The state of the art in e-business: A case study from the Chinese construction industry

In the 21st century, e-business is seen as the new frontier. Currently e-business has been widely used in other industry and to some extent in global construction market, particularly in developed countries, such as UK, EU and USA. Evidence of performance and success stories shows that the implementation of e-business is already delivering high improvement and innovation in construction project planning, design, delivery and management. However, the current performance of e-business in the emerging market, such as India and China is limited. China, as the world’s second largest economy after the United States, has the world fastest growing economy, averaging 10% growth of the past 30 years. The domestic construction industry is booming in both infrastructure and building construction sectors. It is predicted that nearly half of the world’s new building construction will be in China by 2015. In a similar way to other countries, there is a great potential for China to implement e-business in the construction industry in order to improve its productivity and competitiveness. This paper initially explains the concept of e-Business and its impacts in construction industry and reviews the development of Chinese construction industry over last two decades. A case study of one of the largest Chinese construction IT Companies is carried out to further analyse benefits, challenges and the market potential of e-business in China. This study provides a better and deeper understanding of the different characteristics of the implementation and capability of e-business in Chinese construction industry

Managing knowledge in the context of sustainable construction

The 21st century has been a growing awareness of the importance of the sustainability agenda. Moreover for construction, it has become increasingly important as clients are pushing for a more sustainable product to complement their organisations’ own strategic plans. Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable construction is therefore seen as the application of sustainable practices to the activities of the construction sector. One of the key factors in making construction projects more sustainable is overcoming the obstacles of capturing and managing the knowledge required by project teams to effect such change. Managing this knowledge is key to the construction industry because of the unique characteristics of its projects, i.e. multi-disciplinary teams, dynamic participation of team members, heavy reliance on previous experiences/heuristics, the one-off nature of the projects, tight schedules, limited budget, etc. Initiatives within the industry and academic research are developing mechanisms and tools for managing knowledge in construction firms and projects. Such work has so far addressed the issues of capturing, storing, and transferring knowledge

Concerns for Skills Shortages in the 21st Century: A Review into the Construction Industry, Australia

The Australian Construction Industry is now facing skills shortages in all trades. As an industry focused on the skill of its workforce, there is now concern the Australian standard in quality, workmanship, and productivity will inhibit both at national and international level.This research paper addresses the underlying, influential factors concerning skills shortages in the Australian construction industry. The influential factors addressed include funding, training statistics, employer expectations, financial limitations, Industrial Relations and immigration. Given the reference to skills shortages within the industry, and documented in related literature, if skills shortages are to continue to exist, their effect will impact upon the overall performance of construction companies throughout Australia

The Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century, volume 1

These papers comprise a peer-review selection of presentations by authors from NASA, LPI industry, and academia at the Second Conference (April 1988) on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century, sponsored by the NASA Office of Exploration and the Lunar Planetary Institute. These papers go into more technical depth than did those published from the first NASA-sponsored symposium on the topic, held in 1984. Session topics covered by this volume include (1) design and operation of transportation systems to, in orbit around, and on the Moon, (2) lunar base site selection, (3) design, architecture, construction, and operation of lunar bases and human habitats, and (4) lunar-based scientific research and experimentation in astronomy, exobiology, and lunar geology

Malaysian Industrialised Building System (IBS): A review of studies

In order to keep pace with the globalisation and modernlisation in 21st century, it is a needs for construction players to adopt relevant technology such as Industrialised Building System (IBS).Till date, the adoption of IBS has been actively promoting by Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).Numerous of effort has been taken, for instance vast of research fund, training, establish standard and other marketing agenda. From literature and industry report, the adoption of IBS was proven beneficial to increase the project quality and productivity and automatically save cost and period of construction project.Yet, the trend of IBS usage in housing projects, especially in Malaysia’s northern region like Kedah and Perlis are still achieved the government goal. Thus, this paper highlights the factors causing low usage through a preliminary survey among the developers in that area. The survey is also aimed at identifying a few solutions to increase the application of IBS for the construction industry.Moreover, this paper also outline the characteristics of IBS

Planning and implementation of effective collaboration in construction projects

The 21st century is now seen as the time for the construction industry to embrace new ways of working if it is to continue to be competitive and meet the needs of its ever demanding clients. Collaborative working is considered by many to be essential if design and construction teams are to consider the whole lifecycle of the construction product. Much of the recent work on collaborative working has focused on the delivery of technological solutions with a focus on web (extranets), CAD (visualisation), and knowledge management technologies. However, it is now recognised that good collaboration does not result from the implementation of information technology solutions alone. The organisational and people issues, which are not readily solved by pure technical systems, need to be resolved. However, approaches that exclusively focus on organisational and people issues will not reap the benefits derived from the use of technology, especially in the context of distributed teams which are the norm in construction. Work currently being undertaken at Loughborough University aims to bring together the benefits enabled by the technology, with the organisational, and its people issues to provide a framework enabling high level strategic decisions to be made to implement effective collaboration. This paper reports on the initial stages of the project: the background to the project, the methodology used, and findings from the literature survey and the requirements capture survey conducted as part of the project

GENESIS 2: Advanced lunar outpost

Advanced, second-generation lunar habitats for astronauts and mission specialists working on the Moon are investigated. The work was based on design constraints set forth in previous publications. Design recommendations are based on environmental response to the lunar environment, habitability, safety, near-term technology, replaceability and modularity, and suitability for NASA lunar research missions in the early 21st century. Scientists, engineers, and architects from NASA/JSC, Wisconsin aeronautical industry, and area universities gave technical input and offered critiques at design reviews throughout the process. The recommended design uses a lunar lava tube, with construction using a combination of Space Station Freedom-derived modules and lightweight Kevlar-laminate inflatables. The outpost includes research laboratories and biotron, crew quarters and support facility, mission control, health maintenance facility, and related areas for functional and psychological requirements. Furniture, specialized equipment, and lighting are included in the design analysis

The Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century, volume 2

These 92 papers comprise a peer-reviewed selection of presentations by authors from NASA, the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), industry, and academia at the Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century. These papers go into more technical depth than did those published from the first NASA-sponsored symposium on the topic, held in 1984. Session topics included the following: (1) design and operation of transportation systems to, in orbit around, and on the Moon; (2) lunar base site selection; (3) design, architecture, construction, and operation of lunar bases and human habitats; (4) lunar-based scientific research and experimentation in astronomy, exobiology, and lunar geology; (5) recovery and use of lunar resources; (6) environmental and human factors of and life support technology for human presence on the Moon; and (7) program management of human exploration of the Moon and space

Sustainable Construction: Analysis of its Costs and Benefits

Sustainability has become the most important issue concerning the construction industry in the 21st century. The objectives of this paper were: to establish if there is an opinion within the industry that sustainability means increased cost; and to investigate whether using sustainable construction methods save money by reducing a buildings carbon output and running costs. Following the literature survey, a questionnaire survey has been carried out to canvas opinions within the industry. Furthermore, comparison of a traditionally built structure (the original college) against a sustainably built one (the structure being built to replace the original building) has been carried out as a case study with respect to the running costs and carbon outputs. The findings revealed that there is an opinion within the industry that sustainability means increased cost and complicated build ability and that using sustainable construction methods save money by reducing a buildings carbon output and running costs. This paper will benefit clients and developers as they can see how incorporating sustainability into new buildings will enable big savings on utility and maintenance costs once the building is operational