An internet of things enabled system for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance of railway infrastructure

The railway industry plays a pivotal role in the socioeconomic landscape of many countries. However, its operation poses considerable challenges in terms of safety, environmental impact, and the intricacies of intertwined technical and social structures. Addressing these challenges necessitates the adoption of innovative approaches and advanced technologies. This doctoral research delves into the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) as an enabler for railway infrastructure monitoring and predictive maintenance, aiming to enhance reliability, efficiency, and safety within the industry. Rooted in a pragmatic modelist philosophical stance, this thesis employs an exploratory sequential mixed-method approach incorporating qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The research process involves engaging with key stakeholders to gain insights into the challenges faced in railway maintenance and the opportunities presented by IoT implementation. Following this, an IoT system is developed, and a comprehensive value-creation framework is proposed for its effective implementation within the railway sector. The findings of this investigation underscore the transformative potential of IoT integration in railway infrastructure monitoring, yielding significant improvements in maintenance processes, safety, and operational efficiency. Furthermore, this doctoral research provides a foundation for future innovation and adaptation in the railway industry, contributing to its ongoing evolution and resilience in an ever-changing technological landscape

Offsite construction for emergencies: A focus on Isolation Space Creation (ISC) measures for the COVID-19 pandemic

The outbreak of a pandemic of global concern, the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has tested the capacity of healthcare facilities to the brim in many developed countries. In a minacious fashion of rapid spread and extreme transmission rate, COVID-19 has triggered a shortage of healthcare facilities such as hospital bed spaces and ventilators. Various strategies have been adopted by the worst-hit countries to slacken or halt the spread of the virus. Common Isolation Space Creation (ISC) measures for the COVID-19 pandemic containment includes self-isolation at home, isolation at regular hospitals, isolation at existing epidemic hospitals, isolation at retrofitted buildings for an emergency, isolation at Temporary Mobile Cabins (TMCs), isolation at newly constructed temporary hospitals for COVID-19. This study evaluates the ISC measures and proposes offsite and modular solutions for the construction industry and built environment to respond to emergencies. While this study has proposed a solution for creating emergency isolation spaces for effective containment of such pandemic, other critical COVID-19 challenges such as the shortage of healthcare staff and other facilities are not addressed in this study

Enabling Quality in Lean Construction: Integrating the Principles of Total Quality Management with 9D-BIM

Recently Total Quality Management (TQM) has been proved to be the most successful continuous improvement system. The total quality management (TQM) process has been considered a modern system in the field of quality, after quality assurance, quality control, and ISO in the Construction sector. Although it was initially implemented in the manufacturing and automobile industries in Japan, later it was adopted by the construction sector. Design and construction are the two important phases of the project life cycle that affect the quality of the outcome of construction projects significantly. The current quality management practice in the construction industry includes issuing quality checklists, site inspection and testing, non-conformance reporting, and corrective action but there is not a systematic way of recording the inspected data, hence, the quality status of construction cannot be determined. The newly emerging technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and lean construction can be used to control the quality of construction. One of the most popular management system standards among construction companies is ISO 9000—the construction sector has the fourth highest number of quality assurance certificates of all sectors in the world. A positive relationship between ISO 9000 certification and firm performance was observed in 69 of existing cross-sectional studies. TQM and BIM convey some level of association in terms of execution, productivity, information requirements, and quality outcomes throughout the construction process although not much work is done in mapping their common denominators. This research focuses on mapping the TQM elements and BIM dimensions as means of inducing Quality as part of the ninth dimension of BIM (9D BIM). A framework for enabling quality in lean construction through the integration of TQM and 9D-BIM is proposed in this study

Project reputation in construction: A process-based perspective of construction practitioners in the UK

The overall aim of this study is to elicit the perspective of practitioners (e.g., architects, civil engineers, building engineers, structural engineers and quantity surveyors) on the process-related factors influencing the project reputation of construction organisations. To achieve this aim, the study adopts a mixed methods approach which commenced with a review of extant literature in order to produce an exhaustive hypothetical list of process-related factors influencing project reputation. This review resulted in the identification of 29 process-related factors which was operationalised into a questionnaire survey. After an essential pilot study was conducted, the survey was distributed to a wide audience of construction practitioners in order to elicit their experiential opinion on process-related factors influencing project reputation of construction organisations. The responses from the survey were subjected to statistical processes, which include Reliability Analysis, Relative Importance Index (RII), Kruskal-Wallis and Multiple Regression Analysis. After establishing 25 statistically reliable process-related factors influencing project reputation via reliability analysis, the study further revealed an impressive general agreement of 88% of the process-related factors. Multiple regression analysis was subsequently conducted to unravel the key drivers influencing project reputation of construction organisations. This analysis revealed six key factors which include: successful completion of project without adverse environmental issues; competent project manager; friendly culture generated within project; competent project participants; successful completion of project without health and safety issues and regular client consultation. This research finding will provide a benchmark for construction organisations to develop project reputation which will invariably impact organisational reputation. In addition, the findings of this study will allow project stakeholders to prioritise ‘few’ critical issues that will unquestionably impact their project reputation during the implementation of the project plan

Design for Sustainability: An approach based on the integration of BIM and Building Performance Analysis

BIM has emerged as a modern method for the design and management of construction throughout the lifecycle of a project. BIM has been widely used in various activities such as architectural and structural design, scheduling, resolving clashes, data sharing, monitoring projects, and various applications during the construction phase of a project. Nowadays, most countries are motivated in building great infrastructures thereby causing increased carbon emissions and energy consumption. This leads to a rise in the greenhouse effect. To overcome this crisis the AEC industry has given more importance to sustainable design and construction. Different private organizations have introduced various advanced technologies which have capable in analyse the building performance for sustainable outcomes. In construction, the industry has followed innovative methods through a collaboration of BIM with the Building performance analysis (BPA)tools to enhance the sustainable design workflow. This research paper brings an overview of the importance of sustainable design in the AEC industry. The importance of the BPA tools which are used along with BIM for the analysis of energy consumption and carbon emission. The hypothetical case study has demonstrated the step-by-step procedure for fully integrating BIM and BPA by using the Revit application and IES VE (Integrated Environment Solution and Virtual environment). This producer can be able to understand the relationship between BIM and BPA tools. Mainly about the challenges faced during the interoperability process which will be affected the sustainable analysis. Through the integration of BIM and BPA tools can be able to understand the current level of limitations and benefits of the sustainable design workflow

Big data for design options repository: Towards a DFMA approach for offsite construction

A persistent barrier to the adoption of offsite construction is the lack of information for assessing prefabrication alternatives and the choices of suppliers. This study integrates three aspects of offsite construction, including BIM, DFMA and big data, to propose a Big data Design Options Repository (BIG-DOR). The proposed BIG-DOR system will connect BIM clients to manufacturers/supplier’s information such as prefab component cost and production lead times. In this study, we propose a framework for integrating BIG-DOR into the process of offsite construction delivery. The design of the BIG-DOR system architecture, as well as the key components such as the DFMA option-based 3D objects classifier, is presented. The contribution to the knowledge of this study is the successful integration of BIM, big data, DFMA and offsite construction in a single framework and the development of a design alternatives assessment system for offsite construction adoption using this framework

Adoption of Offsite Manufacturing in the Housing Sector: Challenges, Benefits, and Future Opportunities

Over several years, reliance on traditional onsite 'brick and mortar' construction, which is slow and prone to errors, has failed to address the growing issue of housing shortfall. Building houses is in high demand all across the world. To tackle the housing shortfall, the sector is adopting modern construction methods like as offsite manufacturing. Offsite manufacturing has been proposed as a suitable method for building new homes in various countries by academics and practitioners. They thoroughly documented the benefits in terms of building cost, speed, and quality. Although this technology has several important advantages, its present utilisation in the building sector is limited. The definitions, history, and terms used in different countries about the technology are presented. To find the reasons and fill the gap, the current study aims to investigate and explore the barriers to adopting offsite manufacturing in the housing sector and also, the benefits of utilizing offsite manufacturing. An expert questionnaire survey was designed for the findings in the literature review and sent to the stakeholders, there were 25 responses. The responses are statistically analysed. The results identified the barriers to the wider adoption as lack of design flexibility, negative image, lack of manufacturers, and previous experience and advantages in terms of scheduling, cost, time, productivity, reduction in construction waste, and increase in health and safety. Furthermore, the research explored how to improve the better use of offsite manufacturing in the housing sector. A theoretical framework was presented for better outputs by implementing offsite manufacturing in the housing sector

A framework for salvaging megaprojects in Africa based on a case study of a refinery and petrochemical complex project

Navigating megaprojects to successful completion in low- and middle-income countries is fraught with challenges, often leading to numerous abandoned or underutilised projects. This study bridges a research gap by proposing a framework for salvaging distressed megaprojects using Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), derived from literature review, critical reflection, and expert consultation. The IPD framework offers strategies for immediate and sustained recovery of troubled megaprojects, including refining procurement strategies, restructuring organisational architecture, and leveraging IPD best practices. This research aids key decision-makers in understanding failure causes and equips them with strategies to salvage failing projects. It contributes to the global discourse on sustainable project management, aligning with UN's SDGs, specifically SDG 9, 8 and 17. The framework can also contribute to Africa Union's Agenda 2063, fostering infrastructure and economic development. This study provides an innovative solution to enhance the success rates of ongoing megaprojects, aligning with broader sustainable development objectives

Offsite construction: Developing a BIM-Based optimizer for assembly

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd The lack of adequate consideration of the underlying factors affecting the methods of building assembly often results in inefficiencies in the uses of building materials, equipment and manpower. These inefficiencies are further compounded by the nature of the construction industry, which traditionally involves complex processes that result in wastages during production. To address this problem, this study integrates the principles of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) and Lean Construction to develop a design assessment and optimization system to assist designers in the selection of alternative building design elements and materials in a building information model. This assessment and optimization system rely on metrics derived from production data associated with the ease of assembling, ease of handling, the speed of assembling and the wastage during assembly or construction of a building element or material. This paper presents the development of BIM-OfA assessment logic and its application for assessment and optimal selection of building envelop through the extension of Building Information Modelling (BIM). The system demonstrates its adequacy as an indicator of construction and material efficiency, its integration with BIM further enhances the practicality of using production data such weight of components, number of on-site workers and number of parts, for buildability assessment to improve efficiency and reduce waste