Complexity Factors In Mega Projects: A Literature Review

Evaluation of complexity is of considerable importance for project managers in mega projects. Project managers faced with complexities that have not worked so far and are new to their kind. While as for the complexity of project, there is still a lack of complete understanding of the complexity concept among practitioners in the industry as well as in project management body of knowledge. In this regard, the traditional project management principles and practices are not capable of controlling emerging complexities in mega projects. Undoubtedly one of the key factors for success in mega projects is knowledge of project managers about overall complexities and contributing factors on complexities. As the main approach of this paper is overview the factors of complexity in mega projects, a systematic literature review analysis on complexity features in mega projects achieved by examining over one hundred and fifty published research papers during the period of 2012–2019. As a result of this exploration, the research highlighted three (3) dimensions (Environmental, Technological, and Organizational) and over seventy-three factors of complexity in mega projects from the extent literature. The research findings help scholars and practitioners in the project management field developing the perception of complexities in managing mega projects effectively

What are the strategies to manage megaproject supply chains? A systematic literature review and research agenda

This systematic literature review explores strategies to manage complex supply chains in megaprojects, connecting project management and operations management literatures. A total of 2,106 titles and abstracts were analyzed and 94 papers were fully reviewed, identifying six categories of strategies: inter-firm collaboration and coordination, governance, procurement, projects as networks, production and logistics, and risk management. We present the multi-level Megaproject Supply Chain (MSC) framework, unpacking the complex inter-organizational structure of megaprojects in five levels and units of analysis to guide future research. The MSC framework identifies the micro, meso and macro levels of megaprojects and introduces two additional hybrid levels to identify inter-organizational relationships: the meso‑micro and meso‑macro. We suggest four avenues to advance supply chain management in megaprojects through multi-level explorations: (i) Supply Chain Structure: Permanent vs Temporary, (ii) Strategic Procurement and Commercial, (iii) Supply Chain Design: Standardization vs Customization, (iv) Supply Chain Governance: Collaboration and Coordination

Incentive Mechanisms for Supplier Development in Mega Construction Projects

IEEE Supplier development (SD) has become an emerging supply chain management practice for firms focusing on their core strategic advantages by outsourcing a significant portion of production or construction activities. Various incentive mechanisms are available for suppliers to improve their capabilities to meet owners & #x2019; expectations. However, a comparative analysis is needed to understand how successful they are. This paper investigates the incentive mechanisms for SD in a construction supply chain that consists of one owner and one supplier. Considering the owner & #x0027;s dominant position in the negotiation of a supply contract, a principal & #x2013;agent model with the objective of optimizing the owner & #x0027;s profit and a Stackelberg game model designed to optimize the profits of both the owner and supplier are proposed and analyzed. Two commonly used incentive methods, including purchase price incentive and cost sharing, are analyzed and compared. The analysis and comparison are illustrated by a numerical example. The primary contribution of this paper is the analysis of the impact of incentive methods on quality improvement for the supplier and a sensitivity analysis of the supplier & #x0027;s internal and external factors, such as purchase quantity, market demand, and manufacturing cost structures, which are useful managerial insights for SD practices in mega construction projects

Addressing the challenges of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the construction industry: a multi-perspective approach

With average global temperatures rising and more extreme weather events recorded year on year, several counties have now declared a climate emergency. To address this emergency, 195 nations came together to sign the Paris Agreement, setting an ambitious target to keep the increase in global average temperature to well-below 2 oC, whist actively pursuing efforts to minimise the increase to 1.5 oC. Each nation was to determine its contributions to this target, stating how they would reduce carbon emissions within their control. Governments have in turn called for industry to significantly reduce their carbon emissions. Although the direct footprint of the construction industry is relatively small (for example, approximately 2.5% of the United Kingdom’s (UK) annual emissions), these numbers rise drastically when the carbon embodied in the materials, the operation and use of the assets are also included. As an example, just over half the UK’s emissions are directly or indirectly related to the construction and use of infrastructure assets. Given these figures, it is imperative that the construction industry takes steps to make deep cuts in its carbon emissions. To help the industry along the carbon management journey, the CITT (Carbon Infrastructure Transformation Tool) Project has developed an embodied carbon calculation tool to aid decision makers in developing low-carbon solutions to reduce emissions on large infrastructure projects. The tool accounts for emissions from materials, transportation and construction of an asset. This scope was selected as it is what the contractor would have direct control over and is easier to gather accurate data for embodied emissions as opposed to the operation and use phases. However, the uptake of tools such as the CIT tool has been relatively slow in the industry. This thesis takes a multi-perspective approach to understand the technological and social implications of developing and adopting an embodied carbon calculator within the construction industry. This is done first by assessing the risk of burden shifting where the use of an embodied carbon calculator may suggest emission reductions during the construction of an asset at the expense of increasing emissions elsewhere in the life cycle. Second, the thesis explores the barriers to the tool’s adoption within the industry and provides recommendations for how to enable change within organisations to increase the use of carbon calculation tools. Finally, the thesis shows how collaboration can be improved to successfully reduce carbon emissions through the infrastructure supply chain. Using a portfolio of papers, this thesis makes several important contributions. Although the risk of burden shifting has been discussed in the literature, there is little empirical evidence to support this. Paper 1 provides this evidence by studying four decision cases from a rail project. Paper 2 contributes to practice by developing a framework highlighting the steps required to overcome the barriers to the adoption of carbon calculators in the construction industry. Finally, Paper 3 brings together the literature on low-carbon supply chain management and collaboration success factors to understand how the industry can collaborate to reduce emissions through the infrastructure supply chain. Taken together, this thesis provides novel insights into the challenges of using carbon calculation tools, and advises policy and decision makers in how to improve carbon management practices within the construction industry