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A key difficulty that plagues benchmarking in the public sector is heterogeneity in the production process. The purpose of this paper is to present a strategy for overcoming that difficulty using physical production models and demonstrate it using road renewal management as an example.

A physical production model is used to linking required prices, inputs and exposures to environmental factors to the desired services to be delivered. A measure is derived from this that adjusts for the additional expected costs from operating in a more difficult environments. A case study is used to present methods for addressing specific parameterization issues that arise in an empirical application.

The method was found to be implementable and empirically better than naïve ratio measures commonly found in practice.

Data and modeling issues were identified that can be addressed by public supervisors that are expected to greatly improve the quality of the measures.

According to the raw data and simple ratios, a very large degree of inefficiency can potentially be eliminated by applying the recommended measures. In all likelihood the real potential is much smaller, but still significant.

Most applied benchmarking exercises use simple ratios as KPI’s. These are easily dismissed where environments are heterogeneous. Data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis are generally difficult to relate to KPI’s. The use of an explicit and specific process model with an engineering content is therefore exceptional.

The dynamic nature and complexity of construction projects make it challenging to ensure that the engineer-to-order (ETO) materials supplied onsite match changing needs. The quick and efficient communication of required changes in material fabrication, delivery and use, due to changes in the design and construction schedules, is needed to address the challenges. This study aims to provide a novel integrated management framework with its embedded informatics to help major stakeholders efficiently absorb agility during communication to deal with required changes and improve workflows.

An integrated management framework is developed that integrates the milestones in look-ahead plans and structured iterative processes for major supply chain stakeholders to quickly disseminate information emanating from changes in design, schedules, production and transportation. A prototype system is devised including the informatics to support the framework, which consists of BIM-RFID functional modules and a central database and uses a client-server architecture. The usefulness of the prototype is illustrated using a construction of part of a fictive but realistic high-rise building.

The integrated management framework with the informatics provides major stakeholders with the ability to coordinate their activities efficiently and stimulate their agility (measured by process time) in planning and controlling material information. Although only a fictive example was used, it is shown that the use of the system is likely to result in a substantial reduction in the time required to deal with required changes when delivering ETO materials onsite (by 18% in the example).

The functionalities of the prototype system can be easily scaled up to coordinate changes in the design and scheduling of other types of materials. More functional developments are needed to show the extent of the possible improvement for entire construction projects. Future work should focus on investigating the possible improvements for other types and sizes of construction projects, and eventually in real-world construction projects.

By fitting the look-ahead plans into structured iterative processes through digital data sharing, stakeholders increased their capability to quickly capture required change information and resolve associated problems. This is particularly useful for the management of ETO supply chain processes, where prefabricated elements such as ductwork, plumbing, and mechanical systems typically have to be modified because of last-minute design and schedule changes.

Unlike traditional information technology (IT) based supply chain management practices, this research is characterized by a process-centered management framework that provides explicit decision points over iterative planning processes for major stakeholders to manage material information. The iterations through digital data sharing allow stakeholders to quickly respond to last-minute changes on site, which fundamentally achieves workflow agility in the construction supply chain context.

Building information modelling (BIM) and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies have been extensively explored to improve supply chain visibility and coordination of material flow processes, particularly in the pursuit of Industry 4.0. It remains challenging, however, to effectively use these technologies to enable the precise and reliable coordination of material flow processes. This paper aims to propose a new workflow designed to include the use of detailed look-ahead plans when using BIM and RFID technologies, which can accurately track and match both the dynamic site needs and supply status of materials.

The new workflow is designed according to lean theory and is modeled using business process modeling notation. To digitally support the workflow, an integrated BIM-RFID database system is constructed that links information on material demands with look-ahead plans. The new workflow is then used to manage material flows in the erection of an office building with prefabricated columns. The performance of the new workflow is compared with that of a traditional workflow, using discrete event simulations. The input for the simulations was derived from expert opinion in semi-structured interviews.

The new workflow enables contractors to better observe on-site status and differences between the actual and planned material requirements, as well as to alert suppliers if necessary. The simulation results indicate that the new workflow has the potential to reduce the duration of the material flow processes by 16.1% compared with the traditional workflow.

The new workflow is illustrated using a real-world-like situation with input data based on expert opinion. Although the workflow shows potential, it should be tested on a real-world site.

The new workflow allows project participants to combine detailed near-term look-ahead plans with BIM and RFID technologies to better manage material flow processes. It is particularly useful for the management of engineer-to-order components considering the dynamic site progress.

The research improves on existing research focused on using BIM and RFID technologies to improve material flow processes by showing how the workflow can be adapted to use detailed look-ahead plans. It reinforces data-driven construction material management practices through improved visibility and reliability in planning and control of material flow processes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of the impact hierarchy and the optimization model to determine the optimal intervention strategy for a road link composed of multiple objects. The paper focusses on the results of a case study of intervention project on A20 road link in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The study was a case study research. It describes briefly the impact hierarchy and its link to the optimization model, and then focussed on analyzing the results obtained from running the model. In order to understand the influence of various factors affecting the results of optimization, sensitivity analysis was performed.

The proposed hierarchy is suitable to be used to support the determination of optimal intervention strategies (OISs) for public road. From the case study, it was also realized that optimal intervention strategy can be changed due to not only intervention costs incurred by the owner, but also due to the setup of traffic configuration during the execution of interventions since the impacts incurred to users, directly affected public, and indirectly affected public are significantly different from one traffic configuration to the others. The optimal intervention strategy also depends greatly on the factors of deterioration during the operation of the infrastructure objects.

In the impact hierarchy, some impact factors are difficult to be quantified, e.g., the long-term economic impacts on the region where having intervention projects. The use of only exponential function for impacts could be oversimplified the actual behavior of the impacts. Other functional form should be investigated to be used within the framework of the optimization model.

The proposed hierarchy and the optimization model could be used in practical situation for determination of OISs for multiple objects within a road link.

This paper contributes to the body of knowledge of stakeholder analysis in the field of infrastructure asset management. It also gives a guideline and tool for infrastructure administrators to select the OISs for their infrastructure network.

Managing stakeholders' reciprocal interdependencies is always a challenging issue. Stakeholders need to find out different ways to communicate information and coordinate material flows during the supply chain processes. Many recent studies have advanced construction supply chain coordination from multiple perspectives. However, the field still lacks a comprehensive analysis to summarize existing research, to explicitly identify all the possible enablers for coordination and to investigate how the enablers can be carried out at the supply chain interfaces. To fill the gap, this study aims to conduct a systematic review in order to examine the relevant literature.

A systematic literature review process was conducted to identify and synthesize relevant publications (published in the past 20 years) concerning the coordination of construction supply chain functions. These publications were coded to link main research findings with specific enabler categories. In addition, how these enablers can be used at the interfaces across supply chain processes was reviewed with an in-depth analysis of reciprocal communications between stakeholders at design-to-production, production-to-logistics and production-to-site-assembly phases.

The coordination enablers were classified into three categories: (1) contractual enablers (including subtopics on relational contracts and incentive models), (2) procedural enablers (including subtopics on multiagent knowledge sharing systems and the last planner system) and (3) technological enablers (including subtopics on linked databases for design coordination, design for manufacturing software platforms and automated monitoring technologies). It was found that interfacing different functions requires a certain level of integration of stakeholders for quick response and feedback processes. The integration of novel contractual forms with digital technologies, such as smart contracts, however, was not adequately addressed in the state of the art.

The scope of the systematic review is limited to the static analysis of selected publications. Longitudinal studies should be further included to sharpen the inductions of enablers considering organizational changes and process dynamics in construction projects.

Different enablers for coordination were summarized in a concise manner, which provides researchers and project stakeholders with a reinforced understanding of various ways to manage reciprocal interdependencies at different supply chain interfaces.

This study constitutes an important input for research on the construction supply chain by illuminating the thematic topic of coordination from inductively developed review processes, which included a holistic framing of the emerging coordination enablers and their use across supply chain functions. Consequently, it closes some identified knowledge gaps and offers additional insights to improve the supply chain performance of construction projects.

This paper aims to review the existing practices of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in the building sectors in European countries, to be able to assess its suitability for housing provision while focussing on the social impact.

Based on the sectoral spread of PPP, nine European countries were included in this study. Formative evaluation is used to structure the review based on four key attributes of PPPs to develop a comprehensive understanding of the existing PPP procedures and guidelines amongst these countries. Data were gathered through public and governmental reports, consultant reports, country guidelines, standards and procedures, and cases, in order to identify the prevalent practices and trends in these countries.

The review identified the need to calibrate the PPP approach towards other stakeholders, particularly the end-users. It further highlighted the need to focus on social integration and social sustainability and establish set procedures for PPPs in housing to create a credible and trustworthy environment for the investors. Joint support from private and public partners and community participation has a diverse impact on the success of PPP in housing.

This review shall enable governments, industry and stakeholders to make provisions and policies for overcoming the challenges identified with regard to PPPs and pave the way for its application in the housing sector ensuring a positive social impact.

This review shall facilitate greater involvement of end-users and enhancing social integration in housing through PPP, and pave the way towards creating cohesive communities by focussing on the concept of togetherness and social sustainability.

This study provides a holistic summation of the prevalent PPP practices and broadens the adaptations for the housing sector. The novelty of this paper specifically lies in learning from PPP practices across other building sectors for adapting its utilisation for housing and thereby extending the state of art for PPP housing.