Editor’s Note

“Crane-Related Fatalities in the Construction Industry”: Using case files from fatality investigations from 1997 through 2003, authors Beavers, Moore, Rinehart, and Schriver examine the data to determine the proximal causes and contributing factors to crane-related deaths. The authors then critically evaluate their findings. Suggestions for reducing crane-related fatalities are given in depth and detail.

“Tracking the Location of Materials on Construction Job Sites”: Automated tracking of materials on construction projects has the potential to improve project performance and enable effortless derivation of project performance indicators. Authors Song, Haas, and Caldas present an approach by which materials tagged with radio frequency identification tags can be automatically identified and tracked on construction sites without adding to regular site operations. A mathematical model is formulated to assess the feasibility of the approach. Field experiments are conducted to compare real-world performance with the theoretical performance estimated by the model.

“Intelligent Utility Locating Tool for Excavators”: Currently, backhoe excavator operators have to depend on color-coded markings applied by utility locators to predict the location of utilities buried in the ground. As accidents have proved time and again, this method is unreliable. Kolera and Bernold present the results of work to supply backhoe operators with a device capable of scanning the ground for metallic objects, a last “barricade” against accidents caused by the damage of buried utilities. The authors present the results of extensive laboratory and field tests and comment on the factors that have created insurmountable barriers for transferring the technology to the industry.

“Exploratory Study of Knowledge Sharing in Contracting Companies: A Sociotechnical Perspective”: Not until the twentieth century did people start to realize that knowledge is critical to the success of a company and considered to be the pivotal point for aggressive organizational growth in today’s highly competitive marketplace. To gain a deeper understanding of knowledge sharing at the departmental level in contracting companies, Fong and Chu carry out research with the aims of investigating the main barriers to effective knowledge sharing in the tendering departments of contracting companies in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, as well as discovering the critical factors for and benefits resulting from such knowledge sharing.

“Case-Based Reasoning Model for International Market Selection”: Ozorhon, Dikmen, and Birgonul construct a case-based reasoning decision support tool to demonstrate how experiences of competitors in international markets may be used by contractors to support international market-selection decisions. A total of 215 cases from the Turkish construction industry are used to build the model. The model works to increase the quality of decision-making in construction companies by enhancing and effectively using organizational memory.

“The Limitations of Planning: The Importance of Learning”: Puddicombe explores two facets of the process of knowledge creation and their impact on project outcomes. The first deals with the knowledge that is related to learning about the project. The second deals with the project participants’ learning about one another. The results raise questions related to the efficacy of planning and suggest that the conditions necessary to manage change evolve over the duration of the project.

“Factor Analysis of Public Clients’ Best-Value Objective in Public-Privately Partnered Infrastructure Projects”: Best value is the ultimate goal of the public client in infrastructure development through public-private partnerships. In this paper, Xueqing Zhang determines the major common dimensions of public clients’ best value objective in infrastructure development and the key best-value contributing factors that measure each of these dimensions. Statistical tests are performed to confirm the adequacy and quality of the survey of international public-private partnership experts used to determine the factors and the soundness of the factor analysis and internal consistency of the best-value contributing factors.

“Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for Foreign-Invested Construction Enterprises: A China Study”: Because of China’s recent rapidly growing economy, an increasing number of foreign-invested construction companies are entering China’s construction market. Using Porter’s competitiveness factor-analysis method, Shen, Zhao, and Drew identify the foreign-invested construction companies’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the Chinese construction market. Data used in the analysis stem from multiple sources, including statistical reports, literature review, regulations and policies, and interviews with construction professionals.

“Systems Analysis of Technical Advancement in Earthmoving Equipment”: Tatum, Vortster, Klingler, and Paulson use five systems that make up earthmoving equipment to analyze the technical advancement of earthmoving equipment during the twentieth century. Each system is analyzed according to its purpose and operation, technical limitations and key technologies, and a chronology of major advancements. The findings are the benefits of using the five systems for analysis of technical change, the sequence and timing of key technical advances in each system, the fundamental technologies that fostered these advances, and the integration of systems into balanced equipment designs.

“Innovations in Earthmoving Equipment: New Forms and Their Evolution”: The technological advancement of earthmoving equipment during the twentieth century includes the introduction of at least seven completely new forms. Tatum, Vorster, and Klingler analyze the introduction of five new forms and their subsequent incremental improvement. The description of innovation for each machine includes markets and the state of technology at introduction, differences of the new form, and changes during subsequent development. The major findings from this analysis are the key role of new technology for machine systems in the development of the new forms, the continued importance of each form in earthmoving markets, and the significant continued advancement of the equipment through incremental improvements.

“Contractor Selection Criteria: Investigation of Opinions of Singapore Construction Practitioners”: Sing and Tiong note that the failure of many contractors because of varying reasons—such as financial problems, poor performance, or accidents arising from the lack of adequate safety considerations—have led to the impression that the current system of awarding the contracts is inefficient in selecting the contractor capable of meeting the demands and challenges of present times. The authors conduct a questionnaire survey to draw upon construction practitioners’ opinions regarding the importance of various contractor selection criteria. Findings from the study should help construction clients identify multiple contractor selection criteria apart from cost.

“Experimental Assessment of Wireless Construction Technologies”: Nuntasunti and Bernold present the integrated wireless site concept, which is based on a meshed communication network that not only reaches almost every location of a construction site but also is connected to the World Wide Web. The relevance of this study to both practitioners and researchers is the experimental field data that assert technical feasibility as well as a series of benefits such as reduced non-value-added activities, quick response to safety hazards, and automatic as-built functions for documentation and training.