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A survey of computer use in the British house building industry was conducted by means of a postal questionnaire to 100 house builders followed‐up by in‐depth interviews. The research shows widely variant levels of computer use and expertise in different house building companies amongst both regional developers and the nationwide volume builders. Some housing developers have sophisticated information technology strategies and are well placed to successfully implement advanced techniques whilst many have very little or no computer use for design and visualization and rely more on traditional competitive strategies.

The use of subcontracting within the modern construction industry has become commonplace with many main contractors only undertaking the management and co‐ordination activities. The reliance on subcontractors has put much stress on the subcontractor — main contractor relationship. As main contractors have realized that the greatest potential for cost saving lies with subcontractors, the prevalence of unfair contract conditions, dutch auctioning and other onerous practices has increased. This paper describes a procurement approach, utilizing limited competition, developed by a top UK main contractors (MC) in order to improve its relationships with subcontractors. The approach, termed semi‐project partnering, was implemented on a commercial development. The approach was supported by research which identified: what MC's employees want from subcontractors; what subcontractors want from main contractors; and a study to benchmark MC's performance with that of other main contractors. It was concluded that this approach offers a number of benefits for the client, main contractor, partnering subcontractors and professional consultants. These included an improved team approach; an improved understanding of the project; more compliant subcontractor bids; better/closer relationships; more reliable programming; less confrontation; and lower tendering costs. It was also identified through debriefing subcontractors that sub‐contractors were quoting a10% lower than normal due to this approach.

The single project paradigm which dominates the literature of both project and construction management research does not accurately reflect the reality of many construction clients, who have large ongoing construction portfolios rather than one‐off construction projects. Although several concepts of multi‐project environments (MPEs) exist, an investigation of the form and dynamic interactions of components within MPEs of construction clients was lacking. This paper presents the factors identified as exerting greatest influence on project delivery within construction clients' MPEs.

This paper gives the background to the ISO 18404:2015 standard and explains its rationale. It aims to rebut the Oudrhiri et al. (2022) paper. Furthermore, this paper adds further evidence of the misplacement and unfitness for use of the standard, as evidenced in the previous work by Antony et al. (2021, 2022).

A point-counterpoint methods approach with a literature review of studies available on ISO 18404:2015 to respond to the Oudrhiri et al. (2022) study.

The findings indicate that Oudrhiri et al.'s (2022) work is not open minded in relation to ISO18404. Each point raised in the Oudrhiri et al. (2020) study has been answered and counter argued.

Other than Antony et al.'s three studies (2021 and 2022) and Oudrhiri et al.’s (2022) study empirical studies looking into the impact of the ISO 18404 standard in the literature were limited. As the literature has shown, many companies are not utilising the standard given its current format; hence, a lack of information relating to the practical implementation is sparse.

The findings indicate that Oudrhiri et al.'s (2022) work can be answered and counter argued.

This study consolidates and strengthens the findings from the three studies by Antony et al. (2021 and 2022) and acts as a rebuttal to the Oudrhiri et al. (2022) study.

The purpose of this paper is to present the key findings of a systematic literature review (SLR) on Lean for services and, in particular, airport services.

The authors have utilised an SLR methodology proposed by Denyer and Tranfield (2009). A total of 23 papers published in 18 scientific journals have been systematically reviewed for evaluating and establishing the current status of Lean for airport services.

It was observed that there are no journal publications on the use of Lean in UK airport services. Although value stream mapping has been widely accepted as a powerful Lean tool across many service organisations, its applications in airport services is in its early stages. One of the biggest challenges in the implementation of Lean for airport services is about maintaining the level of service standards. The most common barriers in the implementation of Lean for airport services may include: resistance to change, varied definitions of the term Lean for different people across the business and understanding the need for Lean in airport services as there is a misconception that Lean is confined to manufacturing.

This paper seeks to contribute to and broaden the limited body of evidence of the applicability of Lean to airport services and identify areas for further research and review.

This paper makes an attempt to demonstrate the use of Lean thinking for service industries and, in particular, airport services. The authors have identified less than five papers on the use of Lean thinking in airport services and this paper sets the foundation for future research on the use of process excellence methodologies such as Lean. Moreover, the authors firmly believe that the results of this SLR can be extremely beneficial to many managers working in Airport Service contexts, irrespective of the country and culture of the organisation.

The purpose of this paper is to present the core themes derived from literature that contribute to the failure of continuous improvement initiatives in the manufacturing industry.

The approach taken was to complete a systematic review of literature, grouping the failure factors through the use of idea maps and affinity diagrams into the core themes reported.

From the review it is evident that continuous improvement initiatives can fail due to a multitude of factors; but that these can be grouped under eight core themes. The themes found to contribute to the failure of continuous improvement initiatives are: Motives and Expectations, Organizational Culture and Environment, The Management Leadership, Implementation Approach, Training, Project Management, Employee Involvement Levels, and Feedback and Results. These themes have been further categorized into a three-stage model.

The review was carried out using a selection of high-quality journals, although this may have restricted the findings. The research is also limited to manufacturing, so it is unknown if the same factors impact initiatives in the service or public sectors. Continuous improvement is defined for the purpose of the study as TQM, Lean, and Six Sigma.

From a practical perspective, the research findings create awareness for organizations of the complexity of organizational change in the form of continuous improvement implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma through an empirical study. Six Sigma is one of the most powerful business process improvement strategies used by numerous World Class corporations for over three decades. A handful of existing publications address some limitations and potential trends of Six Sigma, yet there are no empirical studies investigating the fundamental limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma.

The authors developed an online survey instrument based on the existing literature addressing the above. In this study, 61 Six Sigma Master Black Belts and Black Belts from large manufacturing companies and 25 academics who are familiar with the Six Sigma topic participated and contributed to the research.

The study reports the top 5 limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma from the viewpoints of both academics and experts from large manufacturing companies. These are: integration of Six Sigma with Big Data, use of Six Sigma in small medium and micro enterprises, over emphasis of Six Sigma on variability reduction, poor implementation of Six Sigma and its negative impact on employee satisfaction and non-exploitation of integration of Six Sigma with Industry 4.0.

In order to sustain Six Sigma initiatives, it is imperative that limitations and fundamental gaps are understood, and strategies developed to address them. The authors argue that leading academic scholars have a vital role to play in working with industry practitioners to overcome the limitations and emerging trends addressed above.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study looking into the limitations, research gaps and emerging trends of Six Sigma.

The purpose of this global study is to investigate the critical failure factors (CFFs) in the deployment of operational excellence (OPEX) programs as well as the key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be used to measure OPEX failures. The study also empirically analyzes various OPEX methodologies adopted by various organizations at a global level.

This global study utilized an online survey to collect data. The questionnaire was sent to 800 senior managers, resulting in 249 useful responses.

The study results suggest that Six Sigma is the most widely utilized across the OPEX methodologies, followed by Lean Six Sigma and Lean. Agile manufacturing is the least utilized OPEX methodology. The top four CFFs were poor project selection and prioritization, poor leadership, a lack of proper communication and resistance to change issues.

This study extends the current body of knowledge on OPEX by first delineating the CFFs for OPEX and identifying the differing effects of these CFFs across various organizational settings. Senior managers and OPEX professionals can use the findings to take remedial actions and improve the sustainability of OPEX initiatives in their respective organizations.

This study uniquely identifies critical factors leading to OPEX initiative failures, providing practical insights for industry professionals and academia and fostering a deeper understanding of potential pitfalls. The research highlights a distinctive focus on social and environmental performance metrics, urging a paradigm shift for sustained OPEX success and differentiating itself in addressing broader sustainability concerns. By recognizing the interconnectedness of 12 CFFs, the study offers a pioneering foundation for future research and the development of a comprehensive management theory on OPEX failures.

The integration of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is in the nascent stage and promises to achieve new optimums in operational excellence. This study aims to empirically examine the enablers, barriers, benefits and application of I4.0 technologies in LSS and I4.0 integration.

A pilot survey was chosen as an appropriate methodology, as LSS and I4.0 integration is still budding. The survey targeted senior quality management professionals, quality managers, team leaders, LSS Black Belts and operations managers to collect the relevant research data. The questionnaire was sent to 200 respondents and received 53 valid responses.

This study reveals that “top management support” is an essential enabler for LSS and I4.0 integration. The most significant barrier was “poor understanding of data analysis” and “lack of top management support”. The findings further illustrated that LSS and I4.0 integration resulted in greater efficiency, lower operational costs, improved productivity, improved customer satisfaction and improved quality. Regarding I4.0 technology integration at different phases of LSS, the authors noticed that big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are the most prominent technologies used in all phases of LSS implementation.

One of the limitations of this study is the sample size. LSS and I4.0 are emerging concepts; hence, obtaining a larger sample size is difficult. In addition, the study used non-parametric tests to analyse the data. Therefore, future studies should be conducted with large sample sizes across different continents and countries to understand differences in the key findings.

The outcomes of this study can be useful for organisational managers to understand the enablers and barriers before integrating LSS and I4.0 for adoption in their organisations. Secondly, it helps to convince top management and human resource personnel by providing a list of benefits of LSS and I4.0 integration. Finally, it can help decision-makers understand which I4.0 technologies can be used in different stages of LSS methodology.

LSS and I4.0 integration was studied at a conceptual level. This is the first empirical study targeted toward understanding the LSS and I4.0 integration. In addition, this study investigates the application of widely used I4.0 technologies in different phases of LSS.