Knowledge management challenges within traditional procurement system

In the construction industry, project knowledge mostly resides in the minds of project members and is, often, not managed properly so it can be used in future projects. As construction projects are temporary and unique, project members leave a project for another one once a project is completed. Therefore, poor management of knowledge across construction projects will lead to a considerable amount of knowledge loss; the ignoring of which would be detrimental to project performance. This issue is more prominent in projects undertaken through the traditional procurement system, as this system encourages fragmentation rather than integration. Thus disputes exist between the design and construction phases based on the poor management of knowledge between those two phases. This paper aims to highlight the challenges of the knowledge management that exists within construction projects undertaken through the traditional procurement system. Expert interviews were conducted and challenges were identified and analysed by the Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) approach in order to summarise the relationships among them. Two identified key challenges are the Culture of an Organisation and Knowledge Management Policies. A knowledge of the challenges and their relationships will help project manager and stakeholders to have a better understanding of the importance of knowledge management

Knowledge integration challenges and critical success factors within construction traditional procurement system

The purpose of this study is to explore and identify the challenges and Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of Knowledge Integration (KI) in terms of capturing, sharing and transferring knowledge within construction projects based on the Traditional Procurement System (TPS). On the basis of available studies on KI and TPS within the industry investigated, multiple case studies were developed to reach the aforementioned objective, involving two case studies to reflect the building sector within construction industry. Furthermore, an Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) approach was used to summarize and identify the relationships between the identified challenges. ‘Culture of Organization, ‘Contractual Boundaries’ and ‘Knowledge Management System’ (policies and strategies of organization) are identified as the main challenges. Having an ‘open environment’ and ‘clear liability of project members for sharing knowledge at different phases of project’ are two of identified CSFs, which will assist project managers to enhance the KI process within construction projects undertaken through the TPS

Tacit knowledge integration within the traditional construction procurement system

Knowledge management is a broad concept that has been investigated in many disciplines. Tacit knowledge management is more important in construction industry where common issues exist between the design and construction phase. However, most knowledge is embedded in the minds of professions and based on experiences they achieved from project. The successful completion of a project requires a rigorous understanding of each stage of project lifecycle that can be enhanced through integrating knowledge between project members, in terms of capturing and sharing knowledge between project members, and transferring it to the next project. Due to the temporary nature of construction projects, people who work on these project tend to disperse after completion of the project. This means the knowledge and experiences they achieved through project will be wasted, if it is not captured and shared structurally across project. Within this context, the failure to integrate knowledge will result in increasing the possibility of ‘reinventing the wheel’, which means spending more time and cost. The rational that led to this study came as a result of increasing interest in the need for tacit knowledge integration, in terms of capturing, sharing and transferring knowledge, especially within construction project undertaken through the traditional procurement system, because this system is based on the separation of the design and construction phase. The aim of this research is to develop a framework on how to integrate tacit knowledge in terms of capturing, sharing and transferring, within a construction project undertaken through the traditional procurement system. This is done through conducting documentary survey, experts’ survey and case studies sample within the UK construction industry. The documentary survey was used to form researcher’s background information and develop a conceptual framework which would be then taken to real life situation to investigate, gather relevant information and understand the perceptions and values of stakeholders in using knowledge integration within construction projects. Furthermore, an experts’ survey (expert’s interviews) was used to collect qualitative data through interviews with four experts. These experts were from both academia and industry, and they were selected based on their experiences and engagement in the traditional-based construction projects. Multiple-case holistic design was selected for conducting this research, in order to provide credibility to the research outcome. There is only one unit of analysis that is needed to study in order to explore the approaches and techniques that were used by construction organisations for tackling challenges in the process of tacit knowledge integration. Two case studies were selected to reflect the building sector within construction industry. The projects were complex, large and costs over £5m. The selected case studies differ in that one of them is completed project and the other is an ongoing project at construction phase. As most of the problems and errors occurred in project lifecycle are related to designing phase, the cases were selected from same organisation involved at designing phase in order to analyse and compare the process of knowledge integration. Furthermore, an online open-end questionnaire was conducted to collect experts’ opinion on the developed framework. The questionnaire was distributed among 180 experts. In this research the target population was professionals who were involved and experienced in the traditional-based construction project in the UK construction industry. Research findings highlighted three main challenges for integrating tacit knowledge within the traditional construction project which are Organisational Culture, Contractual Boundaries and Knowledge management system (strategies and policies). The Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for tackling these challenges and required techniques for structurally implementing the process of tacit knowledge integration are identified. Furthermore, it is concluded that BIM technology can be used and enhanced the process of tacit knowledge integration, if the two-stage process traditional procurement is adopted. This means construction contractors should be involved in project before the completion of designing phase. Building on the research findings, this research offers a framework, with a guideline, on how to integrate tacit knowledge, in terms of capturing, sharing and transferring, within the traditional construction project

SPARC 2017 retrospect & prospects : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2017 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the 50th anniversary of Salford as a University, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 130 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to exploit this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas to your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers