Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

Current acceptance sampling plans for highway construction and materials require the sampling and testing of every individual lot (i.e., 100% of the lots are inspected). This approach is appropriate if the contractor is erratic. However, if the contractor is fairly consistent, skip-lot sampling suggests that only a fraction of the lots need to be tested. This paper presents an algorithm for developing skip-lot sampling plans for highway construction and materials acceptance. A skip-lot acceptance sampling plan has been developed and compared with AASHTO’s lot-by-lot acceptance plan. The analysis shows that skip-lot sampling reduces the amount of acceptance sampling and testing when the contractor has a history of delivering high-quality product. Rather than simply testing every lot for every acceptance quality characteristic, highway agencies can use skip-lot sampling to develop knowledge-based acceptance plans.

The cooperation construct in construction lacks conceptual-definitional clarity. A multidimensional model of cooperation is proposed in which the construct is conceptualized as comprising four related yet conceptually distinct behaviors: in-role, extrarole, compliance, and deference behavior. The construct validity of this model is assessed using confirmatory factor analysis and a sample of 140 professional managers in Hong Kong. Structural equation modeling is then used to test specific predictions linking the four cooperative behaviors with two extrinsic (incentives and sanctions) and intrinsic (intrinsic job satisfaction and legitimacy) job cognition variables. Findings confirm the convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity of the proposed model. Between them, the two intrinsic job cognition variables predict all four behavior dimensions: intrinsic job satisfaction predicts in-role and extrarole behaviors; and legitimacy predicts compliance and deference behaviors. In contrast, the influence of the extrinsic job cognition variables on cooperative behavior is imprecise and weaker. The research suggests that initiatives aimed at improving the level of cooperation in construction project settings should focus more attention on stimulating the internal motivations (enhancing personal causality) of project actors.

Construction labor productivity has become such a buzz word and one of the most frequently researched topics. In most countries, labor cost comprises 30 to 50% of the overall project’s cost, and thus is regarded as a true reflection of the economic success of the operation. There are many challenges facing the construction industry in the state of Kuwait but one of the most important is low productivity. The objective of this research, therefore, is to identify and rank the relative importance of factors perceived to affect labor productivity on construction sites in Kuwait. To achieve this objective, a statistically representative sample of contractors was invited to participate in a structured questionnaire survey, comprising 45 productivity factors, classified under the following four primary groups: (1) management; (2) technological; (3) human/labor; and (4) external. Among the factors explored, the subsequent 10 are discerned to be the most significant in their effects on labor productivity: (1) clarity of technical specifications; (2) the extent of variation/change orders during execution; (3) coordination level among design disciplines; (4) lack of labor supervision; (5) proportion of work subcontracted; (6) design complexity level; (7) lack of incentive scheme; (8) lack of construction manager’s leadership; (9) stringent inspection by the engineer; and (10) delay in responding to requests for information. The results obtained fill a gap in knowledge of factors affecting labor productivity in Kuwait, which can be used by industry practitioners to develop a wider and deeper perspective of the factors influencing the efficiency of operatives and provide guidance to construction managers for efficient utilization of the labor force, hence assist in achieving a reasonable level of competitiveness and cost-effective operation.

Interorganizational trust is important, especially in an industry characterized by constantly changing combinations of organizations working on temporary projects, as in the construction industry. However, little is known about the factors influencing trust in this setting. This study aims to begin to fill that gap by studying trust in their counterparts, as expressed by principals and contractors engaged in construction projects. The findings show that the temporal embeddedness of the relationship (past and expected future relationships) is strongly positively related to the level of trust. Moreover, this study finds that the tendering procedure used and the delivery system employed influence the level of trust of the contractor but not that of the principal. Practical implications and suggestions for further research are drawn from these results.

Formwork systems have a considerable share in building construction costs. Accordingly, selecting an appropriate formwork system that respects project individualities plays an important yet challenging role in achieving significant cost savings. In Egypt, current practice in formwork selection primarily uses the subjective decisions of site engineers. This paper presents a fuzzy logic-based model that supports decision makers in selecting the appropriate vertical formwork system for projects. Ten commercial vertical formwork systems commonly used in Egypt are identified with the most important factors affecting their selection. The data were tabulated to serve as a knowledge-based system (KBS) to guide site engineers in selection. On the basis of the KBS, a fuzzy logic model with five input variables, representing the governing factors, is then developed to automate the selection process. The model is tested by applying it on a real-life case study. Results are acceptable and show a promising role for fuzzy logic in formwork selection.

Value engineering (VE) is an effort to increase the value of a system through a creative and organized approach. Idea generation is the most important part in a VE job plan. Although the experts in a VE team can evaluate multiple alternatives that can replace the original idea, idea generation is usually on the basis of their knowledge and experience. A structured method will help to consider different functional perspectives and to create inventive ideas that could have been missed otherwise. This paper presents a construction value engineering inventive idea support (CVE-IIS) tool for structured idea generation in construction VE. In this study, previous VE reports were analyzed to understand the pattern of proposed ideas in highway construction design. These ideas were categorized according to the rules of advanced systematic inventive thinking (ASIT) to establish an idea breakdown structure (IBS). The IBS was then used to support the generation of construction ideas using idea-generation worksheets. A case study demonstrated that the CVE-IIS can help improve the value of design functions by improving performance.

In this study we propose a threshold accepting based hyperheuristic for solving in a single run both the resource-constrained project scheduling problem or resource allocation, and the resource leveling problem. Having their roots in the field of artificial intelligence, hyperheuristics operate in the “low-level” heuristics domain rather than in the solutions domain. The hyperheuristic has been implemented within a commercial project management software package. Low-level heuristics operate on the solution domain defined by the priority values that the software uses for resource allocation. A case example from the literature and computational experiments on randomly generated projects demonstrate that the hyperheuristic achieves good performance in a timely manner, improving the results provided by the software.

Performance measurement is essential to controlling and improving capital projects. Increasingly, industry sectors demand an industry-specific performance measurement system because their unique processes can result in significant differences in performance outcomes. This paper presents the development of a performance dashboard for a pharmaceutical project benchmarking program. The proposed approach adopts a relative comparison method and uses weighted key performance indicators (KPIs) to compare project performance. The dashboard generates an overall performance score both at the project level and at the company level, as shown in tabular and graphical formats. The dashboard provides flexibility for comparing the performance of projects even when the project types or KPIs are different. Although the study focuses on a performance dashboard for pharmaceutical industry projects, the dashboard development process described in this paper can be applied to other industry projects.

Repair, maintenance, minor alteration, and addition work (RMAA) has become more and more important in developed societies, but its safety performance is alarming. For example, RMAA projects accounted for 53.2% of the total construction market and the percentage of RMAA accidents to all construction accidents in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) increased considerably in 2007. The RMAA sector has a huge potential for safety improvement. This study aims to explore and evaluate the difficulties of implementing safety practices in RMAA work. The mixed methods approach was adopted, and semistructured interviews and a two-round Delphi survey were conducted for the data collection. Major difficulties were identified, including limited safety resources for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), difficulty in changing the mindset of RMAA workers, and difficulty in performing safety supervision. These obstacles for implementing safety practices in the RMAA sector, if successfully removed, could significantly improve the safety performance of the RMAA sector and the construction industry as a whole.

Infrastructure organizations are operating in an increasingly challenging business environment as a result of globalization, privatization, and deregulation. In an external business environment that is constantly changing, the extant literature on strategic management advocates the need to focus on factors internal to organizations such as resources and capabilities to sustain their performance. Specifically, they need to develop dynamic capabilities to survive and prosper under conditions of change. The aim of this paper is to explore the dynamic capabilities needed in the management of transport infrastructure assets by using a multiple case study research strategy. It identifies five dynamic capabilities–stakeholder connectivity, cross-functional, relational, technology absorptive, and integrated information capability–as being central to strategic infrastructure asset management. The findings culminate in the development of a capability model to improve the performance of infrastructure assets in an increasingly dynamic business environment.

As the heights of high-rise buildings increase, their building area and elevation area also increase, consequently increasing their yearly energy consumption. Energy efficiency has become an even more important issue, especially when glass is used for a building’s exterior. In this study, the life-cycle cost (LCC) of the exterior glass of high-rise buildings was analyzed from the perspective of energy efficiency and ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ emissions. First, the LCC was analyzed according to changes in the selected types of glass. Reflective + Low-E (Type 1), double Low-E + Argon (Type 2), and triple Low-E + Argon (Type 3), which satisfy green building certification criteria and were used in the past for high-rise buildings in Korea, were selected as the exterior glass types. These types of exterior glass were applied to a case building and compared with the Low-E glass that was the existing glass type of a case building. The economic benefit of selected glasses for 40 years was greater in the order of Type 1, Type 3, and Type 2 compared to the existing glass. Second, these types of glass were applied to each orientation of the building. By changing the glass according to building orientation it is shown that in the east, west, and north, Type 1 was most economical, whereas Type 3 was most economical in the south. The results of this study will contribute to the improvement of energy efficiency, ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ emissions reduction, and cost efficiency of future high-rise buildings.

Unnecessary material transportation accounts for a significant portion of nonproductive work. Previous research has paid much attention to site-level transportation but little attention to floor-level transportation. This is because the distance of floor-level material transportation is relatively small compared to that at the site-level. With an increase in the size, height, and complexity of building projects, the impact of floor-level transportation on worker productivity and project performance has significantly increased. This paper introduces a floor-level construction material layout planning model which can represent (1) Various shapes of an installation task and (2) actual travel distance, both of which are necessary for a realistic representation of floor-level material transportation. Applied to a high-rise residential apartment project, the model has proven to be effective in minimizing travel distance and travel time. On the basis of this finding, this paper concludes that the model has great potential as an aid for reducing nonproductive work and ultimately enhancing project performance.