Analysis of Formwork System Selection Criteria for Building Construction Projects: A Comparative Study

The formwork system (FWS) in reinforced concrete (RC) construction is a critical component. The appropriate FWS is selected based on a number of conflicting and compromising criteria, and the selection of the FWS is carried out by construction professionals with different technical and/or administrative backgrounds. The perspectives and perceptions of construction professionals and companies involved in the FWS selection process may vary depending on their motives. In addition, some building structural parameters may have a significant impact on the FWS selection criteria. Most of the former studies investigated the FWS selection criteria from only the perspective of contractors and neglected the potential differences in the perspectives and perceptions of different construction professionals (i.e., owners (CO), project managers (PM), construction managers (CM), site engineers (SE), planning engineers (PL), procurement engineers (PR), technical office engineers (TO), and formwork design and/or formwork sales engineers (FD/FSL)) and companies specialized in different fields (i.e., project management service (PMS), engineering and design (ENG/DSG), formwork and scaffolding (FW/SCF), and general and/or sub-contractor (GC/SC)) regarding this issue. Moreover, the impact of building structural parameters on the FWS selection criteria has not been investigated. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap through analysing the FWS selection criteria for building construction projects while comparing the perspectives and perceptions of different groups of construction professionals and companies and investigating how FWS selection criteria are affected by the building structural parameters. Based on a comprehensive literature review, 35 FWS selection criteria were identified and a questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire data obtained from 222 Turkish construction professionals were statistically analysed using mean score analysis, the Kruskal–Wallis test, and the Mann–Whitney U test. According to the study’s findings, the FD/FSL group presented significant statistical differences regarding the FWS selection criteria as compared to the CO, PM/CM/SE, and PL/PR/TO groups. Moreover, the total area of building construction and total building height significantly affected the FWS selection criteria. This study serves to underscore the perspectives of various groups of construction professionals and the critical connection between the structural parameters and FWS selection criteria. The findings of this study may guide construction professionals to select the appropriate FWS for their building construction projects

Formwork System Selection in Building Construction Projects Using an Integrated Rough AHP-EDAS Approach: A Case Study

The successful completion of reinforced concrete (RC) building construction projects depends, in part, on selecting the appropriate formwork system (FWS) since it may significantly affect the project’s cost, time, and quality performance factors. The selection of the FWS depends on a number of compromising and conflicting criteria, while several FWS alternatives may be available. Therefore, the FWS selection has mostly been treated as a multi-criteria-decision-making (MCDM) problem. Although various MCDM methods have been employed to address the FWS selection problem, none have considered the subjectivity and uncertainty arising from a group decision-making process. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by proposing an integrated approach using recently developed MCDM methods with rough numbers. In the integrated approach, first, a decision-making team is formed to develop the decision hierarchy. Then, the rough analytic hierarchy process (R-AHP) is used to determine rough criteria weights, followed by the rough evaluation based on the distance from average solution (R-EDAS) method to rank the FWS alternatives. Finally, the results are compared using different rough MCDM methods to ensure the stability of the proposed approach. The proposed approach is applied to a real-life building construction project in Turkey to select the most appropriate FWS. The integrated approach was found to be effective, and it was recommended to be used for future FWS selection problems. The proposed integrated approach in this study may be used as a decision support tool for construction professionals and experts to select the FWS in building construction projects

Analysis of Formwork System Selection Criteria for Building Construction Projects: A Comparative Study

The formwork system (FWS) in reinforced concrete (RC) construction is a critical component. The appropriate FWS is selected based on a number of conflicting and compromising criteria, and the selection of the FWS is carried out by construction professionals with different technical and/or administrative backgrounds. The perspectives and perceptions of construction professionals and companies involved in the FWS selection process may vary depending on their motives. In addition, some building structural parameters may have a significant impact on the FWS selection criteria. Most of the former studies investigated the FWS selection criteria from only the perspective of contractors and neglected the potential differences in the perspectives and perceptions of different construction professionals (i.e., owners (CO), project managers (PM), construction managers (CM), site engineers (SE), planning engineers (PL), procurement engineers (PR), technical office engineers (TO), and formwork design and/or formwork sales engineers (FD/FSL)) and companies specialized in different fields (i.e., project management service (PMS), engineering and design (ENG/DSG), formwork and scaffolding (FW/SCF), and general and/or sub-contractor (GC/SC)) regarding this issue. Moreover, the impact of building structural parameters on the FWS selection criteria has not been investigated. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap through analysing the FWS selection criteria for building construction projects while comparing the perspectives and perceptions of different groups of construction professionals and companies and investigating how FWS selection criteria are affected by the building structural parameters. Based on a comprehensive literature review, 35 FWS selection criteria were identified and a questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire data obtained from 222 Turkish construction professionals were statistically analysed using mean score analysis, the Kruskal–Wallis test, and the Mann–Whitney U test. According to the study’s findings, the FD/FSL group presented significant statistical differences regarding the FWS selection criteria as compared to the CO, PM/CM/SE, and PL/PR/TO groups. Moreover, the total area of building construction and total building height significantly affected the FWS selection criteria. This study serves to underscore the perspectives of various groups of construction professionals and the critical connection between the structural parameters and FWS selection criteria. The findings of this study may guide construction professionals to select the appropriate FWS for their building construction projects

Formwork Systems Selection Criteria for Building Construction Projects: A Critical Review of the Literature

Formwork system (FWS) is one of the key components in reinforced concrete (RC) construction. Therefore, selection of the most appropriate FWS plays a critical role in the project success. Since the FWS selection is affected by several compromising and conflicting criteria, numerous studies have been carried out to identify the FWS selection criteria and/or have employed various multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods since the early 1990s. However, there is no research that conducts a critical review of the previous studies addressing the FWS selection criteria in building construction projects. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap. For this purpose, a critical review of the relevant literature was carried out using an integrative approach and the findings were validated through face-to-face interviews with professionals specialized in formwork engineering. The findings of this study may provide practitioners with a useful guide that can assist them in selecting the most appropriate FWS.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author