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An adaptive slicing algorithm that can vary the layer thickness in relation to local geometry is presented. The algorithm is based on three fundamental concepts: choice of criterion for accommodating complexities of surfaces, recognition of key characteristics and features of the object, and development of a grouping methodology for facets used to represent the object. Four criteria, cusp height, maximum deviation, chord length and volumetric error per unit length, are identified and the layer thickness is adjusted such that one of the four is met. Next, key characteristics of the object, such as horizontal and vertical surfaces, pointed edges and ends, are identified based on the local changes in surface complexity, and slice based feature recognition is introduced to identify the nature of a feature, protrusion or depression, by studying the slice data. Note that the present approach uses information only from the tessellated model, and thus is different from current implementations. Finally, the concept of grouping of the facets based on their vertex coordinates is developed to minimize the number of searches for possible intersection of the facets with a slice plane. The slicing algorithm is interfaced with adaptive laminated machining and the stereolithography process through a CNC post processor and a hatching algorithm respectively. A comparison of the estimated surface quality and build time indicates that adaptive slicing produces superior parts in a shorter build time. The implementation of this work is protected under US Patent laws (Patent # 5,596,504, January 1997).

Offsite construction approaches and methodologies have been proffered a potential solution for controlling “traditional” projects, especially where high levels of complexity and uncertainty exist. Given this, locations such as Western Australia (WA), where there are unique housing provision challenges, offsite construction method was considered a potential solution for not only addressing the complexity/uncertainty challenges but also alleviating the housing shortage. However, whilst acknowledging the benefits of offsite construction, recognition was also noted on perceived barriers to its implementation, primarily relating to cost uncertainty. This recognition is exacerbated by very limited offsite construction cost data and information available in the public domain. In response to this, this paper sims to provide detailed cost analysis of three offsite construction projects in WA.

To hold parameters constant and facilitate cross-case comparative analysis, data were collected from three embedded case studies from three residential housing projects in WA. These projects represent the most contemporary implementation of offsite in WA; where two were completed in 2016/2017 and the third project was still ongoing during the data collection of this research. The research methodological approach and accompanying data analysis component engaged a variety of techniques, which was supported by archival study of project data and evidence gathered from the offsite construction provider.

Core findings revealed three emerging themes from residential offsite construction projects pertinent to cost. Specifically, the overall cost of delivering residential housing project with offsite construction techniques, the cost variability of offsite construction residential housing projects as impacted by uncertainties and the cash flow of residential offsite construction projects based on the payment term. These three major cost drivers are elucidated in this paper.

This research presents new cost insights to complement the wider adoption of offsite construction techniques. It presents additional information to address the limited cost data and information of offsite construction projects available in the public domain particularly for residential housing projects (within the bounded context of WA). It also highlights the further stages needed to enhance data validity, cognisant of universal generalisability and repeatability, market maturity and stakeholder supply chains.

This paper presents a bespoke model for understanding off-site construction (OSC) readiness among Indian construction organisations. This model presents 17 variables for discussion, the results from which help support OSC strategic decision-making.

Factor analysis was used to investigate the relationship between variables to group them into factors. After identifying 26 different variables, these were reduced to 17 using factor analysis and categorised into four groups. Descriptive statistical analysis and factor analysis using SPSS was used to develop a hierarchy of factors that affect OSC readiness in India. These findings were reinforced by five domain experts to support the results.

Minimising on-site duration, ensuring cost and time certainty and transportation issues were identified as the three most important factors, whereas lack of guidance and scepticism were among the lowest factors affecting the Indian OSC sector.

This research is specifically focused on OSC within the Indian construction sector. As such, data collection, propagation and analysis should be constrained to the population context regarding inference, generalisability and repeatability.

The proffered OSC readiness model offers OSC practitioners an ability to assess the OSC readiness of construction organisations in India. This includes the evaluation and benchmarking of processes in both strategic and operational phases, including highlighting areas of concern and scope for further development (to achieve optimal advantage of OSC methods).

Originality rests with the use of factor analysis and descriptive statistical analysis to study the influence of different construction-related factors and variables on the OSC sector in India. This impact readiness model is context-specific to the Indian OSC sector – providing a unique insight into the causal factors and dependencies that can affect the adoption and uptake of modern methods of construction in India.

This paper aims to present an off-site construction (OSC) readiness maturity model for assessing the readiness of offsite construction companies in the Indian construction sector.

The research was conducted in three stages. The first stage consisted of a detailed literature review to document 17 different variables affecting the OSC adoption in India. In Stage 2, 15 semi-structured interviews were carried out where the participants were asked to refine those variables for the Indian context and define what would be different levels of attainment. In the third stage, another set of 5 semi-structure interviews was performed to validate the maturity levels and definitions.

A three-level OSC readiness maturity model is presented for discussion. This describes 17 variables at different levels of maturity.

The proposed OSC readiness maturity model guides construction practitioners in India through a structured process to enable them to assess their OSC readiness in the market. This assessment enables them to evaluate and benchmark their processes through the strategic and operational phases. The maturity model also identifies the areas of concern and the scope for further development or change to secure the optimal advantage of OSC methods.

The research produced a model to assess the readiness of OSC adoption in the Indian construction sector. Although the model has been applied to the Indian construction sector, it can easily be modified to accommodate other OSM contexts.

Following the increasing need for faster construction, improved quality and evidence value propositions, offsite construction is increasingly being proffered as a viable contender to “traditional” construction approaches. However, whilst evidence supports the move towards offsite, its uptake has been lower than expected. Whilst the precise reasons for this seem to be influenced by a number of issues, including contextual drivers and market maturity; some project stakeholders also view offsite as carrying greater risks. The purpose of this paper is to report on the quality of information flow, in particular, the impact and influence of this on design risks in offsite construction projects.

An existing design risk framework is used as the point of departure for this research. This is further expanded into a specific model for evaluating offsite construction projects design risks, the rubrics of which were informed by two case studies of offsite construction projects in Australia and the UK analysed with a process-tracing technique. Whilst these cases were geographically separated, the constructs were aligned to uncover fundamental design information requirements and concomitant risks associated with offsite.

The findings of the research reported in this paper include the crucial information feeding into the design process emanating from the lifecycle of offsite construction projects, namely, design, offsite (manufacturing), handling and transporting, site works and installation and also occupancy. These are contextualised within the four categories, namely, client requirements, project requirements, regulation aspects and social aspects and the final outcomes were summarised into a holistic diagram.

Given that the offsite construction has shifted the working paradigm into assigning a significant level of efforts and emphasis at the front end of the construction projects, the importance of its design process and hence design risks management has gone up significantly in construction projects delivered using this technique. This research and paper contributes significantly to the built environment domain by identifying the crucial aspects along the project lifecycle to be considered to minimise the potential occurrence of design risks and hence increasing the confidence of project stakeholders in adopting offsite construction techniques in their projects.

In a world in which successful learning is believed to rest on the methods of teaching and the performance of students is determined by teacher quality, it is clear that teachers are the backbone of student learning attainments. In such a scenario, teacher development, welfare, motivation, and satisfaction are crucial for better teaching performance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine the motivator and hygiene factors among excellent teachers in Malaysia and to explore factors that lead to satisfaction and cause dissatisfaction among excellent teachers in Malaysia.

This study uses quantitative design to determine the motivator and hygiene factors among excellent teachers. For the sample size, 306 excellent teachers participated in this study and data were analysed using principle component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to determine the dominant factor among Herzberg’s motivator and hygiene factors.

From the findings, the results showed that the satisfaction of excellent teachers was low in terms of “personal growth” (motivator) and “supervision” (hygiene). The paper concludes by calling upon the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MoE) to consider both motivator and hygiene factors, and what causes satisfaction and dissatisfaction among excellent teachers.

This study has some limitations to be considered, especially in terms of sample size. The low number of excellent teachers participating in this study is due to the scarcity of face-to-face data collection, in that an online survey was deemed to be the only means to reach the excellent teachers. This is due to the lack of a list of excellent teachers in some state districts, making it difficult to determine those schools which have excellent teachers. In addition, it is also due to logistical and geographical difficulties in reaching certain schools and meeting the excellent teachers. In recognition of such difficulties in undertaking research on excellent teachers in Malaysia, the researchers in this study urge the Malaysian MoE, as well as state districts and regional offices, to update the profile of excellent teachers by creating records and a list of all excellent teachers in Malaysia to facilitate future research. In this scenario, the findings of this study should be used with caution and not be generalized to other contexts, schools, regions, or states.

To be fully cognizant about the excellent teachers’ scheme was introduced to uplift the standard of teaching in Malaysia, and the recipients of this scheme or status (excellent) are considered to be the “cream of the crop” in the teaching profession in Malaysia and for non-excellent teachers to emulate, it is vital to look into their well-being as well as their growth. With the results of this study, the authors can say that the implications for practice touch many aspects of the professional and personal development of Malaysian excellent teachers. Specifically, it is imperative that the factors that intrinsically and extrinsically motivate excellent teachers in Malaysia and the causes of dissatisfaction are identified. In addition, the implications also place emphasis on paving ways for the personal growth of excellent teachers and to provide leeway for them to pursue their own personal happiness. Furthermore, the implications of the lack of proper supervision of school principals on excellent teachers should be avoided, and, in general, hygiene factors could be used as positive implications to improve excellent teachers’ teaching practices and performance.

This research is original as it calls MoE attention to the well-being of excellent teachers in Malaysia. As excellent teachers in Malaysia are selected and promoted among teachers in Malaysia in order to improve teaching and learning in Malaysia. They are appointed to be a role model for other teachers to emulate. With this position, excellent teachers are expected to contribute to the development of their schools and others and they can be posted anywhere as well as called at any time for help. Therefore, it is worthy to know how satisfied those excellent teachers are regarding government policy. Hence, it is important to know what motivates and satisfies them.

The purpose of this study is to present an overview of the existing knowledge on the combined application of lean, off-site and simulation (LOS) in housing delivery.

A systematic literature review approach was adopted. Based on a comprehensive search using Scopus, Web of Science and the International Group for Lean Construction databases, 66 relevant journal articles were identified and analysed.

This study found that the most significant impacts of the combined application of LOS in housing delivery are the capacity to visualise the production processes as a whole in real time, exposure and removal of non-value-adding activities from the production and faster delivery. However, the combined application of LOS is low compared to a single application of each technique in housing delivery.

The results provide relevant stakeholders and actors in the housing sector (private and public housing developers, off-site housing manufacturers and constructors, housing associations and government housing agencies, among others) with the information needed to improve the outcomes of housing delivery through the application of LOS.

This study contributes to the ongoing debate on addressing the global housing shortage by presenting an integrated overview of the existing knowledge on the impact of the nexus of LOS and providing compelling evidence for its usage in housing delivery. It also demonstrates how the combined application of LOS supports the achievement of the flow and value view in the transformation flow value model, which was not previously reported.

Engaged employees assure organizational competitiveness and sustainability. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between job resources and employee turnover intentions, with employee engagement as a mediating variable.

Data were collected from 934 employees of eight wholly-owned pharmaceutical industries. The proposed model and hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Construct reliability and validity was established through confirmatory factor analysis.

Data supported the hypothesized relationship. The results show that job autonomy and employee engagement were significantly associated. Supervisory support and employee engagement were significantly associated. However, performance feedback and employee engagement were nonsignificantly associated. Employee engagement had a significant influence on employee turnover intentions. The results further show that employee engagement mediates the association between job resources and employee turnover intentions.

The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s pharmaceutical industry focus and cross-sectional data.

The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers for stakeholders and decision-makers in the pharmacuetical industry to develop a proactive and well-articulated employee engagement intervention to ensure organizational effectiveness, innovativeness and competitiveness.

By empirically demonstrating that employee engagement mediates the nexus of job resources and employee turnover intentions, the study adds to the corpus of literature.

Housing provides constructed space for human activities. Literature indicates that housing impacts wealth, education attainment and health outcomes, among others. Because of its contributions to society, it is essential to develop and implement strategies that address the housing shortage experienced in most cities across the globe. This study aims to unpack the factors affecting housing production in the UK and chart the way forward.

In addressing this study's aim, an interprivitst approach was adopted and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 experienced professionals. Data were collected across the four nations of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).

The results indicated that the opportunistic behaviour of stakeholders is one of the main factors affecting housing production in the study area. Also, modern construction methods, collaborative practices, government intervention and affordable housing schemes were identified as key strategies for addressing housing production factors.

This study identified strategies for mitigating housing production issues that provide a focal point to all stakeholders keen on filling the housing shortage gap and improving productivity to channel their resources and effort accordingly.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to empirically analyse the influencing factors on the housing gap in the UK from the perspective of the supply side to provide information that could lead towards closing the said gap.