Construction Management & Economics

Jacobsson, Mattias; Linderoth, Henrik C.J.

doi: 10.1080/01446190903406154pmid: N/A

In contemporary research on construction‐related ICT (information communication technologies), little distinction is made between the use of ICT in permanent line organizations and its use in temporary organizations (for example, in building and construction projects). This paper makes that distinction. The aim is to understand how the interplay among contextual elements, actors’ frames of reference, and the ICT itself, influences the adoption and use of ICT in a building and construction project. This will be done through a description and analysis of a case study of ICT use in a major Swedish construction company. It is concluded that the well‐defined duration of the temporary organization (the construction project) stands in sharp contrast to the generally indefinite duration of ICT‐mediated change processes. However, by analysing the ICT application to be implemented, it can be revealed whether it can be ‘ready packed’ for, or delimited to, certain processes in order to achieve immediate benefits. When implementing more encompassing ICT applications, the challenge for the company is to find alternative ways of implementation in the project‐based organization and of creating alternative spaces for innovation and renewal where new ICT can be tested and experimented with.

Hallowell, Matthew

doi: 10.1080/01446190903460706pmid: N/A

Every year the construction industry accounts for a disproportionate injury rate when compared to the all‐industry average. In recent years, incident rates have declined as a result of improvements in safety management. While there is a great deal of knowledge regarding the safety management strategies of highly effective construction firms, little is known about the cost‐effectiveness of these strategies. Interviews with 26 representatives of construction firms headquartered in the US were undertaken to quantify the cost of implementing common safety programme elements by: (1) quantifying cost for each element per US$1 million of project scope; and (2) determining the distribution of safety funding to each element. Using these cost data and effectiveness ratings from previous research, the cost‐effectiveness of 13 safety programme elements was quantified. The results indicate that the most cost‐effective safety programme elements are subcontractor selection and management and upper management support and commitment. Alternatively, the least cost‐effective elements are the employment of a full‐time safety manager and record‐keeping. The information presented in this paper may be used by practitioners to direct resource investments, strategically select a subset of safety programme elements when resources are limited, and to justify additional resource investment in accident prevention.

Hatmoko, Jati Utomo Dwi; Scott, Stephen

doi: 10.1080/01446190903365632pmid: N/A

Construction supply chains encompass the flows of materials, labour, information, plant, equipment and temporary works that originate from a variety of different parties. The impact of various supply chain management practices on project performance has been measured, through a combination of a survey and the development of simulation models. Preliminary investigations were carried out by visiting two medium‐sized building projects regularly over a period of six months to gain an understanding of the ways in which delays on supply chains impact on project performance. This was followed by the main survey which was designed to collect data required for developing the simulation models. These models were developed using Pertmaster Risk Expert™ software and incorporated supply chain delays applied to a CPM network of a typical medium‐sized building project of 300 days’ duration. The results of the simulation showed that the project’s median delay was 67 days (22% of the project duration). The use of subcontractors in the project reduced this delay by approximately 45%. It was also learned that delays in material flow caused the biggest impact on the project, followed by labour flow, information flow and ‘plant, equipment and temporary work’ flow. These findings are an important measure of how much supply chain delays impact on project performance.

Abdul‐Aziz, Abdul‐Rashid; Wong, Sing Sing

doi: 10.1080/01446190903460680pmid: N/A

The internationalization of construction companies is a subject of enduring interest among construction management scholars. The internationalization pattern of Malaysian contractors was explored, this time mainly using the international entrepreneurship body of literature as the theoretical basis. In doing so, the focus of the internationalization process was on the entrepreneurs or top management. Data were collected with a postal questionnaire survey and follow‐up semi‐structured interviews. The findings underscore the importance of the entrepreneurs’ decision in the surveyed firms’ internationalization trajectory. Top management’s perception of how their companies might benefit from internationalization was the highest ranked foreign market entry consideration. Top managements’ initial and subsequent motivation also fashioned their companies’ degree of internationalization and tactics for securing contracts. The characteristics of the entrepreneurs which drove their companies to internationalize were also captured. The international entrepreneurship domain continues to expand into previously uncharted areas. As such there is potential to uncover even more interesting findings from future research endeavours on international contractors using the international entrepreneurship approach.

Jensen, Donald A.

doi: 10.1080/01446190903406162pmid: N/A

The United States government’s differing conditions clause poses extensive legal and financial risk. This contract clause addresses Type I and Type II unforeseen conditions. A Type I condition occurs when a latent physical condition materially differs from that condition indicated in the bidding documents. A Type II condition exists when an unknown physical condition has an unusual nature different from that condition generally encountered and naturally inhering in the contract work. The occurrence of either provides a contractor with the contractual right to file a claim for equitable contract adjustment. A contractor desiring to prevail, regarding a Type I claim, must properly comply with the Weeks Dredging proof elements. Chi‐square statistical results, for 143 Type I differing conditions claims, provide empirical evidence that 79% of the contractors receive a disfavourable court award when challenging the United States government. Forty‐four per cent of the reported cases cite the Weeks Dredging proof element, contractor did not act as a reasonably prudent contractor, as a basis for denying a contractor’s claim for equitable adjustment. This standard measures whether a reasonable contractor did or did not review and properly document all bidding documents.

Zhang, Hong; Li, Heng

doi: 10.1080/01446190903406170pmid: N/A

Reduction in construction project duration is generally linked to additional cost due to more expensive resources required. Hence tradeoff between time and cost is crucial to the efficiency of a construction project. The time‐cost tradeoff (TCT) issue has been studied through various multi‐objective optimization methodologies to determine an optimal set of activity methods with the objectives of minimizing project duration and total cost. A multi‐objective particle swarm optimization that adopts a combined scheme for determining the global best of each particle is presented for solving the TCT problem. The candidate TCT solutions in terms of a set of construction methods for activities are represented through the multidimensional particles. The framework of the combined scheme‐based multi‐objective particle swarm optimization (CSMOPSO) is developed. Computational analyses are conducted to investigate the performance of the CSMOPSO, including comparison with other methods. This study is expected to provide an alternative solving methodology for the TCT problem and help contractors or engineers plan construction methods with optimal time–cost tradeoff.

Liu, Li; Napier, Zigrid

doi: 10.1080/01446190903431525pmid: N/A

Infrastructure projects are still being plagued by cost overruns, delays and revenue shortfalls despite decades of practice and research. Risk‐based estimating (RBE) is growing in popularity and has the potential to overcome the two main cost overrun factors—optimistic bias and strategic misrepresentation. Yet, little is known about the accuracy of RBE and its performance drivers. A comparison of water projects using RBE with a sample of construction projects using the conventional estimating approach shows that the projects estimated using RBE have better estimation accuracy than those estimated using more conventional approaches. In addition, the projects using RBE appear more likely to be under‐budget while the ones using the conventional approach appear more likely to be over‐budget. Further, through interviews and observations of the RBE process, three main performance drivers for the RBE method were identified to include outside view/collective experience, attention focusing and probabilistic, bottom‐up modelling.

Russell, Henry

doi: 10.1080/01446190903460649pmid: N/A