Construction Owners Research Articles

Challenges in the Integration of E-Procurement Procedures into Construction Supply Chains

The growing interest in digitalization signals a need for technology-oriented supply chain operations in the construction industry. Electronic procurement (e-procurement) aims to convert traditional procurement approaches into web-based/online platforms. Even though e-procurement is an effective tool that may improve supply chain management, the extent of e-procurement implementation has been slow to date. This study investigates the barriers that hinder e-procurement implementation in construction supply chains with the aim of prioritizing solutions to the identified barriers relative to time, cost, quality, and construction owner satisfaction. A comprehensive literature survey was performed, and a focus group discussion was organized for the purpose of the study, which resulted in the identification of 28 barriers. Then, a total of 131 construction practitioners were contacted to evaluate the barriers through a questionnaire survey. The responses were analyzed using the fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarities to Ideal Solution (fuzzy TOPSIS) for prioritization. Finally, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain a deeper insight into the transformation process from the conventional procurement route to the e-procurement solution. Findings highlight that issues related to unexpected order cancellations, large variations in material costs, and the uncertain nature of the industry that requires a large number of changes are ranked as the most significant barriers. Given the highly competitive environment and the high demand for advanced technologies in the construction industry, a new paradigm can enhance the efficiency of supply chain operations. Exploring and eliminating the potential difficulties of adopting e-procurement in the procurement process may be a good start. Overall, this research is expected to facilitate the transformation of the procurement process by addressing the critical barriers identified by practitioners.

Drivers of Engineering Procurement and Construction Model Adoption Behavior by Public Construction Owners in China

The promotion of the EPC model in public construction projects is a priority for reform in the Chinese construction industry. This study integrates the push–pull–mooring (PPM) model with the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework to explore the influencing factors and action mechanisms of adopting the EPC model of the owners of public construction projects in China. An online questionnaire was sent to public construction project owners who have participated in EPC projects. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyze the survey data. The results identified that the push factors for public construction project owners to the adoption of the EPC model include owners’ management ability, owner’s knowledge about EPC, and the matching degree between the owner’s management philosophy and EPC model; the pull factor is the performance pressure of the project; and the mooring factors include subjective norms, the maturity degree of the EPC, and the support environment. In addition, perceived usefulness, cognitive, and adoption attitude play a mediating role in the relationship between external stimuli and adoption behavior. Overall, this study enhances the understanding of Chinese public project owners’ behavior in adopting the EPC model and provides a theoretical basis for policy recommendations to promote the adoption of the EPC model by public construction project owners in China.

RULE-BASED DELAY ANALYSIS SELECTION SYSTEM

Since the selection of a delay analysis method depends on the delay analyst's subjective judgment, there is a risk of making problematic decisions due to the delay analyst's ignorance, lack of experience, carelessness, or intention. Each one of these methods may yield different analysis results. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an objective decision-making system based solely on the project environment. The existing delay analysis methods are classified into four types, according to the basic principles used in the analysis. Seven conditions that affect the selection of a delay analysis method (i.e., type of schedule, type of information, timing of analysis, expectations from the delay analysis, acceptance by courts of law, capabilities of delay analysis team, and budget constraint) were identified in a literature review. A delay analysis selection system (DASS) was developed using if-then rules constructed by considering which conditions should exist in a given project environment for successfully performing a specific type of delay analysis and getting realistic results. This system was computerized and validated by implementing it in several but different scenarios considered in this study. The contributions of this study include (1) an objective selection decision can be made based on only the project environment, without relying on the analyst's subjective preference, and (2) unnecessary and expensive legal disputes caused by delay-related issues between construction owners and construction companies can be minimized.

Impact of Government Intervention on Manufacturing Enterprises Innovation level, in Ethiopia

Besides alert devastation situation of Small Manufacturing Enterprises (SMEs) in the country, what support receives from the government, banking, microFinance institutions, technology transfer and their role in the local economic development are the main issues that need to be addressed. Hence, the main objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of government intervention on the Small Manufacturing Enterprises Innovation level in Tigray, Ethiopia. For this purpose, we conducted a survey of 464 small manufacturing enterprise (textile and garment, metal and wood works, input for construction, chemical products, jewellery, and agro-processing sectors) owners. The study is, stressed the primary data, adopt a Cross-sectional survey study with a mixed research approach, and the types of research are explanatory. Multistage cluster sampling was applied to select each business owner. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, propensity score matching and logistic regression were relayed for the analysis part with the help of Stata version 12. The average score innovation level of the enterprise is found at 2.89 which is assembled under the low innovators in the sample of the enterprise analyzed. Innovations activity has performed with the highest score level in the customer dimension. With regard to the PSM estimated, government intervention plays a significant role in utilizing innovation and technology transfer. Likewise, in a binary logistic regression, the study found that the intervention of the program has a positive effect on the innovation process dimension. Before and after matching, the findings of both models are similar in terms of the owner’s innovation of offering dimension, solution dimension, customer dimension, and value capture, which is positive and significant. Designing a new government policy intervention of Small Manufacturing Enterprises is among the resolutions to be applied by the government for purpose of productivity enhancement, self-employability, sustainability of the business and transforming to produce innovative products to replace imported goods.

Fuzzy model for Libyan construction projects delivery system selection

The construction project delivery system may be traditional or non-traditional, dependent upon the project-specific requirements and construction industry climate. Many factors are to be considered when making a decision, making it a multi-criteria decision. At the first stage of a project, most selection factors are vague. The project delivery system selection influences all project stages. In the next decade for Libya, there is a tremendous need to adopt a Projects Delivery System (PDS), which avoids the adverse objectives and conflicts that have characterized the Libyan construction industry for too long. This paper aims to assist decision-makers in understanding these concepts better. By utilizing the Fuzzy model, based on proposed criteria assigned to delivery systems evaluation for Libyan construction projects and the opinion of experts, PDSs were evaluated. The study outcome is twofold. Firstly, it selects the proper criteria and explores a Libyan construction project delivery decision-making system based on the Fuzzy theory perspective. Then has ranked the project delivery systems for the Libyan construction industry as follows: 1st rank construction manager at risk, 2nd rank construction manager as an agency, 3rd rank design-build, and 4th rank design-bid-build system. This study can be a quick and effective approach for construction owners.

MITIGATING KEY BARRIERS TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION: A THEORETICAL ASSESSMENT

The construction industry is a significant consumer of energy, natural resources, and water, as well as a major polluter. The need to construct more facilities to meet society's needs has exacerbated the construction industry's inherited detrimental effects on achieving long-term sustainability. In order to foster these endeavors, this paper aims to mitigate sustainable construction barriers in order to promote sustainability in South Africa. To accomplish the goal, three (3) major innovative practices were identified through cross-analysis of structured interviews with reference to published theoretical literature. The primary findings indicate that (1) energy conservation, (2) material conservation, and (3) water conservation are the most influential innovative practices for reducing barriers to promoting sustainable construction in South Africa. To be considered sustainable, a building must meet certain criteria such as resource and energy efficiency, emission reduction, pollution prevention, noise reduction, and improved indoor air quality, which are some of the common parameters, and it must be based on integrated and systematic approaches. The findings of the study will benefit and will add to the body of existing knowledge of construction industry professionals, owners, and policymakers.

MITIGATING KEY BARRIERS TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION: A THEORETICAL ASSESSMENT

The construction industry is a significant consumer of energy, natural resources, and water, as well as a major polluter. The need to construct more facilities to meet society's needs has exacerbated the construction industry's inherited detrimental effects on achieving long-term sustainability. In order to foster these endeavors, this paper aims to mitigate sustainable construction barriers in order to promote sustainability in South Africa. To accomplish the goal, three (3) major innovative practices were identified through cross-analysis of structured interviews with reference to published theoretical literature. The primary findings indicate that (1) energy conservation, (2) material conservation, and (3) water conservation are the most influential innovative practices for reducing barriers to promoting sustainable construction in South Africa. To be considered sustainable, a building must meet certain criteria such as resource and energy efficiency, emission reduction, pollution prevention, noise reduction, and improved indoor air quality, which are some of the common parameters, and it must be based on integrated and systematic approaches. The findings of the study will benefit and will add to the body of existing knowledge of construction industry professionals, owners, and policymakers.

Construction Management Supported by BIM and a Business Intelligence Tool

The construction sector generates large amounts of heterogeneous and dynamic data characterized by their fragmentation throughout the life cycle of a project. Immediate and accurate access to that data is fundamental to the management, decision-making and analysis by construction owners, supervisors, managers, and technicians involved in the different phases of the project life cycle. However, since construction project data are diverse, dispersed, uncorrelated, and difficult to visualize, a reliable basis for decision-making can rarely be established by the management team. Aiming to bridge this gap, a methodology for data management during building construction by means of Data with BIM and Business Intelligence (BI) analysis tools was developed in this study. This methodology works by extracting data from 3D parametric model and integrating it with a BI tool, through which data are visualized and interrelated with the same database, the BIM model. To demonstrate the applicability of the methodology, a study case was carried out. It was shown that this methodology provides a collaborative platform for accurate data analysis to the construction management and supervision teams, allowing project stakeholders to access and update data in real-time, in permanent linkage with the BIM model. Additionally, improving the reliability of the decision-making process and ensuring project deliverability, the developed methodology contributes to a more sustainable management process by decreasing errors and resource consumption, including energy. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to present a methodology for data analysis with BIM models integrated with BI for sustainable construction management.

Analisis Penerapan Klausul-Klausul Sistem Manajemen Lingkungan ISO 14001:2015 pada Pekerjaan Konstruksi di Proyek X

Infrastructure development, according to the Strategic Plan of the Ministry of PUPR 2020-2024, is prioritized to support basic services, economic development, and urban development. The implementation of infrastructure development is strived to increase economic growth. However, non-compliance with quality standards is still a problem in infrastructure development. One of the quality standards that is often overlooked is the environmental management system to ensure environmental quality in construction projects. There is a need for environmental management on a project that runs according to the standards planned and the importance of implementing environmental management in the project. Therefore, a detailed study is needed in identifying and analyzing the implementation of the environmental management system and the constraints on its implementation in construction projects obtained by scientific questionnaire method and observation with contractor employees as internal parties and construction management consultant employees and owners as external parties in a construction project in Jakarta. The data were analyzed by using statistical tests with multiple linear regression, seeing its application in the field, and analyzing supporting documents. The clauses that are considered in the ISO 14001:2015 environmental management system are clauses 4-10. The results of the analysis show that clause 5 is the clause with the highest application effect with a regression coefficient of 0.967. Factors that become obstacles and need special attention in this project are clauses 4, 6, and 10.

An Automatic System to Monitor the Physical Distance and Face Mask Wearing of Construction Workers in COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many shutdowns in different industries around the world. Sectors such as infrastructure construction and maintenance projects have not been suspended due to their significant effect on people’s routine life. In such projects, workers work close together that makes a high risk of infection. The World Health Organization recommends wearing a face mask and practicing physical distancing to mitigate the virus’s spread. In this paper, we developed a computer vision system to automatically detect the violation of face mask wearing and physical distancing among construction workers to assure their safety on infrastructure projects during the pandemic. For the face mask detection, we collected and annotated 1000 images, including different types of face mask wearing, and added them to a pre-existing face mask dataset to develop a dataset of 1853 images and increased the dataset to 3300 images by data augmentation. Then, we trained and tested multiple Tensorflow state-of-the-art object detection models on the face mask dataset and chose the Faster R-CNN Inception ResNet V2 network that yielded the accuracy of 99.8%. For physical distance detection, we employed the Faster R-CNN Inception V2 to detect people. A transformation matrix was used to eliminate the camera angle’s effect on the object distances on the image. The Euclidian distance used the pixels of the transformed image to compute the actual distance between people. A threshold of six feet was considered to capture physical distance violation. We also used transfer learning for training the model. The final model was applied on four videos of road maintenance projects in Houston, TX, that effectively detected the face mask and physical distance. We recommend that construction owners use the proposed system to enhance construction workers’ safety in the pandemic situation.

Awareness of construction professionals from the Northern Region of Malaysia about low carbon building materials

Despite current global market conditions, a superior financial climate has lowered the demand for innovative low carbon building materials, with construction owners typically prioritizing project value, time, practicality, and aesthetics. This situation creates an obvious dilemma for practitioners and stakeholders, as carbon emission linked to the use of construction materials should decrease. This study presents the awareness among the construction professional in the northern states of Malaysia in relation to low carbon building materials (LCBM) via interviews and structured questionnaire surveys conducted with 93 companies of architects and civil and structural consultants. Of 76.9% valid responses, 44.6% to 51.4% claimed to be “Aware and have a good knowledge” about unfired earth bricks, prefabricated hollowcore floor system (PHFS), and prefabricated timber frame system; however, their usage remained low. PHFS provided satisfactory experiences to practitioners and ranked the highest (20.3%) in the recommendations for future projects. The sustainability and suitability of a particular LCBM is highly determined on-site, has project specific influences, and varies across structures types from project to project.

Development of process control and technical documentation for the construction of residential buildings and structures from monolithic reinforced concrete

One of the main tasks of the foreman at the construction site is the proper execution of technical and as-built documentation. As-built technical documentation is an integral part of construction production, which is necessary to confirm the quality and scope of work performed. In the event of accidents both during the construction of the facility and during its operation, as-built documentation is considered first to identify the reasons. It is also presented in the process of putting the object into operation. A foreman at a construction site needs to solve many problems: from ordering materials and controlling the production of construction and installation works to preparingas-built and reporting documentation for each completed stage of work. At the same time, as practice shows, a shortage of staffing to solve all the necessary tasks has been identified. In this regard, some companies resort to additional human resources for engineering and technical personnel from third parties. The task of the formation and functioning of the process of staffing mainly consists of creating a system for management regulation and providing this system with highly qualified professional personnel. This task is especially acute in the case of organizational coordination of construction management regulation. Based on this, there is a steady trend towards the growth of engineering corporations specializing in the complex provision of services for organizational coordination and management regulation. The selection of a professional construction organizer as an object of construction and investment activity imposes special requirements on the formation of an effective system of construction management regulation. The staffing level is expressed in accordance with the data on the composition of administrators, employees or the auxiliary personnel of a systematized configuration of management regulation with the number provided by the staffing table established in the process of organizational design or strategic planning process. The provisions considered in the paper make it possible to identify the actual availability of workers at all stages of management regulation, including the possibility of eliminating the shortage of engineering and technical personnel by rearranging company’s own personnel, namely, to form a reserve for promotion, provide for retraining or additional training of the relevant groups of workers. In this case, the basis for the interaction of construction organizers and owners of labor resources is the process control and technical documentation.

ANALISIS FAKTOR PENYEBAB KETERLAMBATAN PELAKSANAAN PROYEK REHABILITASI SEKOLAH DALAM MASA PANDEMI COVID-19

Implementation of construction projects requires resources of materials, labors, equipments, methods and capital to achieve project objectives, namely on time, on quality and according to planned costs. Various internal and external factors influence during project implementation. The conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic that occurred in Indonesia and the world were one of the factors inhibiting project completion. The Primary School Rehabilitation Project in West Pasaman Regency is spread over 15 (fifteen) locations in all sub-districts. The project was contracted in early 2020, before the Covid-19 outbreak erupted. This project has been delayed due to the implementation with 2 (two) addendums to extend the implementation time. This research is descriptive quantitative and qualitative, with data collection techniques through questionnaires and direct interviews with respondents, that are Contractor, Construction Management Consultant and Owner (Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Building Information Center Work Unit West Sumatra Province). The results showed that the most dominant cause of project delays was Force Majeure, Government Policy, Design. Apart from that, other factors that also influence are the weather, the characteristics of the place and the materials.

A Novel Building Information Modeling-based Method for Improving Cost and Energy Performance of the Building Envelope

Building envelopes and regional conditions can significantly contribute to the cost and energy performance of the buildings. Structured methods that take into account the impacts of both the envelope materials and the regional conditions to find the most feasible envelope materials within a region, however, are still missing. This study responds to this need by proposing a novel method using the capabilities of Building Information Modeling (BIM). The proposed method is used for identifying cost- and energy-efficient building envelope materials within a region over the life cycle. First, commonly used envelope materials in a region are identified. Then, BIM is employed for simulating the energy performance and evaluating the life cycle cost of the materials. The method was implemented in Tehran, Iran. It was successfully utilized for improving the cost and energy performance of a nine-story residential building case. The achieved results indicated a potential energy performance enhancement of 31%, and the life cycle cost improvement of 28% by replacing conventionally used envelope materials with the available high-performance building materials. The proposed method can benefit various stakeholders in the building construction industry, including municipalities, owners, contractors, and consumers, by enhancing the cost and energy performance of the buildings.

Does Best Value Procurement Cost More than Low-Bid? A Total Project Cost Perspective

ABSTRACT Although construction owners have long utilized Best-Value (BV) procurement within alternative delivery, they have historically been less willing to do so when selecting contractor teams in traditional Design-Bid-Build (D-B-B). In D-B-B, the availability of 100% complete construction documents implies that the lowest bidder should be selected. As conventional wisdom suggests, why select a more expensive contractor only to receive an equivalent scope of work in return? In response to this question, this study investigated the full cost implications to owners who utilized BV procurement within 118 D-B-B projects. Because BV involves potentially selecting a contractor whose bid is more expensive than the lowest bidder, an attempt was made to measure the cost of the selected contractor relative to the low bid alternative. Results indicated that while BV-procured contractors do come at a premium on average, they still provide lower bids than the market rate. Further, employing BV-procured contractors can be beneficial to owners in terms of project cost and schedule performance. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by developing two new metrics–the BV Premium and Total BV Cost–to quantitatively measure the project cost implications for owners who employ BV procurement to buy construction services within D-B-B.

Osmanlı Hukukunda Bina veya Yapı Eseri Malikinin Sorumluluğu

The liability of building or construction owner is an absolute liability which sett-led in Turkish Code Obligation. This liability is due to the failure in the building or construction or lack of care. The liability of building or construction owner was also found in Ottoman law. This work aimed to reveal the responsibility of the liability of building or construction owner in terms of Ottoman law. The legal nature, the conditions and results of liability of building or construction owner were examined in Ottoman law. In theory and practice in Ottoman law, there are examples where the owner of a building or structure is considered responsible. The rules in fiqh sources and examples in practice were used in this work. Today's legal regulations have been compared with Ottoman law. There are similarities and differences between mo-dern Turkish law and Ottoman law about the liability of building or constructure owner.

Causes of Change Orders in Construction Projects

Change orders are usually issued to cover variations in the scope of work, material quantities, design errors, and unit rate changes. This study discusses variations in public construction projects in Saudi Arabia by investigating their causes, studying their effects on the project, identifying the beneficial parties, and suggesting remedies to alleviate the related problems. Tasks included conducting a field survey via a questionnaire. It was determined that the top five causes of change orders from contractors’ view are: owner’s additional works, errors, and omissions in design, lack of coordination between construction parties, defective workmanship, and owner financial difficulties.

Mobile Augmented Reality to Influence Design and Constructability Review Sessions

AbstractIn modern construction projects, architects, engineers, contractors, and owners who are actively involved in projects use different methods of visualization, such as building information mo...

PROJECT EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING PROJECT DELIVERY SYSTEMS SELECTION

Project delivery systems (PDSs) selection is crucial to construction project management success. The matching between construction projects and PDSs is hypersensitive to project external environment. Existing studies on selecting PDSs mainly focus on owner’s and project’s characteristics and attach less attention to project environmental factors. This study, therefore, aims to formally identify key project external environmental factors affecting PDSs selection using a data-driven approach. Key factors are summarized and identified through the granular computing method based on 61 Chinese project samples. Empirical results indicate that four factors including market competitiveness, technology accessibility, material availability, and regulatory impact are critical to PDSs selection. This study extended previous research findings on PDSs selection from a perspective of project external environments. Research conclusions can be used as references underpinning construction owners selecting appropriate PDSs considering project external environmental factors.

Motivators for Green Buildings: A Review

Motivators can be defined as specific catalysts that drive people to act in a certain way. These motivators are important for promoting green buildings and have a clear impact on decision-makers to adopt and implement the green building concept in architectural practice. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review to identify the important motivators for the adoption of green buildings among the stakeholders of the construction industry, the categorization and efficiency of green building motivators, and also the strategies for green building motivators. By reviewing 32 relevant studies conducted in different countries from 2008 to 2017, a total of 26 factors were identified as the main motivators to promote green buildings. These green building motivators were categorized into environmental, economic, and social motivators. With regard to efficiency, it was found that all green building motivators, whether environmental, economic or social are important for promoting green buildings and to determine a priority among these categories was not possible. The strategies for the adoption of green building motivators were also found. It is notable that the government has the greatest role to motivate stakeholders to adopt and implement the green building concept.The literature review of this study has a wide scope, covering most of the countries in the world, including developed and developing countries from the West to East. Hence, unlike most studies on the main issue of this paper that focus on a specific country or region, this in-depth research led to the development of a list of motivators for green buildings, derived from an extensive range of nations, which vary from environmental, economic, and social aspects.This paper is expected to provide valuable information for decision-makers in the construction industry, namely, governmental authorities, design teams, and owners of projects regarding what motivate people to help further promote green buildings. The findings may also be useful for researchers to pursue further analyses on similar topics.