The costs of accidents in Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia construction industry

Author(s):  
Tariq Umar
2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamil Ghazi Sarhan ◽  
Bo Xia ◽  
Sabrina Fawzia ◽  
Azharul Karim

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has witnessed a huge increase in construction during the last two decades. However, many projects experienced time delays, cost overruns and the generation of massive amounts of waste. To address these challenges, lean construction has been introduced into the Saudi construction industry; however, it is still in its infancy. This study therefore investigates the current state of lean construction implementation in the construction industry in the KSA. The objectives are to identify: the types of construction waste, level of use of tools that support the implementation of lean construction, stages of application of lean methods, and the benefits of lean construction. To achieve these objectives, a structured questionnaire survey of 282 construction professionals was carried out. After the analysis of the collected data using mean score and Anova test, the following conclusions were made.  In the construction industry in the KSA, waiting is the most common type of waste, while Computer Aided Design (CAD) is the conventional tool supporting the implementation of lean construction. Furthermore, the data suggests that lean construction is most commonly used in the construction stage of projects while customer satisfaction is the main benefit derived from lean construction practices. This study concludes that the level of implementation of lean construction in the KSA construction industry is increasing. The results will help benchmark the current state of lean construction implementation, which will enable the construction industry to identify strategies to implement lean construction in Saudi Arabia in accordance with their needs and project goals, to achieve better productivity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamil Sarhan ◽  
Bo Xia ◽  
Sabrina Fawzia ◽  
Azharul Karim ◽  
Ayokunle Olanipekun

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers to implementing lean construction in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) construction industry and to prioritise the principal factors that constitute these barriers. Design/methodology/approach A literature review was initially used to reveal the global barriers to implementing lean construction. Subsequently, these barriers were incorporated into a structured questionnaire, and a convenience sample of 282 construction professionals in the KSA construction industry was surveyed. The results were analysed using mean item score (MIS), Mann–Whitney U test and principal component analysis (PCA). Findings The findings revealed 22 barriers to lean construction implementation in the KSA construction industry. Principal factors that constitute these barriers were found to be traditional practices, client related, technological, performance and knowledge and cost-related barriers in descending order of pervasiveness. The study also proposes solutions to overcome these principal barriers. Originality/value This study provides a global overview of the barriers to implementing lean construction. It contributes to the body of knowledge, as it uncovers for the first time the barriers to implementing lean construction in the KSA construction industry with reference to the socio-cultural, economic and operational context of the KSA. Thus, it is relevant to other countries in the Middle East because of their shared similarities to the KSA. Furthermore, the solutions proposed to overcome these barriers in the KSA construction industry can be applied in other countries where similar barriers are identified.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Al-Yami ◽  
Muizz O. Sanni-Anibire

Purpose Although there is a boom in the construction industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), it is yet to fully adopt building information modeling (BIM), which has received a lot of attention in the US, UK and Australian construction industries. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide the current state of the art in BIM implementation in Saudi Arabia, as well as perceived benefits and barriers through a case study. Design/methodology/approach A broad overview of BIM, the construction industry in KSA and the research and implementation of BIM in KSA was presented in this study. The research further established the perceived benefits and barriers of BIM implementation through a case study of a local AEC firm. A questionnaire survey was used to obtain lessons learned from the BIM team of the pilot project and was further analyzed using the RII approach. Findings The study’s findings include the lack of policy initiatives in KSA to enforce BIM in the construction industry, as well as the lack of sufficient research in the domain of BIM in KSA. Furthermore, the case study also revealed that the most important benefit of BIM adoption is “detection of inter-disciplinary conflicts in the drawings to reduce error, maintain design intent, control quality and speed up communication,” whereas the most important barrier is “the need for re-engineering many construction projects for successful transition towards BIM.” Originality/value The study provides a background for enhanced research towards the implementation of BIM in Saudi Arabia and also demonstrates the potential benefits and barriers in BIM implementation.


Author(s):  
Ibrahim Mosly ◽  
Anas A. Makki

Workers’ wellbeing and safety is important in the construction industry due to the high risk of accidents. Safety climate development is a positive initial step toward raising the safety levels of construction practitioners. This study aims at revealing the factors influencing safety climate perceptions in the construction industry of Saudi Arabia. A set of extracted factors from the literature was validated and used to design a comprehensive questionnaire survey. Data was collected from 401 personnel working on 3 large construction project sites in Saudi Arabia. Descriptive statistics and the crosstabulation algorithm, Kendall’s tau-b correlation test, were used to analyze the data. The study revealed a set of 13 factors influencing safety climate perceptions, which are: Supervision, guidance and inspection, appraisal of risks and hazards, social security and health insurance, workmate influences, management safety justice, management commitment to safety, education and training, communication, workers’ safety commitment, workers’ attitude toward health and safety, workers’ involvement, supportive environment, and competence. The results also indicate the significant and anticipated role of top management in safety climate at sites. Implications of this study include assisting construction industry stakeholders to better understand and enhance safety climate, which in turn will lead to improved safety behavior, culture, motivation, and performance.


1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Osama Jannadi ◽  
Abdulsalam Al‐Sudairi

Author(s):  
Yutian Chen ◽  
Oswald Chong

The Chinese Construction Industry (CCI) has become one of the largest in the world within the last 20 years. However, due to its rapid growth it has been experiencing issues causing the industry to struggle with delivering high performing projects. Due to the differences between developed and developing countries construction industries, research from other developing countries that were similar to China (Vietnam and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) were used to help identify solutions to improve the CCI. Previous research has identified the major risks in Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. It has also been identified the only solution that has documented evidence that it can improve construction performance is the Best Value Approach that was developed in the United States at Arizona State University. A literature research was performed identifying the major risks and issues that have been documented in the CCI. These risks were then compared to that of the Vietnam and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s construction industry risks. It was identified that the majority of the top risks were similar in all three countries. Identifying that developing countries have been experiencing the same issues. This also identifies that the Best Value Approach might be a solution to help improve the CCI.


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