Construction Management

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of cost escalation in transportation infrastructure projects. Based on a sample of 258 transportation infrastructure projects worth US$90 billion and representing different project types, geographical regions, and historical periods, it is found with overwhelming statistical significance that the cost estimates used to decide whether such projects should be built are highly and systematically misleading. Underestimation cannot be explained by error and is best explained by strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying. The policy implications are clear: legislators, administrators, investors, media representatives, and members of the public who value honest numbers should not trust cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses produced by project promoters and their analysts.

A survey on time performance of different types of construction projects in Saudi Arabia was conducted to determine the causes of delay and their importance according to each of the project participants, i.e., the owner, consultant and the contractor. The field survey conducted included 23 contractors, 19 consultants, and 15 owners. Seventy-three causes of delay were identified during the research. 76% of the contractors and 56% of the consultants indicated that average of time overrun is between 10% and 30% of the original duration. The most common cause of delay identified by all the three parties is ''change order''. Surveys concluded that 70% of projects experienced time overrun and found that 45 out of 76 projects considered were delayed.

These characteristics of the construction industry were expressed almost 50 years ago in a well known study of the distribution of house building materials (Cox and Goodman, 1956). One of the conclusions of the study is that the number of possible permutations and ...

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of traffic forecasts in transportation infrastructure projects. The sample used is the largest of its kind, covering 210 projects in 14 nations worth U.S.$59 billion. The study shows with very high statistical significance that forecasters generally do a poor job of estimating the demand for transportation infrastructure projects. For 9 out of 10 rail projects, passenger forecasts are overestimated; the average overestimation is 106%. For half of all road projects, the difference between actual and forecasted traffic is more than ±20%. The result is substantial financial risks, which are typically ignored or downplayed by planners and decision makers to the detriment of social and economic welfare. Our data also show that forecasts have not become more accurate over the 30-year period studied, despite claims to the contrary by forecasters. The causes of inaccuracy in forecasts are different for rail and road projects, with political causes playing a larger role for rail than for road. The cure is transparency, accountability, and new forecasting methods. The challenge is to change the governance structures for forecasting and project development. Our article shows how planners may help achieve this.

The lack of succession planning has been identified as one of the most important reasons why many first-generation family firms do not survive their founders. This paper explores some of the factors that interfere with succession planning and suggests ways in which these barriers can be constructively managed.

For the last decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on over 10,000 organizations across twenty countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing American, Japanese, and German firms are the best managed. Firms in developing countries, such as Brazil, China and India tend to be poorly managed. American retail firms and hospitals are also well managed by international standards, although American schools are worse managed than those in several other developed countries. We also find substantial variation in management practices across organizations in every country and every sector, mirroring the heterogeneity in the spread of performance in these sectors. One factor linked to this variation is ownership. Government, family, and founder owned firms are usually poorly managed, while multinational, dispersed shareholder and private-equity owned firms are typically well managed. Stronger product market competition and higher worker skills are associated with better management practices. Less regulated labor markets are associated with improvements in incentive management practices such as performance based promotion.

Lean construction and Building Information Modeling are quite different initiatives, but both are having profound impacts on the construction industry. A rigorous analysis of the myriad specific interactions between them indicates that a synergy exists which, if properly understood in theoretical terms, can be exploited to improve construction processes beyond the degree to which it might be improved by application of either of these paradigms independently. Using a matrix that juxtaposes BIM functionalities with prescriptive lean construction principles, fifty-six interactions have been identified, all but four of which represent constructive interaction. Although evidence for the majority of these has been found, the matrix is not considered complete, but rather a framework for research to explore the degree of validity of the interactions. Construction executives, managers, designers and developers of IT systems for construction can also benefit from the framework as an aid to recognizing the potential synergies when planning their lean and BIM adoption strategies.

Avoiding construction claims and disputes requires an understanding of the contractual terms and causes of claims. The dual underlying theme of this paper is to investigate the causes of delays on 130 public projects in Jordan and to aid construction managers in establishing adequate evaluation prior to the contract award using quantitative data. Projects investigated in this study included residential, oce and administration buildings, school buildings, medical centers and communication facilities. Results of this study indicates the main causes of delay in construction of public projects relate to designers, user changes, weather, site conditions, late deliveries, economic conditions and increase in quantity. The presence of these factors have an impact on the successful completion of the projects at the time contractually speci®ed. The ®ndings suggest that special attention to factors identi®ed in this study will help industry practitioners in minimising the risk of contract disputes. #

Problem: This study evaluated injured construction workers' perceptions of workplace safety climate, psychological job demands, decision latitude, and coworker support, and the relationship of these variables to the injury severity sustained by the workers. Methods: Injury severity was assessed using the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), which evaluates functional limitations. Worker perceptions of workplace variables were determined by two instruments: (a) the Safety Climate Measure for Construction Sites and (b) the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ). Results: The overall model explained 23% of the variance in injury severity, with unique contributions provided by union status, the Safety Climate Score, and Psychological Job Demands. A positive significant correlation was found between injury severity and the Safety Climate Scores (r = .183, 0022-4375/02/$ -see front matter D (M. Gillen).

The article first describes characteristics of major infrastructure projects. Second, it documents a much neglected topic in economics: that ex ante estimates of costs and benefits are often very different from actual ex post costs and benefits. For large infrastructure projects the consequences are cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and the systematic underestimation of risks. Third, implications for cost–benefit analysis are described, including that such analysis is not to be trusted for major infrastructure projects. Fourth, the article uncovers the causes of this state of affairs in terms of perverse incentives that encourage promoters to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in the business cases for their projects. But the projects that are made to look best on paper are the projects that amass the highest cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in reality. The article depicts this situation as ‘survival of the unfittest’. Fifth, the article sets out to explain how the problem may be solved, with a view to arriving at more efficient and more democratic projects, and avoiding the scandals that often accompany major infrastructure investments. Finally, the article identifies current trends in major infrastructure development. It is argued that a rapid increase in stimulus spending, combined with more investments in emerging economies, combined with more spending on information technology is catapulting infrastructure investment from the frying pan into the fire.

This paper focuses on problems and their causes and cures in policy and planning for large-infrastructure projects. First, it identifies as the main problem in major infrastructure developments pervasive misinformation about the costs, benefits, and risks involved. A consequence of misinformation is cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and waste. Second, it explores the causes of misinformation and finds that political-economic explanations best account for the available evidence: planners and promoters deliberately misrepresent costs, benefits, and risks in order to increase the likelihood that it is their projects, and not those of their competition, that gain approval and funding. This results in the ‘survival of the unfittest’, in which often it is not the best projects that are built, but the most misrepresented ones. Finally, it presents measures for reforming policy and planning for large-infrastructure projects with a focus on better planning methods and changed governance structures, the latter being more important.

Resource allocation and leveling are of the top challenges in project management, due to the complexity of projects. This research aims to develop an optimization model for resource smoothing, so that. The proposed model is formulated using C++ program for resource smoothing. The project management software MS-Projects is adopted hereto perform resource leveling to facilitate achieving the optimal solution. The proposed model utilizes a system that depends on Genetic Algorithms (GAs) procedure built in C++ program to find the optimum solution. This research reach concludes that it is possible to smooth resources using Genetic Algorithms program and compares then with MS-Project when the GA results are better than MS-Project. Three case studies have been applied in this research and the application results come identical with research objectives, to form the conclusion. Then comes the recommendations regarding adopting and using the research results in construction planning and project management. Further suggestions related to the research subject are proposed for future works.

A major source of risk in project management is inaccurate forecasts of project costs, demand, and other impacts. The paper presents a promising new approach to mitigating such risk, based on theories of decision making under uncertainty which won the 2002 Nobel prize in economics. First, the paper documents inaccuracy and risk in project management. Second, it explains inaccuracy in terms of optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation. Third, the theoretical basis is presented for a promising new method called "reference class forecasting," which achieves accuracy by basing forecasts on actual performance in a reference class of comparable projects and thereby bypassing both optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation. Fourth, the paper presents the first instance of practical reference class forecasting, which concerns cost forecasts for large transportation infrastructure projects. Finally, potentials for and barriers to reference class forecasting are assessed.

"Over budget, over time, over and over again" appears to be an appropriate slogan for large, complex infrastructure projects. This article explains why cost, benefits, and time forecasts for such projects are systematically over-optimistic in the planning phase. The underlying reasons for forecasting errors are grouped into three categories: delusions or honest mistakes; deceptions or strategic manipulation of information or processes; or bad luck. Delusion and deception have each been addressed in the management literature before, but here they are jointly considered for the first time. They are specifically applied to infrastructure problems in a manner that allows both academics and practitioners to understand and implement the suggested corrective procedures. The article provides a framework for analyzing the relative explanatory power of delusion and deception. It also suggests a simplified framework for analyzing the complex principal-agent relationships that are involved in the approval and construction of large infrastructure projects, which can be used to improve forecasts. Finally, the article illustrates reference class forecasting, an outside view de-biasing technique that has proven successful in overcoming both delusion and deception in private and public investment decisions.

Public Private Partnership (PPP) in construction is gaining in popularity. Although papers published in major journals have documented real cases of PPP projects, there appears to be a lack of systematically summarizing what they have already provided. Consequently, this paper reviewed PPP studies published in the six top journals in the This is the Pre-Published Version. 2 construction field. The objectives are to compare and contrast the findings of the studies so as to provide insights for directing further PPP research and improving the existing practices of PPP projects. To achieve the review objectives, studies were first classified as either empirical or non-empirical. Empirical studies were further grouped under three themes: risks, relationships, and financing. Non-empirical studies were grouped under five themes: financing, project success factors, risks, and concession period. Suggestions for further research are risks, financing, contractual agreements, development of PPP models, concession periods, and strategies in choosing the right type of PPP.

This paper investigates the statistical relationship between actual and estimated costs of road construction using data from Norwegian road construction over the years 1992-1995. Based on this data a regression model is developed. The findings reveal a discrepancy between estimated and actual costs, with a mean cost overrun of 7.9% ranging from 2 59% to þ 183%. In absolute terms, cost overruns amounted to a formidable 519 million Norwegian kroners. One particular new finding that has not been shown before in previous studies is that cost overruns appear to be more predominant among smaller projects as compared to larger ones. This observation, for the Norwegian road sector in particular, leads us to assert that the greatest potential for cost savings lies in exerting pressure on smaller projects to control their costs. Other factors found to influence the size of cost overruns include completion time of the projects and the regions where projects are situated. Surprisingly, neither project type nor work force type seems to influence the level of cost overrun. Finally, the paper proposes some policy implications.

The higher life quality standards, the changes of habits and new well‐being requirements have led to an increase in the demand for housing. Decision‐making problems in construction management often involve a complex decision‐making process in which multiple requirements and conditions have to be taken into consideration simultaneously. However, not every attribute used in multidimensional scaling is equally and precisely weighted in the real world. Thus quantitative and qualitative assessments are often required to deal with uncertainty, subjective and imprecise data. The accuracy of performance measures in common multi‐attribute methods is usually assumed to be accurate. Grey theory is a new technique for performing prediction, relational analysis and decision‐making in many areas. This paper considers the application of grey relations methodology for defining the utility of an alternative and is proposed as a method of multiple criteria COmplex PRoportional Assessment of alternatives with Grey relations (COPRAS‐G). In this model parameters of the alternatives are determined by the grey relational grade and are expressed in intervals. A case study of assessing external walls of four alternatives was used to demonstrate the applicability and the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The results show that this method can be implemented as an effective decision aid in multi‐attribute selection.Straipsnio tikslas ‐ pasiūlyti alternatyvia daugelio rodikliu vertinimo metodika. Šios metodikos išskirtinumas ‐ rodikliu reikšmes, aprašomos intervalais. Tai labiau atitinka realias aplinkos salygas ir galimas reikšmes. Modelis su intervaluose pateiktomis efektyvumo rodikliu reikšmemis pritaikytas E. K. Zavadsko ir A. Kaklausko sukurtam metodui COPRAS (Complex Proportional Evaluation). Taip gautas naujas metodas COPRAS‐G. Šis metodas pritaikytas daugiabučiu namu išoriniu sienu efektyvumo vertinimo uždaviniui spresti. Sudaryta efektyvumo rodikliu sistema, nustatyta efektyvumo rodikliu reikšme, rodikliu rangas. Pagal sudaryta modeli pritaike COPRAS‐G metoda, galime spresti daugeli statybos, vadybos alternatyvu vertinimo uždaviniu.

The Parade Game illustrates the impact work flow variability has on the performance of construction trades and their successors. The game consists of simulating a construction process in which resources produced by one trade are prerequisite to work performed by the next trade. Production-level detail, describing resources being passed from one trade to the next, illustrates that throughput will be reduced, project completion delayed, and waste increased by variations in flow. The game shows that it is possible to reduce waste and shorten project duration by reducing the variability in work flow between trades. Basic production management concepts are thus applied to construction management. They highlight two shortcomings of using the criticalpath method for field-level planning: The critical-path method makes modeling the dependence of ongoing activities between trades or with operations unwieldy and it does not explicitly represent variability. The Parade Game can be played in a classroom setting either by hand or using a computer. Computer simulation enables students to experiment with numerous alternatives to sharpen their intuition regarding variability, process throughput, buffers, productivity, and crew sizing. Managers interested in schedule compression will benefit from understanding work flow variability's impact on succeeding trade performance.

Engineering and construction projects are dependent on two fundamental elements: ͑1͒ the ability to plan and manage the technical components of the project such as the tasks and resources; and ͑2͒ the ability of the project participants to effectively develop into a high performance team. Historically, the industry has focused extensively on optimizing the project management processes associated with the former element. In this focus, organizations have emphasized the ability to develop the optimum plan, allocate resources efficiently, and utilize control functions to ensure that the project stays on schedule and within budget. Although this has been effective, this engineering focus has reached the point of diminishing results. Specifically, the engineering approach to project management has neglected to recognize the importance of the participants to the success of the overall project. Rather, the engineering approach has favored the development of an optimum plan as the path to effective project management. In this paper, the engineering-based approach to project success is reconfigured to reemphasize the need to develop high performing teams by recognizing the importance of the project network. This recognition is formalized in the social network model of construction that integrates classic project management concepts with social science variables to enhance the focus on knowledge sharing as the foundation for achieving high performance teams and project results.

Management͒ was reported. Their work inspired the writers of this paper to continue from where they left it. Based on a two-stage literature review, PPP articles from 1998 to 2008 were analyzed in terms of the annual number of PPP articles published, the writers' contribution, and the research focus in their studies. From the analysis it was found that the number of PPP publications in these journals has been increasing. This finding might imply that PPPs are becoming more important to the construction industry at large. In addition, this study also found that the U.K. researchers have published the largest number of PPP articles, followed by those from the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, China, and Germany. Although the build-operate-transfer scheme was the most frequently investigated form of PPP in earlier research, the diverse concept of PPP has attracted a lot of research interest and has become the focus of most recent PPP publications. Research topics published in these journals on investment environment, governance issues, and other supported areas tend to receive more attention from researchers. Moreover, complicated and vigorous analysis techniques such as game theory and fuzzy set theory have also been applied in this field of study.

As a sustainable construction method, prefabricated construction is increasingly being adopted worldwide to enhance productivity and to alleviate the adverse environmental and social effects as a result of conventional construction activities. In addressing management issues of prefabricated construction, an impressive number of studies have been published by internationally renowned journals related to construction management over the past decades. However, it seems that a systematic summary on the research development in the management of prefabricated construction (MPC) discipline is lacking. Therefore, this paper examines the latest research trend in this discipline by analyzing published construction management research in 10 leading journals during the period from 2000 to 2013 (as of end of June) in terms of the annual number of MPC papers, contributions of institutions, adopted data collection and processing This is the Pre-Published Version. methods, and research interest. The analysis reveals that prefabrication is becoming increasingly important to the entire construction industry. Researchers from developed countries, including the US, the UK, Hong Kong, Sweden, and Australia, have made significant contributions to the development of the prefabrication domain, while those from developing countries, including China, Turkey, and Israel where construction remains as their main economic activity, have shown increasing interest in promoting prefabrication-related research. Major research topics in MPC include "industry prospect", "development and application", "performance evaluation", "environment for technology application", and "design, production, transportation and assembly strategies". Moreover, some innovative technologies, such as Global Position System (GPS), and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), have been effectively applied in this field and are considered as strong vehicles in improving the performance of future prefabricated construction practices. This study is of value in helping scholars gain an in-depth understanding of the stateof-the-art of MPC research and allows them to continue from the findings of previous studies.

Owners are presented with different options for their project delivery process, which include the traditional method (design-bidbuild), construction management or design-build delivery methods. This paper examines the compatibility of various project delivery methods with specific types of owners and projects. While no project delivery option is perfect, one may be better suited than another based on the requirements of a particular project. These requirements should be evaluated to determine which of the various options would most likely produce the best outcome for the owners. The proper selection of a project delivery method is based on a high degree of technical factors and low construction costs. In this study, a multi-criterion decision-making methodology using the analytical hierarchy process is provided to assist decision-makers in selecting the proper delivery method for their projects. An example application for selecting the proper project delivery method for an actual project is provided.

This article is written for the launch of the specialty section on construction management at the Frontiers in Built Environment. This new specialty section opens an on-line platform for academics and practitioners in the subject field to share valuable experiences and findings from innovative research and development as well as practices, which focus on the management of people/workforce, product/production, and processes across built environment project stages, including development and construction, operation and maintenance, as well as demolition and redevelopment, under considerations on the dependability and productivity of construction management services. In this article, the writer presents his humble opinions limited from experiences from academic research and professional services around the world in the past three decades. The topics derived on grand challenges in construction management are gigantic in terms of their coverages, but may have huge impacts on professional development in both short and longer term. Discussions presented here on grand challenges in construction management consist of four parts to respectively focus on an initial cognitive framework of the construction management body of knowledge (CMBOK), intelligence pervasive construction management systems, interdisciplinary digital innovation, and solutions for performance enhancement in megaproject delivery. The research methodology that support the writer to describe the four grand challenges includes literature review, comparison study, site observation, and system architecture analysis and development. It was the writer's initial abductive reasoning to identify the four grand challenges in construction management through an extensive literature review, which was based on national and regional strategies for the construction industry from the world top economies. Some key references relating to these four major topics are collected to support discussions in this article. It is expected that this article could contribute to the debate as well as research and development in construction management in terms of continuous technical enhancements on project-oriented performance and value regardless the scope, the location, and the time associated and concerned. As the study was conducted through abductive reasoning, this article should have its limitation on the coverage to all grand challenges in construction management, and this should leave many unanswered questions for further exploratory research.

With increasing globalization and the proliferation of communication technologies, more people are working in cross-functional, geographically distributed teams. Although trust is clearly an important ingredient in these collaborations, little is known about the challenges this new work and social environment creates for the development of trust. Different disciplinary perspectives, different regional or national cultures, and the lack of face-to-face interaction when working at a distance raise significant barriers to developing trust between distant co-workers. We, therefore, posit that traditional models of trust need to be adapted to describe the development of trust between cross-functional, geographically distributed partners. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a longitudinal study of architecture, engineering and construction management students engaged in designing and planning a $5 million construction project in distributed teams. Our results suggest that cross-functional, geographically distributed workers may rely on early impressions of perceived trustworthiness when evaluating how their distant partners are delivering on commitments, because reliable information about actual follow-through is lacking or difficult to interpret. Consistent with this, we found that perceived trustworthiness, perceived follow-through and trust were relatively stable over time. We conclude that initial perceptions of trustworthiness are particularly important in cross-functional, geographically distributed work, although research is needed to draw comparisons with traditional work environments. #

One of the most perplexing issues facing organizations in the construction industry is their inability to become quality focused. As a result sub-standard products and services often emanate, which inadvertently result in rework. Typically, rework is caused by errors made during the design process. These errors appear downstream in the procurement process and therefore have a negative impact on a project' s performance. The lack of attention to quality, especially during the design process, has meant that rework has become an inevitable feature of the procurement process, and the costs have been found to be as high as 12.4% of total project costs. Such costs could be even higher because they do not represent schedule delays, litigation costs and other intangible costs of poor quality. To reduce the cost and effect of rework, an understanding of its causal structure is needed so that effective prevention strategies can be identi® ed and the effects of rework reduced or eliminated. A case study approach based upon deductive and inductive reasoning is used to identify the major factors that in¯uence rework in projects. From the ® ndings and with reference to recent literature, the concept of system dynamics is used to develop a series of in¯uence diagrams, which are then integrated to develop a conceptual causal loop model that is used to determine the overall causal structure of rework. Once an understanding of the causal structure of rework events has been acquired, effective strategies for rework prevention can be designed and implemented in order to improve project performance. This paper contributes to study of quality in construction by capturing the complexity and dynamism of those factors that in¯uence rework and project performance in a holistic manner.

Several success criteria (SC) and categorization models have been introduced and studied in the previous decades to address the issue of project success. However, most of these models have failed to align success criteria with company's success in the long-term. This paper aims at proposing a framework to categorize project success for building projects in Malaysia from the contractors' perspective. The proposed framework incorporates criteria that align the project efforts with both short and long-term goals of the companies; moreover provide an appropriate judgment of success at all stages of the project. If construction managers can judge the probability of success, they would be able to evaluate the overall relative strength of each project, and identify problems on current projects to direct them toward success.

Projects are temporary production systems. When those systems are structured to deliver the product while maximizing value and minimizing waste, they are said to be 'lean' projects. Lean project management differs from traditional project management not only in the goals it pursues, but also in the structure of its phases, the relationship between phases and the participants in each phase. This paper presents a model of lean project management and contrasts lean and traditional approaches. Four tools or interventions are presented as illustrations of lean concepts in action.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a versatile multivariate statistical technique, and applications have been increasing since its introduction in the 1980s. This paper provides a critical review of 84 articles involving the use of SEM to address construction related problems over the period 1998–2012 including, but not limited to, seven top construction research journals. After conducting a yearly publication trend analysis, it is found that SEM applications have been accelerating over time. However, there are inconsistencies in the various recorded applications and several recurring problems exist. The important issues that need to be considered are examined in research design, model development and model evaluation and are discussed in detail with reference to current applications. A particularly important issue concerns the construct validity. Relevant topics for efficient research design also include longitudinal or cross-sectional studies, mediation and moderation effects, sample size issues and software selection. A guideline framework is provided to help future researchers in construction SEM applications.

The Supplementary Green Book Guidance on Optimism Bias (HM Treasury 2003) with reference to the Review of Large Public Procurement in the UK (Mott MacDonald 2002) notes that there is a demonstrated, systematic, tendency for project appraisers to be overly optimistic and that to redress this tendency appraisers should make explicit, empirically based adjustments to the estimates of a project’s costs, benefits, and duration. HM Treasury recommends that these adjustments be based on data from past projects or similar projects elsewhere, and adjusted for the unique characteristics of the project in hand. In the absence of a more specific evidence base, HM Treasury has encouraged departments to collect data to inform future estimates of optimism, and in the meantime use the best available data. In response to this, the Department for Transport (henceforth DfT), has contracted Bent Flyvbjerg in association with COWI to undertake the consultancy assignment "Procedures for dealing with Optimism Bias in Transport Planning". The present Guidance Document is the result of this assignment.

We investigate the collaboration between an Iranian and a French company in a joint venture aimed at developing radical innovation in the construction sector. We identify the challenges involved, the barriers to technological change, and the difficulties of transferring knowledge related to absorptive capacity. We conduct an in depth case study of a joint venture created by Freyssinet and Azaran to build a new roof to the Mashhad stadium. We conducted 41 interviews over a 19 month period. Our findings indicate that radical innovation is characterized by safety, quality, and planning challenges which engender delays, non-conformity to specifications, and additional costs. Freyssinet was unsuccessful in transferring explicit and tacit knowledge because Azaran suffered from poor organizational absorptive capacity. Its high absorptive capacity allowed Freyssinet to adapt its operations to Azaran's tacit knowledge routines. Our research is meaningful to the construction sector, an economically and socially significant sector in Iran that faces serious issues. Our study has practical implications for Iranian firms and for foreign firms operating in Iran. We contribute to strengthen the understanding of Iranian technology development by focusing on radical innovation standards, joint venture specific learning dyads, and complex knowledge transfer.

To provide a safe and productive environment, project managers need to plan for the work spaces required by construction activities. Work space planning involves representing various types of spaces required by construction activities in three dimensions and across time. Since a construction schedule consists of hundreds of activities requiring multiple types of spaces, it is practically impossible to expect project managers to specify manually the spatio-temporal data necessary to represent work spaces in four dimension. This paper presents mechanisms that automatically generate project-specific work spaces from a generic work space ontology and a project-specific IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) based 4D production model. The generation of these work spaces leads to a space-loaded production model. Work spaces know to which activities and construction methods they belong, when, where and for how long they exist and how much volume they occupy. A space-loaded production model enables richer 4D CAD simulations, time-space conflict analysis and proactive work space planning prior to construction.

This paper contrasts the attitudes of firms towards innovation from the construction sector with those in services and manufacturing, using data from the UK innovation survey. We examine the liabilities that construction firms face in their innovative activities in comparison to other sectors, drawing from literature on the distinctiveness of construction as an economic activity. We find that the liabilities of immobility and unanticipated demand are among key distinguishing features that separate innovative behaviour in construction from other industries. The paper concludes with a discussion of the merits of cross-sectoral comparative research of this kind, together with issues for further research.

Progress reporting is an essential management function for successful delivery of construction projects. It relies on tangible data collected from construction job sites, which is then used to compare actual work performed to that planned. One method used to collect actual work data is 3D laser scanning, where the construction site is scanned at different times to generate data, which can then be used to estimate the quantities of work performed within the time interval considered between two successive scans. Photogrammetry is another method for data collection where the geometrical properties of an object on site are generated from its photo image. This paper presents a method, which integrates 3D scanning and photogrammetry in an effort to enhance the speed and accuracy of data collection from construction sites to support progress measurement and project control. The application of the proposed method is demonstrated using a building presently under construction.

2008. 352 pp. r150.00 (hardcover). This volume is intended to explain why major investment projects (the so-called mega-projects) often are not completed on time and cost more than originally budgeted. Drawing from experiences of European and North American countries, the book also suggests ways to avoid such failures. Although the topic is rather specific, the book is worth reading for both experts and nonexperts as infrastructure development continues to be a major key to economic expansion across the globe.g row_486 380.. 408 For those who only have a vague idea of what a mega-project is, the book begins by introducing the topic and reviewing the most important recent literature. The first part of the volume, then, provides numerous insights on the complexity of mega-projects, starting from the large number of reasons why mega-projects might fail. For example, the project might be "underdesigned," thus less costly but less robust to unforeseen developments, or it might be "overdesigned," when a large number of weaknesses and possible problems are considered in advance, and solutions are evaluated before the problem actually occurs. Overdesigned projects are more robust, less likely to fail, but are much more costly. The project might involve the use of innovative technologies that have never been applied to a similar context, and that involve more uncertain implementation costs and results. Most projects have an impact on the environment and might face opposition for example from environmentalist groups. If representative of these groups have not been directly involved in the design of the project, they might try to stop it, thus causing delays and increasing costs. Finally, because of incorrect predictions of 380 GROWTH AND CHANGE, JUNE 2009

The traditional philosophy of management in construction, both in academia and in industry, places great emphasis on the ability to plan and execute projects. In contrast, a similar emphasis on strategic management has received less attention in the construction industry. Although the pressures of project performance can often obscure the broader social, economic, and professional context in which strategic management is undertaken, it is these broad contextual areas that make strategic management an essential issue for construction organizations. Rapidly changing social and technological issues are creating a professional environment that will look very different in the coming decades than that experienced in today's organizations. This paper introduces a study of the current strategic management practices of construction organizations. The paper introduces the concept of strategic management and the areas that organizations must address to compete in the global marketplace. A summary of an industry survey is documented together with the background research that prompted the investigation of these topics.

Sustainability concepts showcase significant value in construction projects. The discipline of project management is also integrating sustainability issues into its approaches. Under this notion, this study explores the integration of sustainability indicators into project management practices of construction projects. Current literature discloses many indicators/key factors as contributing towards the sustainability success of construction projects. However, the lack of an all-encompassing categorization creates difficulties in directing project managers towards their proper utilization. This paper aims to contribute towards the holistic view of sustainability in project management, especially for construction projects. A systematic literature review was conducted towards the understanding of the key topics and the findings were validated through semi-structured interviews. Eighty-two (82) sustainability indicators related to project management practices in construction projects were finally identified. Their categorization into economic, environmental and social/ management sustainability indicators was completed through semi-structured interviews with construction experts and via previous literature analysis. The economic related indicators finalized in 27; 18 for the environmental dimension and 37 indicators were included in the social/management dimension. This study contributes to research on sustainable project management for construction projects in two main ways: (1) it provides a holistic view of sustainable project management indicators, covering the full spectrum of the triple constraint (TBL); (2) it offers the possibility for practitioners to choose the right mix of indicators, depending on the sustainability focus they want to provide in their projects.

A recent study suggested that buildings globally consume up to 40% of energy and responsible for half of world greenhouse gas emission. Introducing life cycle assessment (LCA) to the building industry is important because it can measure every environmental impact involved in every process from cradle to grave systematically. Within the last decade, research on LCA has increased covering from construction process to manufacturing of building materials. The methods to assess buildings are diverse as buildings have different functions, materials, sizes and locations. The aim of this article is to review the LCA methods and to distinguish phases and materials that affect significantly to environment. The findings show the methods are based on ISO 14040 series with variance to suit different scopes, aims and limitations. The operational phase is identified to consume the highest energy and concrete responsible for the highest embodied energy. The findings also suggested that building material with lower embodied energy does not necessarily have lower life cycle energy. Therefore, implementation of LCA can determine and mitigate the environmental impacts in the development stage thus promoting sustainability in building industry. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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This study shifts attention from project-based firms (PBFs) to project network organizations (PNOs) as increasingly important inter-organizational contexts of project collaboration. As a result of organizational specialization, PNOs have emerged as generic organizational forms combining the coordination capacity of PBFs with access to network resources. PNOs connect legally independent, yet often operationally interdependent individuals and organizations in strategically coordinated sets of core project teams and flexible partner pools that sustain beyond singular projects. Based on an empirical review of PNOs in film, event organizing, construction, complex product and system development, research, open innovation and international development, core features, antecedents and differentiating properties of PNOs are identified. Structural differences are related to project variety and connectivity, degree of specialization and geographic concentration of resources. Findings extend our understanding of inter-organizational project coordination across fields, and the interplay of PBFs, networks and project entrepreneurship.

The widespread use of information technologies for construction is considerably increasing the number of electronic text documents stored in construction management information systems. Consequently, automated methods for organizing and improving the access to the information contained in these types of documents become essential to construction information management. This paper describes a methodology developed to improve information organization and access in construction management information systems based on automatic hierarchical classification of construction project documents according to project components. A prototype system for document classification is presented, as well as the experiments conducted to verify the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Green specifications constitute one of the important elements in green construction. New sustainability requirements and changing priorities in construction management have spurred the emerging green specifications to a faster pace of development. A cross-sectional survey has been conducted in Hong Kong in 2007 to identify principal factors leading to the success of preparing green specifications. Based on extensive construction management literature, 20 variables concerning sustainable construction were summarized. Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, the subtle differences between stakeholders in specifying construction work have been detected even with the high consistency of the responses among the groups. Moreover, five independent factors for successful specification of green construction have been categorized by factor analysis. They are related to (1) green technology and techniques, (2) reliability and quality of specification, (3) leadership and responsibility, (4) stakeholder involvement, and (5) guide and benchmarking systems. Whilst the first and fourth factors are generally more important, different stakeholder groups have different emphases. The results of the survey have been validated against established principles.

Risk, including economic risk, is increasingly a concern for public policy and management. The possibility of dealing effectively with risk is hampered, however, by lack of a sound empirical basis for risk assessment and management. This article demonstrates the general point for cost and demand risks in urban rail projects. The article presents empirical evidence that allow valid economic risk assessment and management of urban rail projects, including benchmarking of individual or groups of projects. Benchmarking of the Copenhagen Metro is presented as a case in point. The approach developed is proposed as a model for other types of policies and projects in order to improve economic and financial risk assessment and management in policy and planning.