Women Professionals in Construction Industry: Barriers and Approaches to Improve Wellbeing, Safety and Health

The construction industry's male-dominated image, working ethos, and environment have led to an abysmal representation of women professionals in the workforce. The industry, the second largest employer in India, contributing 9% to India’s GDP has a mere 2% representation of women professionals (architects, site engineers, quantity surveyors, planning engineers, safety professionals, etc.) in employment. Manpower shortage continues to challenge the industry and poses an opportunity for women and employers alike. In this context, the paper aims to identify and evaluate the barriers and approaches to improve the wellbeing, safety, and health of women professionals at project sites thus increasing their share in employment. A mixed approach of questionnaire survey, interviews, and focused discussion was adopted. The top three barriers identified were – Long working hours and a culture that working long demonstrate work commitment, Remote and changing work locations of project sites impacting family life, and Inflexible work hours; while the top three approaches were – Providing appropriate sanitary facilities, Separate and clean restrooms and Evaluating performance based on output rather than hours put in. Results suggest that men and women shared a common perception of all barriers and approaches except for three. The findings will aid in advocating for women's wellbeing, safety and health at construction sites and spread the word about the value of gender mainstreaming

Constructing supplier learning curves to evaluate relational gain in engineering projects

Learning curve models analyze how experience relates to performance over time, and rates vary widely across industries, organisations, and processes. Very little empirical research addresses learning curves for suppliers in engineering projects. Hence, we consider learning within strategically managed buyer-supplier relationships, focusing on the potential for ‘relational gain’ in terms of learning performance for longer term strategic suppliers (LTSP). A mixed-method approach is adopted employing 2 phases. First, empirical performance data is collected as well as contextual information regarding the managerial actions behind the learning curve. Second, the empirical data is analysed using the time constant learning curve model. Different supplier relational categories are mobilised to assess any relational gain in the rates of learning. The findings give learning parameters across different categories, showing that LTSPs outperform other less collaborative categories across a range of learning and performance dimensions. Suppliers who are not formally part of the firm’s development programme, but are requested by clients or have specialist capabilities, do not perform well at the outset of a project but accelerate rapidly along the learning curve. There is a need for project based organizations to both strategically manage long term relationships with suppliers, as well as quickly integrate new suppliers. Better performing learning curves act as benchmarks to show the relative relational gains to be achieved by investment and integration approaches

Guía para el establecimiento de métricas e indicadores clave de rendimiento (KPI) en la gestión de proyectos de construcción durante su fase de ejecución

Lograr el éxito de un proyecto es crucial para la supervivencia y crecimiento de las empresas y organizaciones. Sin embargo, es común evidenciar proyectos de construcción con retrasos, sobrecostes y deficiente calidad debido a múltiples factores que se pudieran presentar a lo largo del proyecto. Al contrario del sector manufacturero, el sector de la construcción no ha mejorado su productividad durante los últimos años. El objetivo de la presente investigación es elaborar una guía de identificación y representación de métricas e indicadores claves de rendimiento (KPI) mínimos requeridos en la gestión proactiva de proyectos de construcción durante su fase de ejecución, que facilite el seguimiento y la toma de decisiones enfocada en lecciones aprendidas y la mejora continua. A través de una investigación bibliográfica, que consideró una muestra de 30 investigaciones desarrolladas entre 1997 y 2022, se recopilaron un total de 238 indicadores claves de rendimiento (KPI) en el sector construcción, principalmente durante su fase de ejecución, para su posterior clasificación por área de conocimiento y análisis de peso e interrelación mediante un mapa de red. De acuerdo con los resultados obtenidos, las áreas de conocimiento mínimas que todo proyecto de construcción deberá considerar dentro de la gestión del desempeño en orden de importancia son: (1) tiempo, (2) costo, (3) calidad, (4) seguridad y salud, (5) interesados, (6) recursos humanos y (7) medio ambiente. Los resultados de la presente investigación reafirman la importancia del “triángulo de hierro” y a su vez, sirven de base teórica para mejorar la gestión del desempeño mediante la adecuada selección de indicadores claves de rendimiento (KPI), así como su correcta representación en tableros de control