scholarly journals Cmmunity development: The risks and opportunities of affirmative business enterprises’ participation in construction in South Africa

2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
A. C. Hauptfleisch ◽  
G. J. Meintjes
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Construction Enterprises ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Business Enterprises ◽  
The Government ◽  
Procurement Strategies

This research focuses on community development, specifically the upliftment and empowerment of previously disadvantaged people, through the participation of affirmative business enterprises (ABEs), in construction projects in South Africa. The significant change in the government’s approach to procurement of goods and services in the construction industry since 1994 and the development and implementation of affirmative procurement strategies by the government after 1994, gave rise to this research. Based on a literature study and a survey done by means of a questionnaire, this study identifies and evaluates the risks and opportunities as a result of the participation of ABEs in construction projects.  The experience gained and lessons learned by construction managers of established construction enterprises, who were involved in managing these risks and opportunities, are analysed.  On the basis of the foregoing, recommendations are made to enhance the successful outcomes of future development projects.

South African Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz Nganje ◽  
Odilile Ayodele
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The World ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
The Government

In its foreign policy posture and ambitions, post-apartheid South Africa is like no other country on the continent, having earned the reputation of punching above its weight. Upon rejoining the international community in the mid-1990s based on a new democratic and African identity, it laid out and invested considerable material and intellectual resources in pursuing a vision of the world that was consistent with the ideals and aspirations of the indigenous anti-apartheid movement. This translated into a commitment to foreground the ideals of human rights, democratic governance, and socioeconomic justice in its foreign relations, which had been reoriented away from their Western focus during the apartheid period, to give expression to post-apartheid South Africa’s new role conception as a champion of the marginalized interests for Africa and rest of the Global South. Since the start of the 21st century, this new foreign policy orientation and its underlying principles have passed through various gradations, reflecting not only the personal idiosyncrasies of successive presidents but also changes in the domestic environment as well as lessons learned by the new crop of leaders in Pretoria, as they sought to navigate a complex and fluid continental and global environment. From a rather naive attempt to domesticate international politics by projecting its constitutional values onto the world stage during the presidency of Nelson Mandela, South Africa would be socialized into, and embrace gradually, the logic of realpolitik, even as it continued to espouse an ethical foreign policy, much to the chagrin of the detractors of the government of the African National Congress within and outside the country. With the fading away of the global liberal democratic consensus into which post-apartheid South Africa was born, coupled with a crumbling of the material and moral base that had at some point inspired a sense of South African exceptionalism, Pretoria’s irreversible march into an unashamedly pragmatic and interest-driven foreign policy posture is near complete.

Roles of Contractors in Implementing Quality Assessment System in Construction (QLASSIC) in Construction Projects

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (S1) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Mohd Shazreen Seman ◽  
Mohd Reza Esa ◽  
Mohd Reeza Yusof
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Technical Committee ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Construction Companies ◽  
Industry Standard ◽  
The Government ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

In recent decades, the construction industry has been widely criticized for its lack of efficiency and productivity, and it has been shown that the Malaysian construction industry records poor quality on its projects. To overcome this issue, the Technical Committee on Quality Assessment in Construction with the support of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has introduced Quality Assessment System in Construction (QLASSIC). QLASSIC is a scoring system that is used to assess and evaluate the performance of construction buildings. It is based on the Construction Industry Standard (CIS 7:2006). Unfortunately, this assessment system had poor implementation since its introduction in November 2006. QLASSIC was not extensively implemented and was taken lightly by the contractors and developers in Malaysia. There are still a huge number of contractors that are not aware of QLASSIC even the big construction companies. Thus, this research is aimed at investigating the contractor’s perspective towards the implementation of QLASSIC in the construction industry in Malaysia. Three objectives are developed to achieve the aim: (1) identification of the needs to implement QLASSIC; (2) investigation of issues and challenges to implement QLASSIC and (3) recommendation of strategies to implement QLASSIC. Structured questionnaire surveys were distributed to the G7 and G6 contractors in the Klang Valley area; which may have or may not have experience in implementing QLASSIC in their projects. The result revealed that majority of the respondents were aware and understand the needs of QLASSIC implementation, but there were still few who were unfamiliar with the QLASSIC. The current level of implementation of QLASSIC in Malaysia is still not satisfactory due to several issues and challenges acting as barriers to its implementation. Therefore, the initiatives from the government are important to promote QLASSIC implementation in the construction industry. By doing this, the contractors would be aware of the implementation of QLASSIC in the construction industry. The significance of this research is that it will assist contractors and other construction players in comprehending the implications and importance of QLASSIC implementation.

BIM in the Saudi Arabian construction industry: state of the art, benefit and barriers

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Al-Yami ◽  
Muizz O. Sanni-Anibire
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Information Modeling ◽  
Perceived Benefits ◽  
Content Type

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.

scholarly journals Studying the methods for determining and maintaining sustainability of a construction firm

2018 ◽  
Vol 251 ◽  
pp. 05017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azariy Lapidus ◽  
Ivan Abramov
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Construction Operations ◽  
Resource Potential ◽  
Efficient Organization ◽  
Scientific Problem ◽  
Construction Firms ◽  
Construction Firm ◽  
The Government

Against the backdrop of the economic crisis and the complicated international situation, the government pays great attention to reforming the construction industry, creating the conditions for adapting construction firms to the existing situation and associated entrepreneurial and production risks. Concurrently, as the ever-increasing competition places higher requirements on potential participants in construction projects under state-financed and municipal contracts, new laws and regulations are being developed and improved, and bidding rules are systemized and optimized to help select the most reliable contractors resistant to various impacts. The purpose of this paper is to describe the term “sustainability of a construction firm” and to set the tasks of research into the ways of increasing sustainability of construction firms based on efficient organization of construction operations and up-to-date production and labor technology. The scientific problem suggested for review lies in ensuring guaranteed sustainability of construction firms amid uncertainties of construction operations. This paper focuses on research into and the methods for determining a correlation between sustainability of a construction firm and its resource potential that depends on a number of diverse factors.

Appraisal of stakeholders' willingness to adopt construction 4.0 technologies for construction projects

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Temidayo Oluwasola Osunsanmi ◽  
Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa ◽  
Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke ◽  
Muredini Liphadzi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Design Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Willingness To Adopt ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

PurposeConstruction 4.0 technology has the capabilities for improving the design, management, operations and decision making of construction projects. Therefore, this study aimed at examining the willingness of construction professionals towards adopting construction 4.0 technologies.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a survey design, and construction professionals in South Africa are assessed using a convenience sampling technique through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was analysed with SPSS while statistical test like; mean score, t-test and principal component analysis was used to present the data.FindingsThe findings, from the analysis, revealed that the construction professionals are willing to adopt construction 4.0 technologies for construction project. However, the possibility of fully integrating the technologies into the construction industry is low. This is because the major technologies such as; Internet of things, robotics, human-computer interaction and cyber-physical systems that encourage smart construction site are rated as not important by the construction professionals.Practical implicationsIt is believed that the findings emanating from this study will serve as an indicator for investors that are interested in procuring construction 4.0 technologies for the construction industry.Originality/valueThis paper presents a framework for the application of construction 4.0 technologies for the construction industry. It also contributes to the development of digitalising construction industry in South Africa.

Modeling of the harmonization method for executing a multi-unit construction project

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 282-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Tomczak
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Construction Project ◽  
Optimization Method ◽  
Linear Processes ◽  
Project Duration ◽  
Construction Enterprises ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Implementation Time ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractOne of the key problems in managing the realization of a construction project is the selection of appropriate working crews and coordinating their activities in a way that ensures the highest degree of implementation of defined goals (minimizing the project duration and/or reducing downtime and related costs). Most of the existing methods of work harmonization used in construction industry allow obtaining the desired results only in relation to the organization of the processes realization in repetitive linear projects. In case of realization of non-linear construction objects or construction units, it is usually necessary to choose between the reduction of the project implementation time and maintaining the continuity of crews work on the units. It was found that there is a lack in the literature of developed method enabling harmonization of crews’ work, while minimizing the downtime at work and the duration of the entire project taking into account additional constraints, e.g. the need to not exceed the deadlines for the realization of the project stages.The article presents the concept of a multi-criteria optimization method of harmonizing the execution of non-linear processes of a multi-unit construction project in deterministic conditions. It will enable the reduction of realization time and downtimes in work, taking into account the preferences of the decision maker regarding the relevance of the optimization criteria. A mathematical model for optimizing the selection of crews and order of completion of units in multi-unit construction projects was also developed. In order to present the possibility of usage of the developed concept, an example of the optimal selection of crews and their work schedule was solved and presented. The proposed method may allow for better use of the existing production potential of construction enterprises and ensure synchronization of the crews employed during the work, especially in the case of difficulties in acquiring qualified staff in construction industry.

scholarly journals A critical analysis of unethical professional practices in the construction industry in Southeast Nigeria

2021 ◽  
pp. 44-48
Author(s):  
Anikwe Nnaemeka J ◽  
Agha Kalu A
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Professional Practices ◽  
Project Delivery ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Cost Overrun ◽  
Unethical Practices ◽  
The Government

Economic transformation and the provision of basic infrastructure to engender growth and development in any nation is vested in the construction industry hence the massive investment of the government in this sector. However, the expected gains of the construction industry have been eroded by the failure of many construction projects due to unethical professional practices on the part of the construction professionals. This study analyzed the causes and effects of unethical practices on the industry and project delivery with measures to combat the unethical practices among the stakeholders. The study adopted the survey design and a stratified random sampling technique was used to select 140 respondents. A structured questionnaire was designed and administered to construction professionals (Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Builders and Engineers). The relative importance index tool was used to analyse the severity of the factors identified. Findings revealed the absence of punishment for unethical practices (0.94), collusion between officials, consultants and contractors (0.91), availability of loopholes in project monitoring (0.89), weak law enforcement institution (0.87) and greed for money (0.83) among others as major causes of unethical professional practices which have serious effects on the construction industry. The result also revealed poor workmanship and substandard project delivery (0.88), high cost of construction (0.86), the collapse of structures/buildings (0.82), inflated contract sums (0.81), high maintenance cost (0.79), time and cost overrun (0.76) as the extremely severe effects of unethical practices in the industry. Prosecution and punishment of offenders (0.98), the whilstle blower protection policies and rewards (0.84), strengthening of institutionand anticorruption agencies (0.78), award of contracts on merit (0.75) and civil society participation and oversight (0.68) were identified as highly effective measures to curtail unethical professional practices. The study recommends that the government being a major actor should abide by the due process of contract award and letting, using Public Procurement Act (PPA) guidelines in executing all its construction projects. The professionals, contractors and clients’ representatives should also exhibit high professional excellence through adherence to professional ethics and codes of conduct.

scholarly journals Exploring the Barriers and Driving Factors in Implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Malaysian Construction Industry: A Preliminary Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahrizan Zakari ◽  
Nasly Mohamed Ali Ali ◽  
Ahmad Tarmizi Haron ◽  
Amanda Marshall Ponting ◽  
Zuhairi Abd. Hamid
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Driving Factors ◽  
Building Information Modelling ◽  
Information Modelling ◽  
Building Information ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Many

In Malaysia, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has recently gained attraction from construction players and some of them have applied it to several projects. By utilising the BIM process, the construction players have the opportunity to plan, coordinate and design in an integrated approach. This is one of the many benefits that they could gain and resulting in increased productivity. Despite these benefits, the implementation of BIM in the Malaysian construction industry is still lagging behind Singapore, for instance. Thus, it warrants a study such as the present to determine what are the actual barriers that hamper its implementation and what are the driving factors that could enhance its pace of implementation in the Malaysian construction industry. In this study, a questionnaire survey based on Convenience Sampling Method was carried out to gather the possible barriers and driving factors for BIM implementation among the Malaysian construction players. Additionally, Relative Importance Indices (RII) were used to analyse the data obtained and to identify those barriers and driving factors for the implementation of BIM in this country. Consequently, results of this study revealed that the main barriers for implementing the BIM are: 1) Lack of knowledge about BIM, 2) Reluctance and/or no insistence shown by the Malaysian construction industry players (Clients, Contractors and Consultants alike) on the use or implementation of BIM. The driving factors, on the other hand, that could lead to the speeding up of the implementation of BIM are: 1) Support and enforcing the implementation of BIM by the Government, 2) promote BIM training program and 3) Initiatives of senior management of the related industry players. In conclusion, for successful wide spread application of BIM in Malaysia, a good push from the government alone is far from enough. All other construction industry players mentioned must assume their roles well in promoting the use of BIM in their construction projects.

scholarly journals Eliciting the Financial Challenges Facing Emerging Contractors in Developing Countries Using the Critical Incident Technique: A Case of South African Construction Industry

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Hove George
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Cash Flow ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Critical Incidents ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Critical Incident Technique ◽  
Tourism And Hospitality ◽  
And Control

The purpose of this paper was to determine the financial critical incidents that are encountered by emerging contractors in the construction industry in Gauteng, South Africa. The methodology of assessment was based on critical incident technique, a qualitative method which has been considered reliable in tourism and hospitality studies. An interview guide which was evaluated in terms of reliability and validity was used to collect critical incidents from the respondents. Based on the interviews conducted, the respondents highlighted twenty eight financial critical incidents perceived to have an impact or impacts on Emerging Contractors’ performance. The incidents identified were the inability of Emerging Contractors to properly manage cash flow, poor budgetary planning and cash flow, poor financial decision making and lack of collateral. In order to improve Emerging Contractors’ performance, executives are required to plan construction projects in order to guide their execution and control. The limitation of the study was that the perceptions drawn were extracted from 12 respondents who represented emerging contractors in Gauteng Province. Therefore, the results of the study cannot be generalised to the entire South Africa construction industry, however they can be used as part of the solution towards Emerging Contractors’ performance.

Evaluate the UK Construction Project Impact and Response Strategies during the Epidemic through Malaysia and China

2020 ◽  
Vol 07 (3&4) ◽  
pp. 17-26
Author(s):  
Abdussalam Shibani ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Experimental Result ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
The Government ◽  
Under Construction ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

2020 is a special year, this year the world’s economy has become extremely unstable because of the arrival of COVID-19. Idiosyncratic shocks have hit the global economy. The stock market has suspended, companies have closed, unemployment has soared, every industry has faced the biggest crisis since the Second World War. The British construction industry is certainly no exception. This time it will be the victim of this epidemic and the financial crisis. Compared with the European and American countries, the impact of the epidemic in Asia (Malaysia and China) is relatively light. The development of the epidemic situation in these countries has been controlled relatively effectively and strictly controlled. They are inextricably linked. However, the impact of construction projects in any area under the epidemic, the countermeasures adopted by the government, the epidemic prevention measures adopted by the company and the risk prevention strategy are very different. Therefore, under different circumstances, whether it is from the construction industry managers themselves or government policymakers, it is essential to apply correct and valid management measures to face the projects under construction under the epidemic actively. Simultaneously, collect statistics from questionnaire surveys of three countries in the region, then get an experimental result. Besides, different countries have different policies and forms of epidemic development. So, this research will summarize the corresponding policies and coping strategies of the project. It based on statistics of Malaysia and Chinese construction Projects, surveys for five projects to make comparisons than do statistics to the survey result.

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