scholarly journals Barriers to Adopting Lean Construction in the Construction Industry—The Case of Jordan

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 222
Author(s):  
Wassim Al Balkhy ◽  
Rateb Sweis ◽  
Zoubeir Lafhaj

During the last few decades, there has been a greater understanding of the role of lean construction (LC) in achieving better management of construction projects and enabling the application of the fourth industrial revolution in the construction industry (Construction 4.0), which in turn, has the potential to improve the practices and outcomes in the construction industry. This paper aims to identify the barriers to adopt LC practices by taking a case of the Kingdom of Jordan. A questionnaire that included 30 barriers that were resulted from a comprehensive literature review was distributed and filled by 326 respondents from the Jordanian construction industry. The findings showed that the absence of support from the top management, low awareness toward LC, lack of training, and the absence of transparency are amongst the most serious factors that hinder the adoption of LC. The findings in this paper might be helpful to improve the knowledge about LC and support the adoption of new techniques that might improve the performance in the construction industry.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2683
Author(s):  
Maria Kozlovska ◽  
Daria Klosova ◽  
Zuzana Strukova

In recent years, due to the rapid development of the fourth industrial revolution and new platforms of information technologies, intelligent systems have received widespread attention in many industries and have brought the potential to improve the efficiency of the construction industry. These facts led to the appearance of a new concept in construction industry called Construction 4.0. Therefore, this article seeks to explore the state of implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies in the construction industry and analyze their impact on the formation of the Construction 4.0 concept. In order to achieve the aim of this article, a literature review was conducted using the most relevant publication in this field. Moreover, authors carried out a bibliometric analysis among 195 selected research articles related to the Industry 4.0 and Construction 4.0 to identify interconnections between these concepts. The results show that Industry 4.0 has the greatest impact on productivity growth in construction and that interest in digital technologies is growing every year, but their penetration into the construction industry is currently slow and limited. The authors suggest that further research needs to be focused on future ethical issues that may arise and on synergies between Construction 4.0 technologies.


Author(s):  
Reneiloe Malomane ◽  
Innocent Musonda ◽  
Chioma Sylvia Okoro

The fourth industrial revolution (4iR) technologies offer an opportunity for the construction industry to improve health and safety (H&S) compliance. Therefore, implementing the technologies is of top priority to improve the endless H&S incidents in construction projects, which lead to poor quality of work, late project delivery, and increased labour injury claims. Central to improving the nature of work and other industrial processes, the 4iR technologies have emerged. Concurrent with this trend is the importance of 4iR technologies in enhancing health and safety performance on construction sites. However, the implementation of 4iR technologies in the construction industry is faced with various challenges. Therefore, this paper reports on a study aimed at examining the challenges associated with implementing 4iR technologies in the construction sector in South Africa towards effective management of H&S. The study followed a systematic literature review, data collection using a questionnaire survey and thereafter, descriptive, and inferential analyses were conducted. The findings revealed that the implementation of 4iR technologies is challenged by a lack of adequate relevant skills, the unavailability of training capacities, expensive technologies, and negative perceptions such as fear of job loss by industry professionals. The findings are essential for the advancement of H&S research and implementation. In addition, the findings are important to industry decision-makers in order to elevate their awareness and promote the use of 4iR technologies to manage construction activities. The study implications include the need for the construction industry to collaborate with higher education institutions to conduct research and include 4iR in the curriculum.


Author(s):  
Marijana Vidas-Bubanja ◽  
◽  
Snežana Popovčić-Avrić ◽  
Iva Bubanja ◽  
◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seeram Ramakrishna ◽  
Alfred Ngowi ◽  
Henk De Jager ◽  
Bankole O. Awuzie

Growing consumerism and population worldwide raises concerns about society’s sustainability aspirations. This has led to calls for concerted efforts to shift from the linear economy to a circular economy (CE), which are gaining momentum globally. CE approaches lead to a zero-waste scenario of economic growth and sustainable development. These approaches are based on semi-scientific and empirical concepts with technologies enabling 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) and 6Rs (reuse, recycle, redesign, remanufacture, reduce, recover). Studies estimate that the transition to a CE would save the world in excess of a trillion dollars annually while creating new jobs, business opportunities and economic growth. The emerging industrial revolution will enhance the symbiotic pursuit of new technologies and CE to transform extant production systems and business models for sustainability. This article examines the trends, availability and readiness of fourth industrial revolution (4IR or industry 4.0) technologies (for example, Internet of Things [IoT], artificial intelligence [AI] and nanotechnology) to support and promote CE transitions within the higher education institutional context. Furthermore, it elucidates the role of universities as living laboratories for experimenting the utility of industry 4.0 technologies in driving the shift towards CE futures. The article concludes that universities should play a pivotal role in engendering CE transitions.


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