Adoption and implementation of building information modelling (BIM) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): a review and conceptualizationSaka, Abdullahi B.; Chan, Daniel W.M.
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-06-2019-0332
Despite the SMEs representing a large percentage of firms in the construction industry, there has been an under-representation of SMEs’ perspective in BIM research studies. This paper aims to systematically review the few extant studies with a view of synthesizing the findings.Design/methodology/approachHermeneutic philosophy using the interpretivist epistemology approach with a touch of metasynthesis was adopted to critically review and analyse extant studies published over the last decade.FindingsThe findings revealed a scarcity of BIM studies in SMEs, the status of adoption, identified barriers, benefits and drivers. A conceptual model was then developed based on the literature review and theoretical lenses of innovation diffusion model, technology–organization–environment framework and institutional theory. The paper presents pertinent propositions to drive BIM in the SMEs.Originality/valueThis paper holistically reviews extant BIM studies from the perspective of SMEs that are the backbone of the construction industry. It synthesizes extant studies and sets scenes for further studies.
Identifying critical factors influencing the safety of Chinese subway construction projectsZhang, Shang; Sunindijo, Riza Yosia; Loosemore, Martin; Wang, Shejiang; Gu, Yajun; Li, Hongfei
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-07-2020-0525
The image of the construction industry in China, as in many other countries, is tarnished by its poor safety record. With the rapid development of subway systems in Chinese urban areas, construction workers are being exposed to new risks which are poorly understood and managed. Subway construction projects are large scale and scattered over many construction sites, and involve numerous stakeholders and sophisticated technologies in challenging underground environments. Accident rates are high and have significant economic and social consequences for the firms and people involved. Addressing the gap in research about the safety risk in these projects, the purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of the factors influencing the safety of Chinese subway construction projects with the overall objective of reducing accident rates.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted with 399 subway construction professionals across five stakeholder groups. Follow-up interviews were also conducted with five experienced experts in safety management on subway projects to validate the results.FindingsIt was found that the eight most critical factors perceived by stakeholders to influence safety risks on Chinese subway projects are: project management team; contractor-related factors; site underground environment; safety protection during the use of machines; safety management investment; site construction monitoring and measurement; hazard identification and communication; and use of machines in all stages. This indicates that in allocating limited project resources to improve the safety of subway projects, managers should focus on: developing safety knowledge and positive attitudes in leadership teams; formulating effective risk management systems to identify, assess, mitigate, measure and monitor safety risks on site; improving communications with stakeholders about these risks and effectively managing plant, equipment and machinery.Originality/valueThis research contributes a new multi-stakeholder perspective to the lack of safety research in Chinese subway construction projects. The research findings provide important new insights for policymakers and managers in improving safety outcomes on these major projects, producing potentially significant social and economic benefits for society and the construction industry.
A risk-oriented tender evaluation system for construction projects in MalaysiaIsmail, Mohd Razali; Sun, Ming; Bowles, Graeme
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-06-2018-0225
This paper presents results of an empirical investigation involving private construction clients in Malaysia, which seeks to establish appropriate tender evaluation criteria and weightings for a risk-oriented tender evaluation system.Design/methodology/approachAt the initial stage of this study, a list of significant risks is identified and gathered through literature review. These risks are then mapped onto tender evaluation criteria. Following this, the identified risks and their mappings are validated through a questionnaire survey to determine appropriate criteria for tender evaluation. Weightings for the selected evaluation criteria are established through an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) group decision-making (GDM) method.FindingsIn practice, different lists of criteria, covering tender's technical capability and financial performance, are often used by different client organisations. However, there is a paucity of research behind the selection of these criteria and the weighting being attributed to different criteria.Originality/valueThis study provides an important and a valuable insight into the actual criteria used during tender evaluation practice based on an analysis of documentary evidence. Both current practice and existing tender evaluation studies failed to address the risk element adequately. There is a lack of an explicit link between evaluation criteria and project risks. This study fills this knowledge gap by identifying tender evaluation criteria through reviewing criteria used in practice and examining their links to risk factors.
Optimising social procurement policy outcomes through cross-sector collaboration in the Australian construction industryLoosemore, Martin; Denny-Smith, George; Barraket, Jo; Keast, Robyn; Chamberlain, Daniel; Muir, Kristy; Powell, Abigail; Higgon, Dave; Osborne, Jo
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-04-2020-0221
Social procurement policies are an emerging policy instrument being used by governments around the world to leverage infrastructure and construction spending to address intractable social problems in the communities they represent. The relational nature of social procurement policies requires construction firms to develop new collaborative partnerships with organisations from the government, not-for-profit and community sectors. The aim of this paper is to address the paucity of research into the risks and opportunities of entering into these new cross-sector partnerships from the perspectives of the stakeholders involved and how this affects collaborative potential and social value outcomes for intended beneficiaries.Design/methodology/approachThis case study research is based on a unique collaborative intermediary called Connectivity Centre created by an international contractor to coordinate its social procurement strategies. The findings draw on a thematic analysis of qualitative data from focus groups with 35 stakeholders from the construction, government, not-for-profit, social enterprise, education and employment sectors.FindingsFindings indicate that potentially enormous opportunities which social procurement offers are being undermined by stakeholder nervousness about policy design, stability and implementation, poor risk management, information asymmetries, perverse incentives, candidate supply constraints, scepticism, traditional recruitment practices and industry capacity constraints. While these risks can be mitigated through collaborative initiatives like Connectivity Centres, this depends on new “relational” skills, knowledge and competencies which do not currently exist in construction. In conclusion, when social procurement policy requirements are excessive and imposed top-down, with little understanding of the construction industry's compliance capacity, intended social outcomes of these policies are unlikely to be achieved.Originality/valueThis research draws on theories of cross-sector collaboration developed in the realm of public sector management to address the lack of research into how the new cross-sector partnerships encouraged by emerging social procurement policies work in the construction industry. Contributing to the emerging literature on cross-sector collaboration, the findings expose the many challenges of working in cross-sector partnerships in highly transitionary project-based environments like construction.
Integrating a rich picture diagram and causal loop diagram to model stakeholder engagement in building refurbishment projectsSeki, Yuri; Sutrisna, Monty; Olanipekun, Ayokunle Olubunmi
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0342
The more contemporary views on managing projects recommend stakeholder engagement as an important part of the process. Challenges have been reported when attempting to involve project stakeholders in a construction project due to the complexity of the processes. In projects such as refurbishment projects, the efforts to incorporate end users' needs and preferences into spatial environmental functions increase the complexity of stakeholder engagement during the journey of the project. This paper presents a unique technique used to integrate different tools within the system enquiry methodology in modelling the project stakeholder engagement process for refurbishment projects.Design/methodology/approachAiming to address the problem, system dynamics (SD) has been selected as the most suitable method for modelling the dynamic behaviour of this complex system over time. A tool known as a rich picture diagram (RPD) is proposed as the precursor of the development of a causal loop diagram (CLD) to facilitate a more holistic abstraction for applicable solutions. An example of a single case study involving the refurbishment of a higher education building project is presented to explain the analysis undertaken in the process of developing the CLD that models the dynamic behaviour within end-user stakeholder engagement.FindingsThis paper demonstrates the complementarity capabilities of the soft and hard systems of enquiry in modelling stakeholder's dynamics within the refurbishment construction contexts. The RPD soft system tool was found useful to congregate diverse stakeholder expressions and experiences of a complex system in a holistic manner. Subsequently, the development of the CLD was fully guided by the information and relationship captured and presented in the RPD to yield a representative system model. Furthermore, this paper also reports the dynamics of the actors, situations, events and their inter-relationship found in the presented refurbishment project.Originality/valueThis paper enriches the techniques within the system enquiry methodology by integrating hard and soft system tools for dynamic process modelling purposes. This is particularly achieved by utilizing the RPD as the precursor of SD that provides a useful way for researchers and stakeholders to fully understand the dynamics and develop robust systemic interventions to optimize end-user stakeholder engagement during the journey of refurbishment projects, particularly of higher education buildings.
A cartography of delay risks in the Australian construction industry: impact, correlations and timingDerakhshanfar, Hossein; Ochoa, J. Jorge; Kirytopoulos, Konstantinos; Mayer, Wolfgang; Langston, Craig
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-04-2020-0230
The purpose of this research is to identify the most impactful delay risks in Australian construction projects, including the associations amongst those risks as well as the project phases in which they are most likely present. The correlation between project and organisational characteristics with the impact of delay risks was also studied.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 118 delayed construction projects in Australia. Data were analysed to rank the most impactful delay risks, their correlation to project and organisational characteristics and project phases where those risks are likely to emerge. Association rule learning was used to capture associations between the delay risks.FindingsThe top five most impactful delay risks in Australia were changes by the owner, slow decisions by the owner, preparation and approval of design drawings, underestimation of project complexity and unrealistic duration imposed to the project, respectively. There is a set of delay risks that are mutually associated with project complexity. In addition, while delay risks associated with resources most likely arise in the execution phase, stakeholder and process-related risks are more smoothly distributed along all the project phases.Originality/valueThis research for the first time investigated the impact of delay risks, associations amongst them and project phases in which they are likely to happen in the Australian context. Also, this research for the first time sheds light on the project phases for the individual project delay risks which aids the project managers to understand where to focus on during each phase of the project.
Time-cost-quality-environmental impact trade-off resource-constrained project scheduling problem with DEA approachBanihashemi, Sayyid Ali; Khalilzadeh, Mohammad
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0350
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate project activities' efficiency in different execution modes for the optimization of time–cost-quality and environmental impacts trade-off problem.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a parallel Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method for evaluation of project activities with different execution modes to select the best execution mode and find a trade-off between objectives. Also, according to the nature of the project activities, outputs are categorized into desirable (quality) and undesirable (time, cost and environmental impacts) and analyzed based on the DEA model. In order to rank efficient execution modes, the ideal and anti-ideal virtual units method is used. The proposed model is implemented on a real case of a rural water supply construction project to demonstrate its validity.FindingsThe findings show that the use of the efficient execution mode in each activity leads to an optimal trade-off between the four project objectives (time, cost, quality and environmental impacts).Practical implicationsThis study help project managers and practitioners with choosing the most efficient execution modes of project activities taking time–cost-quality-environmental impacts into account.Originality/valueIn this paper, in addition to time and cost optimization of construction projects, quality factors and environmental impacts are considered. Further to the authors' knowledge, there is no method for evaluating project activities' efficiency. The efficiency of different activity modes is also evaluated for the first time to select the most efficient modes. This research can assist project managers with choosing the most appropriate execution modes for the activities to ultimately accomplish the project with the lowest time, cost and environmental impacts along with the highest quality.
A qualitative approach to investigate emergency preparedness state for the built environment in the UAERashid Alteneiji, Hamdan; Ahmed, Vian; Saboor, Sara
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0296
Emergency preparedness (EP) is one of the crucial phases of the disaster management cycle for the built environment. The body of knowledge, therefore, reports on different preparedness standards adopted by developed countries such as the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA), Canada, Japan and Australia. Other countries, however, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (in the absence of its preparedness framework), have long adapted the UK preparedness standards. This has called for this study to investigate the state of EP practices in the UAE to identify the limitations and challenges it has been facing during its preparedness phase when adopting the UK preparedness standards.Design/methodology/approachQualitative methods of data collection and documentation with the content analysis were adopted to identify the barriers faced by the preparedness phase of emergency management (EM) in the UAE. A Pilot study was therefore conducted to validate eight key elements of the EP phase identified from the literature. The state of EP phase and the extent to which the eight key elements of EP elements were practiced and the barriers in their implementation in the UAE were explored through interviews at federal (National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority) and local levels (local team of crisis and emergency management).FindingsThe study identified eight key elements of the EP phase and the associated barriers related to their implementation in the UAE. The barriers were ranked based on their severity by interviewing experts at both federal and local levels.Practical implicationsThis paper addresses the need to investigate the state of the EP phase, its key elements and the barriers faced during its implementation in the UAE.Originality/valueDue to the absence of any EP frameworks or systems in the UAE, this paper aims to validate the EP elements identified by adopting a qualitative approach.
Productivity estimation of cutter suction dredger operation through data mining and learning from real-time big dataFu, Jiake; Tian, Huijing; Song, Lingguang; Li, Mingchao; Bai, Shuo; Ren, Qiubing
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0357
This paper presents a new approach of productivity estimation of cutter suction dredger operation through data mining and learning from real-time big data.Design/methodology/approachThe paper used big data, data mining and machine learning techniques to extract features of cutter suction dredgers (CSD) for predicting its productivity. ElasticNet-SVR (Elastic Net-Support Vector Machine) method is used to filter the original monitoring data. Along with the actual working conditions of CSD, 15 features were selected. Then, a box plot was used to clean the corresponding data by filtering out outliers. Finally, four algorithms, namely SVR (Support Vector Regression), XGBoost (Extreme Gradient Boosting), LSTM (Long-Short Term Memory Network) and BP (Back Propagation) Neural Network, were used for modeling and testing.FindingsThe paper provided a comprehensive forecasting framework for productivity estimation including feature selection, data processing and model evaluation. The optimal coefficient of determination (R2) of four algorithms were all above 80.0%, indicating that the features selected were representative. Finally, the BP neural network model coupled with the SVR model was selected as the final model.Originality/valueMachine-learning algorithm incorporating domain expert judgments was used to select predictive features. The final optimal coefficient of determination (R2) of the coupled model of BP neural network and SVR is 87.6%, indicating that the method proposed in this paper is effective for CSD productivity estimation.
An evolutionary game analysis of user-pay public–private partnership projectsSong, Danrong; Song, Jinbo; Yuan, Hehui; Fan, Yu
2021 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management
doi: 10.1108/ecam-06-2020-0460
With the growing demand for infrastructure and public services in recent years, PPP-UP have attracted a great deal of attention. However, while the user focuses on the payment for use and the private sector is concerned with its return on investment, the public sector pays more attention to the efficient utilization of public funds. In order to analyze the willingness of each stakeholder to join PPP-UP, an evolutionary game model involving the three parties is constructed.Design/methodology/approachAn evolutionary game model is established that considers the users and the public and private sectors in user-pay public-private-partnership projects (PPP-UP). Eight scenarios of equilibriums and the game's evolutionary stable strategies are analyzed, and the corresponding stability conditions are then obtained. A situation where all three players are willing to cooperate in theory is also examined. The key influencing parameters that affect cooperation behaviors are further discussed.FindingsFirst, the results illustrate that by properly adjusting the influencing factors, the cooperation status among the three parties can be changed along with certain evolutionary trends. Second, it is hard to modify unsatisfactory evolutionary stability by small changes in both the price compensation of and the construction and operation compensation. Third, it is necessary to involve the users in the decision-making process in PPP-UP and take their demands regarding benefits and payments into account.Originality/valueIn this paper, we focus on PPP-UP to research interactions among the public and private sectors and the users. Based on the analysis of the evolutionary game, to facilitate the successful implementation and development of a project, several conditions are needed to ensure tripartite cooperation. Several recommendations are then proposed for decision-makers in PPP-UP.