scholarly journals The Opportunities and Challenges Associated with the Implementation of Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies to Manage Health and Safety

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):  
Peter Dodzi Kwasi Agbaxode ◽  
Sitsabo Dlamini ◽  
Ehsan Saghatforoush

A meta-synthesis approach was used to identify, synthesize, and categorize appropriately factors in the literature that contribute to design documentation quality. The categories include factors on quality attributes, quality indicators, and quality-influencing factors. Findings indicate that the quality of design documentation in practice is unsatisfactory, therefore, there is a need for collaboration between the owner, designers, and end-users to improve design documentation quality. The results offer pragmatic data on design documentation quality in the construction industry between the years 1992 and 2019. However, further research on the significant impacts of poor-quality design documentation on construction projects is recommended.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 1049-1053
Author(s):  
Onyekachukwu G. Odenigbo ◽  
Koleola T Odusami ◽  
Kevin C. Okolie ◽  
Vincent C. Okafor

Delay in payment to contactors and other relevant parties have caused serious problem on the successful execution of construction projects in the country. It causes several problems to the contractor and other participants. The aim of this study is to determine the causes of delayed payments in the construction industry. The objective of this study is to identify the causes of delayed payment. In order to obtain valid data for the study, questionnaires were designed and distributed to a randomly selected sample of one hundred individuals among contractors, subcontractors, consultant and clients in the Nigerian construction industry. In total, eighty five completed questionnaires were returned and then analysed statistically. The total mean score was used to determine the ranking of the results of the study. Client’s disagreeing on the valuation of work done, slow processing of variation orders and poor quality of works were the major causes of delayed payment identified in the study. It was recommended that the stakeholders should work as a team in the execution of project to avoid bottlenecks usually encountered in agreeing contractors‟ payment. In conclusion, if the necessary action can be enforced, the problem of delayed payment can be reduced drastically.


2018 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 03004
Author(s):  
Muhamad Azry Khoiry ◽  
Suhaniya Kalaisilven ◽  
Azlina Abdullah

Construction is an important industry to determine the development of a country. However, this industry faced delay issues caused by various factors that affect proper construction project. Hence, minimizing delay in construction should be focused on overcoming the delay issue. Thus, the objective of this study is to critically review the main criteria of minimizing delay based on the most significant items that suggested in the previous journals. This paper reviewed 47 journals that studied the issues of delays in construction projects. Through this study, the authors have classified four main criteria for minimizing delays, which are; management, interpersonal, technical and technology. Management ensures the proper manage of time, financial and control system in construction to minimize delay. While, interpersonal promote a good relationship between construction parties, hire of competent and skilled labour and responsibility of the owner to avoiding delay. Besides, technical ensure the quality of project and technology could improve the productivity of construction based on fourth industrial revolution development in the construction field. Thus, this study contributes to construction parties able to focus on elements to overcome the delay issue in they faced and applied the ideas based on the element to minimize delay in the construction project.


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romuald A. Rwamamara ◽  
Ove Lagerqvist ◽  
Thomas Olofsson ◽  
Bo M. Johansson ◽  
Kazys Algirdas Kaminskas

Many construction work tasks are physically very strenuous and the incidence of work‐related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) among construction workers is considerably higher than those in most other occupations. The aim of the study presented in this paper was to contribute to understanding a healthy construction site brought about by the best practices implemented by large construction sites to prevent WMSDs. A triangulation method made of interviews, site observations and studies on company's documents was used to identify the best practices in 13 several construction projects. A range of the best practices both in the pre‐construction and construction phases of the projects were identified in six different areas of the balance of the construction workplace system; however, there seems to be a significant need for good practices in the management of a systematic work environment. It is now established that Swedish construction industry has several best practices to protect work‐related musculoskeletal health. However, inadequate worker participation and the neglect of health and safety issues by designers in the planning process as well as the implications of some remuneration methods on the production schedule were perceived as detrimental to the musculoskeletal health of construction workers. Santrauka Daug statybos darbu yra fiziškai labai itempti, o su darbu susijusiu raumenu ir skeleto sistemos pažeidimu dažnis tarp statybininku yra kur kas aukštesnis negu tarp daugelio kitu profesiju. Šio tyrimo tikslas – pletoti supratima apie sveikatos būkle ir jos svarba dirbant statybu aikštelese, igyvendinant didelius statybos objektus, siekiant išvengti su darbu susijusiu raumenu ir skeleto sistemos pažeidimu. Tyrimams buvo taikytas interviu, pagristas trianguliacijos metodu, darbo procesu stebejimo statybos aikštelese metodas, buvo nagrineti statybos kompaniju dokumentai, siekiant identifikuoti 13 skirtingu statybos projektu. Geriausia praktika, prieš pradedant statybas ir jau statant, buvo nustatyta šešiuose skirtinguose statybu regionuose, tačiau tokia praktika yra svarbi darbo aplinkos vadyboje. Pripažinta, kad Švedijos statybos pramoneje taikomi keli būdai, kaip apsaugoti statybininkus nuo raumenu ir skeleto sistemos pažeidimu. Vis delto mažas darbininku domejimasis šia problema, sveikatos bei saugos problemu nepaisymas planavimo procese, kai kuriu atsilyginimo būdu itraukimas i gamybos veiksniu saraša buvo vertinti kaip faktoriai, žalingai veikiantys statybininku raumenu ir skeleto sistema.


Author(s):  
Fatemeh Nouban ◽  
Serah Onuh John

Managing health and safety on construction sites has always been a challenging issue faced by the Nigerian construction industry. Safety conditions on the construction sites depends on type or nature of work to be carried out and the management make commitment to implement safety projects concerning construction. There are no requirements assigned for implementing a security management system by the Nigerian government. Construction industries lacked a framework to implement security regarding projects on construction sites. Developing a Safety Framework can help professionals involved in carrying out construction works, implement and improve safety practices in executing their projects on sites. This study presents the development of a structure for implementing an effective health security on construction sites. An extensive review of the literature was carried out to design an appropriate security framework. The results underscore the requirement for competent personnel who must be appointed to ensure safety on construction sites. Finally, a security framework was developed in which companies can accept and adhere. The results of this research will help Nigerian construction companies to improve safety on construction sites.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 416-437
Author(s):  
Nathalie Perrier ◽  
Aristide Bled ◽  
Mario Bourgault ◽  
Nolwenn Cousin ◽  
Christophe Danjou ◽  
...  

The fourth industrial revolution, called Industry 4.0, is transforming decision-making through the increasing use of information and digitization technologies. While Industry 4.0 is expanding rapidly in manufacturing industries, its induced transformations are gradually affecting other sectors, including the construction industry. In recent years, the use of 4.0 technologies in the construction industry, termed as ‘Construction 4.0’, has increased, mostly due to the immense potential of Industry 4.0 for improving the performance of construction projects and structuring their underlying management processes. This paper proposes a classification of existing literature on applications of Construction 4.0 technologies to allow for a better analysis of trends and gaps in the research. A total of nearly 200 research papers between 2009 and 2020 were reviewed and analyzed. Overall, the analysis shows that research on Construction 4.0 is closely aligned with the construction phase. Also, the most researched topics seem to be related to the management processes of quality, risk, and health and safety.


Author(s):  
Bruno L. Tanko ◽  
Fadhlin Abdullah ◽  
Zuhaili Mohamad Ramly

The central goal of construction stakeholders is to successfully deliver projects to stated objective (s). However, for decades, construction projects have been plagued by perennial constraints of cost and time overruns, poor quality, and lack of sustainability. The objective of this paper is to identify and assess the constraints to construction project delivery, and to recommend solutions to enhance project performance. This paper adopted both quantitative and qualitative methods to establish the constraints in the Nigerian construction industry. A pilot survey and literature reviewed revealed a total of fifty (50) construction constraints, which were further classified into eight (8) major groups. Well-structured questionnaires were administered to construction stakeholders (client, consultant and contractor) in Abuja, the federal capital city of Nigeria. Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to analyze the data using Likert scale.  The results suggest that cost/time overrun related factors (inability to reduce project cost), Stakeholders interactive-related factors (inability to establish client value system), Client-related factors (Delay in interim payment and finance problem), and Labor/material-related factors (escalation of material prices and materials quality variability) are the most prevalent constraints in the Nigerian construction environment.  To mitigate the effects of these challenges, it is suggested that a formal innovative approach should be used by stakeholders to address the problems of poor communication, high project cost, and delay. Clients should also take measures to provide adequate funding and should promptly honor interim certificates. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 1209 (1) ◽  
pp. 012009
Author(s):  
H Begić

Abstract The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) introduced positive changes to some industries, while for most construction industries it is still enthusiastically anticipated. The 4IR focusing on the construction industry in literature is known as Construction 4.0. The Construction 4.0 concept is invoked to transform the current ways the construction industry operates while ensuring benefits, such as reduced overall construction projects’ costs and duration, improved quality and work safety, etc. Due to the increasing web usage, it is anticipated that the 4IR technologies will achieve full potentials by the uprising of the fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks (i.e. 5G). One of the most important 4IR technologies is found to be the Internet of Things (IoT). In this perspective, a construction monitoring approach, more precisely a model for construction detection and object spatial/time positioning, is presented in this paper. While still in its initial phase, the model was tested and verified in the laboratory environment for small-scale object detection. It was found that the quality of the model will be significantly improved with the use of the 5G network, while the objects’ pool, as big data required for the model’s deep learning, is highly dependent on the IoT.


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