Project Parties Research Articles

Causes Of Time Delay In Construction Projects In Libya

Time delay in the construction industry is a global problem and considered as one of the most significant problems worldwide. Libyan construction industry is also no exception to it, and it is known that to consider the project successful is complete on time within predicted costt. As a result of many reasons, this is more noticeably in developing countries as time delay is a normal result of poor project performance. In Libyan construction industry, budget overrun and time extension are the main problems facing all project parties including clients, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. This research aims to determine the main causes that result in construction delays in Libya according to the owners, contractors and consultants participated in the questionnaire. The outcome of this study is that the main significant elements that often lead to time delay in Libyan construction projects are: delay in payment by client, financial difficulties by contractors, corruption, security issues, market inflation and frequent change by client during construction projects implementation.

A Triadic Competency Requirement Model for Successful Win-Win Optimization in Public–Private Partnerships: A Structural Equation Modelling

Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives are often promoted as a mechanism for achieving win-win outcomes. However, recent studies highlight the realisation as a hurdle due to gaps in public and private sector competencies. PPP studies have typically focused on specific competency areas and have typically overlooked assessing the interrelationships among various competency dimensions, although these interconnections reflect how competencies function in real-world projects. Therefore, this study sets the pace in the development and modelling of a holistic competency requirement model for the public and private sectors in PPP schemes. A comprehensive literature review coupled with expert validation through piloting identified and categorised the competencies while Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was adopted in model development. Findings indicated that public and private sector competencies for win-win optimisation should capture functional requirements, which are PPP scheme and type dependent, organisational requirements which highlight the institutional build of the project parties and relational/behavioural competency requirements that capture the traits and alliancing attributes. The study recommends the strategic alignment of public and private sector roles, skills, and capabilities before initiating infrastructure development to cultivate an environment conducive to achieving win-win outcomes in PPPs. This study challenges the conventional isolated approaches to PPP competencies with an integrated approach that deepens the understanding of successful infrastructure development in PPP.

Evolutionary game analysis of multi-agent cooperation strategy analysis in agricultural water conservancy PPP project under digitization background

This study constructed a system dynamics (SD) evolutionary game model, from which we analyzed the conditions that need to be met by multi-agents to achieve cooperation in agricultural water conservancy (AWC) Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects. Simultaneously, this study used numerical simulation to depict the impact of initial participation willingness, reward, punishment, income, and other parameters of local governments, project enterprises, and farmers on the evolution strategy. The results firstly showed that the basic conditions for tripartite cooperation are to strengthen the rewards and punishments for project enterprises and improve the participation benefits of farmers. Secondly, it showed that increasing the rewards for farmers and improving the project dividend benefits can effectively motivate farmers to participate. Thirdly, it showed that enhancing the incentive subsidies and reputation benefits for project enterprise’s participation, as well as strengthening the supervision of local government, boosts the motivation of project enterprises significantly. However, it is vital to ensure that the reward amounts are not too high to allow local government to play its guiding role efficiently. Lastly, the results indicated that digital technology can help reduce the participation cost of local government, project enterprises and farmers, and improve the external reputation benefits of each participant, thus forming a win-win situation for all three participants. Analyzing the cooperation strategies of the three parties in AWC PPP projects provides theoretical support and a decision-making basis for the efficient operation of AWC PPP projects under the digital background, and also provides practical policy recommendations for the high-quality development of AWC.

Affordable generic digital twins for existing building environment management and an onsite deployment

The energy consumption during the operation and maintenance phase of buildings is huge. As the built-up area in China increases, the demand for energy conservation in existing buildings has become a key focus of its dual carbon policy. Intelligent operation and maintenance based on digital twins is an emerging means to reduce carbon emissions from buildings, but it faces some problems in the process of promotion. Complete digital and intelligent transformation requires significant investment and has certain requirements for project parties and operation and maintenance teams. Small businesses or individual households have relatively simple requirements for intelligent operation and maintenance scenarios and do not require complete digital twins. To address the above issues, this article uses an affordable universal digital twin framework to provide a digital solution for intelligent operation and maintenance of existing buildings. This solution allows networking communication between devices and uses IoT modules to monitor and control the environment. This digital twinning model can reduce the measurement and control of energy-consuming end devices without on-site transformation and has rich scalability. This article uses the solution to deploy an office at a university in Henan Province and specifically measures the power consumption of displays, indoor environment, and air conditioning. According to the needs, it expands the space occupation, fans, air handlers, lights, and other end devices of the digital twin. The digital twin accurately presents the energy consumption of the office during extreme weather conditions, which has an auxiliary role in promoting digital twins in the region and optimizing energy consumption in existing buildings.

UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TASK CONFLICT AND CONSTRUCTION PROJECT PERFORMANCE: UNCERTAINTY MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE

Task conflict is prevalent among construction project parties, however, how task conflict affects construction project performance still lacks a comprehensive investigation. Against this background, this study adopts an uncertainty management perspective to conduct an integrative model including both positive and negative mediators as well as one moderator to investigate the link between task conflict and construction project performance. Using 206 samples from the Chinese construction industry, the proposed hypotheses are empirically examined. Results suggest that project commitment (effect size = –0.046) negatively mediates the link between task conflict and project performance, whereas knowledge integration (effect size = 0.053) has a positive mediating effect. What’s more, task reflexivity is found to mitigate the negative effects of task conflict on both project commitment (coefficient of interaction item = 0.12) and knowledge integration (coefficient of interaction item = 0.08). It is also found that task reflexivity changes the direction and strength of the link from task conflict to project performance by both project commitment (from –0.155 to 0.069) and knowledge integration (from –0.049 to 0.052). These findings provide a holistic understanding of the relationship between task conflict and construction project performance, thus contributing to construction project management theoretically and practically.

The Challenges of Implementing Building Information Modeling in Indonesia Construction Projects

The future of BIM is exciting and full of challenges, but there are several obstacles to implementing BIM effectively in the construction sector in Indonesia. Thus, the aim of this research is to examine the challenges of implementing BIM on construction projects, especially in Indonesia. Data was obtained from 45 respondents who answered questionnaire questions, including owners, consultants, contractors/subcontractors, private companies and state-owned enterprises representing construction parties in Indonesia. Empirical analysis using the Correlation Coefficient-A Measure of Linier method states that there are seven variables which are challenging variables in implementing BIM in construction projects. The seven challenge variables are BIM technical readiness, organizational paradigm changes regarding BIM, work environment awareness of BIM, compliance on BIM rules, increased competency and skills, consistent application of effective leadership, maturity of BIM utilization. These seven challenge variables have a linear relationship with the application of BIM in Indonesian construction projects. In conclusion, construction project parties in Indonesia must responses positively to these seven challenges to ensure that the implementation of BIM in construction projects in Indonesia is in accordance with the regulations released by the government.

Decision analysis of PPP project's parties based on deep consumer participation.

Although PPP(Public-private partnership) mode has been applied for a long time in infrastructural project, the success rate is not very high. The sustainability of PPP projects is still influenced by many factors. In order to examine the evolutionary stable strategies (ESSs) of social capital, government, and paying consumers, a tripartite evolutionary game model is established in this work. In order to further promote consumer participation, it is necessary to make the assumption that customer oversight and review can have an impact on service prices. The results show: i)The strategy choice of consumer depends on the comparison between supervision cost of consumer and price coefficient for consumer to social capital. ii)Consumer supervision can promote the provision of high-quality services by social capital. iii)The difference between high-quality cost and low-quality cost, subsidy coefficient, price coefficient and supervision cost of consumer are critical factors influencing both evolutionary results and trajectories. This paper also puts forward policy implications for the three stakeholders to promote social capital's high-quality strategy so as to maintain the sustainability of PPP projects.

Investigating the Factors Impacting the Performance of Small and Medium-Scale Irrigation Construction Projects in Eastern Amhara

Recently due to their economic value, there has been a rapid increment of water work construction projects in Ethiopia. However, there is a problems regarding their performance, like cost overrun, time overrun, low productivity & low quality. The same is true for water work projects that are constructed by Amhara Water Works Construction Enterprise. This research work aims to identify and evaluate the main factors affecting the performance of small & medium-scale irrigation construction projects in eastern Amhara region-Ethiopia. To achieve the objectives of this research study, five irrigation construction projects were targeted as the population of the study and both qualitative & quantitative data were collected by desk study, questioner survey, and interviews. Total 75 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and out of these 75 distributed questionnaires, 70 (93.33%) questionnaires were returned. The data collected were analysed using SPSS version 25 and the significance factors were ranked by using their Relative Importance Index (RII). The results show that the top ten critical factors that affecting performance agreed upon by all parties were an escalation of material prices, unavailability of resources, number of disputes between owner and project parties, quality of equipment or machinery and raw materials, unavailability of competent staff, financial constraints, material and equipment cost, local climate conditions cost of variation orders and leadership skills for project manager.

STUDY ON IMPLEMENTATION OF CONSTRUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MINIMIZING CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL WASTE

The implementation of a building construction project is unavoidable from the emergence of waste material. Construction material waste is defined as something that is over what is required. This study intends to find the application of construction waste management in building construction projects to minimize the waste material. Data was collected using observation, interviews, and distributing questionnaires to 4 building project parties in Central Java using a random sampling method. Data analysis was carried out by descriptive analysis to determine the type and cause of the highest waste material and supported by regression and correlation analysis to assess the application of ways to minimize waste material. The results of data analysis show that the most types of waste material are formwork wood, reinforcing steel, concrete, and cement. The factor causing waste material that most often occurs is the design change factor that comes from the design phase. Based on the analysis, the effort to minimize waste material that is the most influential on it is improving the quality of tool and material management by providing training to construction personnel related to materials construction used

Development of a Taxonomy for Causes of Changes in Construction Projects

Contracting parties in construction projects confront significant challenges due to changes. This is an inherent industry characteristic. Managing changes properly with the help of a taxonomy encompassing many of the causes of changes can have a longitudinal and positive effect on project performance, knowledge management, and stakeholder management. However, studies to date have failed to propose an in-depth taxonomy for change causes in construction projects. Therefore, a taxonomy for change causes that can be applied to different construction projects has been developed. First, a systematic literature review and desk study sessions were conducted to identify the initial list of the taxonomy components. Six case studies were then analyzed to reveal the change causes of these cases. Based on the extracted change causes from the literature review and case studies, a taxonomy was developed by conducting focus group discussions with six experts. In the next step, the applicability and validity of the refined taxonomy were evaluated through face-to-face interviews. As a result, a taxonomy with a three-level hierarchy was proposed. This taxonomy is divided into three levels with 13 main categories, 50 subcategories, and 52 change causes. The proposed taxonomy is expected to contribute to practice by reducing the frequency of changes through proactive management of potential changes and standardizing knowledge management practices for managing change.

Digital technologies in the AEC sector: a comparative study of digital competence among industry practitioners

The successful implementation of digital technologies (DT) in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) projects necessitates workflow adjustment, crew scheduling, equipment optimization, and efficient collaboration among project parties. Understanding the digital capabilities of industry professionals is essential for the effective deployment of DT. This paper examines the competence of AEC practitioners in 14 types of DT through a questionnaire survey involving 428 participants. Descriptive statistics, including mean scores and standard deviations, were calculated to understand the competence levels of different DT. Specific inferential statistical tests, such as chi-square tests and Mann–Whitney U tests investigated disparities in competence across different business types, operational years, and company sizes. The results indicate that cloud technology, global positioning systems, and building information modeling were predominantly recognized and utilized, whereas blockchain remained underexplored. Notably, building contractors, small and medium-sized enterprises, and start-ups lagged behind their counterparts in digital competence, with large-scale enterprises exhibiting better knowledge but limited implementation of DT. The findings underscore the need for targeted upskilling efforts to harness DT knowledge effectively and manage digital resources within organizations undergoing digital transformation. The research contributes to the literature on digital competence within the AEC sector and sets the stage for further research into effective DT adoption and deployment interventions.

Data-Driven Approach to Risk Identification for Major Transportation Projects: A Common Risk Breakdown Structure

Identifying and evaluating risks is one of the most essential steps in risk management in construction projects. When technical and managerial complexity increases in major transportation projects, this becomes even more important. Currently, project teams are assumed to identify risks mostly based on their experience and expertise. It is a major issue that some state departments of transportation (DOT) project teams lack the risk management experience. This study proposes using a data-driven approach to unify and summarize existing risk documents to create a comprehensive risk breakdown structure (RBS). As a preliminary risk identification framework, a consolidated RBS were developed, using content analysis of public risk reports by various DOTs. Then, comparison was made between the developed RBS with 70 US transportation projects' risk registers. Natural language processing techniques, bidirectional encoder representations from transformers, were employed to calculate semantic text similarity to determine what percentage of risks are covered by generic RBS. The results showed that 70 generic risk templates cover almost 81% of the identified risks in the database of 70 major projects which is about 6000 individual risks. Project parties can use these results to discuss and identify context-specific risks as a starting point. The study also determined the interactions between risk items based on their co-occurrence using historical data. Research findings revealed the importance of considering interdependencies between risks in future studies.

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.

Blockchain-based decentralised material management system for construction projects

The prevailing practices in construction supply chain management are characterised by significant challenges, including fragmentation, a lack of trust among stakeholders, and restricted information sharing. This research introduces a blockchain-based integrated system for managing construction materials and inventory to enhance the traceability and transparency of shared supply chain material information. This initiative will foster a collaborative and open supply chain environment among stakeholders and effectively address material delays, resulting in smoother project operations and minimized disruptions, thus promoting operational efficiency. Furthermore, the system's potential to substantially reduce the incidence of legal disputes is underpinned by the secure and tamper-proof storage of information within shared ledgers, fostering a high level of accountability and trustworthiness. The integration of the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) approach within blockchain smart contracts streamlines procurement processes, leading to a noteworthy reduction in purchase orders and associated overhead costs. The study employs a Design Science Research (DSR) approach to create a decentralised construction supply chain system, monitoring changes in material information during the supply process and addressing uncertainties associated with managing construction material inventory. The proposed system empowers project stakeholders by providing real-time material information access, resulting in improved decision-making and a reduction in material delays. Additionally, the construction material management-based blockchain and smart system enables project parties to efficiently handle inventory for complex projects, interconnecting all supply chain tasks within an integrated smart contract. The usability of the proposed solution was assessed using a usability test technique, with participants confirming its applicability in construction environments. They highlighted key benefits, including reduced material purchasing costs, decreased legal disputes among project stakeholders, and improved decision-making.

BIM-Supporting System by Integrating Risk Management and Value Management

Construction projects are of great importance because of their large financial allocations in the federal budgets of countries. This study used risk management and value management as an integrative model with Building Information Modeling (BIM). Risk management techniques were used to identify risks and quantify their impact on cost, and value management was used to identify effective mitigation measures for each risk factor. This study developed software to support BIM and risk management, including measures to assess risks and their impact on the cost estimation process, to be part of the information flowing to the project parties. The total number of risks was 52 with multiple mitigation measures for each determined using brainstorming. The Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchal Process (FAHP) was used to determine the relative importance of risk and the cost range of the selected items.

Off-Site Manufacturing: Determining Decision-Making Factors

New technologies like modular construction are expected to increase the market share in developing countries with a high annual growth rate such as in Egypt. Modular construction solutions that have content depending on the process of off-site construction and on-site transportation gained prominence over recent years due to several benefits, especially their positive impact on the environment. Off-site manufacturing (OSM) and traditional technologies like on-site ones differ in many aspects of design, requirements, logistics, engineering, and others. Many researchers studied modular construction and they fall short of investigating modular construction processes comprehensively and completely. In this paper, the barriers and benefits of using off-site manufacturing (OSM) are collected from the previous studies (that focused on mega projects, high quality, and fast-track projects) to be analyzed using a social network analysis (SNA) to promote the implementation of this new technology mainly in high-annual-growth-rate countries. A survey was used to solicit the opinions of construction practitioners to identify the most significant barriers and obstacles, as well as the benefits of using OSM. Also, due to the capabilities of Building Information Modeling (BIM) to manage shared information and increase the cooperation among project parties, the integration of OSM and BIM is investigated as a promising approach to overcome OSM barriers and enhance its utilization. Analyzing the main barriers’ density and finding out the main solution are involved. Applying this case to a real project in Egypt to study the impact of using (OSM) on-site and exporting the data are also involved. With some results related to the other results and disadvantages that were deduced, the most important advantages and most disadvantages emerged, as well as finding ways to solve them and practical application on the ground.

Analysis and prospect of green building engineering based on BIM technology

Accelerating the application of information integration technology, represented by Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology, in green building projects is important to meet the demands of sustainable and high-quality development of the construction sector. According to the development status of BIM technology, the specific application of BIM technology in green building design and construction is first introduced. On this foundation, the importance of the appropriate BIM technology functions to the creation of green buildings is examined. It shows the outstanding advantages of green building projects based on BIM technology. In the architectural design stage, BIM technology can accommodate more architectural details than traditional design, and greatly improve the efficiency of information communication between project parties during the design process. In terms of building construction, building details being planned using BIM technology can greatly reduce the waste of resources. Thus, it can meet the requirements of green construction and provide guarantee for the construction period and quality. This paper can provide technical reference for the BIM-based green building design and construction stage application of similar projects by relevant practitioners and construction enterprises.

Malaysian Prefabricated Housing; The Real Causes of Fragmentation Issues and Steps to Overcome

Many prefabricated housing projects in develop countries have proven their success, and since 1960s Malaysia has taken great steps towards applying this concept. Housing is suitable for prefabricated due to its repetitious of design, simultaneous construction, large scale and impact to environment. Unlike develop countries that far advanced, Malaysia still face critical issues including on fragmentation. Fragmentation is defined as working in isolation, work in separation and division that happens among different parties in the same project. Various research on prefabricated housing has been conducted focusing on supply chain, modularization, automation, design, payment and procurement but lack focus on fragmentation. This paper will investigate the real causes of fragmentation issues in Malaysian prefabricated housing, their consequences and suggest steps to overcome. The methodology used is mix method with 118 questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS and combine with deep interviews with respondents from prefabricated manufacturers, prefabricated installers, academicians, consultants, developers, main contractors and M&E contractors, through targeted sampling technique. The result shows the causes of fragmentation are unfamiliar with prefabricated concept, late involvement of prefabricated companies and the practice of segregation culture while the steps to overcome are by establishing close integration since beginning, each party is appointed early and direct contract between prefabricated companies and developers. This research has contributed to the body of knowledge by detailing the real causes that make fragmentation issue become critical and suggest steps to overcome them and both had been verified by respondents who are expert, experienced and represent all the stakeholders involved in prefabricated housing.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR MODULAR CONSTRUCTION ON HIGH-RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS BASED RISK MANAGEABILITY TO INCREASE PROJECT TIME PERFORMANCE

International Construction Costs published in Comparison 2020 continued to increase as an impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, The modular system is considered able to answer the problems of increasing costs. Although modular construction has been widely applied to low-rise buildings, application in high-rise buildings remains limited, less than 1% worldwide. The need for residential high-rise building applying modular construction in Indonesia becomes important. The interdependence between parties in modular projects is greater than in conventional methods. Unavailability of design guidelines hinders the construction industry in implementing modular technology. The purpose of this study is to analyze the critical success factors for modular construction of residential high-rise buildings applying risk-based management to improve project time performance. Forty-one Indicators were drawn from literature reviews and specialist interviews to conduct a sustainability evaluation. The survey was submitted to case project developers, designers, supervisors, and contractors in Indonesia, thereafter statistically analyzed using SPSS and risk management analysis with three stages: risk sources, risk drivers and risk causes. Critical success factors for drawing approvals have a considerable influence on modular construction among 15 other factors, followed by supply chain and design standardization. It is necessary to mitigate these risks to improve project time performance.