Construction Management & Economics

Noorizadeh, Abdollah; Rashidi, Kamran; Peltokorpi, Antti

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2017.1416151pmid: N/A

AbstractSupplier development plays a significant role in the cost, quality and delivery improvements of construction projects. However, there is limited research on analytical methods of categorizing and prioritizing a high number of suppliers for effective allocation of scarce development resources. This research aims to develop an objective model to categorize a general contractor’s suppliers. To do so, we use three concepts from different research backgrounds – recency, frequency and monetary value (RFM); data envelopment analysis (DEA); and the customer pyramid – and add the number of projects (P) shared with each supplier as a context-related variable to build a novel RFMP model. The model categorizes suppliers into four levels of the supplier pyramid, utilizing historical data on supplier–contractor transactions. To test the model in practice, we adopt a case study of an international construction company in Finland. The results reveal that a supplier’s RFMP score reflects its contribution to the contractor’s business; therefore, development investments should vary, based on a supplier’s position in the supplier pyramid. This research contributes to the knowledge on supply chain management in construction by combining three approaches – RFM, DEA and the customer pyramid – into a single objective model to categorize suppliers for effective development investments.

Sacilotto, J.; Loosemore, M.

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2018.1457222pmid: N/A

AbstractChinese companies are investing heavily in overseas construction and property assets. In Australia, and in many other countries such as the United States and United Kingdom, this has generated an emotive and polarized debate about the risks and opportunities posed to local industry and to wider national interests. To explore the social and cognitive mechanisms which people are using to make sense of this new global phenomenon, Kasperson’s Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) was mobilized, through semi-structured interviews with senior Australian construction industry leaders. The results show that the SARF is a valuable lens to explore perceptions of risk and opportunity associated with Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), although it represents a rather linear view and underplays the importance of power, collaboration and social media in forming perceptions. They also show that senior practitioners in the Australian construction industry are taking a highly rational, commercial and pragmatic approach to increasing FDI. Despite some concerns around non-compliant materials, labour standards and safety standards, Chinese FDI is seen as inevitable and crucial to the development of Australia’s construction industry. Surprisingly, given negative media coverage of Chinese FDI in Australia and a lack of experience in working with Chinese investors, we found little evidence for the social amplification or attenuation of risk. Knee-jerk regulatory reactions which are advocated by many groups are generally seen as risky and we conclude that the nature of Chinese – Australian business experiences over the near future will have a major effect on whether those perceptions eventuate as negative or positive. It is recommended that the best way to mitigate any risks and maximize the opportunities is not to withdraw and oppose Chinese FDI but to build collaborative links to improve direct interactions between Australian and Chinese firms, underpinned by targeted risk and opportunity management protocols.

Kaminsky, Jessica; Faust, Kasey

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2018.1462499pmid: N/A

AbstractRecent years have seen historically unprecedented global disaster migration; in 2016 Germany received 1.3 million displaced individuals. Regardless of past resources and future potential, disaster migrants are a new, vulnerable population. This new population increases demand for water and wastewater infrastructure services, despite being temporarily unable to pay for services. As such, this kind of sudden population increase is a resiliency challenge for the receiving infrastructure systems. Qualitative analysis of 1,884 open-ended survey responses was blended with a statistical analysis to discover how and why the German public perceives water and sanitation services have been provided to the disaster migrants. Unprompted, 36% (112/314) of respondents referenced at least one of three infrastructure epistemologies, including water and wastewater as a service, as a basic need, and as a human right. These epistemologies share statistically significant relationships with how long respondents feel water and wastewater should be provided to displaced persons. A temporally limited, normative perception of water and sanitation as a humanitarian good functions to enable water and wastewater infrastructure to deliver a high level of service despite the significant disruption of the large and vulnerable population influx, and has practical implications for the structure of cost recovery.

da Rocha, Cecília Gravina; Kemmer, Sergio

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2018.1464198pmid: N/A

AbstractProduct modularity namely the notion that products can be decomposed into parts (or modules) has been widely applied in manufacturing but not in construction, precluding this industry to also benefit from it. The narrow definition of a module, which is often simplistically equated to a sub-assembly produced off-site, and the lack of integration between product and process design, which is typical in construction, are argued to be two root causes of such problem. This paper starts by discussing the operational implications of misaligned decisions in these two domains in an empirical study addressing a high-rise apartments building project. Seven guidelines are then devised using a Design Science Research (DSR) approach for integrating product (product modularity and modules) and process (work structure and work packages) design. The results indicate that product modularity can be applied for improving operations regardless of the construction method(s) used. Yet, a revised understanding of modules (as a material, a component, a non-volumetric or a volumetric sub-assembly) is needed in addition to a coordinated product and process design, particularly for traditional construction.