1,721,031 research outputs found
Responding to sustainability challenge and cost implications in highway construction projects
No full textHighway construction often requires a significant capital input; therefore it often causes serious financial implications for developers, owners and operators. The recent industry-wide focus on sustainability has added a new dimension to the evaluation of highway projects, particularly on the economical scale of ‘going green’. Comprehensive analysis of the whole-of-life highway development that responds to sustainability challenges is one of the primary concerns for stakeholders. Principles of engineering economics and life cycle costing have been used to determine the incremental capacity investments for highway projects. However, the consideration of costs and issues associated with sustainability is still very limited in current studies on highway projects. Previous studies have identified that highway project investments are primarily concerned with direct market costs that can be quantified through life cycle costing analysis (LCCA). But they tend to ignore costs that are difficult to calculate, as those related to environmental and social elements. On a more positive note, these studies proved that the inclusion of such costs is an essential part of the overall development investment and a primary concern for decision making by the stakeholders. This paper discusses a research attempt to identify and categorise sustainability cost elements for highway projects. Through questionnaire survey, a set of sustainability cost elements on highway projects has been proposed. These cost elements are incorporated into the extension of some of the existing Life Cycle Costing Analysis (LCCA) models in order to produce a holistic financial picture of the highway project. It is expected that a new LCCA model will be established to serve as a suitable tool for decision making for highway project stakeholders
State of Disaster Risk Reduction at the Local Level: A report on the Patterns of Disaster Risk Reduction Actions at Local Level
Full text linkAustralian construction industry KPIs
No full textThe Australian Construction Industry Forum (which is a peak industry association) and the Australian Procurement and Construction Council (which is a peak government organisation) have jointly agreed on a set of KPIs for the Australian Construction Industry. The goal of such a process is to work collaboratively in order to lift industry performance overall, and thereby bring about economic and social benefits to the industry and broader community. This paper seeks to underpin the process of KPI measurement by providing: an overview of international approaches to KPI measurement, summary of difficulties identified in performance measurement together with possible responses to these problems, and finally a discussion on the various methods for reporting KPIs. A number of findings throughout the paper, based on the review, made in order to advance the goal of performance measurement in the construction industry in Australia. Such findings would be relevant to other countries considering a KPI measurement process as well
Visualizing and simulating inner city construction work to support multi-stakeholder meetings
Full text linkTo align the majority of the stakeholders during urban planning activities, planning experts organize multi-stakeholder meetings. A main problem during these meetings is that participants do not always have the necessary knowledge to decide or evaluate planning alternatives. Visualization and Simulation (V&S) tools can help to generate this knowledge that is necessary to make informed decisions during meetings. Experts can communicate their knowledge to laypersons easily and, in this way, improve the stakeholder's knowledge. However, V&S tools only help stakeholders to evaluate several planning alternatives if the simulation and visualization outcomes are meaningful for stakeholders. Theory lacks a process that describes how V&S system designers can find indicators that developers of simulation programs can use to make the mathematical simulation results understandable for laypersons. This paper presents a process model that allows V&S system designers to identify stakeholder-relevant indicators for V&S tools to support urban construction projects. We validated the process model on a case study in which we developed a V&S tool to support traffic planning activities during the reconstruction of the city centre of Enschede. We used a V&S tool for indicators that we identified using the process model in two meetings where it helped to generate and streamline meaningful discussions among stakeholders. In particular, it enabled stakeholders to learn about relative differences of planning alternatives. This helped to generate and communicate new knowledge by supporting the evaluation of different planning alternatives
Using Culture's Influence for Construction Innovation:Challenging the Industry
Full text linkIn the nowadays economic downturn, construction industry has been severely hit. Where at the one hand only negative news is published regarding this, at the other hand there are also appearing new opportunities for this sector to recover. However, at least these developments can give a fertile soil for starting, introducing and implementing innovations. This paper focuses on the positive part of these developments, merely as a challenge, i.e.: How to ‘boost’ construction innovation, and especially how to make a positive use of the incluence of organization’s culture for such a ‘boost’? It describes and analyzes an actual case study, existing of an innovation project within a consortium of parties, originating from the healthcare industry and from the construction & real estate industry. The described project ‘Twentse Aanpak’ focuses on an innovative integrated approach for transition of the healthcare industry and its (housing) facilities, which is actually (i.e. December 2009) under roll-out with the start-up of (pilote)projects in The Netherlands. The results are be divided in project-aspects and consortium-aspects. Broadly, the results represent the fact that ‘innovation’ as a goal can only function if it is put seriously on the central management’s actual agendas. Parallel to that, it points out that there is a need for a hands-on approach and defining clear goals when starting (complicated) innovation projects; especially, because of the fact that decision-making about choosing solutions seems still to be very complex. Other results focus on the experiences that (during working with practitioners as well as experts) create a very challenging environment, often resulting into different viewpoints and input, but therefore also assuming different ways of communication-levels and -styles (i.e. different business-cultures). And because of the different branches working together within such an innovation-consortium, the general active business-cultural backgrounds of these branches (here: healthcare vs. construction-real estate) do also lead to differences in behaviour and understanding. A perfect match will be difficult, but being aware of these differences might lead to a better and more succesful (management of the) consortium and its innovative project-results
Partnering as a process of unlearning
Full text linkOver the last decades interest in partnering arrangements has increased enormously. Recent critics have stated that prescriptive approaches dominate the discussion on partnering in construction. There is a lack of multiple perspectives on the partnering phenomenon including its economic, social, organisational and institutional context. Taking this criticism as a starting point, this paper investigates the partnering of a road maintenance contract from an activity-theoretical perspective. The results of the case study show that partnering can be described as a process of unlearning. That is, the implementation of a closer relationship between client and contractor contradicts and challenges the behaviour and working style that project team members had internalized and been used to. Team members are trapped by the beliefs and values they had cultivated throughout the years. Hence, establishing partnering is not only a matter of learning new knowledge and adjusting existing working processes. First of all, it requires discarding old routines and behaviour and overcoming vicious circles of reinforcing perceptions
The need for kaizen costing in indigenous Nigerian construction firms.
Full text linkThe application of adequate cost management methods and techniques before and during construction activities is a major determinant of project success. Construction cost management methods such as target costing, life cycle costing, activity based costing and kaizen costing are some of the ways in which a project cost can be effectively managed. Kaizen is a Japanese word for continuous improvement and it has been used in the Japanese manufacturing sector since the 1960s. This method employs techniques for incremental cost reduction and it is based on Kaizen philosophy and principles. Kaizen costing is a very useful method for post-contract cost control because it is applied during the manufacturing or production stage of a product. This cost control method creates more profit for the manufacturer, provides better quality products and improves customer satisfaction. Kaizen costing is a post-contract cost management method which can be used to increase the competitiveness of a company. This approach can be combined with target costing and other cost management methods for more effectiveness. This paper focuses on how kaizen costing can be used as a means of overcoming the challenges facing the Nigerian construction firms in terms of cost overrun; project delays and abandonment; inadequate cost control management and improving competitiveness of indigenous construction firms. Based on existing literature, this paper illustrates how kaizen costing can effective contain the challenge of cost and time overrun during construction
How Can Requested Cooperation Skills in the Tendering Process Fit in with European Legislation?
No full textRelevance of Student Projects Within Companies in the Building Industry for the Quality in Construction Management Education
No full textConstructed environment or constructing environment:is construction involved, or is it a part of change?
No full textWhile demand for construction is at its highest in newly industrializing and urbanizing societies, in post-industrialised society the role of construction is diminished. This claim embodies the theory that society can be built to completion in such a way that no further future investment would be required. The pattern of construction development in recent years, however, exposes the weakness of this theory. Many Western countries have been building extensively and have a backlog of construction demand in the pipeline, pending the next economic upswing. Why should these "ready-built" environments have such a high need for further construction? Or could it be that the construction industry itself strives, through active supply, to generate construction needs and changes in the operating environment? The source data for this study includes Finnish construction and economic time series data and databases produced by the Euroconstruct network. The study seeks to build the framework for an assessment model to illustrate the mutual interaction between construction and the operating environment
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