Systemic Modelling of Design Error Causation in Social Infrastructure Projects

Design errors contribute significantly to cost and schedule growth in social infrastructure projects and to engineering failures, which can result in accidents and loss of life. Despite considerable research that has addressed their error causation they still remain prevalent in projects. This paper develops a conceptual model of the underlying conditions that contribute to design errors in social infrastructure projects. A systemic model of design error causation is then propagated. The research suggests that a multitude of strategies should be adopted in congruence to prevent design errors from occurring and so ensure that safety and project performance are ameliorated

What Goes Up, Shouldn't Come Down: Learning from Construction and Engineering Failures

Design errors can severely jeopardize safety and contribute to failures in construction and engineering projects. Such failures can have devastating economic, environmental and social consequences. Significant efforts have been made to reduce the incidence of failures through learning from previous disasters and events by modifying building and engineering codes and standards accordingly. Design errors, however, remain an innate feature of construction and engineering projects. Most errors are identified during construction and require rework, but there is always a potential for some to remain undetected and contribute to failure, and as a result potentially contribute to accidents and loss of life. This paper examines the circumstances and issues that contributed to a series of construction and engineering failures, to enable development of a systemic learning framework to contain and reduce design errors and potential failures and accidents

Making sense of rework and its unintended consequence in projects: the emergence of uncomfortable knowledge

YesTo make sense of the rework phenomena that plagues construction projects a longitudinal exploration and mixed-method approach was undertaken to understand its causal setting and why it remained an on-going issue for organizations contracted to deliver an asset. The research reveals that rework was an zemblanity (i.e., being an unpleasant un-surprise) that resulted in: (1) project managers ignoring established organisation-wide procedures and, at their discretion, amend them to suit their own goals while denouncing the importance of recording and learning from non-conformances; (2) a deficiency of organisational controls and routines to contain and reduce rework; and (3) an absence of an organisation-project dyad that supported and promoted an environment of psychological safety. A new theoretical conceptualization of error causation that is intricately linked to rework and safety incidents is presented. The research provides managers with ‘uncomfortable knowledge’, which is needed to provide insights into the determinants of rework that form part of their everyday practice.Australian Research Council (DP130103018

Moving beyond CAD to an object-oriented approach for electrical control and instrumentation systems

The quality of computer-aided-design (CAD) generated 'As-built' documentation is evaluated for a High Voltage Switchgear System (HVSS), which forms part of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition up-grade within a geo-thermal power plant. A total of 267 CAD drawings for the HVSS were used to create a Systems Information Model (SIM) whereby the physical components and associated connections were constructed in an object orientated database. Throughout the modelling process a considerable amount of errors and information redundancy were identified and examples are presented. The production of the CAD drawings took 10,680 man-h in stark contrast to the 80 man-h required to construct the SIM, illustrating the efficiency and effectiveness of SIM compared to CAD for the documentation of electrical instrumentation and control systems (EICS). To realise this significant potential cost and productivity saving requires a shift in mindset and a move beyond the use of CAD, to an object oriented SIM, with a 1:1 relationship between objects in the model, and components in the real world. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Dynamic Modeling of Workforce Planning for Infrastructure Projects

Workforce planning (WP) for infrastructure projects provides a readily available pool of skilled labor that can deliver a nation’s societal needs. However, achieving a robust and reliable workforce prediction is a constant challenge, as a variety of variables and factors must be considered. Despite various forecasting techniques and approaches being developed, government’s worldwide continue to produce inaccurate forecasts and consequently fail to maintain the balanced workforce required to deliver infrastructure projects. To address this problem, a system dynamics (SD) model for the construction and civil engineering industry is developed, as traditional WP modeling approaches are static and unable to accommodate the changing complex dynamics that influence workforce supply and demand. The SD model is tested and used to formulate training policies that ensure workforce equilibrium and in turn, nurture sustainable infrastructure development

Off the rails: the cost performance of infrastructure rail projects

YesGovernments in Australia place great emphasis on the development and expansion of their rail networks to improve productivity and service the increasing needs and demands from businesses and commuters. A case study approach is used to analyze the cost performance of 16 rail projects constructed by a contractor between 2011 and 2014, which ranged from AU$3.4 to AU$353 million. Findings indicate that scope changes during construction were the key contributors that lead to the amendment of each project’s original contractual value. As a result, there is a need for public and private sector asset owners to establish a cost contingency using a probabilistic rather than a deterministic approach to accommodate the potential for scope changes during construction. To improve cost certainty during the construction of rail projects, it is suggested that use of collaborative forms of procurement juxtaposed with the use of Building Information Modelling and Systems Information Modelling are implemented. The utilization of such technological and process innovations can provide public and private sector asset owners charged with delivering and maintaining their rail networks with confidence projects can be delivered within budget and are resilient to unexpected events and adaptable to changing needs, uses or capacities.The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Australian Research Council (DP160102882)

Financial distress and highway infrastructure delays

Purpose In developing countries, delays in highway infrastructure projects caused by financial distress-related factors threaten the construction industry’s capacity to contribute optimally to economic development. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to determine factors contributing to financial distress and develops a conceptual framework to illustrate the relationship between financial distress and project delay. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey collected data on factors that contributed to financial distress and delays in highway infrastructure delivery. In total, 78 responses were obtained, and factor analysis revealed that factors associated with payment, project financing, cash flow, economic issues, project planning and cost control influenced project delays. Findings The research identifies the importance of efficient public and private policies to engender financial sustainability among construction firms in developing countries. Originality/value This work presents the first research of its kind and strives to engender wider academic debate and renewed economic development in some of the world’s most impoverished nations

Chaos Theory: Implications for Cost Overrun Research in Hydrocarbon Megaprojects

Cost overruns are a recurrent problem in hydrocarbon (oil and gas) megaprojects. An understanding of why and how they occur is needed if they are to be mitigated; such knowledge can provide managers with the foundations to develop techniques to reduce and contain their negative impacts on a project’s performance. This paper examines the nature of cost overruns in hydrocarbon megaprojects using the theoretical lens of chaos theory. The underlying principles of chaos theory are reviewed and its research implications for examining cost overruns identified. By viewing megaprojects as chaotic or dynamic systems, the industry and research community may be better positioned to develop innovative solutions to mitigate cost overrun occurrence

System information modelling in practice: Analysis of tender documentation quality in a mining mega-project

The quality of information contained in tender documentation produced using Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) and provided in a hard-copy format to an electrical engineering contractor for a port expansion facility, which formed an integral part of an Iron Ore mega-project is analyzed. A System Information Model (SIM), which is an object oriented approach, was retrospectively constructed from the documentation provided to assist the contractor with their tender bid preparation. During the creation of the SIM, a total of 426 errors and omissions were found to be contained within the 77 tender ‘drawing’ documents supplied to the contractor by an Engineering, Construction, Procurement and Management (EPCM). Surprisingly, 70 drawings referenced in the tender documentation, and the Input/Output lists and Cause/Effect drawings were not provided. Yet, the electrical contractor was required by the EPCM organization to provide a lump sum bid and also guarantee the proposed schedule would be met; the financial risks were too high and as a result the contractor decided not to submit a bid. It is suggested that if the original tender documentation had been prepared using a SIM rather than CAD, the quality of information presented to the contractor would have enabled them to submit a competitive bid for the works. The research concludes that the economic performance and productivity of mining projects can be significantly improved by using a SIM to engineer and document electrical instrumentation and control (EIC) systems

Putting context to numbers : a geotechnical risk trajectory to cost overrun extremism

The study investigates the cause of the unusually high cost overruns experienced in highway project delivery in the tropical wetland setting of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. This is in view of the extensive literature supporting the link between geology, the lack of geotechnical best practices and cost overruns. An empirical profiling of cost overrun research further reveals the predominance of mono-method studies based on survey methods, correlative analysis and archival data modelling techniques, all of which are underlain by positivism. The study argues that such positivist philosophies, although methodologically valid, cannot adequately explain and provide in-depth understanding of the contextual cost overrun drivers in highway organisations., Using a robust and thoughtfully designed mix of methods, the paper examines the contribution of geotechnical risks to cost overruns experienced in highway project, and demonstrates the relevance of context in cost overrun research. Cost overrun data from documentary sources for 61 completed highway projects in the Niger Delta are gathered and analysed, revealing an average value of 216%, with extreme cases, ranging up to 1925% of budgeted cost. To uncover the intrinsic contextual drivers, 16 interviews were conducted with participants from the three highway agencies in the region, responsible for the execution of the sampled highway projects. Adopting a geotechnical narrative, the data is thematically analysed, deductively and inductively. The results of the analysis identified that poor project governance, management and procurement practices, have inhibited the competent management of geotechnical risk, creating a propensity for extreme cost overruns on the highway projects. The study submits the phenomenon of cost overruns in public infrastructure projects is underlain by a complexity of contextual social constructs, which would have been overlooked in positivists studies. Cost overrun research therefore, needs to be contextually and numerically anchored. Keywords: Context, Cost overruns, Highway projects, Mixed methods, Social Construct