Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

The Construction Management Framework (CMF) is a contract established by the Highways Agency in the United Kingdom, where collaborative working is used within a framework setting to deliver the best value in highways major renewals and improvements schemes. This research aims to establish the effectiveness of the CMF in achieving this aim. It aims to define best value as it is understood collectively by the participants in the framework, and evaluate the performance measurement used in terms of its relevance and suitability to deliver the best value. The research also looks at perceptions of the performance of the CMF by those companies included in the framework, and the benefits and disadvantages of using this type of arrangement in highway work. Data collected from the client were compared to that given by the contractors, supply chain, and construction managers of the CMF; results showed a perception by those involved in the framework that construction management is suited to the type of work it is currently used for, and there is potential for similar CMFs to be used elsewhere in the construction industry. However, the research also found that there is a need to improve the performance measures so that value is properly reflected in the goals of the CMF; and the presentation of evidence that demonstrates the benefits that can be gained using this procurement route.

This paper describes a new integrated method of linear schedule analysis using singularity functions. These functions have previously been used for structural analysis and are newly applied to scheduling. Linear schedules combine information on time and amount of work for each activity. A general model is presented with which activities and their buffers can be mathematically described in detail. The algorithm of the new method forms the body of the paper, including the steps of setting up initial equations, calculating pairwise differences between them, differentiating these to obtain the location of any minima, and deriving the final equations. The algorithm consolidates the linear schedule under consideration of all constraints and, thus, automatically generates the minimum overall project duration. The model distinguishes time and amount buffers, which bears implications for the definition and derivation of the critical path. Future research work will address float and resource analysis using the new model.

Decision makers and designers have utilized various methods for quantifying the environmental and social impacts of highway projects. However, the definition of these impacts, their costs, and their estimation methods lack interoperability. A schema is proposed to support interoperable documentation of relevant knowledge related to the environmental and social costs (E&S) of highway projects. The schema identifies the E&S impacts associated with each project element, lists possible impacted entities, provides access and description to existing methods to estimate associated E&S costs, and provides links to best practices to mitigate such impacts. The schema was encoded into an extensible markup language. The schema was developed based on a synthesis of the different ways for cost estimation, cost estimates, and best practices for managing the E&S costs of highway construction. The schema was evaluated through interviews with domain experts and through analysis of three representative case studies. An interactive Web site was developed to support project teams establish a unified view of the costs, their estimates, and best practices to control them.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) constitute more than half of the total injuries and illnesses within the construction industry. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of MSD among construction workers and identify the psychosocial and physical risk factors associated with their occurrence using an on-site survey instrument. One hundred forty seven construction workers (representing three trades) participated in the study. The $1\text{-}\text{year}$ prevalence of MSD was high with 61.2% reporting severe symptoms and 39.7% having some functional impairment due to MSD. Physical task requirement was the most important factor associated with MSD reflecting the physical nature of construction work. Economic and performance factors were the most stressful psychosocial factors reported and significantly increased the risk of reporting MSD. The findings of this research underscore the independent role that psychosocial factors play in the health and safety of construction workers. Understanding this role is imperative for practitioners and academics alike in the quest to make construction a safer work environment for all workers.

There have been substantial changes in both material technology and construction productivity over the past several decades. By analyzing the changes in both material technology and productivity among 100 construction activities from 1977 to 2004, this research examines the strength and types of relationships that exist within these two occurrences. Through analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analyses, the researchers found that activities experiencing significant changes in material technology have also experienced substantially greater long-term improvements in both their labor and partial factor productivity. The research did find that a stronger relationship exists between changes in material technology and partial factor productivity than in labor productivity. The research also found that changes in the unit weight of materials had a significant relationship to labor productivity, while changes in installation and modularity had a significant relationship to partial factor productivity. The research findings will help industry practitioners to better understand how they may leverage technology to improve construction productivity, while also helping researchers understand the theoretical relationships between technology and construction productivity.

The aim of strategic group analysis is to determine whether clusters of firms that have a similar strategic position exist within an industry or not. Findings of strategic group analysis may further be used to investigate the performance implications of strategic group membership. The objective of this paper is to identify the possible strategic groups that could exist within the Turkish construction industry by using a theoretical framework applicable for the construction industry and alternative statistical cluster analysis techniques. The achieved results pinpoint the existence of three clusters and significant differences between the performances of firms in each cluster. All of the firms in the strategic group that have the highest average performance utilize a quality differentiation strategy and have the necessary resources and capabilities that give them the opportunity to differentiate their services from others. Also, they use a systematic approach and have a collaborative environment for strategic decision making. Findings of strategic group analysis can be used by professionals to understand the current strategic position of a firm within the competitive environment and formulate strategies to shift to a better performing cluster.

In the price-time biparameter construction bidding system, each contractor submits a bid price and construction time to complete the project, which are then aggregated to a total combined bid (TCB) by the client, and the contractor with the lowest TCB is awarded the project. Since bid price can be set as construction cost plus an appropriate markup and construction cost usually depends on construction time, TCB can be expressed as a function of time. By minimizing such a TCB function, the optimal construction time can be obtained, from which the optimal construction cost and bid price and hence the optimal price-time bidding strategy can be sequentially decided. While examining the whole optimal bidding process, this paper focuses on three aspects to enhance the key ideas: discussing the properties of the general and the quadratic time-cost functions, deducing the optimal bidding formulas with quadratic time-cost relationship, and illustrating the procedures for estimating the quadratic time-cost function using a few experience data and the linear regression method. The in-depth examination of the price-time biparameter bidding model in the paper can suggest ideas and methodologies to construction bidding or contractor selection with more criteria.

Aspiring to adopt a nonstatistical quantitative approach to safety assessment, this study implements a multiattribute decision-making tool to elicit knowledge from experts and formalize it into a set of weighted safety factors. The environment addressed is the construction site and the specific factors studied are those affecting safety due to the operation of tower cranes. Nineteen senior construction equipment and safety experts were interviewed and led through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to provide their assessments on the relative importance of safety factors obtained in an earlier study. The results accentuate the dominance of the crane operator and general superintendent on the site safety scene and play down the contribution of “classic” site hazards such as power lines. Quantitative measuring of safety, such as reflected in the weights obtained in this study, is important in communicating safety requirements and focusing the limited resources available for safety improvements. These factor weights are also deemed to be a vital component in the development of a comprehensive model that will allow the computation of safety indices for individual construction sites employing tower cranes. It is expected that the methodology can then be adopted for addressing other site safety issues as well.

This paper examines the production implications of quality control inspections conducted on the buffer between processes in a construction project by modeling the linkage between these processes. Inspection of partially completed work at the end of one activity but before the beginning of work by the next activity is fairly common. Work that is deemed to be of sufficient quality is then made available for the next activity. Work that is deemed insufficient requires rework, typically by the trade appropriate to the activity that fed into the buffer, to bring the work into compliance. This has implications for workload management for that trade, of course, as well as for the reliability of work flow to the successor or downstream processes. While such situations are common in all construction sectors, an example from the residential construction sector was examined via a simulation model augmented by field data collected from residential construction projects. The impacts of the work flow into the predecessor process, the inspection pass rate, and resource availability were examined. The inspection pass rate was found to dramatically affect the reliability of work flow, unless resources are unlimited. Furthermore, the inspection pass rate was found to be functionally related to the production parameters of the process.

This paper compares the delivery of two retrofit projects where seismic isolation bearings were installed. The comparison is retrospective. The design teams on these projects did not implement “lean” thinking to develop their approach, nevertheless, observed process differences are characterized using a “lean” process evaluation and optimization tool, and then gauged and rationalized from that perspective. Cross-functional process charts identify functional parties with interrelated material or information handoffs. They help to identify (un)necessary steps or complexity as measured by number of handoffs and interacting parties. Analysis of these charts shows that project value may stem from the owner integrating design development with product procurement and construction method selection. On one project, integration was made possible by structural engineers evaluating the impacts of product procurement on overall project performance, expert consultants providing construction process reviews, and experienced contractors participating in installation sequence development. This paper illustrates the value of developing a symbiotic relationship between designers and suppliers in a niche market. It stresses the need for work structuring early on in the delivery process, integrating process with product development, to improve project delivery.