Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

The successful globalization of enterprises is predicated on them finding the right balance between retaining the core competitive advantages of home-grown strengths while integrating the best of locally sourced resources and competitive circumstances to leverage those core competencies to maximum strategic effectiveness. Despite the great academic interest that exists in this research area, no comprehensive investigation has been attempted to profile the localization practices of construction enterprises in a foreign context. This deficit is addressed in this study with an investigation of the degree to which foreign firms active in the Chinese construction market have adapted their business activities in response to local circumstances. Five localization parameters are considered: (1) client base, (2) human resources, (3) factor inputs, (4) value chain, and (5) new capability acquisition. Sixty foreign firms active within the Chinese construction market were investigated. Cluster analysis techniques were used to identify generic localization patterns. Five major patterns of foreign firm localization and five minor patterns were generated, which provide a better understanding of localization activities of international construction companies. Clear and strong trends are evident within the 10 localization cluster patterns. The uncovered localization patterns offer important insights to construction industry practitioners, particularly emerging market entrants, in formulating or reviewing their foreign market entry strategies, in addition to significant data against which researchers may explore the validity of extant theories of localization.

The concept-mapping method has enabled research advances in medicine and psychology. This method also seems well suited for many of the questions facing construction researchers, but its use remains limited in construction research. Concept mapping helps solicit and organize ideas from experts and stakeholders. This method can be used to categorize results into various clusters that may have competing explanations or backgrounds. It also allows for comparing results among group of participants. This method integrates qualitative group tasks of idea generation, sorting, and rating with two quantitative analyses, multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis. One of the relevant findings of using these analyses is the creation of visual maps, which can help develop action plans and frameworks. This paper is meant as a guide for applying the concept-mapping method to construction research. Although examples for using this method in construction engineering and management are presented in this paper on the basis of the development of a sustainability framework, the emphasis is on general principles to show how various construction research topics could be explored by using this method.

It is well established that the project cost, quality, safety, and duration are the four critical elements that contribute to project success. Past literature has established theoretical relationships between construction safety and quality on the basis of opinions of industry experts. This is the first empirical inquiry into the relationship between safety and quality, testing the null hypothesis that there is no statistical relationship among quality performance indicators and safety performance indicators. To test this hypothesis, empirical data were collected from 32 building construction projects, ranging in scope from $50,000 to $300 million dollars. Several quality metrics (e.g., cost of rework per $1M project scope and rate of rework per 200,000 worker-hours) were used as predictor variables and first aid and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable injury rates were used as response variables. Linear regressions among the predictor and response variables showed that there are two statistically significant relationships: the OSHA recordable injury rate is positively correlated to rework ($r^2=0.968$; $p\text{-}\mathrm{value}=0.032$) and the first aid rate is positively correlated to number of defects ($r^2=0.548$; $p\text{-}\mathrm{value}=0.009$). To understand why these relationships exist and to identify specific strategies that promote both safety and quality, open-ended interviews were conducted with project managers. These individuals indicated that the most compelling reason for the strong positive correlation between rework and injuries is the fact that rework involves demolition, schedule pressure, and unstable work processes. They also noted that devoting resources to preplanning, allowing the necessary time to complete tasks correctly the first time, encouraging leadership at the workface, and encouraging workers to take pride in their work are all strategies that promote both safety and quality.

In management literature, a fundamental research question is why some companies succeed while others fail. The contingency-based approach proposes that organizational performance is a consequence of the fit between a set of contingencies, e.g., structure, people, technology, strategy, and culture. This approach has been adopted implicitly and increasingly by construction management (CM) researchers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of contingency thinking, theoretical and analytical issues of its application, and the measurement of firm performance in the empirical research in construction. After reviewing the literature of firm performance research approaches in construction, firm performance measurement in the empirical research, and contingency theory, a total of 36 empirical papers addressing firm performance in construction are reviewed in-depth and their content is analyzed. These papers are selected from four leading journals in construction: ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (JCEM), ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering (JME), Construction Management and Economics (CME), and International Journal of Project Management (IJPM). The review reveals that the contingency-based approach is increasingly visible in the CM literature. However, no research makes it explicit, and some methodological issues of applying contingency theory have not been recorded and discussed explicitly to validate and interpret the research result, such as hypotheses development, multicollinearity, construct validation, and reliability. These issues largely undermine the validity of the body of knowledge accumulated from these empirical studies. The review further shows 36 performance indicators that are used to measure firm performance in these papers, e.g., profitability, the overall performance, growth in contract awards, and the iron triangle of project outcomes, whereas limited attention is paid by CM researchers to understanding what firm performance is and how it can be properly measured in the empirical research. Some suggestions are proposed for applying the contingency-based approach and improving the quality of the empirical research in construction. The main contribution of this paper is that it drastically appeals more theoretical and methodological concerns in organizational studies that apply the contingency-based approach. It also explicitly presents some valuable implications of measuring firm performance for both researchers and practitioners.

Within construction trades, there is a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and work clothing specifically designed and manufactured for women. This was a mixed methods study designed to investigate the use of PPE and work clothing among tradeswomen and to examine attributes significantly related to PPE/work clothing satisfaction using the Functional-Expressive-Aesthetic (FEA) consumer needs model. In addition, the relationship between PPE/work clothing, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction were quantitatively analyzed. The findings of this study suggest the common phrase “dress for success” applies beyond white-collar workers. The data showed clear connections between satisfaction of PPE and work clothing, self-efficacy, and overall satisfaction of trades work. Although it is a leap to imply properly fitting PPE can improve the statistics of job retention for tradeswomen, this research indicates it is logical to suggest wearing proper PPE and work clothing creates a more positive work experience for women within the building trades. This study provides empirical evidence of steps employers can take (namely, providing proper PPE and work clothing for women on site) to improve the job satisfaction of a diversifying workforce.

The construction industry has experienced a great deal of safety improvement after the Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. In the last twenty years, improvements have been made largely due to safety interventions that exceed compliance with government regulations. Researchers have long attempted to identify the most effective safety programs. However, studies in the past focused only on a small subset of potential injury-prevention options. In addition, to date, there has yet to be a study that documents a comprehensive list of safety strategies implemented by industry-leading companies. This research addresses this knowledge gap by creating a comprehensive list of construction-safety strategies from relevant literature and supplementing it with input from an expert panel. Once the strategies were identified ($n=104$), the research team conducted interviews with representatives from 57 projects in the United States to determine which strategies were implemented on each project and the project’s recordable injury rate (RIR). The data were then analyzed to determine the total proportion of potential strategies implemented and examine the relationship between each strategy and the RIR. The results reveal that 14 strategies differentiate safety performance ($P>0.05$) and that 22 strategies were implemented by 100% of the sample projects. The implications are that the 22 practices implemented in all projects can now be considered a foundation of a safety program, and the 14 differentiators are the keys to improved safety performance.

The choice of construction delivery system is one of the most important decisions that a public highway agency will make with regard to a highway, bridge, or transit construction project. Although several research projects have been conducted on the subject of comparing costs and project duration, there has been no study that statistically analyzes these factors specifically for transportation projects, much less one that eliminates the largest variable of all: different public agencies. The objective of the research reported in this paper was to determine which of two delivery methods, design-bid-build (DBB) and design-build (DB), delivers highway and bridge construction projects at the lowest cost and in the shortest time period, and to back up the findings with a rigorous statistical analysis of the data. Data were taken from the databases of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and arithmetically and statistically compared through Levene’s test, the independent samples t-test, the Welch unequal variances t-test, and the Mann-Whitney $U$ test. In fact, this paper’s unique contribution is its rigorous statistical analysis of data gathered directly from FDOT, comparing the performance of the two delivery systems in Florida over a finite period of time. In this comparison, DBB projects performed significantly better in terms of cost according to all statistical and arithmetic tests. DBB projects did not compare as favorably in terms of duration. Some tests showed a statistically insignificant advantage to the use of DB over DBB, whereas other tests showed no difference between the two. Other public agencies can replicate the research and determine whether the same findings hold true in their situation.

For this research, a time buffer is defined as the extra time added during planning to individual task durations to compensate for uncertainty and protect against workflow variation to assure a predictable hand-off to subsequent crews. Although previous research has acknowledged this addition of time buffers, their use in practice has not been studied. This paper reports on what causes people to add and size time buffers. A nationwide survey was administered to project managers, superintendents, and foremen to identify the most frequent and severe reasons for adding time buffers to construction task durations. Forty-seven buffer factors were grouped into nine categories: project characteristics, prerequisite work, detailed design/working method, labor force, tools and equipment, material and components, work/jobsite conditions, management/supervision/information flow, and weather. Contributions to the body of knowledge include (1) identifying the 12 most frequent and severe causes of time buffer; (2) analyzing (understanding) how buffers are viewed differently by foremen, superintendents, and project managers, between trades and between general contractors and subcontractors, and the perception among different levels of experience; and (3) investigating how companies that do not regularly use the Last Planner System and those that do view those factors differently. Additionally, the research quantitatively developed risk profiles of the buffer factors through an integrated risk assessment approach. Understanding the application of time buffers and their associated frequency and severity will help construction managers address potential problem areas and inefficiencies in a prioritized manner.

The North American construction industry has seen a decline in productivity for decades due to various reasons, including a lack of collaboration and the increase in the complexity of systems. These problems are most visible in labor-intensive trades, such as mechanical and electrical construction. Within the last decade, building information modeling (BIM) has emerged as a potential solution to these problems. This paper attempts to highlight the state of practice of BIM in the mechanical and electrical industries. By analyzing responses from an extensive survey and interview process, this paper reaches three key conclusions, namely, (1) 59% of mechanical and electrical contractors that use BIM have 3 years or less of BIM experience; (2) contractors should use one to three BIM staff members and add 1–2% of total project-cost estimates to account for BIM implementation; and (3) more than 70% of mechanical and electrical contractors that have used BIM agree that BIM reduces field conflicts and improves coordination. These findings can help mechanical and electrical construction firms understand the evolving use of BIM and allocate resources appropriately.

When constructing and updating the built environment, ensuring the safety of all parties involved is of utmost importance. Traditionally, safety has been measured and managed reactively, where actions are taken in response to adverse trends in injuries. Alternatively, safety-related practices can be measured during the construction phase to trigger positive responses before an injury occurs. Despite the potential benefits of such strategies, few have been identified in the literature and there has yet to be an organized effort to codify and investigate these methods. A mixed-methods research approach was used to (1) clearly identify and define elements of the safety management process that can be measured and monitored during the construction phase, (2) describe resource requirements for measurement, monitoring, and response, and (3) describe specific management actions required when any indicator fails to satisfy a desired value. To produce internally and externally valid and reliable results, data were triangulated from case studies, content analysis of award-winning projects, and focused discussions among construction safety experts. In total, over 50 proactive metrics were identified, 13 of which were selected as top priority by expert professionals. Use of these indicators has been connected to exceptional safety performance in industry-leading organizations. The implication of the findings is that very strong safety outcomes can be expected if contractors build upon a robust safety management foundation with the use of these methods of project safety control.

At present, industrial projects are constructed primarily using a prefabricated approach. The modules are produced in an off-site facility and transported on transport trailers to the construction site where they are lifted by mobile cranes. One of the keys to the success of modular industrial projects is efficient crane planning, which includes path checking to find whether or not a crane has a feasible path through which to lift a module over obstructions in a congested plant. However, due to the large number of lifts, the manual path-checking practice is quite tedious and prone to error. In light of this problem, this paper proposes a methodology for automatically checking the lift paths for industrial projects. The proposed methodology simplifies and represents the three-dimensional site layout using project elevations. For each elevation, the crane feasible operation range (CFOR) is calculated based on the crane’s capacity and clearances, as well as site constraints. The pick area (PA) is calculated by subtracting the ground obstruction areas from the CFOR. The relative positions of the module’s set point, the CFOR, and the PA are checked to determine the feasibility of the lift path on each elevation, as well as the project elevation combination. This approach has been fully automated for path checking of entire sites, and the results are responsive to site changes over time as a project progresses. This proposed methodology is generic and thus can be easily applied to check lift paths for entire industrial plants or similar projects.

The customization of apartments can add value and increase clients’ satisfaction. However, companies offering such a strategy often face problems in managing the construction process. Delayed product differentiation—postponing the tasks that customize a product as much as possible—is a principle applied in manufacturing that enables companies to better cope with customization. Yet, it has not been widely explored in the building industry. This paper proposes a method to implement this principle in the construction of high-rise apartment building projects using the line-of-balance technique. First, the method is described, followed by its application in a project developed by a construction company. A comparison between the long-term plan devised using the proposed method and the initial plan shows a postponement of the decoupling point (namely, the first task that customizes an apartment) of approximately 42 weeks. At the end, the potential benefits and difficulties in creating such postponement and adopting the proposed method are discussed.

A proper installation of construction materials is crucial for its performance. Therefore, inspections in building construction have vital importance and are needed to verify that work considered critical to life, public safety, and property protection is being or has been performed according to the approved plans and specifications. Although inspections are required by the legally adopted building codes at certain stages, some building construction activities demand closer scrutiny. This additional level of surveillance is known as special inspection. Installation of adhesive anchors is one of the construction activities that require special inspection. This paper briefly explains the recent revisions to the inspection requirements of postinstalled adhesive anchors in accordance with the American Concrete Institute standard, which is referenced by the 2012 International Building Code, discusses the discrepancies occurring between the two documents, and recommends solutions to allow proper inspections to proceed.

Previous surveys on document management (DM) have focused on certain aspects such as the adoption of electronic methods by construction firms and the important features of electronic document management systems. This study presents the results of a survey of practitioners on various aspects of DM, including document storage, classification, search, and transmittal. The survey aims to identify practices that are implemented in large firms in the industry and the opinions of practitioners regarding such practices. Statistical models were used to map the relations between DM practices, characteristics of firms, and opinions of practitioners. The results indicate elaborate interactions between the different components, in which traditional and advanced methods are used simultaneously. The metadata approach for organizing documents is dominant; however, the use of text content is also common, especially for document search and retrieval. The results are considered to be a snapshot to benchmark the development of practices and opinions over time. They serve researchers and developers by identifying deficiencies in current practices and highlighting important issues from the perspective of industry practitioners. They serve practitioners by offering a picture of how other top industry firms operate when managing construction project documents.

It is important to understand how contemporary organizational structures and behaviors might affect the ability of construction companies to expand into new project types. An attempt is made to develop this understanding by exploring the engineering and construction activities associated with a fairly new, but rapidly growing, project type: large-scale photovoltaic systems, focusing on considerations related to electrical wiring. Drawing from direct involvement and structured observation of over 50 large-scale, U.S.-based photovoltaic projects, it is illustrated how business processes that have negatively impacted conventional projects—such as commercial buildings—also limit productivity and innovation in these new project types. It is asserted that this is a direct result of trained incapacities and other suboptimal organizational constructs that restrict behavioral adaptation toward new projects.

Although the repetitive scheduling method (RSM) is more visual and straightforward and is easier to use, the network model is more commonly accepted by both owners and contractors as a means for modeling repetitive projects. In this paper, a method for converting an RSM into an equivalent network model is proposed, and the cause of differing makespans and critical paths in the relevant literature is examined. Using the proposed method for converting an RSM into a network model enables the transfer of both resource continuity requirements and distance constraints. For three different distinguishing cases, a comparison of critical paths and activity criticality is made between an RSM and a network model, with the results showing that the RSM coincides completely with the network in terms of the makespan, critical path, and activity criticality. From this comparison, variances in makespan and criticality in existing literature are caused by the conversion of backward-controlling RSM segments containing two or more subactivities, without maintaining resource continuity. This paper can help researchers to better understand the relationship between these two methodologies. It offers practitioners a method for easily and accurately converting an RSM to a network model when contractually required, and practitioners can accrue the benefits of both methodologies.