Editorial

Citation

McCaffer, R. (2005), "Editorial", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 12 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam.2005.28612faa.001

Editorial

Edition 12.6 brings to an end the twelfth year of ECAM. In year 12 we have published 35 articles involving 96 authors from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Middle East, Far East and the UK. All these authors have enjoyed the public recognition of seeing their paper in print under that name. It is appropriate to acknowledge the significant and critical contribution of unsung heroes of each edition who labour without reward to maintain our standards. These are the 70 referees who have willingly helped us in the publication process. To each and everyone the whole publication team is grateful. Most of these I know personally and add my personal thanks.

Issue 12.6 has the usual rich selection of topics from consultants performance through knowledge capture, design support, transferring research knowledge to teaching, Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and the protection of workers in low-income economics. Missing in this edition is modelling and mathematical techniques which have featured frequently in previous issues.

In this edition there are six papers produced by 22 authors! There is one single authored paper, one with two authors, two papers with three authors and then it goes exponential with one paper with six authors and one with seven authors. The last two papers must have taken a long time to produce to get so many authors to agree.

The international distribution of authors is very skewed, in this edition, with one from Hong Kong and 21 from the UK.

The papers in this issue are as follows.

Ng examines the quality performance of consultants as seen by their clients. Ng surveyed construction clients to determine the benefits of using consultants accredited under ISO 9000:2000. The results of Ng’s work is that the actual benefits achieved by construction clients are less than what the clients expect. If true then clients must be generally dissatisfied by their consultants. All this work relates to Hong Kong but I suspect is more generally true, the strides forward in quality management system does appear to have been greater with contractors than with consultants.

Hari, Egbu, and Kumar studied 51 professionals from 26 construction organisations and convinced themselves of that the lack of awareness of knowledge capture could be corrected by a computer-based awareness tool. The authors offer comment on why there is a lack of awareness of knowledge capture and the reasons behind it.

Sexton, Goulding, Zhang, Kagioglou, Aouad, Cooper and Barrett identify the barriers to the research and selection of new technologies by designers. Their solution is a “proof of concept” tool for use as a design support tool. They use the tool on a case study involving hybrid concrete in structural frames. They believe that they have integrated technology management and design process considerations using an information technology (IT) design support tool. Much of the inhibitions of designers to explore new technologies is routed in competitive fees that leave little room for explorations that may not contribute to the design solutions that earns the fee. More on this issue would have been interesting.

Senaratne, Kagioglou, Amaratunga, Baldry, Aouad and Bowden courageously accuse research-based departments in universities of being poor at transferring their research knowledge into teaching especially at undergraduate level. The authors attempt to provide a framework that will enable knowledge transfer from research into teaching. As all the authors would claim to be from a research-based department one would have hoped from more than guidance on how to do it but more of a “this is how it is done”. It is interesting that the discussion is public.

Akintoye and Chinyio examined the growing use of PFI in healthcare projects and the attendant risk management of hospital projects. They identify that the prime risk assessment technique is “experience” and that risk avoidance is explored first before allowing for any residual risks. Insurance cover and the use of sub-contractors are identified as the main risk management strategies. The negotiations on health care PFI project contracts has a significant impact on the specification of facilities.

Cotton, Sohail and Scott argue the case that the international standards safeguarding construction workers in low income countries are ineffective. They further argue that it is not more legislation that is required but incorporating existing legislation into construction contracts and making the legislation operational that is the priority. To assist this they make suggestions as to how this might be achieved. The work was based on studies in Ghana, India and Zambia.

Ronald McCaffer