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Infrastructure projects are complex, task-based endeavours; the reliability of project schedules is often low, as delays occur. As a result, the infrastructure sector is constantly searching for innovative practices that might improve project performance. This study aims to pursue one research question: what are the benefits and challenges to last planner system (LPS) implementation in Australia’s infrastructure industry? It addresses this question through an examination of two rail infrastructure projects in Victoria, Australia.

The state of Victoria in Australia provides an excellent context for this study. The study was set in one of the programme alliances which was contracted to carry out five level-crossing removal projects. This study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research techniques, including surveys, interviews and site visits. The authors collected 43 valid survey responses. Additionally, 19 participants from the alliance programme’s two projects (Projects A and B) took part in the interviews. Extensive empirical evidence has been triangulated to achieve the research goals.

The findings show through the questionnaire survey that the greatest benefits that digital LPS brings are primarily associated with process improvement and social benefits. The interview results acknowledged that the roll-out of digital LPS had a positive impact on schedules, cost, occupational health and safety (OHS) and quality performance. The research also noted a few challenges in the introduction of digital LPS. Overall, the finding presents strong evidence that the introduction of digital LPS has been a clear success in the case company.

This is the first piece of research to fill this major gap in the LPS literature by exploring the issue of digital LPS adoption in Australia’s infrastructure sector. This study has thus laid the foundation for future work on LPS research in the Australian context. The authors are optimistic that this exploratory work will generate interest across other alliances, and perhaps extend into Australia’s construction sector.

Lean construction (LC) consists of very effective techniques; however, its implementation varies considerably from one industry to another. Although numerous lean initiatives do exist in the construction industry, the research topic related to LC implementation is still unexplored due to the scarcity of validated assessment frameworks. This study aims to provide the first attempt in developing a structural model for successful LC implementation.

This study developed a Lean construction model (LCM) by critically reviewing seven previous LC frameworks from different countries, defining 18 subprinciples grouped into 6 major principles and formulating testable hypotheses. The questionnaire was pre-tested with 12 construction management experts and revised by 4 specialized academics. A pilot study with 20 construction units enhanced content reliability. Data from 307 Moroccan construction companies were collected to develop a measurement model. SPSS V. 26 was used for Exploratory Factor Analysis, followed by confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS version 23. Finally, a structural equation model statistically assessed each construct's contribution to the success of LC implementation.

This work led to the development of an original LCM based on valid and reliable LC constructs, consisting of 18 measurement items grouped into 6 LC principles: Process Transparency, People involvement, Waste elimination, Planning and Continuous improvement, Client Focus and Material/information flow and pull. According to the structural model, LC implementation success is positively influenced by Planning and Scheduling/continuous improvement (β = 0.930), followed by Elimination of waste (β = 0.896). Process transparency ranks third (β = 0.858). The study demonstrates that all these factors are mutually complementary, highlighting a positive relationship between LC implementation success and the holistic application of all LC principles.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to develop a statistically proven model of LC based on structural equation modelling analysis, which is promising for stimulating construction practitioners and researchers for more empirical studies in different countries to obtain a more accurate reflection of LC implementation. Moreover, the paper proposes recommendations to help policymakers, academics and practitioners anticipate the key success drivers for more successful LC implementation.

The purpose of the research is to propose reforms that would help to bridge the gap between theory and practice and produce more effective urban planners. The research on urban planning curricula in the global South is a valuable contribution to the field of urban planning education. It provides a new perspective on the challenges facing urban planning education in these countries and offers a roadmap for improvement.

The research explores and evaluates the urban planning curricula in the global South, with a particular interest in Egypt. The research employs the use of questionnaires with 56 university instructors, analysed thematically, to evaluate the current content of curricula. The results are compared and correlated with a pilot study exploring research interest, government policies and practices of urban planning in Egypt.

Through comparing the results of the evaluation with the current research interest in urban planning in Egypt, the paper investigates the possibility of improving current educational curricula using comparative network analysis which would establish stronger interdisciplinary connections.

The seeming disconnects between urbanism concepts taught in educational curricula and their relevance in practice and reality is a vital issue in urban studies and planning. Interdisciplinary connections with topics like politics, economies, gender, and others can assist curricula in becoming more relevant to real-world situations. This disconnect is even more apparent in the global South where most educational content is highly derivative from Northern contexts. Though such interdisciplinary aspects are under discussed in educational curricula, they are frequently discussed in academic research.

This paper sets out why reskilling is an essential element of an effective talent strategy and outlines the key steps to successful reskilling.

A qualitative review of methodologies and practices for reskilling is presented in this paper.

Reskilling is an essential organisational practice allowing employers to respond effectively to turbulent business conditions. Organisations need to engage in three priority actions: strategic workforce planning, adopting flexible work design practices and developing targeted upskilling and reskilling programmes.

This is a synthesis of a variety of ideas about how to approach reskilling and reflects practices adopted by organisations.

The efficiency of each of an organization’s individual workers determines its effectiveness. The study aims to explore the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational effectiveness with employee performance as a mediating variable.

Data were collected from 800 police officers in the Greater Accra and Tema regions. The data were supported by the hypothesized relationship. Construct reliability and validity was established through confirmatory factor analysis. The proposed model and hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling.

The results show that career planning and employee performance were significantly related. Self-managed teams and employee performance were shown to be nonsignificantly related. Similarly, performance management and employee performance were shown to be nonsignificantly related. Employee performance significantly influenced organizational effectiveness. The results further indicate that employee performance mediates the relationship between HRM practices and organizational effectiveness.

The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s police service focus and cross-sectional data.

The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers for the police administration in the adoption, design and implementation of well-articulated and proactive HRM practices to improve the abilities, skills, knowledge and motivation of officer’s to inordinately enhance the effectiveness of the service.

By evidencing empirically that employee performance mediates the relationship between HRM practice and organizational effectiveness, the study extends the literature.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) enable the synergistic integration of virtual models with the physical environment. This integration is gaining recognition for its potential to enhance construction project information management, thereby contributing to improved cost management in construction. Similarly, quantity surveyor (QS) plays a key role in construction projects by estimating and monitoring construction costs. Consequently, this research aims to explore redefining the role of QSs by integrating CPS.

The research adopted an interpretivism stance to collect and analyse data. Two rounds of 21 and 19 semi-structured interviews were conducted, with experts selected through heterogeneous purposive sampling. Code-based content analysis was used to analyse the data using NVivo12. MS Visio data visualisation tool was used to present the findings.

It is empirically proven the potential of CPS to facilitate nine key roles of QSs in all stages of the RIBA plan of work through the identification of 15 CPS applications and technologies. Nine key roles of QSs that CPS can facilitate were identified as preliminary estimation, measurement and quantification, contract administration, preparation of BOQ, interim valuation and payments, tender and contract documentation, cost planning, cost control and procurement advice. The study explored how adopting CPS technologies can transform traditional quantity surveying practices and enhance their value within the construction industry.

The findings add to the body of knowledge by redefining the role of QS through the integration of CPS for the first time and then by highlighting the usages of CPS in the construction industry rather than limiting it to a specific sector of the construction industry, as previous studies have done. This research uncovers several other research arenas on CPS as being the very first research to evaluate CPS to facilitate key roles of QSs. The findings can enhance the awareness and the practical implementation of CPS by intervening to form more partnerships among application developers and industry leaders.

This study aims to examine if and how an activity-based work environment affects employee workspace satisfaction – an attitude linked to important employee outcomes. By comparing perceptions before and after implementation, the research draws attention to factors that may help explain the impact of an activity-based work environment. Specifically, prior attitudes toward activity-based work environments and gender are tested.

The present study uses a longitudinal design to explore how implementing an activity-based work environment impacts employees’ workspace satisfaction (e.g. privacy, air quality, lighting, temperature, etc.). A sample of 100 employees in a government organization implementing an activity-based working environment was investigated using a longitudinal design, with employees being surveyed thrice – once before and twice after implementation.

The results indicate that when workspace satisfaction is impacted by implementing an activity-based work environment, this effect seems primarily based on employees’ prior attitude toward such work environments. In addition, employee gender emerges as a potentially important factor in workspace satisfaction, though not exclusive to the activity-based work environment.

Using a longitudinal approach – which allows for observing potential changes over time – and robust statistical methods, this study supports the importance of employees’ initial attitude toward an activity-based work environment concerning workspace satisfaction. This finding has practical implications for organizations and advances the understanding of why an activity-based work environment may positively affect workspace satisfaction for some employees while negatively affecting others.

Delays in utility shifting during road construction have broad ramifications. These delays not only lengthen the project's timeline but also raise expenses and cause problems with resource allocation. Thus, this study investigates the influence of delay in utility shifting for extension of time claims in road construction projects (RCPs) in Sri Lanka.

The study used a quantitative approach with three rounds of Delphi surveys to gather empirical data. Further, the probability impact assessment was used to carefully analyse the data and appraise the information gathered.

The findings initially revealed 33 causes of delays in utility shifting for extension of time claims in RCPs in Sri Lanka. Ultimately, 11 severe causes were identified based on their high probability and impact, concluding with 45 strategies that were assigned to overcoming those most severe causes of delay.

This study will contribute to the industry and theory by providing solutions to handle utility-shifting delays with the linkage of preventing time extension claims for RCPs in Sri Lanka. Further, there is a dearth of literature in the research area, both locally and globally. Thus, the findings of this research will provide a benchmark for further detailed studies in other countries as well.

Developing a reliable cost estimate at the early stage of construction projects is challenging due to inadequate project information. Most of the information during this stage is qualitative, posing additional challenges to achieving accurate cost estimates. Additionally, there is a lack of tools that use qualitative project information and forecast the budgets required for project completion. This research, therefore, aims to develop a model for setting project budgets (excluding land) during the pre-conceptual stage of residential buildings, where project information is mainly qualitative.

Due to the qualitative nature of project information at the pre-conception stage, a natural language processing model, DistilBERT (Distilled Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), was trained to predict the cost range of residential buildings at the pre-conception stage. The training and evaluation data included 63,899 building permit activity records (2021–2022) from the Victorian State Building Authority, Australia. The input data comprised the project description of each record, which included project location and basic material types (floor, frame, roofing, and external wall).

This research designed a novel tool for predicting the project budget based on preliminary project information. The model achieved 79% accuracy in classifying residential buildings into three cost_classes ($100,000-$300,000, $300,000-$500,000, $500,000-$1,200,000) and F1-scores of 0.85, 0.73, and 0.74, respectively. Additionally, the results show that the model learnt the contextual relationship between qualitative data like project location and cost.

The current model was developed using data from Victoria state in Australia; hence, it would not return relevant outcomes for other contexts. However, future studies can adopt the methods to develop similar models for their context.

This research is the first to leverage a deep learning model, DistilBERT, for cost estimation at the pre-conception stage using basic project information like location and material types. Therefore, the model would contribute to overcoming data limitations for cost estimation at the pre-conception stage. Residential building stakeholders, like clients, designers, and estimators, can use the model to forecast the project budget at the pre-conception stage to facilitate decision-making.

Value creation for society from public projects requires that the overall benefits exceed the use of taxpayers' money. At the same time, cost overruns in public projects are a well-documented feature in the literature, but practical guidance on reducing the extent and magnitude of overruns is rare. In 2000, Norway introduced a governance regime that includes mandatory external quality assurance (QA) of cost estimates for major public projects. This paper compares the cost performance of public projects on each side of this QA scheme.

We use an original dataset covering 1,704 projects from 2000 to 2021, reported first-hand from Norwegian public agencies. We apply quantitative methods in the form of descriptive statistics, regression models, and statistical testing of hypotheses to answer our research questions.

The mean cost overrun across projects in our dataset is smaller than several previous international studies have reported. We find no statistical support for different cost performances between QA and non-QA projects. Secondly, cost overruns seem to vary between different public sectors. A third finding is a small development with lower cost overruns over time for the non-QA projects, and we raise the question of whether the QA scheme has contributed to overall learning effects. The fourth finding is that cost deviations are quite independent of project size.

The paper offers novel insights for decision-makers and researchers on the effects of external quality assurance on cost performance in public projects.