Sri Lankan Construction Research Articles

Construction workers in developing countries: a case study of Sri Lanka

This paper addresses human resource development (HRD) issues in the Sri Lankan construction industry. It reports an analysis of the occupational structure and characteristics of the construction work force as an aid to meeting the challenges of maintaining a skilled craft work force. Information was collected through on-site structured interview surveys of 3300 construction workers and a questionnaire survey of contractors, consultants and clients which included 56 organizations. Results indicate that the work force consists of 51% unskilled workers, 33% masons, 10% carpenters and 1-2% each of plumbers, bar benders, painters and electricians. The highest percentage of skilled workers is aged 30-39 years. Approximately 80% of the work force is casually employed, only 40% is fully utilized and 86% of the skilled work force have received informal training only. More than 20% of the work force is dissatisfied due to low income, lack of job security and difficulty in finding regular work. Comparing HRD practices to those in the USA and the UK indicates that Sri Lanka needs to adopt a more structured approach, including a more formal training system and proper grading of the skilled work force.

ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS FOR CONSTRUCTION BID DECISIONS

Abstract An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach was explored for supporting construction bid decisions, since such decisions are heavily dependent on practitioner expertise, which in turn is generally encapsulated in case histories. One of the ANNs described here was trained on knowledge from a sample of the entire Sri Lankan construction industry, and was used to predict the preferred job sizes for firms of differing characteristics; such information could help firms in their bid/no-bid decisions. The other ANN was trained on case histories elicited from a single contractor, and was used to predict the percentage mark-up. The network outputs were obtained in both binary output and continuous valued output formats. The former format had some distinct advantages over the latter, as it provided greater information for decision making instead of being a “black box” output. The influences of the middle layer size, output format and allowable error during training, on the training duration and accuracy of...

Demand and Supply Trends and Construction Industry Development: A Case Study in the Sri Lankan Construction Industry

The construction sectors in the developing countries (DCs) have recently demonstratednumerous trends towards globalisation, raising considerable concern in the field.However, the nature of the effect of demand on supply characteristics of the domesticindustry has not been sufficiently discussed with respect to what development measuresare needed in the context of constraints that originate locally to accommodate the globaltrends in DCs. This paper therefore analyses reasons for these trends and attempts toidentify the necessary industry developments to benefit from them locally. For thispurpose, the Sri Lankan construction industry has been taken as a case study and ademand and supply framework is being used to analyse the case. The analysis revealsthat while government policies contribute intrusively in stimulating demand side trends,the role of the contracting firms together with project delivery process and projectprocurement process are also subject to change as a result of these demanddeterminants. In this context, the main focus is concentrated on corporatedevelopments, while wider industry development is also necessary to support them. Asa consequence, both institutional reforms and capacity building are required to enhancefirms’ technological and managerial capacity. The necessity for these developmentmeasures reflects in partly the underdeveloped framework of the construction industry inDCs. Nevertheless, they could still foster indigenous construction capacity within thecontext of global trends.91