Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

Resolving the delay claims that usually trail delayed completion of construction projects is beset with immense difficulties that often lead to disputes between the parties involved. The research reported in this paper is a part of a wider study aimed at developing a framework for reducing the attendant disputes and aiding cost-efficient dispute resolution. The focus of the part reported here is owner consultants’ perceptions on existing methodologies for analyzing project delay. Based on a survey of U.K. construction consulting organizations, the study examined, among others, the awareness and use of these methodologies, their perceived reliability, expert involvement, and obstacles to their use. The main study findings are: (i) delay analysis is a multidisciplinary task, with the project quantity surveyor often playing the leading role on the owner’s side; (ii) the simpler methodologies are used more often than the complex ones although the former are known to be less reliable than the latter; and (iii) the principal obstacles to the use of the sophisticated methodologies are: lack of adequate project information, the use of programmes not in CPM network form, and poorly updated programmes. It is thus argued that improvement in current programming and record-keeping practices will promote the use of the more reliable methodologies which, in turn, will facilitate smoother resolution of delay claims.

The duration of a construction project is a key factor to consider before starting a new project, as it can determine project success or failure. Despite the high level of uncertainty and risk involved in construction, current construction planning relies on traditional deterministic scheduling methods that cannot clearly ascertain the level of uncertainty involved in a project. This, subsequently, can prolong a project’s duration, particularly when that project is high-rise structural work, which is not yet a common project type in Korea. Indeed, among construction processes, structural work is notable, as it is basically performed outdoors. Thus, no matter how precisely a schedule is developed, such projects can easily fail due to unexpected events that are beyond the planner’s control, such as changes in weather conditions. Therefore, in this study, to cope with the uncertainties involved in high-rise building projects, a probabilistic duration estimation model is developed in which both weather conditions and work cycle time for unit work are considered to predict structural work duration. According to the proposed estimation model, weather variables are divided into two types: weather conditions that result in nonworking days and weather conditions that result in work productivity rate (WPR) change. Obtained from actual previous data, the WPR is used with relevant nonworking day weather conditions to modify the actual number of working days per calendar days. Furthermore, on the basis of previous research results, the cycle time of the unit work area is assumed to follow the $\beta$ probability distribution function. Thus, the probabilistic duration model is valid for 95% probability. Finally, a case study is conducted that confirms the model can be practically used to estimate more reliable and applicable probabilistic durations of structural work. Indeed, this model can assist schedulers and site workers by alerting them, at the beginning of a project, to project uncertainties that specifically pertain to structural work and the weather. Thus, the proposed model can enable personnel to easily amend, and increase the reliability of, the construction schedule at hand.

Currently, there is not an understanding of the project factors having a statistically significant relationship with highway construction duration. Other industry sectors have successfully used statistical regression analysis to identify and model the project parameters related to construction duration. While the need is seen for such work in highway construction, there are very few studies which attempt to identify duration-influential parameters and their relationship with the highway construction duration. The purpose of this work is to describe the highway construction data needed for such a study, identify a data source, collect early-design project data, and prepare the data for statistical regression analysis. The Virginia Department of Transportation is identified as the optimal data source. The data collected include historical contract and project level parameters. To prepare for statistical regression analysis, the contract duration collected is converted to construction duration by a seasonal adjustment process which removes historically typical nonworking days.

Implementation of advanced production management techniques, such as lean construction concepts like filtering of work packages to stabilize work flows, pull flow of teams and materials, and in-process quality control, demands effective and timely flows of information both to and from the workface. The key requirement—making the process state transparent to all participants—is more difficult to achieve in construction than in manufacturing, because work crews move continuously within a physical environment that is itself changing. Novel computer-aided visualization tools can fulfill the needs that simpler tools, such as Kanban cards, fulfill in manufacturing. Two prototypes with user interfaces designed to facilitate process flow have been devised and implemented within the context of building information modeling (BIM) software systems. They demonstrate aspects of the synergy between BIM and lean construction. Given the dynamic and dispersed physical environments and the fractured contracting arrangements typical of construction, BIM-based visualization interfaces are important tools for providing process transparency.

Construction safety and health management has improved significantly following the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. In response to this legislation, contractors began implementing safety programs to reduce occupational safety and health hazards on construction sites. Researchers recently found that the current process of selecting specific elements for a safety program is informal. This paper describes the results of a recent study designed to determine the relative effectiveness of safety program elements by quantifying their individual ability to mitigate construction safety and health risks. In order to determine the effectiveness of individual safety program elements, the following research activities were performed: (1) an appropriate safety risk classification system was created using an aggregation of relevant literature; (2) highly effective safety program elements were identified in literature; and (3) the ability of each safety program element to mitigate a portion of each of the safety risk classes was quantified using the Delphi method. The results of the research indicate that the most effective safety program elements are upper management support and commitment and strategic subcontractor selection and management and the least effective elements are recordkeeping and accident analyses and emergency response planning. It is expected that the data presented in this paper can be used to strategically select elements for a safety program, target specific safety and health risks, and influence resource allocation when funds are limited.

Information technology (IT) change is difficult to implement successfully. Cultural (people) issues are a major barrier to IT implementation in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry and existing change models have limitations, particularly with respect to cultural issues, which directly affect the ability of companies within the AEC industry to successfully implement IT change. This paper discusses research exploring the relationships between a resistance to change index (RTCI) and the demographics of individuals to understand different AEC participants’ resistance to IT change. Identifying individuals that exhibit different intensities of resistance to IT change efforts and their attendant demographics provides benchmark data to organizations. The ability to identify potential resistors is the first step in helping ensure that new technology implementations succeed. Data was collected from a 156-person sample of the AEC population to determine the relationships among different demographic groups within the AEC population and differences in their RTCI. The data analysis found several demographic groups that were different in their likelihood of resistance, including profession, gender, computer understanding and experience, and awareness of past or future changes occurring in their company. Age and education level were expected to have relationships with RTCI, based on industry stereotypes. The data analysis found that these stereotypes have no scientific basis. Two other stereotypes, gender and computer understanding and experience, were supported by the data analysis.

The relationship between psychological empowerment and job performance, and whether three intermediate performance determinants; motivation, ability, and opportunity to perform hold the key to unlocking the empowerment-performance relationship dilemma are addressed. Using hierarchical linear modeling to analyze responses from 380 project management-level staff, the results show that psychological empowerment not only has direct and positive performance consequences, but also indirect effects, mediated by intrinsic motivation, opportunity to perform and ability to perform. The findings provide preliminary evidence in support of a comprehensive model of work performance that takes into consideration not only motivation and ability but opportunity to perform. Indeed, opportunity to perform actually emerged as a stronger mediator in the psychological empowerment-contextual performance behaviors relationship than ability to perform. The findings of both direct and indirect relationships however demonstrate that the relationship between empowerment and performance is more complex than previously thought. Yet, by demonstrating that empowered employees exhibit positive performance behaviors, psychological empowerment clearly emerges as a valuable path for organizations to pursue in their search for performance improvement in project settings.

This research focuses on contracting firms within the construction sector. It characterizes and evaluates the composition of organizational culture using four culture types (clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy), the strategic approach for knowledge flow, and the success of knowledge management (KM) systems at different hierarchical levels of contracting organizations (project and parent organization level). Responses from managers of local or overseas contracting firms operating in Hong Kong were collected using a carefully constructed questionnaire survey that was distributed through electronic mail. The organizational value is analyzed in terms of the four cultural models. Clan culture is found to be the most popular at both project and organization levels, which means that the culture of contracting firms very much depends on honest communication, respect for people, trust, and cohesive relationships. On the other hand, hierarchy culture, which focuses on stability and continuity, and analysis and control, seems to be the least favored at both levels. Another significant finding was that the two main KM strategies for knowledge flow, codification and personalization, were employed at both project and organization levels in equal proportion. This indicates that successful KM efforts at both enterprise levels utilize a hybrid and balanced approach for their knowledge flow, and that they complement each other. The findings also revealed that knowledge management system success factors emphasize the support of the management level. The results show that KM is critical and beneficial as indicated by 64% at the project and 74% at the organization level. The expectation is higher for organizations as they are the organizational memories in which experiences of past projects are archived and connected. Understanding these factors and the relationships among them has been demonstrated to be critical in order to increase the chances of success or to help with making decisions when applying KM.

This paper presents two case studies that were conducted to illustrate the functionality and application of a decision support system for predicting the influence of decisions made by state highway agencies regarding important work zone project variables such as work window, work zone length, lane closure strategy, and contract incentives on the cost, duration, quality, safety, and public satisfaction of a particular project under consideration. The first case study describes in detail the operation and function of the three major levels of the proposed framework using a completed project, whereas the second case study provides an opportunity for the application of the decision support system to a work zone project in the planning stages using the input of the actual decision maker for the project.

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted by researchers at Illinois Institute of Technology under the direction and supervision of the ASCE Committee on Management Practices in Construction to investigate the expectations of the parties involved in the construction process, including designers, owners, general contractors, subcontractors, construction managers, and educators, relative to construction managers’ duties. The findings suggest that while there is some consensus among parties to a construction project relative to CM duties particularly in the construction phase, there is also some disagreement, most of which appear to be between contractors and designers. Most disagreements are related to CM duties performed in the bidding and postconstruction phases of projects.