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1 – 10 of over 54000Wei Wang, Shoujian Zhang and Andrew Philip King
The engineering construction standards in China play an important role in protecting the safety of the construction projects. They are the basic principles that standardize the…
Abstract
Purpose
The engineering construction standards in China play an important role in protecting the safety of the construction projects. They are the basic principles that standardize the construction activities and guarantee the quality of projects. However, there are many barriers that affect the adoption of the engineering construction standards. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the barriers that challenge the adoption of the engineering construction standards in China.
Design/methodology/approach
The research reveals the barriers that affect the implementation of the engineering construction standards in China through a literature review. Then this study uses factor analysis to analyze 12 indices which we get from a questionnaire to build explanations from the results.
Findings
According to this paper, four main brands of uncorrelated variables are derived which are the main challenges in implementing the engineering construction standards in China: management barriers, policy barriers, knowledge barriers and market barriers. This paper gives a clear classification of the barriers that the enterprises face while adopting the engineering construction standards in China.
Originality/value
This paper makes a contribution to the understanding of the barriers that affect the adoption of the engineering construction standards in China.
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J.M. KAMARA, C.J. ANUMBA and N.F.O. EVBUOMWAN
The realization that concurrent engineering can be adopted in construction has led to various efforts to develop appropriate tools and techniques for its implementation in the…
Abstract
The realization that concurrent engineering can be adopted in construction has led to various efforts to develop appropriate tools and techniques for its implementation in the industry. This paper discusses the role of client requirements processing in implementing concurrent engineering in construction. Client requirements processing refers to the definition, analysis, and translation of client requirements into solution‐neutral specifications for design. It is essential in maintaining focus on the client, and provides for the effective consideration, resolution and prioritization of the various perspectives within the client body. It also facilitates collaborative teamwork, compliance checking at every stage of the design and construction process, and the traceability of design decisions to explicit and implicit client requirements. The paper concludes with a description of a model for processing clients' requirements in construction, and an example of its practical application.
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Yusuf Arayici and Ghassan Aouad
This paper aims at proposing a process of requirements engineering for the human centred, adaptive computer integrated construction systems development through industry wide…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims at proposing a process of requirements engineering for the human centred, adaptive computer integrated construction systems development through industry wide information sharing.
Design/methodology/approach
The research strategy is based on case study research methodology. The EU‐funded DIVERCITY project was analysed. This project was undertaken by a European consortium of researchers and practitioners from the construction industry. They developed a virtual environment that enables the industry to undertake collaboratively the client briefing and design reviews and the construction stages.
Findings
DIVERCITY's requirements engineering approach has the potential to provide opportunities for research to determine the appropriate requirements engineering techniques for the development of the systems and their effective implementation in the construction industry.
Originality/value
The main contribution of the research is the construction of the requirements engineering process for the development of the computer integrated construction systems.
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Muzhda Mehrzad, S.W.S.B. Dasanayaka, Kimberly Gleason, Praneeth Wijesinghe and Omar Al Serhan
The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of Afghan female engineers regarding opportunities and barriers to starting their own engineering/construction company in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of Afghan female engineers regarding opportunities and barriers to starting their own engineering/construction company in Kabul through three career trajectory chokepoints related to training through higher education, the engineering workplace and entrepreneurship, through the lens of feminist theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted. A Web-based survey was also conducted to collect data from participants who were not able to participate in the in-depth interviews. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the collected data.
Findings
As a result of the analysis, three main themes were developed related to “chokepoints” that Afghan female engineers face along the path to starting their own construction companies: “entering and studying engineering,” “career development” and “starting her own engineering business”; the authors address the subthemes of barriers and opportunities confronted by Afghan women at each chokepoint.
Research limitations/implications
Due to civil unrest, the authors are only able to reach a sample of Afghan female engineers working in the capital city of Kabul.
Practical implications
Afghanistan shows, perhaps, the most severe underrepresentation of female engineers of all countries in the world, yet no research gives them a voice to explain the challenges their face to starting their own engineering/construction businesses. The authors are able to report their perceptions and articulate recommendations to encourage female entrepreneurship in the engineering/construction sector in Afghanistan.
Social implications
Afghan women face significant barriers to having meaningful careers in the science, technology, engineering and medicine professions. The findings provide information for regulators regarding why Afghan women do not start their own engineering firms.
Originality/value
As physical security and resource constraints generate difficulty in accessing Afghan women in general, this is the first paper to report the perceptions of Afghan female engineers regarding the barriers and opportunities they perceive on the path to engineering entrepreneurship.
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Hongtao Mao, Bo Zhu and Tian'an Wang
The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of organizational environment on engineering project cost management.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of organizational environment on engineering project cost management.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking China Railway Engineering Corporation 2nd Bureau (CREC 2nd Bureau for short) as an example, the authors conduct lots of semi‐structured interviews in its group corporation, company limited, two subsidiaries and two project departments, and finally collect textual data which include 30 paragraphs and more than 120,000 words. The authors then encode those interview data step by step for further analysis under the research paradigm of grounded theory.
Findings
Based on these encoded data, the paper builds concept, basic categories, main categories, which could be the factors affecting the engineering project cost management, the evidence chain and the complete story clue among these categories. Then finally constructs a theoretical framework called “3S” for short, which is comprised of the organizational structure supporting system, the control procedure supporting system and the social relation supporting system.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the insufficient importance placed on engineering project cost management by academics and few theoretical papers, this paper provides a new method for exploring the engineering project cost management and a theoretical reference for further research.
Practical implications
In this paper, the authors discuss the action mechanism of organizational environment in the engineering project cost management and provide for Chinese construction enterprises more explicit guidance on their cost management practice.
Originality/value
There is little research on determinants of engineering project cost by Chinese scholars, which is mainly shown as normative research. There is no perfect theoretical framework on the determinants of engineering project cost management, which is not beneficial to the knowledge of engineering project cost management and is not comprehensive and in depth enough for academics and practitioners. This paper conducts a field study in CREC 2nd Bureau based on grounded theory. At last, “3S” theoretical framework is established. This paper is embodied in using reality as the accordance, scientifically carding and spreading the theory and translating the practical experience into theory, so that it is beneficial for the engineering project cost management.
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Ahmed Yousry Akal and Amr Metwally El-Kholy
This work affords a practical checklist that specifies the civil engineering trades-related hazards and offers a safety indicator to identify the safety level of a construction…
Abstract
Purpose
This work affords a practical checklist that specifies the civil engineering trades-related hazards and offers a safety indicator to identify the safety level of a construction project concerning the hazards of the civil engineering trades.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology depends on reviewing the archival works, visiting the construction sites, utilizing the direct observation and preliminary hazard analysis methods and conducting semistructured interviews to pinpoint and validate the checklist of the civil engineering trades-related hazards. Additionally, a questionnaire-based survey with the rank sum weight technique has been employed to assemble and analyze the data required to build the safety indicator.
Findings
Relying upon the used methodology, 70 hazards under the trades of general environment, earth, demolition, excavation, concrete, dewatering, waterproofing insulation and scaffolding have been pinpointed and validated. This is in addition to the safety level indicator of the civil engineering trades-related hazards (SLICETH), which indicates high viability during its validation in five national and international projects.
Originality/value
The value of this work lies in its ability to tackle the gap existing in the safety management knowledge regarding the notion of the hazards of the civil engineering trades and their influences on the safety performance of the construction projects. As a result, it offers a complete knowledge to the academics and the practitioners for confronting the negative impacts of the civil engineering trades-related hazards. Consequently, it helps in enhancing the safety performance level in the sites of the construction projects.
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Civil engineering encompasses such a wide array of subject areas that it would be very difficult to cover all of them in one survey. Basically, civil engineers are concerned with…
Abstract
Civil engineering encompasses such a wide array of subject areas that it would be very difficult to cover all of them in one survey. Basically, civil engineers are concerned with the planning, design and construction of buildings, transporation facilities and other structures required for human health, safety and welfare. A major part of their job relates to achieving a coherent relationship between the “built environment” and the “natural environment.” They are required to fulfil this function within the framework of constraints imposed by the present day building codes, union regulations and economic considerations. This survey concerns itself mostly with the general civil engineering reference books and some selected sources on specialized topics like construction engineering, foundation engineering, structural engineering, highway and dam engineering and codes and specifications. A forthcoming survey will deal with the major area of environmental and sanitary engineering.
Yusuf Arayici, Ghassan Aouad and Vian Ahmed
Collaborative working using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) systems in construction has become a reality as many activities are performed globally with actors…
Abstract
Collaborative working using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) systems in construction has become a reality as many activities are performed globally with actors located in various geographical locations. Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) is the type of ICT system that binds a fragmented and geographically distributed set of construction stakeholders collaborating together. Although the concept of CIC has been the subject of research for many years, its uptake has been very limited due to the development of the technology and its effective implementation. Research in this area is still premature and does not pay much attention to the development and implementation of the prototypes in the industry. As a result, the research developments have remained as prototypes although they have captured industrial interest. However, ongoing research within the field of construction IT is stressing that it is crucial to define research methodologies for human centred and adaptive CIC developments through industry‐wide knowledge sharing. The aim of this paper, through triangulated research strategy of interviews, surveys and case study is to justify the need for a requirements engineering process as a CIC development methodology for adaptive and user‐centred systems developments and as a guideline to bridge the gap between industry and the research community. The case study project is the DIVERCITY system development undertaken by researchers and practitioners across Europe to develop a shared virtual construction design and briefing environment that enables the construction industry to better undertake the client briefing and design review phases of a construction project.
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M.R. Denning, Wilberforce and L.J. Phillimore
March 20, 1970 Industrial training — Industrial training levy — Engineering industry — Company providing steam generating plant for thermal power stations — Assembly of…
Abstract
March 20, 1970 Industrial training — Industrial training levy — Engineering industry — Company providing steam generating plant for thermal power stations — Assembly of pre‐manufactured parts on site — Whether activity of engineering industry or construction industry — Definition of civil engineering work expressly including construction of thermal power station — Whether general words of exception operative to take essential process of construction of thermal power station out of civil engineering — Whether company liable to pay engineering industry levy or construction industry levy — Industrial Training Act, 1964 (c.16), ss. 1,4 — Industrial Training (Engineering Board) Order, 1968 (S.I. 1968, No. 1333), Sch., paras. 1(h)(ii), 2(d), 3.
Traditionally, progress in detail engineering in construction projects is reported based on estimates and manual input from the disciplines in the engineering team. Reporting…
Abstract
Purpose
Traditionally, progress in detail engineering in construction projects is reported based on estimates and manual input from the disciplines in the engineering team. Reporting progress on activities in an engineering schedule manually, based on subjective evaluations, is time consuming and can reduce accuracy, especially in larger and multi-disciplinary projects. How can progress in detail engineering be reported using BIM and connected to activities in an engineering schedule? The purpose of this paper is to introduce a three-step process for reporting progress in detail engineering using building information modeling (BIM) to minimize manual reporting and increase quality and accuracy.
Design/methodology/approach
The findings of this paper are based on the studies of experiences from the execution of projects in the oil and gas industry. Data are collected from an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor and two engineering contractors using case study research.
Findings
In the first step, control objects in building information models are introduced. Statuses are added to control objects to fulfill defined quality levels related to milestones. In the second step, the control objects with statuses are used to report visual progress and aggregated in an overall progress report. In the third step, overall progress from building information models are connected to activities in an engineering schedule.
Originality/value
Existing research works related to monitoring and reporting progress using a BIM focus on construction and not on detail engineering. The research demonstrates that actual progress in detail engineering can be visualized and reported through the use of BIM and extracted to activities in an engineering schedule through a three-step process.
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