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This paper presents an e‐commerce system that is being used for construction material procurement. The paper identifies the limitations relating to information retrieving, recording and sharing in the traditional material procurement process. E‐commerce applications that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the material procurement process in construction are then identified and described. Finally, the design and implementation of an e‐commerce system for construction material procurement for trading construction materials in China is presented and discussed.

During recent years integration has been the key issue for many manufacturing organisations. The authors review recent developments and ongoing research work and propose a methodology based on existing tools and techniques which would allow integration of the material flow system with the supporting information system.

Materials management de facto has existed for many years in terms of procedures for buying and processing material to meet orders for finished products. However, the term itself first came into vogue in the mid 1960s and various commentators have pointed to different factors which have led to its evolution and growth over the past 15 or more years. Whilst any analysis of the relative importance of the various factors involved is beyond the scope of this survey, it is fair to say that a combination of pressures in the 1960s and 1970s led to a change in direction of business thinking and a search for profit contributions through the adoption of an integrated materials management approach in previously neglected areas. There is no single view about what materials management really is and the materials management concept has been given many interpretations. Academics and organisations alike interpret materials management in the light of their own experiences and perceptions.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to solving the complexity problem as increased complexity is a main reason why projects fail to reach their goals, and it is unclear what complexity is.

Conceptual development integrating theories of materiality, teleology, and complexity, decision-making theory, communication theory, coordination theory, and qualitative, quantitative and participatory approaches are used in this paper.

To understand complexity, it is necessary to develop a material-systemic process approach and to distinguish structured from unstructured complexity. The social actors construct a complex material-systemic process between themselves and nature to handle unwieldy outer nature. The material-systemic approach reveals how materiel life-world arenas are developed through increased complexity and specialization. Handling complexity is possible by materiality in general and structural material in special, the interplay between inner time (planning) and outer time (production), and between human subjects and an underlying coordination mechanism. It is a systematic organizational blockade that reproduces internal complexity as unstructured and incomprehensible complexity.

The practical models of organizing are tested to the highest degree in construction industry. It is a task to try and examine the models in other types of projects.

The paper offers a proposal to a theoretical solution to the complexity problem going back to the roots in Enlightenment and shows at the same time through practical models how increased complexity may be the most important productive force in future projects.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a rapidly evolving manufacturing process, which refers to a set of technologies that add materials layer-by-layer to create functional components. AM technologies have received an enormous attention from both academia and industry, and they are being successfully used in various applications, such as rapid prototyping, tooling, direct manufacturing and repair, among others. AM does not necessarily imply building parts, as it also refers to innovation in materials, system and part designs, novel combination of properties and interplay between systems and materials. The most exciting features of AM are related to the development of radically new systems and materials that can be used in advanced products with the aim of reducing costs, manufacturing difficulties, weight, waste and energy consumption. It is essential to develop an advanced production system that assists the user through the process, from the computer-aided design model to functional components. The challenges faced in the research and development and operational phase of producing those parts include requiring the capacity to simulate and observe the building process and, more importantly, being able to introduce the production changes in a real-time fashion. This paper aims to review the role of robotics in various AM technologies to underline its importance, followed by an introduction of a novel and intelligent system for directed energy deposition (DED) technology.

AM presents intrinsic advantages when compared to the conventional processes. Nevertheless, its industrial integration remains as a challenge due to equipment and process complexities. DED technologies are among the most sophisticated concepts that have the potential of transforming the current material processing practices.

The objective of this paper is identifying the fundamental features of an intelligent DED platform, capable of handling the science and operational aspects of the advanced AM applications. Consequently, we introduce and discuss a novel robotic AM system, designed for processing metals and alloys such as aluminium alloys, high-strength steels, stainless steels, titanium alloys, magnesium alloys, nickel-based superalloys and other metallic alloys for various applications. A few demonstrators are presented and briefly discussed, to present the usefulness of the introduced system and underlying concept. The main design objective of the presented intelligent robotic AM system is to implement a design-and-produce strategy. This means that the system should allow the user to focus on the knowledge-based tasks, e.g. the tasks of designing the part, material selection, simulating the deposition process and anticipating the metallurgical properties of the final part, as the rest would be handled automatically.

This paper reviews a few AM technologies, where robotics is a central part of the process, such as vat photopolymerization, material jetting, binder jetting, material extrusion, powder bed fusion, DED and sheet lamination. This paper aims to influence the development of robot-based AM systems for industrial applications such as part production, automotive, medical, aerospace and defence sectors.

The presented intelligent system is an original development that is designed and built by the co-authors J. Norberto Pires, Amin S. Azar and Trayana Tankova.

This monograph will review recent thinking as applied to the management of materials within organisations. In considering the type of organisation to which the comments will apply, it is of use to recognise the following sectors:

Over the past decade, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced several green regulatory guidelines, federal decrees, and a considerable number of environmentally friendly initiatives. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the top green materials and systems used currently in the UAE construction industry as per the new laws dictate as well as see if professionals are switching over to incorporate more green materials, systems, and/or designs.

The work involved reviewing internationally popular green materials and systems for construction, developing a questionnaire based on the literature review, surveying professionals in the seven UAE emirates, and ranking the findings based on the relative importance index.

Findings found the top used green materials and system in the UAE’s construction industry. As well as identified that there is a communication gap between the design and implementation phases that is possibly hindering the use of more green materials and systems.

This study sets a baseline to measure the UAE’s progress over the coming years in terms of integrating more green construction materials, systems, methodologies, and trends.

Examines the tenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Examines the ninth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Discusses the 6th ITCRR, its breadth of textile and clothing research activity, plus the encouragement given to workers in this field and its related areas. States that, within the newer research areas under the microscope of the community involved, technical textiles focuses on new, ‘smart’ garments and the initiatives in this field in both the UK and the international community at large. Covers this subject at length.