Research and development, skills requirements, and achieving excellence in construction

The contribution from R&D to the development of the construction industry is immense as it leads the path to enhance the effectiveness of construction organisations and to raise the international competitiveness through technological advances and managerial developments. Further, R&D acts as a valuable input for the construction organisation by developing new products, materials, advanced construction processes, to meet the customer requirements and to address the economic, environmental and resource constraints. One of the essential inputs for successful R&D has been identified as skilled personnel. However, lack of skilled people particularly graduates and post graduates in the construction industry have led to a skills shortage to develop R&D activities. Further, lack of skilled people in construction organisations has resulted in reducing the absorption capacity and thereby the outcomes of R&D activities are not properly absorbed and put into practice. Therefore, skills shortage in the construction industry has been seen as the greatest threat to the long-term stability of the UK research base. Accordingly, the aim of this presentation is to visit the reasons behind the skills shortage in R&D organisations. Further, it will review the factors that can be contributed to success of the R&D personals and to identify the ways of managing them for the future advantage of the organisatio

The role of research and development in achieving excellence in construction

Even though the contribution of the UK construction industry towards the economy and society is significant, many studies have shown that the industry is behind its optimal performance. One of the main reasons behind the under performance of the industry is being recognised as insufficient research and development (R&D) activities and innovation. Construction industry faces various challenges due to the changing market needs of the customers, health and safety issues, growing concern on sustainable work practices, government regulations etc. In order to face these challenges while raising the profile of the construction industry, it is essential to invent new ways to deliver the construction output in an economically, socially, and environmentally acceptable manner. In this regard R&D is a key factor behind the development of effective and efficient construction processes, new materials, advance technologies, new procurement routes, and managerial structures. Further, successful implementations of R&D activities create the opportunity for the construction organisations to be competitive in the global market. Hence, R&D plays a significant role by focusing and directing the construction industry towards achieving its excellence. Accordingly, this paper presents a literature synthesis on the role of R&D in achieving excellence in construction. Further, how the Performance Measurement could enhance the construction R&D activities are also discussed

Performance measurement applications within the UK construction industry: A literature review

The significance of performance measurement (PM) in any organisation is long being realised. As a result PM has been incorporated in the management agenda. PM can be defined as a “process which determine how successful organisations or individuals in achieving their objectives”. Limitations of traditional performance measures challenged their application in the modern business environment. This stimulated towards a new era of PM, leading the path to the development of many PM frameworks. Research done during the past decades, revealed many issues in the UK construction industry. Thus, the industry is under tremendous pressure to improve its performance. This paper provides a literature review on the current applications in PM, highlighting the limitations of traditional measures, features of good PM systems. Further, the problems in the UK construction industry and PM applications have been discussed with the aim of identifying the issues which are not addressed from the current PM applications

Visual information and knowledge representation in organisations

The construction industry’s environment is continually changing. Employees are now more geographically widespread and diverse, both culturally and educationally, than ever before. A great deal of research has been carried out on knowledge acquisition and storage, but there is still a distinct lack of research into knowledge presentation and communication. Information and knowledge presentation play a significant role in daily decision-making processes, when inappropriate decisions may result from inaccurate or poorly communicated information. The simplified, filtered coherent presentation of explicit knowledge can be instrumental to a successful, profitable and safety conscious business. Wates Construction is a major construction company and employs around 1300 people directly, as well as various subcontractors on different projects. Their current turn over is around £1billion, they are based in the UK and have branches in Ireland and Abu Dhabi. Wates realised their existing information system was inefficiently conveying information to its employees and the need to provide a simplified system, to assist staff’s decision-making processes. Earlier IT professionals’ attempts to make the system more usable had made no significant difference to its performance

Industry perspectives of IT and e-commerce

In recent years several new IT-based technologies such as e-commerce have been developed, which if applied to the construction industry can prove beneficial. Before the implementation of new technologies and applications, it is essential to identify the factors that the industry perceives as being the enablers and barriers to the uptake of these applications for greater effectiveness. This paper presents the results of a survey undertaken to establish the views of industry practitioners on the uptake of IT (and ecommerce in particular) within the UK construction sector. The survey explored attitudes, current usage, barriers and enablers amongst other things. The findings of the survey are briefly discussed and outline ideas for more effective deployment of IT and e-commerce in construction organisations presented. The paper also tries to outline some future prospects for using e-commerce in the UK construction industry, based on responses to the survey

Improving supplier relationship management within the AEC sector

Due to changes in many facets of projects and organisations, relationships between firms in the delivery of construction projects have consequently become more critical for the success of the project. Whether it is a transactional exchange or series of transactions spread over a period of time, relationships need to be managed. However, the concept of managing supply chains and relationships between firms has been relatively new to construction industry. Early pioneers of the concept, primarily automotive, aerospace and manufacturing industries, have greatly benefitted from non-adversarial, long-term and collaborative relationships. Although contextual factors within those industries largely shape each industry’s approach to SCM (Supply Chain Management), it is application within the AEC industry is slowly beginning to appear in a distinct shape and form. Through a comprehensive review of literature on construction-specific SCM (cSCM), the study has identified that partnering, collaboration and trust are the three most prominent variables within the cSCM literature. Partnering and collaboration are considered to be relationship management tools, whereas trust is identified as the most significant relationship facilitator. In spite of its significance on relationship development, there is very limited research carried out on the trust aspect of relationships. By understanding how trust is built and maintained, and what the conditions that result in mistrust are, firms can better manage their supply chains and their relationships with firms in the supply chains, manage factors that result in mistrust and mitigate potential conflicts arising from mistrust. Consequently this will facilitate better collaboration, result in high-level of commitment, improve project teambuilding, and avoid conflict and adversarial relationships. Drawing on organisational relationship management literature, we argue that trust must be approached from five dimensions; economic, social, psychological, inter-personal and organisational. These dimensions are unidirectional and they must be accounted conjointly as they are interrelated and interdependent

Investigating the integration of design and construction from a lean perspective

Purpose – Better integration of project processes has often been identified as the key issue regarding construction performance improvement. In some countries lean construction has become well-established, although there appears to be considerable diversity in the interpretation of the concept. Lean construction initially focused on production aspects, but gradually design issues have started to receive more attention and integrating construction design and production processes from a lean perspective are beginning to be addressed. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the practical challenges underlying the implementation of approaches promoted as “lean” and compare this with published research/theory. Design/methodology/approach – Following an extensive review of the literature, a multiple case-strategy approach was used to explore the practical application of lean approaches to design and construction integration in an organisational setting. Summaries of the case studies, one from the USA and two from Denmark, help to highlight a number of pertinent issues facing practitioners and researchers. Findings – Findings suggest that it is possible to identify a number of aspects that (in theory as well as in practice) both influence and, to various extents, limit the applicability of the lean philosophy to construction. Findings also help to emphasise the importance of a number of interdependent factors for achieving better integration, namely: value identification/specification; an appropriate project delivery framework; structuring and planning of delivery processes; transparency; management and leadership; learning; and the importance of local context. Originality/value – The findings provide an original contribution to the integration of design and construction activities from a lean perspective. The findings are generic and could be practically applied in a variety of contexts