Supply chain sustainability : a relationship management approach moderated by culture and commitment

This paper explores the nature of relationship management on construction projects in Australia and examines the effects of culture, by means of Schwarz’s value survey, on relationships under different contract strategies. The research was based on the view that the development of a sustainable supply chain depends on the transfer of knowledge and capabilities from the larger players in the supply chain through collaboration brought about by relationship management. The research adopted a triangulated approach in which quantitative data were collected by questionnaire, interviews were conducted to explore and enrich the quantitative data and case studies were undertaken in order to illustrate and validate the fi ndings. The aim was to investigate how values and attitudes enhance or reduce the incorporation of the supply chain into the project. From the research it was found that the degree of match and mismatch between values and contract strategy impacts commitment and the engagement and empowerment of the supply chain.

Quality management in construction projects

[Quality Management in Construction Projects by Abdul Razzak Rumane, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2011, 434 pp, ISBN 9781439838716] Issues of quality management, quality control and performance against specification have long been the focus of various business sectors. Recently there has been an additional drive to achieve the continuous improvement and customer satisfaction promised by the 20th-century ‘gurus’ some six or seven decades ago. The engineering and construction industries have generally taken somewhat longer than their counterparts in the manufacturing, service and production sectors to achieve these espoused levels of quality. The construction and engineering sectors stand to realize major rewards from better managing quality in projects. More effort is being put into instructing future participants in the industry as well as assisting existing professionals. This book comes at an opportune time.

Safety culture research in the construction sector : interlocked projects in safety competency and safety effectiveness indicators

Safety culture is a concept that has long been accepted in high risk industries such as aviation, nuclear industries and mining, however, considerable research is now being undertaken within the construction sector, with varying levels of success. The current paper discusses three recent interlocked projects that have had some success in the Australian construction industry. The first project examined the development and implementation of a safety competency framework targeted at safety critical positions across first tier construction organisations. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, the project: developed a matrix of safety critical positions (n=11) and safety managements tasks (SMTs; n=39); mapped the process steps for their acquisition and ongoing development; detailed the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for all SMTs; and outlined organisational cultural outcomes that could be anticipated in a successful implementation of the framework. The second project extended research on safety competency and leadership to develop behavioural guidelines for leaders to drive safety culture change down to second tier companies. This was designed to assist smaller construction companies to customise their own competency framework and develop implementation guidelines that match their aspirations and resources. The third interlocked project explored the use of safety effectiveness indicators (SEIs) as an industry-relevant assessment tool for reducing risk on construction sites. With direct linkages to safety competencies and safety management tasks, the SEIs are the next step towards an integrated safety cultural approach to safety and extend the concept of positive performance indicators (PPIs) by providing a valid, reliable, and user friendly measurement platform. Taken together, the results of the interlocked projects suggest that safety culture research has many potential benefits for the construction industry, particularly when research is conducted in partnership with industry stakeholders. Suggestions are made for future research, including further application and testing of the safety competency framework and aligning SEIs across construction projects of varying size, location and design.

Conflict or consensus : an investigation of stakeholder concerns during the participation process of major infrastructure and construction projects in Hong Kong

Public participate in the planning and design of major public infrastructure and construction (PIC) projects is crucial to their success, as the interests of different stakeholders can be systematically captured and built into the finalised scheme. However, public participation may not always yield a mutually acceptable solution, especially when the interests of stakeholders are diverse and conflicting. Confrontations and disputes can arise unless the concerns or needs of the community are carefully analysed and addressed. The aim of the paper is to propose a systematic method of analysing stakeholder concerns relating to PIC projects by examining the degree of consensus and/or conflict involved. The results of a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews with different entities are provided, which indicate the existence of a significant divergence of views among stakeholder groups and that conflicts arise when there is a mismatch between peoples’ perception concerning money and happiness on the one hand and development and damages on the other. Policy and decision-makers should strive to resolve at least the majority of conflicts that arise throughout the lifecycle of major PIC projects so as to maximise their chance of success.

Creating value in project management using PRINCE2

This important research is published at a critical time in the history of PRINCE2. The world’s project managers are under incredible scrutiny and pressure to ensure their projects deliver quality on time and on budget – and even more so during a world recession. The research shows that PRINCE2 goes a long way to helping them achieve these goals. Although its origins began in the UK, PRINCE2 now has a truly international reach. We are delighted that the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has undertaken this global, thorough and informative research project. While it highlights the strengths of the methodology itself, the report also looks at the challenges organisations face when using a project management method such as PRINCE2. We’re sure the challenges will resonate with project managers around the world. Securing executive support to champion the adoption of PRINCE2, creating a robust business case and prioritising project governance are key issues that all project managers will grapple with during their career. The research also shows that to be thoroughly effective, organisations need to properly embed PRINCE2 and tailor it to suit their particular circumstances. Many successful organisations have sought the effective help of accredited consulting organisations to assist them in developing a programme to tailor and inculcate this method into their organisational culture. The latest version incorporates a whole chapter on tailoring PRINCE2. We believe that the publication of PRINCE2 Directing Successful Projects using PRINCE2 and the development of further support in the form of materials, mentoring and training for senior executives will be of significant benefit to contemporary project based organisations. The APM Group has already developed a qualification for sponsors in conjunction with the UK’s Home Office to help with this.

The strategic importance of tacit knowledge management activities in construction

Purpose: Tacit knowledge is perceived as the most strategically important resource of the construction organisation, and the only renewable and sustainable base for its activities and competitiveness. Knowledge management (KM) activities that deal with tacit knowledge are essential in helping an organisation to achieve its long-term organisational objectives. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence for the stronger strategic role of tacit KM in comparison to explicit KM. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey was administered in 2005 to a sample of construction contractors operating in Hong Kong to elicit opinions on the internal business environment, intensity of KM activities as executed by targeted organisations, and contribution of these activities to business performance (BP). A total of 149 usable responses were received from 99 organisations representing about 38 per cent of the sampling frame. The statistical analyses helped to map the reported KM activities into two groups that, respectively, deal with tacit and explicit knowledge. The sensitivity to variations of organisational policies and strength of association with BP in relation to the two groups of KM activities were also compared empirically. A total of 15 interviews with the managerial and professional staff of leading contractors was undertaken to provide insightful narratives of KM implementations. Findings: The effective implementation of organisational policies, such as encouraging innovations and strengthening strategic guidance for KM, would facilitate human interactions of tacit KM. Higher intensity of activities in managing tacit knowledge would ultimately help the organisations to achieve economic gain in the long run. Originality/value: The stronger strategic role of tacit KM is empirically investigated and established within the context of construction organisations.

Ontology-based feature modeling for construction information extraction from a building information model

A building information model (BIM) provides a rich representation of a building's design. However, there are many challenges in getting construction-specific information from a BIM, limiting the usability of BIM for construction and other downstream processes. This paper describes a novel approach that utilizes ontology-based feature modeling, automatic feature extraction based on ifcXML, and query processing to extract information relevant to construction practitioners from a given BIM. The feature ontology generically represents construction-specific information that is useful for a broad range of construction management functions. The software prototype uses the ontology to transform the designer-focused BIM into a construction-specific feature-based model (FBM). The formal query methods operate on the FBM to further help construction users to quickly extract the necessary information from a BIM. Our tests demonstrate that this approach provides a richer representation of construction-specific information compared to existing BIM tools.

Querying a building information model for construction-specific spatial information

The design and construction community has shown increasing interest in adopting building information models (BIMs). The richness of information provided by BIMs has the potential to streamline the design and construction processes by enabling enhanced communication, coordination, automation and analysis. However, there are many challenges in extracting construction-specific information out of BIMs. In most cases, construction practitioners have to manually identify the required information, which is inefficient and prone to error, particularly for complex, large-scale projects. This paper describes the process and methods we have formalized to partially automate the extraction and querying of construction-specific information from a BIM. We describe methods for analyzing a BIM to query for spatial information that is relevant for construction practitioners, and that is typically represented implicitly in a BIM. Our approach integrates ifcXML data and other spatial data to develop a richer model for construction users. We employ custom 2D topological XQuery predicates to answer a variety of spatial queries. The validation results demonstrate that this approach provides a richer representation of construction-specific information compared to existing BIM tools.

Impact of the internal business environment on knowledge management within construction organisations

Purpose: Recent knowledge management (KM) literature suggests that KM activities are influenced by the elements of the internal business environment (BE) of organisations. This paper attempts to provide some unique insights into the contextual input of the KM process through empirically identifying the major factors (i.e. “forces”) within the internal BE of construction organisations operating in Hong Kong, and investigating their impact on the intensity of KM activities. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of construction contractors operating in Hong Kong to elicit opinions on the internal BE and intensity of KM activities as executed by targeted organisations. A total of 149 usable responses were received from 99 organisations representing about 38 percent of the research population. In parallel, to the survey, a total of 15 semi-structured interviews were undertaken to provide more insights into the phenomenon under investigation. Findings: Supported by the empirical and qualitative evidence, this study established that firstly, both organisational and technical environments have the capacity to either positively or negatively impact the intensity of KM activities, and both environments serve as stimuli in increasing each other's dynamism; secondly, certain types of KM activities are stronger “energy receivers” and easily to be “powered up” by manipulating factors representing these two environments. Then, through interactions between KM activities, the intensity of the whole strategic KM cycle will be increased thus helping to strengthen organisational competitive advantage.

Scheduling decisions and their dynamic consequences on construction performance

Construction practitioners often experience unexpected results of their scheduling-related decisions. This is mainly due to lack of understanding of the dynamic nature of construction system. However, very little attention has been given to its significant importance and few empirical studies have been undertaken on this issue. This paper, therefore, analyzes the effect of aggressive scheduling, overtime, resource adding, and schedule slippage on construction performance, focusing on workers’ reactions to those scheduling decisions. Survey data from 102 construction practitioners in 38 construction sites are used for the analysis. The results indicate that efforts to increase work rate by working overtime, resource adding, and aggressive scheduling can be offset due to losses in productivity and quality. Based on the research findings, practical guidelines are then discussed to help site managers to effectively deal with the dynamics of scheduling and improve construction performance.

Reasoning about component similarity in building product models from the construction perspective

Identifying the design features that impact construction is essential to developing cost effective and constructible designs. The similarity of building components is a critical design feature that affects method selection, productivity, and ultimately construction cost and schedule performance. However, there is limited understanding of what constitutes similarity in the design of building components and limited computer-based support to identify this feature in a building product model. This paper contributes a feature-based framework for representing and reasoning about component similarity that builds on ontological modelling, model-based reasoning and cluster analysis techniques. It describes the ontology we developed to characterize component similarity in terms of the component attributes, the direction, and the degree of variation. It also describes the generic reasoning process we formalized to identify component similarity in a standard product model based on practitioners' varied preferences. The generic reasoning process evaluates the geometric, topological, and symbolic similarities between components, creates groupings of similar components, and quantifies the degree of similarity. We implemented this reasoning process in a prototype cost estimating application, which creates and maintains cost estimates based on a building product model. Validation studies of the prototype system provide evidence that the framework is general and enables a more accurate and efficient cost estimating process.

Downtime model development for construction equipment management

Downtime (DT) caused by non-availability of equipment and equipment breakdown has non-trivial impact on the performance of construction projects. Earlier research has often addressed this fact, but it has rarely explained the causes and consequences of DT – especially in the context of developing countries. This paper presents a DT model to address this issue. Using this model, the generic factors and processes related to DT are identified, and the impact of DT is quantified. By applying the model framework to nine road projects in Nepal, the impact of DT is explored in terms of its duration and cost. The research findings highlight how various factors and processes interact with each other to create DT, and mitigate or exacerbate its impact on project performance. It is suggested that construction companies need to adopt proactive equipment management and maintenance programs to minimize the impact of DT.

Impact of organisational cultural factors on knowledge management in construction

Knowledge Management (KM) is a process that focuses on knowledge-related activities to facilitate knowledge creation, capture, transformation and use, with the ultimate aim of leveraging organisations’ intellectual capital to achieve organisational objectives. Organisational culture and climate have been identified as major catalysts to knowledge creation and sharing, and hence are considered important dimensions of KM research. The fragmented and hierarchical nature of the construction industry illustrates its difficulties to operate in a co-ordinated and homogeneous way when dealing with knowledge-related issues such as research and development, training and innovation. The culture and climate of organisations operating within the construction industry are profoundly shaped by the long-established characteristics of the industry, whilst also being influenced by the changes within the sector. Meanwhile, the special project-based structure of construction organisations constitutes additional challenges in facing knowledge production. The study this paper reports on addresses the impact of organisational culture and climate on the intensity of KM activities within construction organisations, with specific focus on the managerial activities that help to manage these challenges and to facilitate KM. A series of semi-structured interviews were undertaken to investigate the KM activities of the contractors operating in Hong Kong. The analysis on the qualitative data revealed that leadership on KM, innovation management, communication management and IT development were key factors that impact positively on the KM activities within the organisations under investigation.

A self-assessment tool for knowledge management implementation in the construction industry

Knowledge management (KM) provides a structured process to establish the link between knowledgebased assets within an organisation and its desired business objectives. Although KM issues are becoming increasingly important to the construction industry, there is currently no measurement tool for assessing the implementation of KM programmes. This paper reports on the development of such a tool which can be used as both a means of self-assessment and also for benchmarking purposes. Important practices needed for successful KM implementation were identified from the literature and via a self-administered survey targeting large and medium construction organisations in Hong Kong. Survey findings demonstrate the potential of the proposed self-assessment tool to measure the individual’s perception of the relative importance of KM antecedents and practices, also providing early insight of KM implementation by highlighting the negative gaps between what “is” and “should be” happening, thus identifying areas that need re alignment of KM strategies and tactics. The paper also suggests this tool could be further developed to help organisations to formulate and modify their KM programmes according to their own specific internal business environment, and the nature of their projects.

Knowledge management practices in construction : Evidence from Hong Kong

The acquisition and management of knowledge is the dominant source of organisational com-petitive advantage. As innovation processes in the management and procurement of construc-tion activities are becoming increasingly interactive, knowledge management (KM) has been widely recognised by construction organisations as an essential tool to be employed when dealing with growing complexity and cost of projects as well as increasing client demands. KM requires deliberate efforts by an organisation to maximise its performance through the acquisition, dissemination and leveraging of the organisation’s intellectual assets. The Hong Kong (HK) construction market has been described as one of the most open and globally competitive. This paper reports on KM practices within the HK construction industry, and through the analysis of a self-administered questionnaire survey, reveals managers’ opinions of the formal and informal KM practices that could be used to manage the flow of knowledge, and identifies the level of implementation within their organisations. The differences between managers’ perception and the actual state of implementation – as reported by the same man-agers – are statistically examined. The analysis leads to better understanding of how HK con-struction professionals currently manage organisational knowledge, and what areas for poten-tial improvement exist.