Contractor's Perspective Research Articles

Research on Lean Construction Management Mode of EPC Project Based on BIM

In view of the low production efficiency, backward information level and rough project management of the traditional construction industry, it is necessary to introduce a construction model that can efficiently achieve the project construction goals. Taking EPC projects as the research object, building information modeling (BIM) as the technical means, and lean construction (LC) as the management model, this paper constructs a lean construction management model for EPC projects based on BIM, the "BIM-LC" model. From the perspective of the general contractor, the lean construction implementation mechanism of EPC projects using BIM technology is proposed, and the research is combined with EPC project examples. The results show that through the practical application of this model, the characteristics of BIM technology and lean construction refined management can be brought into play, the EPC project management process can be simplified, and the efficiency of project management can be improved.

Contractor-oriented optimization for wind farm maintenance decision-making considering partial monitoring information and degraded working efficiency

Maintenance strategies play a crucial role in the development and success of wind farm management, as they have a significant impact on the profitability of wind generation. The current maintenance decision-making process focuses mostly on the wind farm owner, while ignoring the benefits from the perspective of maintenance contractor. To bridge this gap, a novel contractor-oriented maintenance strategy is developed for both onshore and offshore wind farms to maximize profits for the maintenance contractor. Compared to the reported works, two main contributions are made. First, it is the first time that the maintenance strategy of a wind farm is designed from the perspective of the maintenance contractor, with emphasis on an accurate profit assessment. For this purpose, by utilizing remaining useful life (RUL) information from monitorable and non-monitorable components, a degradation-related efficiency model is constructed to quantify the loss of turbine efficiency due to degraded components and to incorporate it into the maintenance decision-making process. Secondly, various identifiable failure modes of the turbine components are investigated and simulated, as the contractor is more concerned about the maintenance costs under different failure modes. A case study using the dataset collected from real wind farms is provided to demonstrate and validate the proposed maintenance optimization method. The results indicate the proposed method can contribute to the maximum profits of the contractor while satisfying the requirements of the wind farm owner.

BIM Adoption in MENA's Construction Industry: A Contractor's Perspective

This study delves into the multifaceted landscape of Building Information Modeling (BIM) adoption and implementation across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's construction industry. Employing an online survey methodology, the research scrutinizes the varied profiles of contractors. Through regression analysis, the study investigates the impact of institutional pressures on the contractors’ BIM adoption, implementation, encountered barriers and challenges, expected benefits and outcomes, and related expertise and training. The analysis then extends to evaluate the interrelationships among such BIM variables. The key findings reveal significant influences of institutional pressures on BIM adoption and benefits as well as their expected benefits and outcomes but less impact on overcoming BIM barriers and challenges and enhancing expertise and training. The research highlights the limited role of BIM expertise and training in the adoption, implementation, and realization of its benefits and outcomes within the MENA construction sector. Furthermore, the study concludes that barriers, challenges, benefits, and outcomes don’t have a significant effect on BIM's adoption and implementation. The study also evaluates the primary benefits and outcomes of BIM alongside the main barriers and challenges encountered. Crucially, the research identifies and dissects the salient barriers to BIM deployment, such as awareness and expertise deficiency, financial and human resource constraints, training shortages, and resistance to change. This study not only provides a detailed snapshot of the BIM landscape but also lays the groundwork for addressing the persistent challenges and harnessing the full potential of BIM in revolutionizing construction methodologies in the MENA region. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2024-010-08-015 Full Text: PDF

Identification of Risks Associated with Strategic Road Network Construction in Karnali Province from the Perspective of Employer and Contractor

Completion on time, within the allocated budget, according to the specifications, and with stakeholder satisfaction is a key to a successful project. Stakeholders, including the contractor, consultant, and employer, in almost all construction projects including highways, fail to give the risk assessment due consideration in Nepal. The purpose of this study was to determine the risks related to the key road network construction in Karnali province. Using purposive sampling, a questionnaire survey was administered to the stakeholders. The opinions of the participants were evaluated under five distinct categories: public sector management risk, engineering risk, construction risk, resource procurement risk, and social risk. Based on its RII value, each heading was rated after undergoing a distinct study. Authorization to use the forest land and remove or cut down trees (RII value: 0.90) was the highest risk that was obtained. This was followed by approval to move the electric pole from within the right-of-way (RII value: 0.88), "Lack of coordination between different related organizational parties (water supply, irrigation, building department, etc.)" (RII value: 0.87), "Unavailability of material" (RII value: 0.86), and, finally, "Land acquisition and bad quality of workmanship with RII value 0.85."

Research on Cost Management Evaluation of Urban Renewal Projects under EPC Mode

Compared with developed countries, the research on modern urban renewal in China is relatively late. However, with the landing of more and more projects in recent years, since Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places took the lead in urban renewal, urban renewal has gradually entered a period of market-oriented and diversified operation. In recent years, under the influence of urban renewal strategy, the construction of old residential renovation projects is in full swing. In order to reduce the risk of construction, the construction unit often selects EPC project general contracting mode as the contract form of old residential renovation projects. However, the EPC project general contracting mode not only reduces the investment risk of the construction unit, but also greatly improves the difficulty of the general contracting unit's cost management of the renovation project of the old residential area. In order to complete the renovation project of the old residential area within the range of the budget estimate approved by the government and obtain the expected social benefits, cost management has become the control point of the project management of the EPC project general contractor. Based on the perspective of the general contractor, this paper takes the renovation project of the old residential area under EPC mode as the research object, uses AHP and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to evaluate the project cost management, analyzes the deficiencies in the actual cost management and puts forward countermeasures and suggestions.

An exploratory study of the concept of social procurement in the construction industry in Botswana: contractor's perspective

PurposeGovernments worldwide seek to optimize value in public project bids. Social procurement (SP) has become a global tool for achieving project goals. The purpose of this study is to assess the understanding of SP among contractors and identify its drivers to optimize the value associated with public projects.Design/methodology/approachA total of 15 major contractors were interviewed to obtain their views on SP, appreciate their current practices and identify the main drivers of SP in projects. A semistructured interview was used to gather relevant data. Neo-institutional theory is the lens of the study used to provide the focus of the research. The collected data were analyzed using the thematic data analysis technique.FindingsThe study found that SP is understood as corporate social responsibility and is not handled in a structured manner guided by policies or clearly defined procedures. Additionally, research has shown that compliance requirements, rather than value and goodwill, are the main inspiration for SP practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe study’s limitation is the fact that it was conducted in the context of Botswana and only used the interview technique as the solo data collection method. The other limitation is the lack of empirical literature on SP concerning the lack of SP policy in Botswana.Originality/valueThis study raises awareness of the concept of SP among contractors in Botswana and eases its implementation within the industry.

The Origins and History of Earned Value Management: "A Contractor's Perspective" 1

The Origins and History of Earned Value Management: "A Contractor's Perspective" 1

Challenges Facing the Implementation of Electronic Procurement in the Ghanian Construction Industry: the Perspective of Contractors and Consultants

Challenges Facing the Implementation of Electronic Procurement in the Ghanian Construction Industry: the Perspective of Contractors and Consultants

BIM implementation in the middle east construction: Evaluating the prospects and challenges

This research explores the potential benefits and challenges associated with the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM), a rapidly evolving global trend, within the construction industry of the Middle East. The study is underpinned by a comprehensive literature review on the global and Middle Eastern usage of BIM. A methodical empirical survey was employed to collect quantitative data, comparing the perspectives of Clients, Contractors, and Consultants. Key impediments to BIM adoption in the Middle East were identified as a scarcity of BIM-skilled subcontractors, the lack of industry standards, substantial initial costs, and organizational structures that do not support BIM. On the other hand, the advantages of BIM include improved construction planning, enhanced project quality, an elevated organizational image, and streamlined communication. The study provides crucial recommendations for local governments, policymakers, construction companies, and stakeholders to encourage comprehensive BIM adoption and its utilization in construction projects, while also discussing the practical implications of the findings.

Assessment of Cost Influences in Rail Projects from Contractor's Perspectives

Rail transportation had been receiving more attention in the Government’s effort to enhance the Malaysian economy internationally. Nevertheless, rail projects involve various stakeholders, massive budgets and are susceptible to cost overrun. This paper aims to evaluate the cost influences concerned with rail projects in a developing nation from contractors’ perspectives. The existing studies lack the consideration of the correlation and relationship between the cost influences, which this paper emphasizes. The data collection was performed by distributing questionnaires to 200 cost managers which are quantity surveyors, project managers, and contract executives across the rail projects in Malaysia. The data analysis uses Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 27 (SPSS V27) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy showed appropriate internal consistency of the research instrument, whereas the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed acceptable Goodness-of-Fit Indices (GFI) within the constructs of the structural model. The SEM calibration resulted in 23 significant cost influences which were clustered into five groups of cost influences. Each of the five groups is associated with different parties in construction projects. A notable causative direction was observed in the relationship between the cost influences. Each cost influence can be connected to each project phase based on the PMBOK Guide. This study adds to the various cost management research along the project management of rail construction. It is able to contribute to the policymakers and consultants in strategizing their cost management plans which is crucial, especially in developing countries such as Malaysia. Emphasizing the critical particulars of cost management in rail projects, this paper also delivers its finding based on stakeholder and system aspects in relation to cost management, which can be referred to by any developing country.

Barriers to the Adoption of Digitalization in the Construction Industry: Perspectives of Owners, Contractors, and Contractors

Construction organizations are moving toward adopting digitalization in response to Industry 4.0. However, the slow adoption of digitalization has been observed. This study aimed to assess the level of digitalization adoption and evaluate the barriers to adopting digitalization in the Jordanian construction industry by all project parties in the public and private sectors. The study targets were achieved through a structured questionnaire using SPSS software for analysis through the following statistical tests: Normality test, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis H, and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Most respondents used software at the design stage, and less than half did not use any software during the finishing stage. Regarding the barriers, twenty barriers to adopting digitalization were identified and grouped into five factors according to their importance: barriers related to the nature and system of the construction company, barriers related to the project parties, financial barriers, barriers related to system characteristics, and barriers related to construction project characteristics. Decision-makers should take the necessary measures to overcome such barriers depending on their importance. Previous studies have focused on the contractor's adoption of digitalization while neglecting other parties. This contributed to the full adoption of digitalization from the contractor side, with a noticeable delay from other project parties. This study focused on revealing the most critical barriers to adopting digitalization in the Jordanian construction industry from all project parties' perspectives based on their ranks. Furthermore, the study recommends effective strategies to overcome barriers as an update of past research.

Factors Affecting the Cost Management of Iraqi Construction Firms

Cost management refers to the procedures that must be followed to ensure that the project is accomplished on time and on budget. The goal of this study is to identify the main factors that affect cost compliance and to assess how relevant these factors are from the perspectives of clients, contractors, and consultants in construction firms in Iraq. For the purpose of this study, 100 structured questionnaires were distributed to clients, contractors, and consultants on building sites throughout the study area by using the survey approach. The Relative Importance Index (RII) technique was used for the analysis. It has been determined that the factors potentially affecting cost management in construction firms should be taken into consideration during the planning, design, tendering, and construction stages to accomplish the project within the specified time and cost. Twenty factors that affected the performance of construction firms in Iraq were identified. The results revealed the most affecting factor was poor management/poor coordination between the contracting company and the authorities involved, followed by the nationality of workers, structural materials damaged during storage, the absence of places designated for storing materials, lack of personnel specializing in devices and equipment, changing labor and material prices as a result of political changes, lack of technical staff, length of the project period, mismatch designs with execution works in site, and changes in orders. The study concludes by stating that there is not an efficient procedure in Iraq to control cost management.

The Nexus Between Construction Contract Risk Assessment and Big Data in China

The construction market in China is currently showing an increasing trend in terms of project size, complexity, and technical difficulty. With large initial investments and long capital payback periods, construction projects are vulnerable to the external environment during development and risk control is particularly important. Contracts are at the heart of project management and every step of project development revolves around the content of the contract signed by the contractor. Signing contracts to protect the rights of both parties has become the most effective way of controlling project risk. And with big data technology being rapidly developed and widely used, and the amount of data created and accumulated by the internet growing exponentially, big data has the potential to be used for analysis, forecasting and decision making in the construction industry. The aim of this study is therefore to develop a risk identification list for construction project contracts in China, to score the risks within the list according to their incidence and importance, and to find practical applications of big data technology in contract risk assessment. To achieve this goal, this study used qualitative research and in-depth interviews with experts within the Chinese construction engineering industry. The results of this study form a list of risks in Chinese construction contracts, indicating that late payment and government intervention are the most important risks in Chinese construction contracts. This study also identifies TianYanCha, a commonly used big data enterprise risk identification platform in China, which provides big data support in three areas: evaluating owner integrity, enterprise risk identification, and owner relationship knowledge. At the practical level, this study helps contractors to assess project risks and improve contractual contents during the preparation phase of construction projects, thus improving the success rate of projects. At the theoretical level, this study fills the gap in contractual risk assessment for construction projects in China and provides insights for subsequent risk assessment of construction projects based on the contractor's perspective.

Internet of Things (IoT): Real-Time Monitoring for Decision Making Among The Malaysian Contractors

The complexity of construction projects and the poor decision-making process often result in cost and time overruns. With the rapid growth of Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) in Malaysia, Internet of Things (IoT) is being expanded in the construction industry to improve project efficiency and performance. One of the benefits of IoT is it provides a real-time monitoring function to ensure that the construction players can access accurate data and information at the exact time throughout the project life cycle and assist in their decision making. Most studies have focused on how decision making is aided through the application of IoT during the design phase, with few studies focusing on the construction phase, particularly from the perspective of contractors. Without IoT, contractors need to use their professional experiences and limited data to make their decisions. As the contractors have to make a lot of decisions during the construction phase, the adoption of IoT can help the contractors to make fast and precise decisions. Despite its benefits, the adoption of IoT in the Malaysian construction industry is still low. With the focus on Grade 7 (G7) contractors in Malaysia, this paper intends 1) to study the types of IoT-based real-time monitoring technologies for decision-making among the contractors, and 2) to explore the potential improvements of decision making by the contractors after the adoption of IoT. The research adopted the qualitative method via semi-structured interviews. Based on the findings, there are 10 types of IoT-based real-time monitoring technologies being used and they have been utilised in several areas e.g. machineries and equipment, materials, labours, project sequences, waste management, risk management, productivity and quality of works, cost control and environmental protection. The function of the real-time monitoring of IoT such as the real-time data and report, sudden changes reporting, agentless real-time monitoring, root cause analysis, alerts and warnings and predictions, help the contractors in making their decision timely and accurately. Finding reported herein is considered significant towards raising industry players' awareness and acceptance of IoT in construction projects, thereby improving project efficiency and performance.

Use of response forecasting in decision making for weather sensitive offshore construction work

Response forecasting is an emerging technology for supporting decision-making during offshore construction work. The method aims to improve the reliability and efficiency of weather-sensitive operations. This article identifies the motivations, advantages, and challenges of implementing a response forecasting decision-support service in an offshore organization from the perspective of an installation contractor. In addition, a case study based on a recent pipelay operation exemplifies the method and its impact on decision-making.

The potential of new models of construction procurement to counter cost overruns in construction projects: an exploratory study from a contractors’ perspective

PurposeCost overrun is a significant issue in construction, an undesirable feature the industry has long been associated with. Poor procurement practices are often blamed for subsequent cost overruns in construction, especially with conventional procurement methods leading to outrageous cost overruns. The purpose of this study is to review the features of the new models of construction procurement (NMCP) and assess their potential to reduce cost overruns in construction projects.Design/methodology/approachA literature review was conducted to identify the issues of procurement leading to cost escalations. Primary data were obtained through exploratory, semi-structured interviews using a case study approach.FindingsClients’ lack of knowledge was highlighted as a key issue in procurement that interlinks with many factors causing cost escalation. The findings suggest that the features contained within the NMCP, such as early contractor involvement and collaboration throughout the project team, have the potential to make a positive contribution to addressing cost escalation in construction.Research limitations/implicationsThe primary research was undertaken as an exploratory study and presents the contractor's perspective. Further research is therefore suggested, with multiple organisations representing all key stakeholders in a construction project, including clients, consultants, sub-contractors and suppliers.Practical implicationsThe study recommends awareness of the NMCP be raised throughout the industry, and simplified information must be made available to help widen uptake of these contemporary procurement methods.Originality/valueAddressing the dearth of research concerning the use of NMCP within the industry, this study makes a niche contribution to the body of knowledge on construction cost management by illustrating the potential offered by these new procurement methods for addressing cost escalation. For an industry where collaboration is accepted with reservations, this case study demonstrates how novel collaborative strategies such as open book costing, project bank accounts and shared pain and gain mechanisms can be implemented as part of the procurement strategy and how such strategies can contribute towards minimising the cost escalation inherent in construction projects.

Contractor Perspective on Overcoming Cost Consideration as a Barrier to Using Sustainable Building Materials in Affordable Housing: A Systematic Review

The construction industry greatly contributes to environmental degradation, and sustainable building materials are becoming more important in minimizing this impact. However, the construction industry, especially affordable housing projects, confronts several obstacles that make it difficult to employ sustainable building materials widely. Many studies have investigated and advocated various barriers to using sustainable building materials within the construction industry. However, no attention has been paid to the cost consideration barrier for using sustainable building materials in Malaysia's affordable housing. In light of these challenges, This paper presents a systematic literature review that takes a broad approach, includes stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria, a thorough search strategy that includes a variety of databases and additional sources, a strict study selection procedure with multiple reviewers, quality assessment of included studies, and a narrative synthesis of findings focusing on several strategies for overcoming the cost consideration issues in using sustainable building materials in Malaysia's affordable housing from a contractor perspective. This study is important to improve affordable houses’ costs and ensure their residents’ comfort. By implying these strategies, Contractors may reduce costs and encourage sustainable construction materials in affordable housing projects.

Solutions on Establishing and Utilizing BIM for General Contractors in Key Scenarios of Digital Construction

Nowadays, digital construction has become popular when bringing convenience and efficiency to the traditional building construction industry. The primary tool of digital construction is the building information model (BIM). However, from the perspective of general contractors, unresolved puzzles still hinder obtaining the benefits of digital construction. When establishing a unified BIM from submodels provided by subcontractors, there will possibly be incomplete or inconsistent data during model merging. But extracting submodels from unified BIM often includes redundant data, thus making models less usable for subcontractors. It is also difficult for general contractors to effectively and accurately utilize resource information and submodel changes. This paper proposed solutions that depend on the widely adopted industry foundation classes standard to ensure the universality of our methods. First, a model merging algorithm is proposed to support the continuous merge of submodels created by different subcontractors. Second, an instance-level model extraction method based on strongly related entities is proposed, which extracts model instances to the minimum submodel and meets the subcontractor requirements at the same time. Third, the new model storage and indexing method are designed to reduce the complexity of model data and support rapid data retrieval, and a new BIM change detection method based on object metadata is provided. The proposed methods were applied by the general contractor of a large airport project during the construction stage. The application results proved that the proposed methods could ensure the quality of established deepening design models and extracted submodels and significantly reduce human labor by improving efficiency when utilizing BIM, which in turn supported key scenarios throughout the digital construction workflow.

FACTORS CAUSING DISPUTE IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: CONTRACTORS’ PERSPECTIVES

Construction dispute contributing to the involvement of billions US dollars in lawsuits and Asia was reported as the continent that had the highest dollars involved. Sarawak, the largest state in Malaysia, faced similar issues and such dispute had been reported in leading to cost and time overrun on the multiple large-scale construction projects. This research investigates factors causing dispute within Sarawak construction industry, by targeting G7 contractors, who has no limitation in handling the scale of project, by using simple random sampling method. Eighty-six contractors responded to the online questionnaire, amounting to 34% valid response rate. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U-test were used to investigate the viewpoint of respondents. The findings revealed that delay issue as the key cause of dispute to the contractors in Sarawak. Mann-Whitney U-test showed statistical significant differences on the perspectives of contractors between less than or equal to 10 years working experiences and more than 10 years experiences on four causes: poor cost management, finance issue, delay issue and different interpretation of contract provisions. This research could serve as a guideline for the contractors in handling dispute to improve construction companies’ profit margin and construction projects’ efficiency.

Simultaneous project portfolio selection and scheduling from contractor perspective

Optimum project portfolio selection is one of the critical topics in project management. Scheduling selected projects to maximize profit and making project portfolio execution feasible are essential issues in this topic. This research presents a comprehensive model for simultaneous project portfolio selection and scheduling while maximizing the project portfolio’s net present value (PPNPV) and minimizing its resource fluctuations (RF). The presented study considers resource constraints and integrates the selection and scheduling process to form the portfolio with the highest efficiency among different possible solutions from the contractor’s perspective in construction management. The optimum project portfolio with its schedule, resource usage, cash flow and profit are outputted as the results. The developed model has been utilized on six hypothetical projects with diverse task numbers and networks containing all kinds of relations, lags and leads. The results presented an efficient point between fulfiling both goal functions by increasing 8.2% PPNPV and decreasing 8.06% and 13.76% of RF parameters for both resources, respectively. Moreover, the model’s superiority is demonstrated by comparing the results with the existing literature. The model is validated by considering different scenarios and comparing the results with what is expected. Considering task level scheduling, all four types of task precedence relation types and task lags lead to more realistic project networks, therefore, modelling the projects’ situations more appropriately. In addition, contractor’s resource sharing policies are engaged in this study to model contractor’s financial situation more realistically. This model views project portfolio selection and scheduling form contractor’s perspective, therefore, it lets contractors to benefit from using detailed scheduling and modelling contractor’s resource sharing policies. It is demonstrated that the presented model allows contractors to form an optimum project portfolio while considering financial and resource constraints.