Search results

Knowledge sharing is an important way to improve the knowledge system of industrial construction, and the supervision mechanism is an important way to improve the efficiency of knowledge sharing. However, some research works and practices indicate that the effects of applying the supervision mechanism are not obvious. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose an incentive method of knowledge sharing based on the supervision mechanism for promoting knowledge sharing among member enterprises in the industrial construction supply chain.

A basic incentive model and an optimization model of knowledge sharing in the industrial construction supply chain based on the supervision mechanism were developed via the principal–agent theory. Weighted coefficients of explicit and implicit knowledge sharing were introduced into the basic model, while the supervision reward was added into the basic model of the optimization model. The effect of these two models was compared and analyzed via numerical simulation.

The optimal incentive coefficient and effort level of knowledge sharing can be obtained by solving the two aforementioned models. The results of the comparison between the two models indicate that the introduction of a supervisory reward improved the effort level and expected earnings produced by knowledge sharing, but reduced the confirmed equal earnings of member enterprises in the industrial construction supply chain.

Mutual transformation between tacit and explicit knowledge was not considered, and supervisory costs were also not considered, in the estimation of the output of knowledge sharing.

The new models proposed by this study provide theoretical guidance for the design of knowledge sharing incentive measures in the industrial construction supply chain based on the supervision mechanism. The findings suggest that member enterprises should pay attention to the costs of knowledge sharing, in order to obtain more benefits.

This study introduced the weight coefficients of explicit and implicit knowledge sharing into a previous incentive model, proposed an incentive optimization model of knowledge sharing in the industrial construction supply chain based on a supervisory mechanism, and revealed the change rules of related variables that affect the model with the change in weight coefficients. The findings verify the effectiveness of introducing supervisory reward measures and extend the range of theoretical application.

This study aims to identify the most profitable segment of construction firms amongst real estate, industrial construction and infrastructure. This paper also examines the determinants of profitability of real estate, industrial construction and infrastructure firms.

The data of 67 firms (20 real estate, 21 industrial construction and 26 infrastructure) is collected for a 15-year period (2003–2017). Two models are created using total return on assets (ROA) and return on invested capital (ROIC) as dependent variables.. Leverage, liquidity, age, growth, size and efficiency of the firm are identified as firm-specific independent variables. Two economic variables, i.e. growth in GDP and inflation, are also used as independent variables. Initially, the models are tested for stationarity, multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity, and finally, the coefficients are estimated using Arellano–Bond dynamic panel data estimation to account for heteroscedasticity and endogeneity.

The results suggest that industrial construction is the most profitable segment of construction, followed by real estate and infrastructure. Their profitability is positively driven by liquidity, efficiency and leverage. The real estate firms are somewhat less profitable compared to industrial construction firms, and their profitability is positively driven by liquidity. The infrastructure firms have low ROA and ROIC.

The real estate, infrastructure and industrial construction drastically differ from each other. The challenges involved in real estate, infrastructure and industrial construction are altogether different. Therefore, authors present a comparative analysis of the profitability of real estate, infrastructure and industrial construction segments of the construction and compare their determinants of profitability. The results provided in the study are robust and reliable because of the use of a superior econometric model, i.e. Arellano–Bond dynamic panel data estimation with robust estimates, which accounts for heteroscedasticity and endogeneity in the model.

High risk is one of the most prominent characteristics of the Chinese construction industry, and it poses a significant threat to construction projects. Owing to initiatives aimed at achieving high efficiency, low carbon emissions, etc., industrialization of the construction industry has become an inevitable trend in China. However, it remains to be discussed whether industrialization of construction can reduce the risks entailed in construction projects compared with traditional construction. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Based on the theory of risk life cycle, this paper proposes a practical risk assessment technique to assess the risk life cycle, including the risk occurrence time and potential financial losses. This technique is then applied to assess the differences between the risks involved in an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project executed via traditional and industrial production modes.

The results show that the total duration of risks in the industrial construction project is half of that in the traditional project. In addition, the expected financial loss entailed in the industrial construction project is 29 percent lower than that in the traditional construction project. Therefore, industrial construction has the potential to optimize risk performance.

There is no significant difference between the traditional and industrial construction models in terms of probability of risk. The maximum total loss might occur in the procurement stage in the case of industrial production, and in the construction stage in the case of traditional production. Moreover, the total expected loss from risk in the EPC project in the industrial production mode is only half of that in the traditional production route. This study is expected to provide a new risk evaluation technique and promote an understanding of the life cycle of risk management in the construction industry.

Stakeholders of construction projects exhibit different perceptions regarding the visibility of materials in the supply chain, which affects the timely delivery and installation of materials. This study aims to quantitatively investigate the differences in viewpoints of owners, contractors, designers and suppliers about the visibility of materials at supply chain locations and different material types during the construction of industrial projects.

Survey data about visibility at nine typical supply chain locations and three common material types were collected from owner, contractor, designer and supplier groups and analyzed using frequency statistics, relative importance index and tests for equality of odds.

Offsite Tier-2 supplier, ports and kitting site shows the lowest visibility level for the owner, contractor, supplier and designer groups. Also, the supplier group tends to have adequate to extreme visibility at the Tier-2 supplier, kitting site and during transportation compared to owner, contractor and designer groups. An example finding concerning the visibility of material types is that owners and contractors perceive prefabricated material requires higher visibility than all other material types.

The findings are limited to construction projects in the industrial sector. Further, the survey participants were based in North America at the time of participation.

The study’s findings indicate how visibility is spread across supply chain locations and for material types for the owners, contractors, suppliers and designers of industrial projects. As such, academia and industry’s research and investment efforts can be more focused on locations and material types that need improvement.

Industrial projects play an essential part in improving society’s daily lives, and this study’s findings contribute to improving the efficiency of the supply chain during construction of industrial projects.

Although previous studies mentioned the need and importance of visibility improvement, none have sought to understand the perception of leading supply chain stakeholders about visibility at supply chain locations and of material types. This study’s findings provide specific insights and directions for advancing in these areas with regard to supply chain visibility.

The term claim has become of paramount significance in construction projects worldwide. This research is targeted at providing a deeper insight of the status of claims management in general and change order claims in particular with respect to the Egyptian industrial construction sector, as change orders have proven to be the main cause of claims in this sector. A questionnaire focusing on persistent issues noted in construction management literature within the past fifteen years was addressed to a selected sample of Egyptian construction industrial projects. The results furnished by the sampled projects demonstrated clearly that claims management in the Egyptian industrial construction sector has been suffering from a variety of impediments, including lack of proper notification procedures in public contracts and poor documentation management. The results indicated that oral change orders were present in nearly 76% of the sample projects and that half of these oral changes resulted in loss of rights due to improper documentation, which could be attributed to the lack of the contract awareness of the site team and to the “fear of consultant” phenomenon. The main cause of change orders was categorised by approximately 67% of the respondents as the additional scope of work, which was largely attributed to the fast track nature of the industrial sector. The research also identified several factors associated with time and cost increases of the sampled projects, among which were: private ownership and unit rate contracts. Finally, several recommendations for improving claims management are put forward. They included: the formation of a unified form of general contract condition for all the Egyptian industrial sector; the use of information technology systems in lieu of traditional filing procedures and the inclusion of a float‐sharing provision in contracts.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel analytical approach for workface planning practice in industrial-construction sector such that the construction work package (CWP) resource budget can be sufficiently planned for delivering possible field installation work package (FIWP) schedules with work uncertainty.

The relationship between CWP resource budget and FIWP schedules is first elucidated based on workface planning practice. The literature of work packaging, workface planning and project scheduling is reviewed. A novel analytical approach is then developed to quantify CWP resource budget based on a probability theory, in consideration of the probability of occurrence of feasible FIWP schedules formulated based on a resource scheduling approach. The results of case studies given by the new approach are cross validated by using simulation and optimization techniques.

The new analytical approach can assist workface planning by quantifying the expected CWP resource budget to deliver the FIWP work scope with certain activities that are planned at project level and with uncertain activities that are found at workface level.

The new analytical approach helps project and workface planners to reliably deploy CWP resource budget for delivering FIWP schedules instead of guessing the budget based on experience. An industrial-construction project for upgrading oil-sands refinery facility is used to show the practical implications.

This research develops a new analytical approach for workface planning practice to determine sufficient CWP resource budget for delivering feasible FIWP schedules with work uncertainty.

Modelling construction resources and their dynamic interactions and constraints are a challenging problem. The allocation of these resources to competing activities is usually a function required in any scheduling process. Performing such allocation under a dynamic and diverse set of constraints adds more complexity to the problem. This study seeks a structured approach for representing resources and their allocation to different activities through the use of an agent‐oriented modelling framework.

A model is developed for a real case of assembly operations of industrial construction modules. The model follows a multi‐agent resource allocation structure and is implemented within an agent‐based simulation environment. The model is used to evaluate the effects of different optimization algorithms and modelling parameters on the generation of a construction schedule. Different experiments run through the model and their results are analyzed and discussed.

The model showed sensitivity only under large and continuous workloads. Overall the structured approach followed in developing the model provided a flexible medium for experimenting with different elements of the resource allocation problem.

The work is limited to the studied case and the results cannot be generalized beyond similar cases. The modelling approach used in the study provides a platform that can facilitate future research in construction resource allocation strategies.

The presented work demonstrates a new approach for modelling construction resource allocation problems that enables structured experimentation with alternative allocation algorithms. It also presents a novel way for modelling modular industrial construction operations.

My research builds upon masculinity studies as well as migration and gender theory to evaluate emerging strategies of gendered labor control at work sites within temporary worker programs. In particular, my multisite ethnography consisting of 97 interviews with US guest workers, oil industry employers, and Indian labor brokers shifts focus to the recruitment of male workers into the US oil industry. The study evaluated a multi-country recruitment chain from India to the Middle East and into the US Guest Worker Program. Findings identified a relationship between the construction of masculinities and employer strategies for labor control. The article addresses the following question: how is hegemonic masculinity used as a strategy for labor control? The study identifies the double bind of hegemonic masculinity within contingent employment relationships as a means of labor control for curbing male migrant dissent.

This research aims at providing a better insight of the status of claims management in general, and change order claims in particular, from the contractor's perspective with respect to the Egyptian industrial construction sector, as they proved to be the main cause of claims in this sector.

A questionnaire survey discussing the most persistent issues of claims management in general, and change order claims in particular, was conducted on a selected sample of construction industrial companies.

The results demonstrated that claims management in the Egyptian industrial sector has been suffering from a variety of obstacles, including lack of proper notification procedures in public contracts and poor documentation management. Change orders had been actually lost due to poor documentation. Oral change orders were present in approximately 76 per cent of the projects; half of which resulted in loss of rights due to improper documentation, which was largely attributed to the lack of contract awareness of the site team, and to the “fear of consultant phenomenon”.

The paper presented several recommendations for improving claims management including: the formation of a standard form of contract general conditions for the Egyptian industrial sector, and applying a methodological approach for change orders quantification.

The increasing number of international companies contemplating construction projects in Egypt, and the significant problems with regards to claims propagation and management, addressed the need to conduct such study that targets one of the most challenging areas in the Egyptian construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the present structure of the Korean disaster-safety industry and propose ways to promote it.

The background of the emergence of the disaster and safety industry in Korea is reviewed, and business networks of 91 companies belonging to the disaster and safety industry in Korea are identified and analysed through a network analysis.

Korean Government is struggling to nurture the disaster and safety industry as it has been on last few decades. This paper finds that the current industry has an ambiguous market structure, and the industry tends to depend highly on the demand of public institutions.

The concept of the disaster and safety industry is not well established in other countries except for Korea. If Korea successfully fosters its disaster and safety industry through its proper understanding, it would bring both disaster risk reduction and economic benefits.

This paper analyses the market structure of the disaster and safety industry, which is uniquely emerging in Korea and rarely designated as an industry in other countries.