scholarly journals Knowledge Integration in Engineering, Procurement and Construction Projects: A Conceptual Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 5733-5738
Author(s):  
Sachin Mittal, Dr. Naaz Gorowara
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Knowledge Integration ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Contractual Arrangement ◽  
Infrastructural Development ◽  
Engineering Services ◽  
Conceptual Study

EPC is a contractual arrangement in which the responsibility related to engineering services, procurement of raw materials, and construction lie with the contractor. Solar plants, infrastructure projects are some of the examples of EPC projects. With the need of rapid infrastructural development in developing countries like India needs scientific and better management strategies for the EPC projects.EPC projects are diverse requiring proper integration of knowledge of different fields of management and engineering.It is an accepted fact that when any term is understood conceptually it lasts long and is easier to integrate with other concepts.The workforce involved in the projects can share their knowledge with future projects which would lead to better knowledge integration. The problems of the EPC projects is unique therefore knowledge integration and better management strategies will go a long way in enhancing the efficiency of EPC projects. Thefocus of the paper is to identify the nature of EPC projects and understand conceptually the management strategies which can be used in the EPC projects for increasing the performance.The study is important for developing countries like India where EPC projects are gaining increased popularity. Keywords: EPC Projects, Management Strategies, knowledge integration.

Is the construction site a safer place under the USACE or local government guidelines? The case of Afghanistan

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hashim Ibrahimkhil ◽  
Laith Hadidi
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Safety Performance ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Safety Practices ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to assess the safety level of construction sites in Afghanistan following the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) safety practices and compare this with other construction sites in Afghanistan that follow local government safety guidelines. The USACE oversees and funds many infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, and these projects are supposed to follow the same standards implemented in the USA, including safety standards. The local government of Afghanistan also funds infrastructure projects in Afghanistan; however, these do not follow USACE best practices. This research explores the question of whether the USACE standards provide a safer construction site. The effect of the USACE standards on safety practices in construction projects is also investigated in the Afghanistan construction industry.Design/methodology/approachA literature review and other safety checklists were used to develop a safety checklist containing 104 items (questions) in 17 categories. Subsequently, the checklist was used to assess the safety performance of 57 construction projects (25 USACE projects, and 32 governmental projects). Utilizing quantitative analysis, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (Rho) and Mann–Whitney tests were carried out for correlation and statistical disparity between USACE and governmental projects.FindingsThe safety performance level of Afghan government projects was found to be poor in relation to other developing countries, while in USACE projects it was excellent. In addition, fire prevention, safety administration, PPE, heavy equipment, and handling and storage of materials for all types of contractors were the most overlooked aspects of Afghan Government projects.Practical implicationsThe findings clearly demonstrate the deficiencies in construction sites observed during this study and also support the adoption of USACE standards in Afghanistan projects.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the safety of construction sites in Afghanistan. The study also demonstrates the benefits of adopting international standards (USACE) to improve the safety of construction sites in a developing country such as Afghanistan. The findings provide evidence of the safety of the Afghanistan construction industry compared to other developing countries. These findings will contribute to the Afghan Government's efforts to track injury statistics.

scholarly journals Feasibility of implementing IPD approach for infrastructure projects in developing countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 902-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manas Khanna ◽  
Faris Faris Elghaish ◽  
Stephen McIlwaine ◽  
Tara Tara Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
The Body ◽  
Project Delivery ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Integrated Project Delivery ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Integrated Project ◽  
Alternative Project Delivery

Alternative project delivery approaches have been proposed to overcome the inefficiencies of conventional delivery methods such as design-bid-build. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) has recently emerged as a feasible substitute to traditional project delivery approaches. Despite widespread awareness of the benefits of IPD in integration with information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance the delivery of construction projects, IPD implementation has so far been sluggish in developing countries such as India. The feasibility of implementing IPD approach and applying its principles is investigated in this study. It assesses the maturity of delivery techniques, and the potential benefits and limitations of using IPD for infrastructure projects in developing countries, using India as a case study. This study has been carried out using an in-depth investigation of the literature in combination with a qualitative method involving interviews with ten highly experienced BIM professionals from the Indian AEC sector. The findings of this study have revealed that adopting integrated project delivery while leveraging the BIM process in conjunction with ICT has the potential to effectively deliver mega infrastructure projects in developing countries. The resistance to change, lack of experience and skills, and lack of awareness among project owners are recognized as the primary obstacles to IPD adoption. The main benefits for practice following adoption could include enhanced project delivery, more effective coordination among stakeholders, and greater transparency with cost and time savings through all stages of the project. It is recommended that the regulatory bodies establish governing standards and frameworks, amend regulations to accept IPD concepts, and upskill the workforce through training and knowledge transfer for its successful adoption. One novel aspect of this study may be recognized since most previous research has focused on limitations, benefits, and adoption frameworks for IPD whereas there has been no definitive study on the practicality of IPD combined with BIM and the use of ICT for successful infrastructure project delivery in developing countries. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by serving as an exemplary paper for future studies on the adoption of BIM and ICT approaches such as cloud computing, blockchain, IoT, and mixed realities to deliver projects with integrated project delivery. Furthermore, it provides a deeper understanding of the future of this delivery approach in developing nations.

scholarly journals Harnessing Machine Learning for Classifying Economic Damage Trends in Transportation Infrastructure Projects

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6376
Author(s):  
Junseo Bae ◽  
Sang-Guk Yum ◽  
Ji-Myong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Transportation Infrastructure ◽  
Classification Model ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Machine Learning Classification ◽  
Financial Losses

Given the highly visible nature, transportation infrastructure construction projects are often exposed to numerous unexpected events, compared to other types of construction projects. Despite the importance of predicting financial losses caused by risk, it is still difficult to determine which risk factors are generally critical and when these risks tend to occur, without benchmarkable references. Most of existing methods are prediction-focused, project type-specific, while ignoring the timing aspect of risk. This study filled these knowledge gaps by developing a neural network-driven machine-learning classification model that can categorize causes of financial losses depending on insurance claim payout proportions and risk occurrence timing, drawing on 625 transportation infrastructure construction projects including bridges, roads, and tunnels. The developed network model showed acceptable classification accuracy of 74.1%, 69.4%, and 71.8% in training, cross-validation, and test sets, respectively. This study is the first of its kind by providing benchmarkable classification references of economic damage trends in transportation infrastructure projects. The proposed holistic approach will help construction practitioners consider the uncertainty of project management and the potential impact of natural hazards proactively, with the risk occurrence timing trends. This study will also assist insurance companies with developing sustainable financial management plans for transportation infrastructure projects.

Management Strategies for Perinatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 87 (5) ◽  
pp. 742-743
Author(s):  
MANIKUM MOODLEY ◽  
MIRIAM ADHIKARI
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy ◽  
Developed World ◽  
Ischemic Encephalopathy

To the Editor.— The paper by Dr Vanucci1 (Pediatrics. June 1990) addresses an important issue in neonatal medicine [See table in the PDF file] namely the management of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). The review is comprehensive and lucid, and the section on "new management strategies" comes at a time when considerable interest has been directed toward this form of therapy. HIE remains a major problem in developing countries where the incidence may be as high as 4% to 6% compared with about 0.2% to 0.9% in the developed world.1-3

Executive Agency and State Capacity in Development: Comparing Sino-African Railways in Kenya and Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Institutional Constraints ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Executive Agency

Why do infrastructure projects that are similar in nature develop along starkly different trajectories? This question sheds light on the varying state capacity of developing countries. Divergent from structural explanations that stress external agency and institutional explanations that emphasize bureaucratic capacity, I propose a political championship theory to explain the variance in states capacity of infrastructure delivery. I argue that when a project is highly salient to leaders’ survival, leaders commit to the project; leaders with strong authority build an implementation coalition, leading to higher effectiveness. I trace the process of the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya and Addis-Djibouti Railway in Ethiopia, relying on over 180 interviews. This research highlights the individual agency within structural and institutional constraints, a previously understudied area in state capacity.

Reanalysis of Flash Floods and Debris Flows on two continents and their management strategies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Daniel Rios-Arboleda
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
South America ◽  
Debris Flow ◽  
Debris Flows ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
Risk Management Strategies ◽  
Latitudinal Patterns

<p>This research expands the original analysis of Baker and Costa (1987) including data from Europe and South America with the objective to understand if there are emerging latitudinal patterns. In addition, the threshold proposed by Zimmermann et al. (1997) it is evaluated with the data from tropical zones finding that this is a good predictor.</p><p>Mainly, recent Debris Flow occurred in South America are analyzed with the aim of identifying the best risk management strategies and their replicability for developing countries, particularly, the cases that have occurred in Colombia and Venezuela in the last 30 years are analyzed in order to compare management strategies and understand which are the most vulnerable areas to this phenomenon.</p><p>It is concluded that large-scale and multinational projects such as SED ALP are required in South America to better characterize events that have left multiple fatalities (sometimes hundreds of people) and better understand how to manage the risk on densely populated areas.</p><p>Finally, the use of amateur videos is proposed to characterize these events in nations with limited budgets for projects such as SED ALP, methodology that will be described extensively in later works.</p>

Structuring the water quality policy problem: Applying Q-methodology to explore perspectives in hydrology, government, and community

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schuyler Houser ◽  
Reza Pramana ◽  
Maurits Ertsen
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Q Methodology ◽  
Knowledge Integration ◽  
Water Quality Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Problem Structuring ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Resource Governance ◽  
Starting Point

<p>Recognizing the interrelatedness of water management and conceptual value of IWRM, many water resource governance systems are shifting from hierarchical arrangements towards more collaborative and participative networks. Increasing calls for participation recognize the value of drawing on social, political-administrative, and other kinds of knowledge in addition to technical water expertise. Participatory mandates, coordination bodies, and science-policy networks have emerged to facilitate knowledge integration, promote adaptive capacity, and align organizations in poly-centric systems.</p><p>Since the maintenance and effectiveness of such arrangements are contingent on trust and alignment rather than command and control, and since diverse stakeholders are engaged to co-produce knowledge, collaborators must grapple with identifying shared goals, developing knowledge management strategies to organize inputs, and attaining early progress to promote ongoing cooperation. But guidance is limited with respect to how such integrative aims are to be accomplished.</p><p>This research explores how systematic (but not necessarily convergent) problem structuring can support the forming, reordering, and cohering of water resource networks, especially when a complex issue – in this case, water quality management – rises to prominence on the policy agenda. In the early stages of a water quality project in the Brantas River Basin, Indonesia, stakeholder discussions suggested divergent conceptualizations of water quality and ideas about what conditions ‘matter’. Thus, instead of taking hydrological data as the starting point, this research first asks: What Brantas River(s) are we talking about, and why? Q-methodology is used to identify alternative perspectives on water quality held by a diverse set of stakeholders, including hydrologists. The analysis explores which aspects of the policy problem are consistent, which are contested, and whether problems indicated by hydrological science overlap, conflict, or cohere with those perceived by other stakeholders.</p><p>The research posits that, if scientists, engineers, decision-makers, community leaders, and other participants can appreciate areas of convergence and divergence regarding the water quality problem itself, they can lay groundwork for knowledge co-production; recognize opportunities for cooperation; better locate science in the problem space; and identify potential early wins to secure commitment. The research also asks to what extent consensus in problem structuring is necessary, or whether it is sufficient to identify strategies that are acceptable to different ontological viewpoints.</p>

An empirical study on non-physical waste factors in the construction industry

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Igwe ◽  
Fuzhan Nasiri ◽  
Amin Hammad
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Severity Index ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Planning And Scheduling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Normality Test ◽  
Importance Index ◽  
Human Material

PurposeThis study highlights the findings of an empirical study to investigate waste factors (WFs) affecting the performance and delivery of construction projects in developing countries. The objectives of this study are to identify non-physical WFs in developing nations and rank the identified factors based on their degree of influence on the key performance indicators (KPIs) of cost, quality and time.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 34 WFs were identified through a detailed literature review and consolidated using semi-structured interviews with construction practitioners. The statistical analysis involved a normality test using the Shapiro–Wilk test to determine if sample data have been drawn from a normally distributed population, ranking the WFs using the Frequency Index (FI), Severity Index (SI) and Importance Index (IMPI), ranking the WFs based on their effect on the project KPIs of cost, quality and time, and identify clustering structures for the identified WFs to using factor analysis (FA).FindingsThe results revealed ineffective planning and scheduling, rework/repair of defective work and resource quality problems (human, material and equipment) as the three most important WFs affecting construction projects. The factor analyses showed that WFs can be grouped into five interrelated components, suggesting the need for integrated and holistic strategies to overcome the identified WF.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the effects of WFs on construction projects is a first step towards designing holistic solutions to ensuring projects deliver value to the clients and other stakeholders. The findings of this study provide direction to construction practitioners on where to focus appropriate strategies to manage the identified WFs effectively and, therefore, improve the productivity of construction projects.Originality/valueThis study provides the first holistic analysis of WFs affecting the productivity of construction projects in developing countries.

Controversies in the management of early endometrial carcinoma: an update

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 2124 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Reddi Rani ◽  
Jasmina Begum ◽  
K. Sathyanarayana Reddy
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Endometrial Carcinoma ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Genital Tract ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Fertility Sparing Surgery ◽  
Fertility Sparing ◽  
Cure Rates

Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is the commonest genital tract malignancy in developing countries and is usually confined to the uterus at the time of diagnosis with excellent prognosis and high cure rates. But the management is associated with lot of controversies like in staging, best surgical approach, extent of lymphadenectomy, adjuvant therapy, fertility sparing surgery in young women etc. A thorough surgical staging is important to determine uterine and extrauterine spread and also understanding of the pathophysiology and management strategies to identify women who are at high risk and tailoring the adjuvant treatment if necessary without increasing the morbidity. This evidence based narrative review conducted by searching Medline (1994- 2015) and other online articles from Pubmed, Google scholar. Articles were selected based on their currency and relevance to the discussion they summarize the current literature to provide an approach to best practice management of early endometrial carcinoma.

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