proposed in this research, MARMD still has many limitations. A more detailed matching relationship between different resource types in CEs is still not fully analyzed, and relevant studies about more accurate parameters of decision-makers’ psychological preferences should be conducted in this area in the future.

Compared with traditional projects, large-scale engineering construction has the characteristics of huge resource consumption and more participants. While decision-makers can determine the matching relationship between related enterprises, this is ambiguous and the wider range will vary with more participants or complex environment. The MARMD method provided in this paper is an effective methodological tool with clearer decision-making positioning and stronger actual operability, which could provide references for large-scale project resource management.

Large-scale engineering is complex infrastructure projects that ensure national security, increase economic development, improve people's lives and promote social progress. During the implementation of large-scale projects, CEs realize value-added through resource exchange and integration. Studying the optimal collaborative decision of multi-agent resources from a matching perspective can realize the improvement of resource transformation efficiency and promote the development of large-scale engineering projects.

The current research on engineering resources decision-making lacks a matching relationship, which leads to unclear decision objectives, ambiguous decision processes and poor operability decision methods. To solve these issues, a novel approach was proposed to reveal the decision mechanism of multi-agent resource optimization in large-scale projects. This paper could bring inspiration to the research of large-scale project resource management.

These two cases give accounts of technological innovation in a particular industry, ie bulk cargo handling and containerisation in the port industry. The geographical setting is the Pacific Coast of Northern California, more precisely at Sacramento and at San Francisco. The subject of technological innovation is a vast one, the extent of the port industry along the full length of the Pacific Coast is equally massive, and the complexity of relationships between ports as employers, stevedoring companies, shipping companies, employers' associations, the international union (ILWU) and its various Locals, and other unions, is phenomenal. Thus these two cases are merely tiny snap shots within that huge scenario. The information has been collected from the sources of visits to the locations, technical and specialist literature, and interviews with four individual people representing management and organised labour.

AUTOMATION is generally a process superimposed on existing plants, not exactly a thing of shreds and patches, but a compromise between the ideal and the practicable. Rarely is it possible to find it as the basic conception in the mind of the industrialist before even the blue prints of a new manufacturing process have been prepared.

The criticality of mechanical plant to construction activity is well accepted within the literature; however, the supply chain mechanisms by which that demand is satisfied, are much less documented or understood. The purpose of this paper is to address this theoretical gap by: describing Construction Plant Supply Chain (CPSC) evolvement; identifying with present sector difficulties; discussing solutions to those difficulties; and considering the role of innovation within CPSC (historically and for the future).

A mixed‐method research, i.e. qualitative and preliminary, including literature review, case study inquiry of an established multi‐purpose CPSC player, and open question survey of a limited sample of CPSC stakeholders has been employed in this study. Inductive data analysis via textual interrogation is undertaken.

In reaction to market forces and business challenges, CPSC evolution demonstrated innovative change from former contractor‐held plant fleets to predominantly private sector “external” supply chains. Of late, CPSC challenges have intensified, given its intrinsic relationship to a depressed UK (and global) economy, dependency on capital investment, and the need for sustained demand. Suggestions to encounter present challenges have been made and a difficult medium‐term future signified.

As a preliminary study, generalisation of findings should be viewed in a limited context; however, given the dearth of research in this subject, the findings make novel contribution to the CPSC literature while signposting fertile avenues for future and more comprehensive research.

No previous research in this specific field has been identified.

THE American magazine Business Week recently dealt with the problem of work study in white collar areas and in the course of the article made the following comment: ‘The real impact of computer technology on work measurement and performance standards will come when it can take over more of the functions of the industrial engineer.’