Lessons Learned Framework for Efficient Delivery of Construction Projects in Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has the largest construction market in the gulf region. Nevertheless, the sector faces issues related to inefficiency and ineffectiveness in project delivery. This research aims to explore the impact of current practices across projects lifecycles, and to utilize findings to develop an integrated strategic construction project management framework (ISCPMF) that may pave the way to efficient and effective project implementation. To achieve this objective, the authors have traced the implementation processes of nine projects for data collection. This was based on a deductive approach with preconceived themes. Within-case and cross-case analysis was conducted. The data was complemented by holding three separate focus-group discussions with a total of nineteen participants, and the initial findings were cross-checked with six experts. The deficiencies that surround the pre-construction phase and disconnected activities that are carried out in different timespans represent the first barrier to implement projects successfully. This is coupled with low capacities contractors and non-proactive construction teams that lack a management toolbox to alleviate accumulated issues and control project progress. The unavailability of infrastructure and utilities did not ease construction nor made inspection possible, which led to late occupancy of facilities, waste of resources and failure to deliver the desired benefits effectively. The adoption of ISCPMF will institutionalize and bridge project phases. This may play a vital role in implementing projects efficiently and effectively and building data to benefit future projects. Though the research is limited to higher education facilities, the findings may be generalized to public construction projects.

Making Sense of Multi-Actor Social Collaboration in Building Information Modelling Level 2 Projects: A Case in Malaysia

Despite the diversity of thinking among the scholars on building information modelling (BIM) collaboration, there is a paucity of studies that capture the dimension of social collaboration in BIM projects. This study attempts to develop a comprehensive understanding on the key attributes of multi-actor social collaboration in BIM projects through the experience of practitioners in BIM-Level 2 construction project. The success of multi-actor social collaboration has been investigated through structured interviews with 22 BIM practitioners in a BIM-Level 2 project based on an established theoretical framework of social collaboration. The findings indicted that relationship-oriented attributes; relational contracts BIM execution plan; guideline, standard and work process manual approaches; employer information requirement (EIR); understanding roles and leadership; commitment from top management; resources; training, team building workshop and awareness program; coordination; and understanding on the theoretical knowledge of BIM are of importance towards multi-actor social BIM collaboration. This study acknowledges that the success of multi-actor social collaboration was influenced by the consolidation of many attributes, and it extends the dominant relationship between related attributes for multi-actor social collaboration based on the "best practice approach", which includes dominant-centric attributes (i.e., behaviour formation, procurement model and support principles). This research contributes to the body of BIM knowledge in the construction domain by focusing on what it takes to achieve greater social collaboration in BIM Level 2 projects.

Understanding the Performance of Construction Business: A Simulation-Based Experimental Study

Higher failure rates of construction business have been observed as a recurring phenomenon in the construction industry. This research focuses on the causes behind a range of performance modes of construction business. The growth and capacity under-investment archetype has been used as the main systems archetype to develop a causal structure for understanding the business performance. A system dynamics model was developed to create a simulation platform for the causal structure. A context of a typical small and medium construction company has been used in the simulation model. This research considered and experimented with a set of selected managerial policies and practices that can lead the construction business to failure, sustenance, or growth. In order to achieve the expected growth or sustenance, it is found that a certain level of balance needs to be secured on how much emphasis is to be given to win new projects, how much profit margins to work with, and how much capacities to be arranged and deployed for project operations, management, and execution.

Women Workforce in Construction during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Strategies

Changes and challenges in employment are inevitable under the measures enacted to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Early evidence suggests that the pandemic would disproportionately affect women compared to men. Focussing on women workforce in construction, this exploratory study examines the challenges associated with changes in their job situations, the adopted strategies in addressing the challenges and their opinions on employment situation of women workforce during the pandemic. Results of a content analysis show that the top ranked challenges are: (i) overworked; (ii) working space; (iii) social interactions; (iv) collaboration; and (v) parenting. The most cited strategies in addressing these challenges are: (i) increased visual communication; (ii) a dedicated workspace; (iii) self-scheduling; (iv) flexible working arrangements; and (v) breaking out work time and personal time. The evidence is suggestive that most challenges are interrelated, and the strategies adopted by the respondents are multi-level and interdependent. The results also show that the most mentioned opinion is the increased caring and domestic responsibilities among women workforce. Under the uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic and future contagion waves, these findings are critical in informing employing organizations’ human resource management challenges to better support their female employees during pandemic time and beyond.

Role Conflict Related Job Stress among Construction Project Professionals: The Moderating Role of Age and Organization Tenure

Demographic variables play a vital role in determining stress occurring from workplace demands. Role conflict is a major workplace demand, specifically in the context of construction. However, the way demographic variables influence the stress occurring from role conflict is less explored in the literature. Specifically, the literature does not fully explain the positioning of age and organization tenure on the relationship between role conflict and job stress. Hence, the present study evaluates the moderating role of age and organization tenure on the relationship between role conflict and job stress. A survey was conducted by distributing the questionnaire directly to randomly selected project-level employees of ten large private contractors in Sri Lanka. A total of 274 valid respondents were collected and used to run a factor analysis validated hierarchical regression analysis to assess the research hypotheses. The results showed that role conflict has a positive direct effect on job stress. The findings further revealed that the impact of role conflict on job stress is high for young employees in the construction industry, as young employees do not possess the necessary life skills or experience to cope with role conflict. Contrary to the authors’ expectations, there is no significant contribution from organization tenure to the relationship of role conflict and job stress. Since the young employees are more vulnerable to role conflict, special considerations should be given to improve the well-being of the young workforce. Hence, it is recommended that contractors should assign seasoned supervisors who can nurture the young employees and act as mentors. The supervisors should give clear instructions and inform what the young subordinates need to do when confronted with non-overlapping requests or orders from the other parties involved in the project. Besides, organizations must conduct periodic conflict management and resolution training programs to help the employees cope with the conflicts that occur in the workplace, which is the path to lessen the impact of role conflict as organization tenure accumulates.

Evaluation of Transportation Infrastructure: A Case Study of Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 1&2

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there has been increased reliance on new infrastructure projects to counter economic fallout and underpin employment security. Urban and inter-urban transportation projects, such as major road, rail and port facilities, are popular choices for national and state governments in Australia as they provide broad fiscal support across all sectors of the economy. The problem with stimulus is making sure that the quality of the new infrastructure provides collective utility to a community or region. Whether the benefits will be worthwhile and represent best use of resource inputs requires financial, social, ethical and environmental consequences to be evaluated in a comparable format. The aim in this paper is to analyse the Gold Coast Light Rail (GCLR) Stage 1&2 project using a method that is capable of merging tangible and intangible criteria using an ordinal ranking algorithm. While the GCLR case study is undertaken with the benefit of hindsight, normally these types of evaluations are performed in real time as a project progresses from initiation (design) to implementation (deliver) and influence (delight). The method adopted in this study represents a modern form of multi-criteria decision-making, which enables successful projects to be distinguished from unsuccessful ones using a time period from commencement until one full year of operation has occurred. The i3d3 model, developed by a team from Bond University, has the unique benefit of ranking projects from best to worst across an organisational portfolio, geographic region or industry sector. It also supports past project performance to inform new design through application of a continuous improvement process of recording lessons learned. The GCLR case study calculated 100% of the critical success factors in the model to be positive and produced an overall success ranking of 23 (on a scale of -100 to +100). This paper presents the approach taken to evaluate GCLR’s level of success and the calculations that took place to reach this finding. This is the first time i3d3 has been used on an Australian project.

Evaluating the Efficacy of a Dedicated Last Planner® System Facilitator to Enhance Construction Productivity

Construction unknowingly plans for poor levels of productivity with substantial waste, inefficiency, and rework stemming from a proliferation of non-value-adding activities embedded within traditional delivery processes. This approach negatively influences construction’s economic and environmental sustainability. Last Planner® System (LPS) is a key tool of Lean Construction (LC) and is lauded as a value-add process that prioritises flow efficiency by addressing workflow variability and waste elimination on construction projects. This research evaluates how the presence of a dedicated knowledgeable and competent LPS Facilitator, enabling a complete LPS implementation, contributes to improved construction flow, efficiency, and productivity. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach utilising case study design and data collected from a literature review, site observation diary, site documentation analysis, and semi-structured interviews. Limitations exist around small survey size, lack of generalisability, and potential bias of researchers. Findings posit considerable productivity increase; more reliable, predictable, and stable workflow; enhanced team collaboration; as well as accrual of safety, quality, cost, and schedule benefits. Embedding a knowledgeable and competent LPS Facilitator appears to assist successful implementation of LPS with sectoral and societal value-add opportunities.

The Impact of Construction Labour Productivity on the Renovation Wave

The European Green Deal's Renovation Wave aims to renovate 35 million energy-inefficient buildings to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Historically, efforts to reduce CO2 emissions focused on Operational Energy (OE) of the finished buildings. However, in recent years the Embodied Energy (EE) of the building’s construction process has gained attention because of its essential role in construction renovations projects. In this context, construction efficiency, and more precisely, workers’ efficiency, is a vital catalyst to achieve the European Union (EU) targets. To identify the impact of Construction Labour Productivity (CLP) on the renovation wave an exploratory case study was adopted as a research strategy. Data from four domestic housing renovation projects were gathered. Three specific research goals are outlined. The first is to demonstrate the effect of the adoption of Lean tools and methods to increase CLP. The second is to quantify the correlation between improved productivity and the EE emissions saved during the construction phase. The third goal is to estimate the effect the higher productivity has on OE emissions. The results show that the adoption of several Lean tools and methods has a potential to improve CLP to 45%. This rate of improvement for the 35 million housing units to be renovated could save 6.9 million tonnes CO2e from EE and 386 million tonnes CO2e from OE. This novelty link between process improvements and reduced energy consumption and emissions can support politicians and infrastructural developers in decision-making for a more sustainable construction industry.

Development of Lean Approaching Sustainability Tools (LAST) Matrix for Achieving Integrated Lean and Sustainable Construction

Challenges exist across the three dimensions of construction sustainability (economic; social and environmental) due to low productivity, waste, safety, and environmental hazards attributed to existing construction management practices. Lean construction (LC) has been widely accepted as a robust philosophy to enable sustainable construction (SC) practices. However, the existing literature is more inclined toward defining the integration between LC and sustainability through LC practices and techniques. Little research tackles the challenges of achieving sustainable goals within the current practices. Therefore, this paper aims to present a strategy that can help the construction industry overcome the challenges of SC in the traditional construction management practice by using LC. The challenges of SC are identified through a systematic literature review approach with metadata analysis. Compared with LC principles, tools and techniques, the strategy focused on identifying (1) the power and potential of LC principles and (2) the best LC practices/techniques that help in overcoming these SC challenges. The study results showed 20 out of 32 challenges identified can be overcome by using LC integrated with SC. Finally, a Lean Approaching Sustainability Tools (LAST) matrix is developed to provide guidelines to the construction stakeholders for the selection of LC practices/tools/techniques in overcoming the top 15 most important challenges.