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Empirical investigation of the applicability of constructability methods to prevent design errors

Gabriel Raviv (National Building Research Institute, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel)
Aviad Shapira (Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel)
Rafael Sacks (Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel)

Built Environment Project and Asset Management

ISSN: 2044-124X

Article publication date: 1 February 2021

Issue publication date: 1 March 2022

327

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to identify the effective constructability methods and tools that should be applied during the early project design stages to prevent specific constructability failures regarding project context.

Design/methodology/approach

Seventeen basic constructability problems were defined, 12 constructability implementation methods for investigation were selected, and a general tool representing potential causal connections between the problems and the methods that could prevent them was developed. A comparative case study was conducted through a rigorous investigation of the construction documentation of four major building construction projects. Nearly four hundred constructability problems were identified. The tool developed was used to draw conclusions about the preferred constructability methods, in general, and with respect to specific project contexts.

Findings

The managerial approach offers the best methods for preventing constructability problems. The major methods that emerged were (1) assigning a constructability champion, (2) facilitating the involvement of the general contractor early in the design process, and (3) augmenting design quality control. At the other end of the scale, methods such as company procedures and owner involvement were found to be the least effective.

Originality/value

The paper offers the ability to relate constructability problems to preventive mechanisms and to identify the appropriate steps to be taken to resolve these problems. The mechanism described here can be used by construction companies that keep failure data within accounting files to check projects in retrospect and draw lessons from them to be implemented in future projects.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to the four project managers who were interviewed in the initial screening phase of this study, and to their employers, for their contribution and for their willingness to share sensitive information. The authors also thank the 25 experts who provided their assessments for the establishment of the RMTX. Without their contributions, the study would not have been possible.

Citation

Raviv, G., Shapira, A. and Sacks, R. (2022), "Empirical investigation of the applicability of constructability methods to prevent design errors", Built Environment Project and Asset Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 53-69. https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-02-2020-0028

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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