Proactive construction safety systems and the human factor

The paper undertakes an extensive and critical review of published works concerning the state of the art in safety systems based on building information modelling (BIM). It finds that despite considerable developmental work, much of the focus has been on the design and planning stages of projects. A gap still exists during the construction stage due to the unexpected dynamics that occur on site and the way that responsive human behaviour is not always predictable or rational. Modern proactive safety systems offer advanced real-time tracking of workers on site, which can be concurrently mapped onto a BIM model of the progressive construction. Such technology aims to provide realtime audio warnings to individual workers if they wander too close to hazards. However, the review raises new and under-explored challenges concerning the human factor - especially the way workers interact with such technology. Evidence from other industries suggests that possible areas of concern include mistrust in warnings, ignoring warnings, over-reliance on technology and 'the boy who cried wolf' syndrome. Poor ergonomic design may lead to the technology being under-utilised. An ongoing agenda for behavioural testing is recommended to assist further development

Monitoring customer perceived service quality and satisfaction during the construction process

© 2015 Derek Henry Thomas Walker, James Harley and Anthony Mills. Service quality has been studied across many construction related disciplines but little has been done concerning how it effects customer satisfaction during the day-to-day dynamics of onsite construction services. The research explores this setting in Australian housing construction projects. A highly detailed single case study methodology was used with a view to facilitating theory development for a targeted customer type displaying service quality oriented expectations, high involvement, but low construction experience. Gaps scores for perceived service quality and customer satisfaction were systematically monitored during construction. Concurrently, interviews were used to obtain incident data linked to the scoring data. It was found that service incidents, service quality and customer satisfaction were linked at each stage of construction. Related aspects included the ratio between positive and negative incidents; a saturation point regarding negative incidents; and an end of process/product realisation factor. The importance of identifying active service quality dimensions during construction was identified (especially reliability and care in execution of work). An incident coding structure was developed whereby frequently recurring incident features included spontaneous situations, site observations, personal interaction, subcontractor involvement, progressive product quality, progressive construction activity and defensive customer action. The research recommends that construction contractors aim to control the above features by creating orchestrated incidents and controlling exposure to perceptions via fast and seamless onsite construction

Complaints and disputes among occupants within apartment developments

Large apartment developments are like mini-communities - there are a wide variety of relationships and networks within, and both complaints and disputes are common. Such situations come at a significant emotional and financial cost to the individuals involved. There is also an overflow effect on both the collective apartment owners and the broader community - especially where disputes escalate to formal tribunal and court hearings. The purpose of this study was to investigate the underlying features of complaint and dispute behaviour including the proximity between disputing parties, the situational context and the residual triggers causing complaint and disputes to occur. The emphasis was on an exploratory pilot study, aimed at determining if predictable patterns existed and if so, whether these were worth pursuing on a broader scale, or not. The methodology utilised a case study of a large apartment complex of 108 separate apartments, where complaint and dispute records were analysed over a 10 year period. These were then mapped onto the apartment layout. Data arising from this was coded into thematically consistent categories and then quantitatively analysed using descriptive statistics. With regard to the proximity of complaints and disputes there was an occasional pattern whereby noise can be attributed to close proximity complaints, but there is no evidence that this leads to formal dispute. The originality of the research is in providing quantitative insight into the current gap in knowledge concerning complaint and dispute behaviour amongst residents living in higher density housing in Australia. Revealed patterns create the ability to use more targeted dispute resolution methods with a view to maintaining harmony within higher density residential complexes

A comparative study of floor construction on sloping sites: An analysis of cumulative energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions

© 2016 Grace Ding and Perry Forsythe. In order to make environmentally aware decisions, there is growing interest in the comparative energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) performance of competing construction methods. Little research has been done concerning competing ground floor construction methods, especially given different site variables, such as slope and soil type. A life cycle assessment approach was adopted to analyse environmental impacts, including cumulative energy demand and GHG emissions for detached housing construction in Australia. Data was drawn from 24 case study housing projects, including 12 reinforced concrete and 12 suspended timber floor projects. The data presented in the paper compares cumulative energy demand, GHG and the constituent parts of competing construction methods. The findings indicate that the timber floors use/create significantly less cumulative energy demand and GHG emissions than concrete floors—approximately 2.1 to 2.7 times less energy and 2.3 to 2.9 times less GHG. These findings are limited to the site slope and foundation soil types identified in the paper. The main application of the work is in guidance concerning the lowest environmental impact options for detached housing construction

Drivers of Housing Demolition Decision Making and the Impact on Timber Waste Management

The study investigates housing demolition and timber waste recovery - with the aim to identify ways of improving recovery. Using case studies the research focused on demolisher decision making, their onsite processes and the associated network of participants that influence timber recovery. From the data, a process model was developed that identifies and orders the drivers of demolition decision making. One aspect of the model identified the initiators of demolition and the waste created, including issues revolving around the demolition feedstock. Another aspect covers organisational business drivers and includes site safety, productivity, economies of scale, market value of waste and supply chain entrepreneurship. A third component deals with project specific drivers including the recurring cost versus income equation that impacts on the viability of project level decisions. The model includes a typology of the operational onsite response to the above drivers. Here, the deconstruction approach was found to provide high timber recovery mainly used where high-value timber waste was involved; the miscellaneous salvage approach provided some recovery of high and low-value timber; the crunch and dump approach provided low recovery or dumping at landfill and was used where low and no-value timber was involved. An expected increase in supply of these latter timber categories creates a significant need to increase the market value of currently low value timber groups. Designing for deconstruction is also posed as a long term strategy for this

Uncertainty and the Theory of Tax Incidence in a Stock Market Economy

[Introduction] Commencing with Harberger's (1962) classic paper, a number of studies have analyzed the incidence of taxation in the context of a deterministic, two-sector, two-factor general equilibrium model. Recently, R. N. Batra (1975) and R. A. Ratti and P. Shame (1977a, 1977b) have reexamined the robustness of these deterministic results for the case in which production uncertainty is incorporated into the model. By using "entrepreneurial" models in which the firm is assumed to maximize the expected utility of profits, they find that the incidence of taxes depends on the preferences and probability assessments of the entrepreneur, and in general, the deterministic results no longer obtain

Models of the firm and international trade under uncertainty

One of the significant advances in economic theory has been the incorporation of uncertainty into the models used to investigate economic behavior. The explicit treatment of uncertainty has permitted economists to predict the behavior of economic agents operating in an uncertain environment and to explain, for example, the existence of insurance, stock markets, and forward exchange markets that have no necessary role in a deterministic world. One natural application of the economics of uncertainty has been to the study of international trade and exchange in which uncertainty regarding exchange rates and relative prices is a prominent feature of the environment of economic agents. The purpose of this paper is to frame the international trade results developed in the recent works of Wolfgang Mayer and Raveendra Batra in light of the current state of the theory of the firm under uncertainty. Before analyzing the effect of uncertainty on international trade, a perspective on the application of the economics of uncertainty to neoclassical theory will be presented with an emphasis on the theory of the firm

Draft Genome Sequence of anEnterobacterSpecies Associated with Illnesses and Powdered Infant Formula

This is the first report of the draft genome sequence of an Enterobacter species that may have been transmitted from powdered infant formula (PIF) to infants, resulting in illness. Enterobacter spp. are currently permitted in PIF, but the transmission of this strain indicates that the microbiological criteria for PIF may need revision

Innovative construction and the role of boundary objects: a Gehry case study

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Physical objects have long been used in addressing the challenges involved in constructing innovative buildings, yet their significance for collaborative problem solving in inter-organizational projects is rarely acknowledged. The aim of this research is to investigate what happens when a project team has to collaboratively innovate to address radical design challenges in a construction setting. We focus on the role of a full-scale mock-up of a façade in transforming the design intent for a building by Frank Gehry into design realization. The concept of boundary objects is used as an analytical lens via a case study methodology utilizing non-participant observation of weekly meetings and workshops over a period of 10 months covering client, consultant and contractor involvement. The research shows the role of mock-ups in radical construction settings is in tension along three delivery dimensions: performance, aesthetic and technical construction. Task completion competed with the requirements for experimentation around innovative problem solving with the how to construct it problem left unresolved. The findings suggest that co-location and synchronicity are critical conditions for collaborative and innovative problem solving in radical construction contexts. Project teams need to create open-ended ‘moments’ for iterating critical objects and the interactions that take place around them