Contractor tendering research: Going beyond bid/no-bid and markup models

Within a wider research programme into the effectiveness and efficiency of the tendering procedures of construction contractors (CCs), a content analysis of tender research published in 27 journals between 2010 and 2016 found that CC tendering procedure research remains a low-focus area. CC-related tender research commonly focuses on factors influencing ‘bid/no-bid’ and markup decisions, often combined with developed decision modelling. Comparing the content analysis results with semi-structured interviews with 20 Australian civil engineering CCs (including some of Australia’s largest contractors, and with eight involved in international operations), it was found that the industry remains largely unaware and unsupportive of such developed tender decision tools. Instead, CCs suggest tender research should focus on efficient tendering procedures, encouraging clients to use standard rather than bespoke contracts, and improved quality and risk transfer in tender documents. The combined semi-structured interview findings and content analysis results provide researchers with contemporary tender research themes that civil engineering CCs, and potentially more general contractors, are more likely to embrace, thereby advancing the efficiency of construction tendering and contractors’ work procurement management

Leadership that facilitates the successful implementation of Lean Six Sigma

Researchers have identified leadership as a critical success factor for Lean Six Sigma implementation. It is essential to understand leadership behaviours that facilitate the use of Lean Six Sigma. This paper aims to identify leadership styles from the literature that can facilitate Lean Six Sigma implementation, which in turn broaden the current understanding of the suitable leadership styles. Also, the authors aim to explore how leadership styles can enhance Lean Six Sigma operations. The authors systematically reviewed the literature on leadership styles and Lean Six Sigma. The results determined the leadership styles that can enable the use of Lean Six Sigma successfully. These leadership styles are as follows: situational (task-oriented or relation-oriented behaviour), transformational, servant, authentic, empowering, and distributed leadership. The authors provide a better understanding for practitioners and researchers from existing literature on how leaders' behaviours can enhance Lean Six Sigma implementation. It is not clear which style is the most dominant and effective. There is a lack in interpreting how these leadership styles linked to Lean Six Sigma implementation. There is a lack of empirical evidence most of the studies depended on a theoretical base. Very few studies have focused on leadership styles and Six Sigma success; to the best of the authors' knowledge only one paper has studied this. Also, there is scarcity in papers that addressed leadership styles that facilitate Lean Six Sigma implementation. This paper initiates a call to study Lean Six Sigma rather than focus only on either Lean or Six Sigma. This proposition guides future research based on the view that Lean management can share underlying assumptions with Lean Six Sigma characteristics. However, the mean limitation of this review is the use of specific keywords and database to identify studies

Causes of construction change orders in Qatar: Contractors' perspective

The construction industry involves complex processes which are prone to various changes and variations. However, it may be argued that the application of change orders within construction projects in the State of Qatar has become the rule rather than the exception. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify, explore, and rank the relative importance of the preeminent causes instigating changes to construction contracts in the state. To achieve this objective, a structured questionnaire survey comprising 35 determinants, was distributed to a statistically representative sample of contractors. Using the relative importance index technique, the critical causes related to the client, consultant, contractor and exogenous groups are identified. The findings can provide industry practitioners and policy makers with guidance to mitigate, control, or effectively manage the primary causes of variations determined, which can further assist in meliorating the performance of the construction industry in a climate on the brink of witnessing an unprecedented boom in demand for expeditious delivery and restrained cost of constructed enterprises. 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.Scopu

Compartmental Modeling of 11C-HOMADAM Binding to the Serotonin Transporter in the Healthy Human Brain

The novel PET radioligand 11 C- N,N -dimethyl-2-(2′-amino-4′-hydroxymethylphenylthio)benzylamine ( 11 C-HOMADAM) binds with high affinity and selectively to the serotonin transporter (SERT). The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable kinetic model to describe the uptake of 11 C-HOMADAM in the healthy human brain