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1 – 10 of over 14000Muhammad Arslan, Christophe Cruz, Ana-Maria Roxin and Dominique Ginhac
The purpose of this paper is to improve the safety of construction workers by understanding their behaviors on construction sites using spatio-temporal (ST) trajectories.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve the safety of construction workers by understanding their behaviors on construction sites using spatio-temporal (ST) trajectories.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of construction safety management literature and international occupational health and safety statistics shows that the major reasons for fatalities on construction sites are mobility-related issues, such as unsafe human behaviors, difficult site conditions, and workers falling from heights and striking against or being struck by moving objects. Consequently, literature has been reviewed to find possible technological solutions to track the mobility of construction workers to reduce fatalities. This examination has suggested that location acquisition systems, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), have been widely used for real-time monitoring and tracking of workers on construction sites for hazard prevention. However, the raw data captured from GPS devices are generally available as discrete points and do not hold enough information to understand the workers’ mobility. As a solution, an application to transform raw GPS data into ST trajectories using different preprocessing algorithms is proposed for enhancing worker safety on construction sites.
Findings
The proposed system preprocesses raw GPS data for stay point detection, trajectory segmentation and intersection of multiple trajectories to find significant places and movements of workers on a construction site to enhance the information available to H&S managers for decision-making processes. In addition, it reduces the size of trajectory data for future analyses.
Originality/value
Application of location acquisition systems for construction safety management is very well addressed in the existing literature. However, a significant gap has been found: the usage of preprocessed ST trajectories is still missing in workers’ safety monitoring scenarios in the area of construction management. To address this research gap, the proposed system uses preprocessed ST trajectories to monitor workers’ movements on a construction site to identify potentially unsafe behaviors.
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Lixuan Jiang, Hua Zhong, Jianghong Chen, Jiajia Cheng, Shilong Chen, Zili Gong, Zhihui Lun, Jinhua Zhang and Zhenmin Su
The construction industry is facing challenges not only for workers' mobility in the pandemic situation but also for Lean Construction (LC) practise in responding to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The construction industry is facing challenges not only for workers' mobility in the pandemic situation but also for Lean Construction (LC) practise in responding to the high-quality development during the post-pandemic. As such, this paper presents a construction workforce management framework based on LC to manage both the emergency goal in migrant worker management and the long-term goal in labour productivity improvement in China.
Design/methodology/approach
The framework is created based on the integrated culture and technology strategies of LC. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is taken to explore factors influencing the mobility of construction workers and to measure labour productivity improvement. The case study approach is adopted to demonstrate the framework application.
Findings
For method application, a time-and-motion study and Percent Plan Complete indicator are proposed to offer labour productivity measurements of “resources efficiency” and “flow efficiency”. Moreover, the case study provides an industry level solution for construction workforce management and Lean Construction culture shaping, as well as witnesses the LC culture and technology strategies alignment contributing to LC practise innovation.
Originality/value
Compared with previous studies which emphasised solely LC techniques rather than socio-technical system thinking, the proposed integration framework as well as implementation of “Worker's Home” and “Lean Work Package” management models in the COVID-19 pandemic contribute to new extensions of both the fundamental of knowledge and practise in LC.
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Gizem Bilgin, Huseyin Erol, Guzide Atasoy, Irem Dikmen and M. Talat Birgonul
Megaprojects are known as complex projects that involve high levels of uncertainty. This interpretive study explores and portrays perceived complexity in mega construction…
Abstract
Purpose
Megaprojects are known as complex projects that involve high levels of uncertainty. This interpretive study explores and portrays perceived complexity in mega construction projects by lived experiences of project managers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilises a ground theory approach to analyse data gathered from semi-structured interviews with 18 professionals involved in 11 megaprojects.
Findings
Complexity in mega construction projects is defined as a project property that stems from the interaction of project features, uncertain variables/conditions, and managerial actions forming a pattern, which emerges over time, based on the reflections of construction practitioners.
Originality/value
This study defines complexity based on the reflections of the practitioners in the construction industry and uniquely identifies complexity patterns that may have implications for project management, particularly risk management.
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To examine the mobilization of environmental sustainability policies in the Winter Olympic Games in Asia guided by approaches that highlight policy mobilities. The construction of…
Abstract
To examine the mobilization of environmental sustainability policies in the Winter Olympic Games in Asia guided by approaches that highlight policy mobilities. The construction of sledding tracks in two cases, the Winter Games in Japan and South Korea, was analyzed to demonstrate how sustainability was framed and which policy programs were implemented.
The first part of the chapter introduces Olympic mega-events as agents of sustainability policy circulation. It discusses the study's key concepts and describes approaches to policy circulation studies. The second part of the chapter outlines the construction of the Nagano and PyeongChang sledding tracks and the sustainability policies that were in use during that time. The third part discusses the two cases from a policy mobility perspective.
The two sledding track cases are described, along with national and Olympic policies of environmental sustainability. Discursive policy framings of environmental sustainability in Nagano and PyeongChang similarly modeled previous Games' best practices that were supported by scientific and technological knowledge. It was clear, however, that best practices were taken up differently in each construction effort, and that the lack of cooperation between Games organizers across these venues and countries meant that environmental expertise was not always transferred from one Games to another. Policy circulation was also affected by entangled transnational power relations, and by the fact that each nation state and the corporate actors who built the sledding tracks arguably had uneven power relations with international expert agencies. Thus, policy priorities and policy mobility from one Olympics to the next were determined by a combination of the interaction with these expert networks, time pressure in the Olympic structure, and rivalry between the countries.
Implications for enhancing policy mobility and deliberation of policy commitments are discussed.
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The purpose of this paper is two‐fold: to discuss the key factors determining foreign direct investment (FDI) intra‐industry spillovers and to examine the presence and the extent…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is two‐fold: to discuss the key factors determining foreign direct investment (FDI) intra‐industry spillovers and to examine the presence and the extent of these spillovers in Switzerland, by testing them for the services/construction industry, where there is currently a scarcity of evidence.
Design/methodology/approach
The assessment of spillovers calls for a detailed analysis of these effects according to the mechanisms by which they occur (namely, the increase in competition, demonstration effects, and worker mobility), and whether the size and the extent of spillovers depend on the interaction between their mechanisms and the existing technological capacities of domestic firms.
Findings
The regression results are affirmative, in that domestic firms with high technological capacities appear to gain spillover benefits from FDI heightening competition, while mid‐ and low‐technology firms benefit a lot from demonstration effects. In addition, spillovers for high‐ and mid‐technology firms appear to be largely co‐determined by the level of their human capital. Only domestic firms that invested heavily in absorptive capacity benefit from spillovers.
Research limitations/implications
The evidence on spillover effects has not yet been conclusive. Hence, this paper proposes some components for a research agenda on FDI and intra‐industry spillovers.
Practical implications
The study provides insights for Swiss policy makers about how to promote the beneficial spillover effects of FDI.
Originality/value
The process of spilling over is correctly described in a more satisfactory model and then the impact of this process is accurately identified.
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This paper aims to test two hypotheses related to the supposedly negative impact of rent control on residential mobility: the mobility of renters is, first, negatively related to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to test two hypotheses related to the supposedly negative impact of rent control on residential mobility: the mobility of renters is, first, negatively related to how attractive their residential areas are and, second, relatively high for renters living in properties built after 2005.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper estimates logit and multinomial logit regressions and models household moves. The multinomial logit regressions separate between short- and long-distance moves and between moves to rentals and to owned dwellings. This paper uses the “relative income” of the tenants’ residential areas to proxy area attractiveness. This paper estimates regressions for entire Sweden and the three largest “commuting” regions and municipalities, respectively.
Findings
The full sample provides support of both hypotheses in all regressions. Hypothesis one gets stronger support for moves to other rentals than moves to owned dwellings but about equally strong support for short- and long-distance moves. Hypothesis one obtains strongest support in Gothenburg municipality while hypothesis two obtains strongest support in the Malmö region. Also, hypothesis two obtains stronger support for short-distance moves than long-distance moves and slightly stronger support for moves to owned dwellings than those to rented dwellings.
Research limitations/implications
This paper does not estimate “how much” rent control affects mobility, and results cannot be used to design specific rent setting policies. Results may be sensitive to how different types of moves are defined.
Practical implications
Efforts to reform rent setting policies in Sweden are encouraged.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper’s two hypotheses are not tested before in Sweden and can be tested without control groups.
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Javier Ibañez‐Guzmán and Andrew A. Malcolm
This paper explores the technologies necessary for the development of autonomous ground vehicles to be used in the construction process. Consideration is given to the…
Abstract
This paper explores the technologies necessary for the development of autonomous ground vehicles to be used in the construction process. Consideration is given to the technological challenges to be resolved for the machines to evolve in an almost unstructured environment. The paper includes sample cases of current applications and examines future perspectives on the use of these devices. Emphasis is placed on the collaborative aspects that need to be developed between man and machine in order to make effective use of these resources on site.
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Ayodeji E. Oke and Seyi S. Stephen
Mobile computing enables mobile devices to boost restricted resources, and this further includes processing, storage space and battery freedom with the help of cloud facilities…
Abstract
Mobile computing enables mobile devices to boost restricted resources, and this further includes processing, storage space and battery freedom with the help of cloud facilities. Cloud computing (CC) enables users to obtain admission to energy from another location, providing movement, and enabling common data admission. This chapter is tailored towards responding to a variety of the main challenges of the construction industry with the help of utilising mobile cloud solutions and services. The main benefits of embracing CC largely centred on resources which are expressed in cost reduction, system mobility, system flexibility and system maintenance, while the threats are information protection, individual accessibility, governing conformity, data location, accessibility and also disaster recuperation. This chapter provided necessary solutions to the main threats in the construction industry in terms of design, materials, finance, management and knowledge with the application of mobile cloud computing.
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This paper documents how gender differences in occupational status (defined by earnings, education, and returns to skills) have evolved over time and across generations. The paper…
Abstract
This paper documents how gender differences in occupational status (defined by earnings, education, and returns to skills) have evolved over time and across generations. The paper finds a persistent gender earnings gap, a reversal of the education gap, and a convergence in starting salaries and returns to experience. Divergent occupational choices might explain part of the persistent gender gaps and women’s failure to reach parity with men in the earnings distribution. Women choose more flexible jobs than men. But whereas men dominate women in high-powered occupations, they are also more likely to be in low-skilled low-pay occupations. Differential effects of children and time spent keeping house explain most of the gender gap in high-powered occupations but cannot explain fully why women choose more flexible occupations.
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