The Acquisition of Knowledge and Expertise in Construction: Understanding Construction Professionals

Education programs these days especially in Construction Management have been designed and updated to response to market and stakeholder needs. However, there still exists a need for educators to understand how construction practitioners develop their expertise. Understanding the development of expertise is essential for providers of university education and training to enable them to develop programs to establish on which new professionals can better develop their appropriate expertise. This paper builds on earlier research and further explores how expertise develops in construction professionals. It also explores the similarities and differences in development of that expertise in construction practitioners from the perspective of knowledge from various regions, which includes Thailand, Australia and Ireland, through the use of interviews with active and experienced construction professionals. To understand how construction practitioners’, gain and use knowledge in their career can offer further extension to theorising about expertise in construction and through active application of this knowledge in courses and programs in AEC, enabling productive communication between industry and academia. AEC graduates in the future will need to be highly technical, adaptable, collaborative, good communicators and lifelong learners. The goal of creating those experiences that address these competences provides the modern academic with many challenges and those in industry have much to contribute to making this challenge more focused and appropriate

Re-use of domain knowledge to increase adoption of off-site manufacturing for construction in Australia

Many construction industry decision-makers believe there is a lack of off-site manufacture (OSM) adoption for non-residential construction in Australia. Identification of construction business process was considered imperative in order to assist decision-makers to increase OSM utilisation. The premise that domain knowledge can be re-used to provide an intervention point in the construction process led a team of researchers to construct simple base-line process models for the complete construction process, segmented into six phases. Sixteen domain knowledge industry experts were asked to review the construction phase base-line models to answer the question “Where in the process illustrated by this base-line model phase is an OSM task?”. Through an iterative and generative process a number of off-site manufacture intervention points were identified and integrated into the process models. The re-use of industry expert domain knowledge provided suggestions for new ways to do basic tasks thus facilitating changes to current practice. It is expected that implementation of the new processes will lead to systemic industry change and thus a growth in productivity due to increased adoption of OSM

Analysing business processes to manage and resolve strategic issues in a manufacturing business

This paper demonstrates the value of applying heuristics to knowledge systems of business processes in a manufacturing company to resolve strategic issues and enable the attainment of strategic business goals. The manufacturing company was losing market share through not being able to get its new products to market quickly enough. The research illustrates the &lsquo;location&rsquo; and use of information systems in a manufacturing context. The researchers collected the specific business process knowledge in the company and developed a knowledge management system and then applied heuristics to the &lsquo;AS IS&rsquo; manufacturing process to determine better models of manufacturing that would enable faster to market product development and thus enable better strategic alignment between company expectations and realisation of market share. The paper highlights the strategic use of information systems as a means of directly solving business problems.<br /

Differentiated power perceptions in construction projects - Thai case studies

Through a lens of power as discourse and using a deconstruction of those discourses, the research identifies the differential perceptions of power and associated roles of the various stakeholders in Thai construction industry projects and how these perceptions of power affected decisions made, and project progress, in three case studies. This research applied an interpretivist approach by means of interpretation of actions and meanings of studied actors (stakeholders in Thai AEC industry case studies) according to their own subjective frame of reference by using multiple case studies as a means of research methods. The interview questions were focused on power relations between all stakeholders in construction processes in each case study. Results showed that there are differentiated perceptions of power which alter dynamically across the three Thai construction projects creating a complex environment of decision-making within each project. Thai construction stakeholders have different perception of power and associated roles in construction projects. A downstream stakeholder such as contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers have perception that client (owner of the projects) has power to control everything in the project. While upstream stakeholders think that the designer and consultant has more power to control the project. The subsequent decisions made are based on the varied perceptions of power during the construction projects and each has an impact on the design of buildings. The sustainability and innovation aspects in the project designs often are neglected by decisions made based on financial aspects where power is concentrated with non-technical stakeholders. The perception of power that each stakeholder perceives are different, often ending with conflict in the construction projects resulting in increases in project time, stage delays, poor working relationships, increased costs and sometimes poor delivery outcomes

Issues created by construction information differentiation: an Australian case study

Information is one of the vital assets required for operational effectiveness in construction organizations and construction projects. If information is utilized effectively in the construction process, it will facilitate users to plan, operate, and make decisions to maximize benefits. This paper reports the information management practices amongst stakeholders during the inspection stage in a building construction project for an Australian urban-based university. The study explores how specific information was generated, recorded, disseminated, used and stored during the inspection stage of a complex construction process differentially through the roles of architects and builders and how IT played a key role in resolving contested use of construction information. Data was collected through document analysis, shadowing, observations, photography, and one-on-one interviews with builders and architects involved directly in the inspection of the building. The research shows that information was generated, stored and reused through both personal and enterprise information management practices using different IT systems; that stakeholder’s tacit knowledge played an important role affecting how the information was generated, stored and reused; and that the complexity of information and dynamic nature of procurement method used in this project had an impact on how information was utilized during the inspection process

CAPTURE, ANALYSE AND DECIDE: USING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AS A STRATEGIC TOOL IN REFRIGERATION PRODUCT DESIGN

Getting products to market in a timely manner offers companies the opportunities of competitive advantage. To achieve `timely delivery in a knowledge-based industry requires more than simply capturing knowledge and storing it for re-use. The use of knowledge management systems, it is argued can be use strategically to improve make-span processes and thus enable competitive advantage. This research of a commercial refrigeration manufacturing company shows that knowledge, both explicit and tacit, can be captured and then stored in a knowledge management system. This KMS can then be mined effectively, with both the KMS and knowledge mining process resolving the identified strategic business problems

Transforming strategy: analytical information systems and the resolution of strategic business issues - a case study

Building on arguments by Nolan (2012) and Ward (2012) about the need for impact studies of strategic information systems and a better understanding of the transformative effects of information systems on strategy, this paper focuses on providing a method to transform strategy in businesses using information systems as the base. This paper demonstrates the impact and value of using an information system to assist a manufacturing company address identified strategic issues of improving the speed of product development and, through getting new products to market more efficiently, improving the company’s competitive position in the marketplace. The paper shows the transformative strategic value of applying heuristics to business processes captured in information systems in a manufacturing company. The manufacturing company was losing market share through not being able to get its new products to market quickly enough. As a result, the company was not reaching its intended business targets. The researchers collected the specific business process information and knowledge in the company and developed an information and knowledge management system. A heuristic was then applied to the manufacturing process to determine better models of product development and manufacturing that would enable faster to market product development and thus enable better strategic alignment between company expectations and realisation of market share, transforming the business strategy of the company. The paper demonstrates the value and impact of strategic use of information systems as a means of directly solving business problems through information analysis

Field investigations on thermal comfort in university classrooms in New South Wales, Australia

Ensuring thermal comfort in educational buildings is essential for improving students’ learning and productivity performance. This study aims to analyse the thermal comfort level of students and empirically define the preferred and neutral temperatures for higher education students in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Statistical analyses are carried out based on 154 student responses from three selected classrooms across the summer and winter seasons. Students were requested to complete the ASHRAE questionnaires about their thermal responses during the lecture time, and the indoor thermal conditions were recorded. The results indicate that the mean comfort votes by students were around slightly cool, with 76.9% of comfort votes ranging from -1 (slightly cool) to +1 (slightly warm). The regression analyses show that the neutral and preferred operative temperatures of NSW students were 27.5 °C and 23.7 °C, respectively. The preferred temperature of students is within the ASHRAE comfort range (20.0–26.0 °C). The findings show the applicability of the ASHRAE 55 standard to students in classrooms in climate zone 5, Australia. Increasing the ASHRAE’s minimum acceptable range from 20 °C to 23.7 °C can improve indoor thermal comfort and reduce building energy usage. This study contributes to a better understanding of acceptable indoor temperature in educational buildings in NSW, Australia

Optimal configuration of architectural building design parameters for higher educational buildings

In architectural building design, finding an equilibrium between energy consumption and thermal comfort poses a challenge due to their inherent conflict. To effectively incorporate both aspects, their integration into the decision-making process is crucial. This study demonstrates the optimization of architectural building design parameters for a single-story educational building within a warm temperate climate in New South Wales, Australia. A meticulous validation process was undertaken using the Monte Carlo approach and scrutinizing 2,000 distinct scenarios for each parameter. This validation compared simulation outcomes with field-measured data, confirming the model’s prediction accuracy. The optimization endeavour employed the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm to facilitate multiobjective optimization , working with the Pareto front solution. When compared with the baseline building simulation model, the optimized architectural design parameter configuration yields significant reductions of up to 24% in total EC and up to 16.5% in thermal discomfort hours