The 9th International Conference on Engineering,

Project, and Production Management (EPPM2018)

Protea Hotel by Marriott® Cape Town Waterfront Breakwater Lodge,
Cape Town, South Africa, 24-26 September 2018

PROCEEDINGS

Edited by:
John-Paris Pantouvakis – National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Łukasz Nazarko – Białystok University of Technology, Poland
Bo Terje Kalsaas – University of Agder, Norway
Chien-Ho Ko – National Pingtung University of Science and Technology

© Association of Engineering, Project, and Production Management (EPPM-Association)

has the copyright for the papers.

Correspondence:
All correspondence pertaining to the EPPM 2018 Conference should be sent to:

John Smallwood
Department of Construction Management
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa

E-mail: John.Smallwood@mandela.ac.za

1
 CONTENTS
AUTHOR INDEX
FOREWORD
EDITORIAL
ORGANISERS

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
HOSTS
KEYNOTES
1. THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT ....................... 15
Assessing the performance of Polish Regional Funds for Environmental Protection and Water
Management using DEA model
Joanicjusz Nazarko, Ewa Chodakowska
Assessment of Technology Improving the Quality of Life of Older Adults
Katarzyna Halicka
A Comparative Study on New Product Development Projects: Supplier-client Partnerships in
Manufacturing Industry
Vuyo T. Hashe
Current Situation and Development of Green Building Rating System in Myanmar
May Lwin and Kriengsak Panuwatwanich
Identifying Critical Success Factors through Interactive Management
Nien-Tsu Tuan
Predicting the Length of a Post-accident Absence in Construction with Boosted Decision Trees
-Piechna
Rough Sets and DEA a Hybrid Model for Technology Assessment
Ewa Chodakowska Joanicjusz Nazarko
2. THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT ................................. 84
A New Strategy for Enhancing Engineering Practical Teaching through the Development
of Infrastructure Learning Hub (ILH)
Hesham S. Ahmad, Wejdan Abu-Elhaija and Yousef Qandoos
Adoption of Sustainable Construction Practices in the Zambian Construction Industry
Douglas Aghimien, Clinton Aigbavboa, Ayodeji Oke and Chanda Musenga
Assessment of the Impact of Skills Acquisition on the Productivity of Nigerian
Construction Craftsmen
Ferdinand Fidelis Ayegba, Adeagbo Dorcas and Calistus Ayegba
Assessment of Planning in the Execution of Construction Projects in Akure, South-West Nigeria
Kehinde Alade, Victor Olabode, Olawale Ojo and Abimbola Windapo
Attributes That Determine the Building Information Modelling Capability Maturity of Quantity
Surveying Practice
Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu, Lamine Mahdjoubi, Patrick Manu and Clinton Aigbavboa
Building Maintenance Practices in Private Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria
Douglas Aghimien, Clinton Aigbavboa and Ayodeji Oke
Composite Criticality in Machinery Fleet Management of Construction Projects
John-Paris Pantouvakis and Alexander Maravas
Container depot location problem in the frame of the Polish part of the New Silk Road
Katarzyna Anna Kuzmicz and Erwin Pesch
Container truck transportation routing as a Mixed Fleet Heterogeneous Dial-a-Ride Problem
Mohamed Amine Masmoudi, Katarzyna Anna Kuzmicz, Erwin Pesch, Emrah Demir and Manar Hosny
Evaluation of an OBCE Conversion Contract in a Large-scale Oil and Gas Project
Ruveyda Komurlu and Akin Er
Drone Use & Issues within the Construction Industry
John Nagel, Amelia Saul and Syed M. Ahmed
Improving Formwork Using Lean Tools
Chien-Ho Koand Jiun-De Kuo
Key Factors Influencing Multimodal Transportation of Natural Block Rubber in Thailand
Pimnapa Pongsayaporn, Thanwadee Chinda and Veeris Ammarapala
Organisational Attributes that Determine Integrated Safety, Health and Environmental
Management Capability
Millicent Asah-Kissiedu, Patrick Manu, Colin Booth and Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu
Performance of Framework Contract Projects in South Africa
Calistus Ayegba and David Root
Project management as an anti-planning measure for the efficient preparation and implementation of
the urban development plans in developing countries
Dillip Kumar Das
Project management challenge linked delay of real estate projects in India
Dillip Kumar Das
Relationship Investigation of Organizational Agility Characteristics and Portfolio Management
Maturity
Nick Hadjinicolaou, Jantanee Dumrak and Sherif Mostafa
Remanufacturing of electric vehicles: Challenges in production management
Achim Kampker, Johannes Triebs, Ansgar Hollah and Andreas Unruh
Risk Response Strategy Analysis
Austin Pederson, Amelia Saul and Syed M. Ahmed
Strategic Risk Management among Small Enterprises in the Construction Industry
Tlangelani Baloyi and Aghaegbuna Ozumba
Success Factors for Effective Contractor-led Stakeholder Relationship Management: Perspectives from
the Botswana Construction Industry
Marian Taimu, Bankole Awuzie and Alfred Beit Ngowi
Sustainability in Project Management Practice
Aghaegbuna Ozumba, Tasmiyah Chothia, Zanoxolo Booi and Nikiwe Madonsela
TALK Capability of Biomimicry for Disruptive and Sustainable Output in the Construction Industry
Olusegun Aanuoluwapo Oguntona and Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa
Technical Enablers of Human Errors and Violations in Construction
Fidelis Emuze and Lesiba Mollo
The Contribution of Project Team Personal Competence to Sustainable Outcomes
in Development Projects
Jantanee Dumrak, Sherif Mostafa and Nick Hadjinicolaou
3. THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT ...................... 353

management maturity
Virginia Shahida Ngonda and Larry E. Jowah
An Approach to increase flexibility in automobile body shops through component-integrated fixture
functions
Achim Kampker, Johannes Triebs and Jan Ole Hansen
Evaluation of Supply Chain Performance, Productivity and Efficiency in Small Scale Industries
Rahul Basu
Investigation of Delay and Cost Overrun of Construction Projects in the Jordanian Public Sector
Maha D. Ayoush, Majed S. Al-Alwan and Hesham S. Ahmad
Occupational Health (OH) Practices in South African Construction
John Smallwood and Claire Deacon
The Role of Construction Project Managers (CPMs) in Construction Health and Safety (H&S)
Winn-Yam Ayessaki and John Smallwood
4. INTEGRATION OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
.......................................................................................................................................................... 410

hanaian construction industry

Matthew Kwaw Somiah, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa and Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
An Approach for Integrating Mixed Reality into BIM for Early Stage Design Coordination
Abhinesh Prabhakaran, Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu, Lamine Mahdjoubi and Patrick Manu
Collaborative Risk Management within the Design Phase of Green Buildings
Lungie Maseko and David Root
Development of a Dynamic Model of Quality Performance in Thai Construction Industry
Thanwadee Chinda, K. Sittimak, N. Thalaengkij, P. Chaiyapong, P. Sornpasit and W. Ketnak
Does proximity to tourist sites affect the rental value of residential properties?
Empirical evidence from Nigeria
Olalekan Oshodi, Oyewale Oyedeji and Clinton Aigbovboa
Empirical Study of the Impact of Delays on Road Construction Projects in Nigeria
Monsuru Oyenola Popoola, Olanrewaju Ahmed Apampa and Oladapo Samson Abiola
Identifying Barriers of Sustainable Construction: A Nigerian Case Study
Ohiomah Ifije and Clinton Aigbavboa
The Intelligent use of RFID and BIM in Prefabricated, Prefinished, Volumetric
Construction Work Flow
Ernest L S Abbott and David K H Chua
5. INTEGRATION OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................................ 489
Causes and Impact of Human Error in Maintenance of Mechanical Systems
Mfundo Nkosi, K Gupta and M Mashinini
Design Approach for Quality Improvement and Cost Reduction:
A Case Study of Cable Manufacturing
Chukwuebuka .M. U-Dominic and Harold .C. Godwin
Holistic Assessment of Intelligent Technologies: Top
Krzysztof Ejsmont
Modelling and Simulation of a Shearcut Process Flow at a Steel Processing Company
Khelina Swate, Goodwell Muyengwa and Yvonie N. Mawane
Productivity Improvement in a Vegetable Canning Manufacturing Facility
Thabiso Malatji and Goodwell Muyengwa
Tension between Productivity and Respect for People in Construction
Lesiba George Mollo, Fidelis Emuze and Nicholus Sishuba
The efficient and precision nature within the Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) and Industry 4.0
technologies in industry operations
Andre Vermeulen, Jan-Harm Pretorius and Albert Viljoen
6. INTEGRATION OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
.......................................................................................................................................................... 562
A South African Perspective on Construction Contract Management
Hendri du Plessis and Pierre Oosthuizen
An Investigation of Mixed Reality Technology for Onsite Construction Assembly
Austin DaValle and Salman Azhar
Analysis of Outbound Logistics Channels for Construction Material in North-Central Nigeria
Polycarp Olaku Alumbugu, Winston MW Shakantu and Abel John Tsado
Pavement Deterioration Rate and Maintenance Cost for Low-Volume Roads
Turki I. Al-Suleiman (Obaidat), Subhi M. Bazlamit, Mahmoud Azzam and Hesham S. Ahmad
Time and Cost Performance of Fixed Price Building Contracts in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria
Joshua Mangvwat, Duga Ewuga and Yohanna Izam
7. INTEGRATION OF TRIPLET ENGINEERING, PROJECT, AND PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................................ 612
A Critical Perspective on Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) Applied in a Norwegian
Public Hospital Project
Bo Terje Kalsaas, Una Obiose Kriston Nwajei and Christine Bydall

Ghanaian construction industry

Matthew Kwaw Somiah, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa and Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
Green Bridge Technical Proposal
Slawomir Karas
Responsible Innovation in Industry - Concept and Measurement
 AUTHOR INDEX

Alumbugu

Shakantu

Somiah

Tsado

Karas

6
 FOREWORD

The Department of Construction Management, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University,

and the Department of Built Environment, Central University of Technology Free State
are delighted to host the 9th Conference of the Association of Engineering, Project,
and Production Management in South Africa in 2018. South Africa is a developing
country, on the verge of major infrastructure development, and the role of production
in the economy, the conference is of particular importance.

A range of thanks are due to the Organising Committee, Scientific Chairs, Scientific
Committee, editors of the proceedings, keynote speakers, international community
in the form of the authors of the papers, Ms Leandra Jordaan, the conference website
Administrator, and Mrs Mariana Botes, the conference secretary.

John Smallwood & Fidelis Emuze

Conference Chairs

7
 EDITORIAL
The 9th International Conference on Engineering, Project, and Production Management
constitutes another step in establishing EPPM conferences as globally recognised fora
where researchers and practitioners meet to discuss current phenomena, emerging trends
and future development directions in engineering, project and production management.

The proceedings of th conference include 64 papers that have been carefully

selected through a rigorous double-blind review process. These papers address theories
and applications of engineering management, project management and production
management as well as the integration of these areas.

The papers present a wide range of approaches and methodologies adopted to answer
research questions that emerge in the fields covered by the conference. The topics well
reflect the transformation of engineering and management that is taking place under the
umbrella term of Industry 4.0. The authors are well aware of an increasingly intimate
relation of products and services, blending of the real and virtual and the growing
complexity of stakeholder interactions in engineering and business projects.
The conference participants tackled critical problems in engineering, manufacturing,
logistics and technology management related to innovation, performance, productivity,
maintenance, quality, risk, safety, sustainability, skills and competences.

In recognition of an outstanding contribution to science, the Best Paper Award was given
to the paper of an exceptional quality. At the initial stage, nine contributions were selected
based on the suggestions from the International Scientific Committee members who
reviewed all papers submitted to the conference. Next, Best Paper Final Review Selection
Panel headed by Dr Kassim Gidado evaluated the selected papers with a view on their
contribution to the body of knowledge, quality of argument, and quality of presentation.
As a result, paper entitled An investigation of Mixed Reality Technology for Onsite
Construction Assembly by Salman Azhar and Austin DeValle from Auburn University,
USA was chosen for the EPPM2018 Best Paper Award.

The Editors wish to express their gratitude to all authors, members of the International
scientific Committee, Keynote Speakers and the Organizing Committee for their great
effort. It is their contribution that makes this conference an important event that
strengthens the interdisciplinary links between engineering and management.

, Bo Terje Kalsaas, John-Paris Pantouvakis, Chien-Ho Ko

8
 ORGANISERS
Conference Chairs
John Smallwood, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa
Fidelis Emuze, Central University of Technology, South Africa

Scientific Chairs
Nazarko, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
Bo Terje Kalsaas, University of Agder at Grimstad, Norway
John-Paris Pantouvakis, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Organising Chairs
Fidelis Emuze, Central University of Technology, South Africa
Chien-Ho Ko, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

EPPM-Academy Head
Michael Oladokun, Central University of Technology, South Africa

EPPM-Industry Minister
John Smallwood, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa

Organising Committee
Mariana Botes, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa
Fidelis Emuze, Central University of Technology, South Africa
Leandra Jordaan, Central University of Technology, South Africa
Michael Oladokun, Central University of Technology, South Africa

EPPM-Association President
Kriengsak Panuwatwanich, Thammasat University, Thailand

All the papers in the conference proceedings were double-blind reviewed by members
of the International Scientific Committee. This process entailed detailed reading
of the papers, reporting of comments to authors, modification of papers by authors, and re-
evaluation of the revised papers The manuscripts were checked against plagiarism,
proofread and professionally edited to ensure the highest quality of the content.

9
 PEER REVIEW PROCESS
EPPM2018 welcomes all papers related to engineering management, project management,
and production management. To advance the cross-disciplinary sciences in these three
fields, a rigorous two-stage peer review process was applied to papers submitted to this
conference for possible publication. In the first stage, submitted abstracts were evaluated
by Scientific Chairs in terms of:

Relevance to conference theme and objectives;

Originality of material;
Academic rigour;
Research methodology, and
Contribution to knowledge.

Abstracts cannot fulfil above criterion were rejected by Scientific Chairs in the first peer
review stage. Authors, whose abstracts were tentatively accepted in the first stage, were
requested to submit full papers for further review. A double-blinded peer review process
was adopted in the second stage, in that authors were unware of reviewer identify and vice
versa. Each paper was reviewed by at least two acknowledged experts in the field. Authors

Evidence was required relative to the action taken by authors regarding the comments
received. These resubmitted and revised papers were re-reviewed again in terms of:

Relevance to conference theme and objectives;

Originality of material;
Academic rigour;
Research methodology and robustness of analysis of findings;
Contribution to knowledge;
Empirical research findings, and
Critical current literature review.

In the second review stage, authors were provided with additional comments and requested
to submit their revisions. The final accepted decision was rendered when Scientific Chairs
propriately responded to, having been
double peer-reviewed for publication. At no stage was any member of the Scientific Chairs
and International Scientific Committee involved in the review process related to their own
authored or co-authored papers. Finally, before publication, plagiarism software was used
to verify the originality of materials.

The role of the Scientific Chairs was to ensure that the final accepted papers incorporated
0 papers were finally
accepted at the conference representing acceptance rate of 38%.

10
 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Abbott,Ernest, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Adeli, Hojjat, Ohio State University, USA
Ahmad, Hesham, Al Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Jordan
Aretoulis, Georgios N., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Azhar, Salman, Auburn University, USA
Bazlamit, Subhi, Al Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Jordan
Chen, Yi-Jao, National University of Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Chileshe, Nicholas, University of South Australia, Australia
Chodakowska, Ewa, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
Chua, David K H, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Czarnigowska, Agata, Lublin University of Technology, Lublin, Poland
Ejdys, Joanna, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland

Gidado, Kassim, University of Brighton, UK

Gudanowska, Alicja, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
Halicka, Katarzyna, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
Huang, Hsiang-Hsi, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Ivanov,Dmitry, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany
Kalsaas, Bo Terje, University of Agder at Grimstad, Norway
Kanjanabootra, Sittimont, University of Newcastle, Australia
Kantianis, Dimitris, Panteion University, Greece
Kaplinski, Oleg, Poznan University of Technology, Poland
Kuzmicz, Katarzyna, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
Metallinos, Pavlos, Greek Open University, Greece
Mohamed, Sherif, Griffith University, Australia
Nassar, Ayman H., German University in Cairo, Egypt
Nazarko, Joanicjusz, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
Nazarko, Lukasz, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
Nikolaidis, Yiannis, University of Macedonia, Greece
Olszewska, Anna, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
Panas, Antonios, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Pantouvakis, John-Paris, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Panuwatwanich, Kriengsak, Thammasat University, Thailand
Pesch, Erwin, University of Siegen, Germany
Qu, Xiaobo, Griffith University, Australia
Saghatforoush, Ehsan, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Selih, Jana, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Siderska, Julia, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland
Skibniewski, Miroslaw J., University of Maryland, College Park, USA
Sutrisna, Monty, Curtin University, Australia
Teo, Melissa, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Turskis, Zenonas, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania
Ustinovicius, Leonas, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania
Wei, Hsi-Hsien, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Yangming, Luo, Guangxi Communication Investment Group, China

11
 HOSTS

Association of Engineering, Project, and Production Management

12
 KEYNOTES
Keynote 1
Jeremy Gibberd
Smarter and More Sustainable Built Environments in a Changing World

Keynote 2
Pierre Voges
Special Purpose Vehicles as a Model for Competitive Economic Development
in South African Cities

Keynote 3
Keith Cattell
The psychological well-being of construction professionals

Keynote 4
Austin DeValle and Salman Azhar
An Investigation of Mixed Reality Technology for On-Site Construction
Assembly

13
PAPERS

14
1. THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS
OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

15
[Paper ID 146]

Joanicjusz Nazarko1, Ewa Chodakowska2

Abstract
The public sector is under a growing pressure to increase its efficiency. Expectations from
the political authorities, local communities, stakeholders and media towards the public-
sector entities are high. Modern management methods must be introduced to meet them.
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is an important method used in comparative studies
of public sector efficiency.
Voivodeship Funds for Environmental Protection and Water Management
(VFEPWMs) are public entities that financially support actions aimed at environmental
protection and water management. Their task is to acquire and redistribute financial
resources to support projects related to the environmental protection. VFEPWMs face the
challenge of increasing the use of available funds and the efficiency of their use.
The paper presents the use of DEA method which is as a modern engineering
management tool to evaluate the VFEPWMs performance. In the DEA performance
analysis of VFEPWM, it is assumed that each unit may be characterised by their input
resources, effects, environmental variables and transformation processes that transform
resources into effects. VFEPWMs have better performance if they transform resources into
desirable effects (actions) more efficiently.
The results of the conducted analysis allow comparing the performance of particular
VFEPWMs, to identify model units and to develop benchmarking graphs. The analysis
is performed not only to assess the current level of VFEPWM performance, but also
to acquire information allowing to remove inefficiency.

1
Full Professor, Faculty of Engineering Management, Bialystok University of Technology, Wiejska 45A,
15-351 Bialystok, Poland, Tel. +48 85 7469880, E-mail: j.nazarko@pb.edu.pl
2
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering Management, Bialystok University of Technology,
Wiejska 45A, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland, Tel. +48 85 7469880, E-mail: e.chodakowska@pb.edu.pl

16
Introduction
In many countries various public services and public goods like infrastructure (Nazarko
et al., 2015), education (van Vught et al., 2008) or environmental protection
(The
plays a critical role in ensuring a desired quality level of the natural environment
(Cucchiella at al., 2017; Halkos and Paizanos, 201 et al., 2011). Voivodeship
Funds for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Poland (VFEPWMs) have
been set up to support the area of public tasks, which is the financial support for
environmental protection and water management. They collect but also redistribute funds
to projects that aim to protect the environment.

and

In addition, the dynamics of changes in the operational environment of organisations force

the funds to adapt flexibly to changes and challenges related to EU policies and its

et al., 2018) and to assess the performance

of the VFEPWMs, to look for benchmarks characterised by a relatively higher efficiency
in relation to others, and to search for good practices that can be applied.
VFEPWMs and NFEPWM are institutions financing environmental protection. They
are not focused on achieving financial profit, but on maximising the ecological effect.
In such cases, the use of typical profitability ratios would be inappropriate. This paper
responds to the need to demonstrate and test an effective method of the VFEPWMs
performance assessment. It also aims at indicating possibilities of the improvement
of effectiveness of public money expenditures on environmental protection.
The analysis was performed using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method.

of economy and administration as well as the non-profit sector (Emrouznejad and Yang,
2018, Halicka, 2017). The world literature on the DEA method has been extensive and is
constantly growing. More than 10 000 DEA articles have been published until the end of
2017, including both the application and innovative DEA models. Many publications have
been published regarding, among others, the assessment of the performance of banks,
education -
by DEA. Among others, the evaluation was given to countries
(Chodakowska and Nazarko,
2017, Halicka, 2018). The analysis of the rich scientific
literature suggests that DEA is a robust tool for the efficiency analysis of the public
administration units. The legitimacy and the utility of DEA application to such problems
is a grounded scientific opinion (Ahn, 2018, Mardani, 2018).

for Environmental Protection and Water Management. Authors evaluated changes in the
efficiency during 2011 2015. The presented dynamic analyses give a general idea of the
financial resources that are administered in relation to their redistribution in 16 VFEPWMs
over the time. NFEPWM operates on a much larger scale, carrying out as many tasks as all
voivodship funds together. At the same time, there are no other adequate entities for
benchmarking. The analysis of the performance of the Polish Regional Funds was
developed on the basis of their financial statements.

17
Methods and data consideration
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), introduced by Charnes et al. (1978), is a powerful
method for measuring the relative efficiency of a set of homogeneous decision-making
units (DMUs). DEA has proved to be a useful tool for assessing the performance of various
organisations and systems. The DEA assumes that each unit may be characterised by their
input resources, effects, environmental variables and processes that transform resources
into effects. The DEA evaluates systems with multiple inputs and outputs and provides
a synthetic indicator that considers the strengths of each analysed unit (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Concept of DEA input-output assessment

Mathematically, the idea of DEA for n DMUs, m different inputs and s different
outputs: , where j jO n; i m; r s can be written in the
form of equations (1). The standard variable return to scale input-oriented radial DEA
model (BCC-I DEA) for evaluating the efficiency of DMUjo is (Cooper et al., 2007):
(1)

where:
Xj = (x1j, x2j, x3j, , xmj) input vector,
Yj= (y1j, y2j, y3j, , ysj) output vector,

technologies in optimal j-

specificity of the funds should be considered. Revenues and outlays of the funds are
determined by legal regulations. Revenues of funds may include money from the state
budget, the European Union budget and other foreign sources. In addition, the funds may
receive income from issuing their own bonds and take out loans and borrowings. The
revenues of all funds can be used only for purposes related to environmental protection.
Environmental financing may take the form of interest-bearing loans, subsidies, including
subsidies for interest on bank loans, partial repayment of bank loans, interest subsidies or
redemption prices for bonds or subsidies for dismantling end-of-life vehicles.
As a basis for building a synthetic efficiency indicator using the DEA method,
variables controlled by the funds were selected. Interest income and the sum of loans and
subsidy financing were used as outputs (effects), operating costs as inputs, and revenue
from fees and penalties as an independent variable affecting the functioning of the fund.
The input-oriented model was chosen because it was assumed that operating costs should

of the considered variables; Table 2 gives the correlation coefficients between variables.

18
 Table 2. Variable statistics 2011 2015, [PLN]
Mean Min Max Std. err.
Operating expenses
X1 8 644 752 4 125 016 16 673 333 3 647 270
Interest income Y1, 15 016 582 2 447 673 41 289 166 10 307 955
Total financing Y2 152 746 257 18 835 909 493 728 292 104 927 149
Revenue from fees
and penalties Z1 38 318 964 5 102 928 132 490 672 30 018 183

Table 2. Correlation coefficients between variables in 2011 2015

X1 Y1 Y2
Z1 0.791 0.830 0.804
X1 0.772 0.817
Next, the analysis of the relationship between variables must be underlined. A high
correlation of variables can be noted. Operating costs are highly correlated with the total
funding d penalties
is highly correlated with interest income and the sum of financing.
Considering the above, the final model was accommodated with the value of the total
financing in relation to revenues from fees and penalties, the value of interest income
in relation to revenues from fees and penalties as output variables (effects), and, on the side
of input (resources), operating costs in relation to revenues from fees and penalties.

The DMUjo model scheme is shown in Fig. 2.

Table 3. Correlation coefficients between variables 2011 2015

Y1/Z1 Y2/Z1
X1/Z1 0.409 0.582
Y1/Z1 0.680

Figure 2. DEA model for assessing the performance of Polish Regional Funds for
Environmental Protection and Water Management
Since data includes ratio variables, non-linear corrected model suggested by
(Emrouznejad and Amin, 2009) in the presence of input-ratios and/or output-ratios with
modified convexity assumption was adopted. Altered input-oriented DEA BCC model with
input-ratio and output-
(2)

19
 It can be pointed out that due to the data assumptions there are no significant
differences in the final results between the model (1) and (2) but only in the technologies
benchmarks. The changes in productivity over time were measured using the productivity
index developed by Malmquist (1953) as a quantitative index of the use of inputs and first
et al. (1992). Its construction is based on a comparison
of the relation of inputs and outputs in time periods t and t + 1. Productivity changes over
time in Malmquist Index (MI) can be decomposed into changes in efficiency and
technology. The relative overall technical efficiency change (catch-up) for DMUjo
is defined as:
(3)
The frontier change between t and t + 1 is calculated as follows:
(4)
The overall MI is calculated by multiplying the overall efficiency change and technology
change at periods t and t + 1:

(5)
where:
the efficiency of a unit transforming input x into outputs y in period t,
the efficiency of a unit transforming input x into outputs y in period
t+1,
the efficiency of a unit in period t in relation to the frontier in period
t+1,
the efficiency of a unit in period t+1 in relation to the frontier in
period t.
The interpretation of MI is as follows: MI > 1 means an increase in productivity,
progress; MI < 1 decrease in productivity, regress; and MPI = 1 no change in productivity
at time t + 1 in comparison with t.

Results and discussions

The assessment of Polish regional funds for environmental protection and water
management using DEA model is presented in Table 4 and illustrated in Fig. 3.
Calculations were carried out with the use of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet designed
by the authors.
Table 4. Efficiency of VFEPWMs in 2011 2015 DEA BCC-I
Voivodeship Code 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
V1 56.90% 68.30% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%
V2 59.70% 74.10% 79.50% 91.20% 74.10%
V3 50.40% 59.60% 57.40% 90.20% 64.00%
V4 33.60% 36.20% 49.90% 40.20% 44.40%
V5 79.10% 88.20% 79.70% 78.80% 97.50%
V6 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%
V7 68.10% 60.10% 61.80% 60.40% 74.50%
V8 100.00% 100.00% 74.80% 100.00% 64.60%
V9 39.00% 43.10% 47.10% 44.80% 45.50%
V10 100.00% 29.70% 29.70% 26.70% 30.70%

20
V11 61.60% 64.70% 81.80% 58.30% 82.70%
V12 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%
V13 57.50% 61.20% 65.30% 63.40% 66.00%
V14 41.50% 22.80% 37.40% 25.30% 38.60%
V15 52.50% 56.10% 62.70% 56.50% 69.80%
V16 48.60% 50.80% 46.30% 55.90% 46.00%

Figure 3. Efficiency of 16 2015

Evaluation of funds using the BCC-I DEA model considering operational costs, interest
income and the sum of financing has emerged leaders, which in 2015 are funds in the
voivodships V1, V6 and V12. Too high operating costs in relation to revenue and the total
funding are observed in funds in V10 and V14 but also in V4, V9 and V16.
Perhaps, it would be worth reconsidering the idea of different financing of inefficient
funds, which have been characterised by the lowest revenues from fees and penalties.
An im
is the higher quality of the natural environment, a higher percentage of naturally valuable
-
financing projects in the field of biodiversity and landscape protection, resulting from the
need to maintain high environmental standards, exceeds the limited resources available
to these funds. Meanwhile, the return of funds to individual provincial funds is directly
proportional to payments made of environmental fees and penalties, whose amount

Malmquist index indicates that the leader in terms of change in the efficiency is V1.
In the analysed period, funds decreased only in V16 and V13. The number of funds that
recorded an increase in the efficiency is ten out of sixteen regional funds in 2015 and eight
in 2014. Particularly positive is the fact that the increase was noted in the funds with the
lowest efficiency, i.e. in V4, V10 and V14.

Table 5. Malmquist Index, technical efficiency change and the frontier change
of VFEPWMs in 2011 2015
MI TEC TC
Voivodeship
Code 2012 2013 2014 2015 2012 2013 2014 2015 2012 2013 2014 2015
V1 1.060 1.055 0.999 1.144 1.200 1.465 1.000 1.000 0.883 0.720 0.999 1.144
V2 1.009 0.894 1.136 0.794 1.242 1.072 1.147 0.813 0.813 0.834 0.991 0.977
V3 1.027 0.907 1.636 0.674 1.183 0.962 1.572 0.710 0.867 0.942 1.041 0.950
V4 0.980 1.391 0.688 1.111 1.077 1.377 0.806 1.104 0.909 1.011 0.853 1.006

21
V5 1.025 0.704 1.189 1.063 1.115 0.905 0.988 1.238 0.920 0.778 1.204 0.859
V6 0.929 0.779 1.041 1.049 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.929 0.779 1.041 1.049
V7 0.808 0.887 1.240 1.087 0.883 1.027 0.977 1.234 0.915 0.863 1.268 0.881
V8 1.096 0.814 1.053 0.673 1.000 0.748 1.337 0.646 1.096 1.088 0.788 1.043
V9 0.963 1.141 0.736 1.010 1.104 1.093 0.953 1.014 0.873 1.044 0.773 0.996
V10 0.289 1.439 0.654 1.023 0.297 1.002 0.900 1.146 0.973 1.436 0.726 0.892
V11 0.938 0.943 0.882 1.357 1.051 1.263 0.712 1.420 0.893 0.746 1.238 0.956
V12 0.795 0.675 1.294 0.874 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.795 0.675 1.294 0.874
V13 0.977 0.918 0.914 0.889 1.064 1.068 0.970 1.041 0.918 0.860 0.942 0.853
V14 0.547 1.873 0.532 1.465 0.550 1.639 0.676 1.527 0.994 1.143 0.786 0.959
V15 0.937 0.954 1.151 1.083 1.069 1.118 0.901 1.235 0.877 0.854 1.277 0.877
V16 0.941 0.973 0.876 0.690 1.044 0.913 1.207 0.822 0.901 1.066 0.726 0.839

Another advantage of DEA method is the possibility of using its results in the
benchmarking analysis. Benchmarking analysis allows to identify best practices in the fully
efficient units and to point at measures which would lead to the performance improvement
in the inefficient units. Benchmarking graph created on the basis of data from Table 6 is
presented in Fig. 4.

Table 6. Benchmarks for inefficient funds in 2015

Voivodeship
Code Benchmarks (code)
V1 1 1
V2 0.428 0.572 1 12
V3 0.453 0.547 6 12
V4 0.743 0.257 1 12
V5 0.173 0.827 1 12
V6 1 6
V7 0.113 0.887 1 12
V8 0.142 0.804 0.054 1 6 12
V9 0.335 0.379 0.286 1 6 12
V10 0.349 0.651 1 6
V11 0.623 0.377 1 12
V12 1 12
V13 0.601 0.399 6 12
V14 0.820 0.180 1 12
V15 0.171 0.829 1 12
V16 0.900 0.100 6 12

22
 Figure 4. Benchmark graph of 16 VFEPWMs in 2015
On the basis of the benchmarking graph fully efficient units may be identified. Their
technology is a model for the inefficient funds. Funds V1 and V12 draw special attention
as they are, together, benchmarks for most of the other inefficient VFEPWMs.

Conclusions
resources available. Efficiency improvement is often regarded as one of the most important

of the performance of Polish regional funds for environmental protection and water
management. The scale of financing operations of the funds can be described by the total
-
511 603 204 to projects related to the environmental
protection. Their operating costs amounted to PLN 1 254 044 150.
The DEA performance analysis of VFEPWM allowed to compare the performance
of particular funds and to indicate the ones that perform better and transform resources into
desirable effects more efficiently. The noted differences could serve as an argument for
government policy changes on the functioning of the funds and financing, but above all
should become an inspiration to limit the operating costs of VFEPWMs.

VFEPWMs. Benchmarking graph developed on the basis

of DEA analysis reveals that units V1, V6 and V12 may be treated as reference units and
that their practices should be a basis for improving performance of the remaining funds.
VFEPWMs

VFEPWMs
effectiveness should also include that dimension.

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Ahn, H., et al., 2018. Recent developments on the use of DEA in the public sector.
Editirial. - -

23
Charnes, A., Cooper, W.W., Rhodes, E., 1978. Measuring the efficiency of decision-
making units, European Journal of Operational Research, 2(6): 429-444.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(78)90138-8
Chodakowska, E. and Nazarko, J., 2017. Environmental DEA method for assessing
productivity of European countries. Technological and Economic Development
of Economy, 23(4): 589-607. http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2016.1272069
Cooper, W.W., Seiford, L.M. and Tone, K., 2007. Data Envelopment Analysis.
A Comprehensive Text with Models. Applications. References and DEA-Solver
Software. Second Edition. Springer.
Cucchiella, F., et al., 2017. A comparison of environmental and energetic performance
of European countries: A sustainability index. Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews 78, 401-413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.04.077
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performance measurement practices in construction companies in Egypt. Engineering
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Emrouznejad, A. and Amin, G.R., 2009. DEA models for ratio data: Convexity
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Emrouznejad, A., Yang G., 2018. A survey and analysis of the first 40 years of scholarly
literature in DEA: 1978-2016. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 61, 4-8.
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Analysis 3(1/2), 85-101. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00158770

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Halicka, K., 2018. The reference methodology of prospective analysis of technology

Project, and Product Management (EPPM 2017). Proceedings Lecture Notes in

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Halkos, G.E., Paizanos, P. ., 2013. The effect of government expenditure on the
environment: An empirical investigation. Ecological Economics 91, 48-56.
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and empirics. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 62(2), 180-198.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2011.03.001
Malmquist S., 1953. Index Numbers and Indifference Surfaces. ,
4(2), 209-242. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03006863
Mardani A., et al., 2018. Data Envelopment Analysis in Energy and Environmental
Economics: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Recent Development Trends.
Energies 11(8), 2002, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en11082002

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 T., 2015. Foresight Study of Road Pavement Technologies, Procedia Engineering Vol.
122: 129-136. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.10.016
Nazarko J,. Chodakowska E., 2017. Labour efficiency in construction industry in Europe
based on frontier methods: data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis,
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management 23(6), 787-795,
https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2017.1321577
Shabani, A., Saen, R.F. and Torabipour, S.M.R., 2014. A new data envelopment analysis
(DEA) model to select eco-
outputs. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 16(3): 513-525.
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Vught van, F., Brandenburg, U., Burquel, N., Carr, D., Federkeil, G., dos Santos Rafael,
J.A., Sadlak, J., Urban, J., Wells, P., Westerheijden, D., Nazarko, J., Kuzmicz, K.,
2008. A practical guide. Benchmarking in European Higher Education, ESMU,
Brussels.

25
[Paper ID 145]

Katarzyna Halicka1
Abstract
New technologies are beginning to play an increasingly important role in the lives of older
adults. In the near future, humanoid robots may begin to help people with care and provide
companionship. The global trend of the ageing population has instigated research aimed
at the development of robots with human-like intelligence, receiving stimuli from
the environment, able to make decisions and solve simple problems. The main aim
of the article is to assess the new technology that improves the quality of life of older
adults in terms of demand and socio-ethical aspects. Care robots were chosen from among
the variety of new technologies.

1
Faculty of Engineering Management, Bialystok University of Technology, Wiejska 45A, 15-351
Bialystok, Poland, E-mail: halicka.k@gmail.com

26
Introduction
Ageing of the population is a process characterised by an increase in the length of human
life, which promotes the development of products and services for older consumers and
ageing societies. Growing attention in this context is given to the concept of silver
economy, which in the literature is understood as a system based on adapting the
production and distribution of products and services to older adults and, consequently, to
all age groups.
The silver economy is often understood in a narrow sense as a silver market that
includes goods and services for older adults and solutions for older workers. However, this
approach can only lead to changes in marketing (mainly to create brands for the older
adults), while there is a need to focus also on solutions that will reduce age discrimination
and improve the quality of life of older adults. Thus, a wider approach to the silver
economy also includes education, research and development, the cross-sectoral
juxtaposition of goods and services from existing sectors and career opportunities in silver
industries . Silver industries in connection with the segments of the silver market include
health care, smart life (smart technologies), housing adaptations and life support services
based on information and telecommunications technologies (ICT), education and culture,
ICT, service robotics, mobility solutions etc. (Enste, Naegele & Leve, 2008; Moody &
Sasser, 2012; Ejdys, 2015).
Social innovations for ageing societies and gerontechnology can be recognised as key
elements common to these areas of the silver economy. The first term refers to new
strategies, concepts, products, services and organisational forms that are aimed at meeting
the needs emerging especially on the borderlands of various sectors of the social system
(O Sullivan, Mulgan & Vasconcelos, 2010). These are, for example, innovations emerging
at the crossroads of cooperation or competition between the public sector and the
commercial sector, the commercial sector and the non-governmental sector, the
commercial sector and the social economy sector or the informal sector. Examples of such
innovations include creative use of new technologies for the older adults, new models of
care, including the combination of formal and informal forms of support, the creation of
spaces conducive to building intergenerational relations and mobilising a network of trust
(social support circles, self-help groups). In turn, the second approach refers above all to
research on technologies as well as products and services dedicated to older adults that
help them in almost every aspect of their lives, especially in maintaining health and self-
esteem. (Burdick, 2007). Gerontechnology is the science of technology and ageing to
improve the everyday lives of older people (Graafmans J., V. Taipale, N. Charness,
1998). In the literature on the subject, the social aspect of this problem was first of all
related to the process of ageing (physical and mental dysfunctions increase with age). The
technological aspect has been marginalised, although one of the tasks of gerontechnology
is to plan research, design and market introduction of technologies useful to the older
adults. These technologies in line with the gerontechnology directives should, among
others, enable: (1) preventing problems, (2) increasing self-reliance without changing skills
and environment, (3) compensating for the loss of options if the facilities are unable to
provide them; (4) providing the service only if needed; (5) streamlining the existing
projects. To market this type of technology, it is necessary to identify the features of
technology, considering criteria such as their functionality, usability and ease of use,
marketing, technical, social and ethical aspects. It is also necessary to evaluate these
technologies in terms of different criteria. Until now, both in the world and in Poland, no
research has been carried out to assess these technologies (Nazarko, 2017; Radziszewski
et. al, 2017). The existing research results in foreign literature and concerns only the

27
degree of acceptability of the technologies used by older adults that improve their quality
of life. Marketing, technical, social and ethical aspects (criteria) are not considered
(Nazarko et al., 2015, Ejdys et al., 2016). Neither opinions of future potential users nor
their age and place of posting or education were considered. The main areas of
gerontechnology were, among others, as follow:
technologies supporting the functioning of older adults,
technologies accompanying the older adults,
emotions/mastery over them/recognition and mood regulation,
personalised adaptation of the environment,
social/caring cognitive robots and agents,
technologies guaranteeing entertainment for older adults,
smart telehealth, telemedicine and communication services,
social networks for the older adults.
This article assesses one of the many gerontechnologies social/caring humanoid
robots that care for the older adults. The main premise of the research was searching for
answers to the following questions: (1) Does age influence the assessment of humanoid
robotic technologies that take care of the older adults? (2) Does gender influence the
assessment of humanoid robotic technologies that take care of the older adults?

Methodology
Humanoid robots used for the care of the older adults were assessed regarding demand and
the socio-ethical aspect. The level of demand for this technology was verified using seven
statements (Halicka, 2017): D1: On the part of older adults, there is a need for care robots
supporting the older adults; D2: On the part of family members, there is a need for care
robots supporting the older adults; D3: On the part of institutions responsible for the care
of the older adults (e.g. nursing homes), there is a need for care robots supporting the older
adults; D4: The use of robots for the care of the older adults will be a source of additional
benefits for their users (24-hour attendance, 24-hour care, a sense of security), which are
unavailable through other solutions; D5: The global demand for care robots supporting the
older adults is associated with temporary fashion; D6: Using a robot to care for an older
adult will not require new, specialist knowledge; D7: The robot s appearance will have a
significant impact on the scale of its use in everyday life. In turn, in socio-ethical terms,
this technology was evaluated using the following five statements: S1: The widespread use
of robots in the care of the older adults will bring measurable social benefits; S2: The
widespread use of robots in the care of the older adults will create new jobs; S3: The
widespread use of robots in the care of the older adults will bring measurable benefits to
human health and the quality of human life; S4: The widespread use of robots in the care
of the older adults can be a source of social problems; S5: The widespread use of robots in
the care of the older adults can be the cause of moral dilemmas and doubts as to whether
robots can be entrusted with the care for the older adults.
To evaluate the technology, questionnaire surveys were carried out. The research took
place between March and April 2018 on a sample of 643 Poles. The respondents
represented all the voivodships of Poland. The electronic form of the survey was
distributed using social media and snowball sampling. The respondents evaluated the
assessment of the analysed technology using the 7-point Likert scale, where 1 it
definitely means I do not agree with the given statement, 7 I definitely agree.
Considering the fact that not all respondents were familiar with the concept of a humanoid
robot, robot in the questionnaire. In the sample structure, 32.7%
(210) of people were aged 18 25, 24.9% (160) were 26 40, 25.8% (166) were 41 60 and

28
16.4% (107) were over 60. All in all, 42% (270) respondents were men, and 58% (373)
were women.
Results
It was checked whether the age and gender of respondents influenced the technology
assessment.

Table 1. Values of statistics for technology assessment of personal care robots for older
adults in terms of demand (Source: Statistica 13
software)

Statistics of the Mann Whitney U Statistics of the ANOVA

Acronym test Kruskal Wallis test
U p T p
D1 47108.00 0.162578633 11.18819 0.0108
D2 48041.00 0.319672595 12.73677 0.0052
D3 49822.50 0.818997074 4.385920 0.2227
D4 49117.50 0.594667432 3.812452 0.2824
D5 49203.50 0.620534872 7.994963 0.0461
D6 44379.50 0.0101674892 3.775917 0.2867
D7 44966.00 0.0204598559 19.69931 0.0002
average
45947.00 0.05798092 4.171041 0.2436
grade

A critical significance level was assumed at p = 0.1. The non-parametric Mann

Whitney U test (Wilcoxon, 1945; Mann, Whitney, 1947) was used to study the effect of
gender on technology assessment. In turn, ANOVA Kruskal Wallis test was used to
examine the influence of age on technology assessment. Statistica 13 software was used in
the research.
Initially, the respondents assessed the demand for technologies. The values of statistics
for technology assessment in terms of demand are presented in Table 1.
Analysing Table 1, it can be noticed that the significant gender differences in the
assessment of the level of demand for personal care robots for older adults (p <0.1) only
occur in the case of statements D6 and D7. According to Table 1, statistically significant
differences depending on the age occur in the case of acceptance of drivers D1, D2, D5 and
D7 (p <0.1). In the case of other statements, no significant differences were observed
between the assessment of these statements and age.
The respondents also assessed the technology in terms of socio-ethical aspects
(Table 2).

Table 2. Values of statistics for technology assessment of personal care robots for older
adults in terms of socio-ethical aspects (Source:
Statistica 13 software)

Statistics of the Mann Whitney U Statistics of the ANOVA

Acronym
test Kruskal Wallis test

29
 U p T p
S1 47890.5 0.289205106 7.925149 0.0476
S2 45829.5 0.051608717 9.091852 0.0281
S3 45462.00 0.035338459 11.10373 0.0112
S4 48663.5 0.467000255 2.767013 0.4290
S5 50338.5 0.994508795 2.094907 0.5529
average
44351.00 0.00981330 6.949764 0.0735
grade

Analysing Table 2, statistically significant differences in relation to gender in the

assessment of this technology in terms of social-ethical aspects occur in the case of
assessing statements S2 and S3 (p <0.1). However, statistically significant differences
depending on age occur in the case of acceptance of statements S1, S2 and S3 (p <0.1). In
the case of other statements, no significant differences were observed between the
assessment of these statements and age.

Discussion
Detailed analysis of the responses in the context of the demand for technology revealed
that men found the appearance of a robot more important than women (D7). The average
value of answers for men was 5.3 while it amounted to 4.9 for women (Figure 1). There are
also different opinions depending on the sex in the assessment of the statement D6:
Using a robot to care for an older adult. The average value of answers was 3.8 for men and
3.3 for women.

D6: Using a robot to care f or an older adult will not require new, D7: The robot's appearance will hav e a signif icant impact on the
specialist knowledge scale of its use in ev ery day lif e
7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1
Woman Man Woman Man

Figure 1. Technology assessment of personal care robots for older adults in terms of
demand in gender groups selected answers (Source:
Statistica 13 software)

Figure 2 graphically illustrates the values of the acceptance response of selected

statements (statistically significant) regarding the technology assessment of personal care
robots for older adults in terms of demand in four age groups.

30
 D1: On the part of older adults, there is a need for care robots D2: On the part of f amily members, there is a need f or care
supporting the older adults robots supporting the older adults
7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1
1
age 26-40 age 41-60 age 18-25 over 60 age 26-40 age 41-60 age 18-25 ov er 60

D5: The global demand f or care robots supporting the older adults D7: The robot's appearance will hav e a signif icant impact on the
is associated with temporary f ashion scale of its use in ev ery day lif e
7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1
age 26-40 age 41-60 age 18-25 ov er 60 26-40 lat 41-60 lat 18-25 lat

Figure 2. Technology assessment of personal care robots for older adults in terms of
demand in four age groups selected answers (Source:
utilizing Statistica 13 software)

The analysis of Figure 2 revealed the smallest acceptance of the D1 statement

occurring among respondents aged 41 60 (the average score of 3.3), and the largest among
the participants aged 26 40 (the average assessment of the D1 statement amounting to
4.1). On the other hand, the D2 statement had the lowest acceptance among people over 60
(the average grade of 4.3), and the largest among the youngest participants of the study
(the average grade of 5.3). In the case of people aged 18 25 and 41 60, the acceptance of
this statement was similar (the average grade of 4.7). The D5 statement enjoyed the highest
acceptance among people aged 18 25 (the average grade of 3.4). The lowest assessment
was given by respondents of 26 40 (the average grade of 2.8). In turn, the D7 statement
was rated the lowest by the youngest respondents (the average grade of 4.8), and the
highest by respondents aged 41 60 (the average grade of 5.6).
On the other hand, analysing the responses regarding the assessment of technology in
terms of social-ethical aspects, it was noticed that the acceptance of S2 was greater among
men than women: the widespread use of robots in the care of the older adults would
contribute to the creation of new jobs (the average assessment for S2 was 3.4 for men and
3.1 for women). The average score for the S3 statement (The widespread use of robots in
the care of the older adults will bring measurable benefits to human health and the quality
of human life) was also statistically significant and amounted to 4.7 for men and 4.2 for
women (Figure 3).

31
 S2: The widespread use of robots in the care of the older adults S3: The widespread use of robots in the care of the older adults
will create new jobs will bring measurable benefits to human health and the quality of
7 human life
6,5
6 6,0
5,5
5
5,0
4 4,5
4,0
3 3,5
3,0
2
2,5
1 2,0
Woman Man Woman Man

Figure 3. Technology assessment of personal care robots for older adults in terms of socio-
ethical aspects in gender groups selected answers (Source:
utilizing Statistica 13 software)

Figure 4 graphically illustrates the response values for the socio-ethical aspects in four
age groups. The analysis of Figure 4 showed that the smallest acceptance of S1 was found
among respondents aged 18 25 (the average grade of 4.3) and 41 60 (the average grade of
4.3), while it was the largest among participants aged 26 40 (the average grade of the S1
statement amounting to 4.9). On the other hand, the S2 statement enjoyed the highest
acceptance among people over 60 (the average grade of 3.8), even though it was the lowest
among the youngest participants of the study (the average grade of 3.0). Statement S3 had
the highest acceptance among people aged 26 40 (the average grade of 4.9). It received the
lowest assessment from respondents aged 41 60 (the average grade of 2.9) and 18 25.

S1: The widespread use of robots in the care of the older adults S2: The widespread use of robots in the care of the older adults
will bring measurable social benef its will create new jobs
7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2
1
1
age 26-40 age 41-60 age 18-25 ov er 60 age 26-40 age 41-60 age 18-25 over 60

S3: The widespread use of robots in the care of the older adults
will bring measurable benef its to human health and the quality of
human lif e
7,0
6,5
6,0
5,5
5,0
4,5
4,0
3,5
3,0
2,5
2,0
age 26-40 age 41-60 age 18-25 ov er 60

Figure 4. Technology assessment of personal care robots for older adults in terms of socio-
ethical aspects in four age groups selected answers (Source:
utilizing Statistica 13 software)

32
Conclusions
This article assesses technologies of personal care robots for older adults in different terms.
The main premise of the research was searching for answers to the following questions: (1)
Does age influence the assessment of humanoid robotic technologies that take care of the
older adults? (2) Does gender influence the assessment of humanoid robotic technologies
that take care of the older adults? Considering the average values of the survey results, it
should be stated that the assessment of this technology in terms of demand as well as
socio-ethical aspects is influenced by the age and gender of respondents. A conclusion can
be made with a probability of 90% that the gender of a respondent influences the
assessment of technology in terms of technology demand and socio-ethical aspects. The
results of the research also allow making an observation with the same probability of 90%
that the age of a respondent influences the assessment of technology in terms of socio-
ethical aspects.
The results of the research tasks described in this article can be used as a knowledge
base for the development of technology cards of humanoids used in the care for the older
adults. In the cards, it is possible to collect and organise the most important information
regarding the analysed technology improving the quality of life of older adults. Further
scientific activities will include research efforts into the preparation of technology
development paths that improve the quality of life of older adults. Various aspects will be
considered, including usability, functionality and trust.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research was conducted within the S/WZ/1/2017 project and financed from the funds
of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

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80 83.

34
[Paper ID 81]

-
Vuyo T. Hashe1

Abstract
This paper was to investigate, explore and gain an understanding of the factors that enable
and support supplier-client collaboration in New Product Development Projects (NPDP)
within the South African manufacturing industry. This study was based on two case studies
where two NPDP within South African on two different firms were studied.
The predominant focus of this report was study the supplier involvement and relationship
factors, supplier selection factors, and cultural environment and collaboration factors.
The main data used was collected via interviews and internal company documents.
The collected data was then analysed and the outcome provided insight into the factors
and relationship between these factors. This study noted that firms can enter into
collaboration to accelerate product development process. This include enhancing the
ability for the firm to respond to key customer needs. Firms can make use of the
collaboration advantage where they see a market opportunity where their teams have less
to no expertise and skills required to capture the opportunity. In addition, research and
development costs stand to be reduced significantly, where the collaboration partner is
chosen effectively. This study concludes by seeing it as beneficial to firms to collaborate
with their suppliers under proper management.

1
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology, University of Johannesburg,
Cnr Siemert and Beit Street, Doornfontein, 2094, South Africa, 011 559 6097, vhashe@uj.ac.za

35
Introduction
Collaborations with suppliers in NPDP involves the amalgamation of the buyers and
suppliers. Research and development resources together with the expertise and capabilities
of each party are synchronized, to allow a strategic integration where both parties establish
a solid foundation for an effective working relationship (Dyer and Singh, 1998). The
buying firm's new product competitiveness is the one that provides support on the

supplier-
appropriate practices and processes to enable the selection of the suppliers possessing
matching competencies in NPDP (Dyer and Singh, 1998).
According (Dimancescu and Dwenger, 1996) many world-class manufacturers have
learned to involve suppliers early in the product development process. They understand

the keys to building competitive advantage and adding to the agility of the enterprise. The
Japanese set out early in the 1950s to build supplier networks, and a growing number of
Western-style supplier associations are reaping the benefits. For example, electronics firms
in and around Silicon Valley have pioneered a regional supplier agglomeration
(Dimancescu and Dwenger, 1996).
Literature from different industries indicate benefits from supplier-client collaboration
in generic product development to be significant. Birou & Fawcett, 1994 and Laura & E,
1994 argued that there are still an arguments between researchers and no conclusions can
be reached yet. They assert that buyers can benefit from involving suppliers early in the
development process. The benefits include effective and efficient support in areas where it
comes to time-to-market of new products. In addition, product quality can be improved
with savings on development cost and the overall product cost. Supplier-client
collaboration is reported as beneficial to the buying firm (Laura and E., 1994, Shum and
Lin, 2007). The buying firm stands to gain new competencies with shared risks, quick
market penetration and time-to-market shortened, and resources conservation is likely to be
seen.
According to Takeishi, 2002 companies that go on partnerships in NPDP with their

agreements are most likely to include shared responsibilities and risk for design and
development patents.

Literature reviews
There are multiple aspects to the requirements of successful collaboration. The literature
identifies these to be divided into three sections. The first section covers the supplier
involvement and relationship factors. This area covers the factors that are supportive to
collaboration efforts and the impact of these relationships. The second section covers the
supplier selection factors, these are necessary before deciding to enter into an agreement to
collaborate. Ensuring that the right partner is selected is vital and this is supported by
literature. The third section covers the cultural environment and collaboration. The
understanding of the culture of an organization and country could affect collaboration and
it is important to understand it. Collaboration is often referred to as strategic partnerships
between supplier and client. Literature covers collaboration (or partnership) under various
names and in this paper, the author investigated to understand the environmental and
driving factors.

36
Earlier research

1980s

The first research said to have focused specifically on supplier involvement in NPDP was
the study by (Takeuchi and Nonaka, 1986) in 1986. This research contributions where
based on Japanese companies looking at the same set of seven case studies. They looked at
dedicated suppliers describing their commitment to supplier networks. They also went on
to explain the superior performance by suppliers in NPDP.

1990s

A few more studies followed in the 1990s with the findings in the automotive industry
analyzing involvement of supplier in NPD. As the process goes on approaching the middle
of the 1990s, research saw a move away from the automotive industry. A study by
Bonaccorsi and Lipparini, 1994 appeared in a form of a case study at a food processing and
packaging company in Italy where (Bonaccorsi and Lipparini, 1994) saw benefits in the
partnership. Eisenhardt and Tabrizi, 1995 published one non-automotive study which
became one of the first non-automotive studies indicating that if technological uncertainty
is obvious then less suppliers in the partnership is critical.
Hartley and colleagues (Hartley et al., 1997) in their study concluded that collaboration
involving product design engineers and engineering managers in assembly industries can
add value if managed effectively

2000s

In NPDP where supplier selection and assessment was one element recommended
dominates the literature (Ragatz et al., 1997). However, a recent review by (Johnsen, 2009)
shows conflicting results with regards to technological uncertainty in supplier involvement
in NPDP. Supplier-client partnerships research at the beginning and during the year 2000
has further looked at the need to establish relationships and adaptation especial in
conditions where there is technological uncertainty (Ragatz et al., 1997). This implies that
firms should be careful when selecting suppliers to New Product Development projects
where there are technological uncertainties.

Methodology
This paper was prepared to investigate and understand the phenomenon of supplier
involvement in NPDP with the intention of gaining access to their technology. The
available literature in supply chain regarding this subject in general have compiled with
less written about criteria for supplier involvement and relationship factors, supplier
selection, and cultural environment and collaboration in NPDP. The methodology followed
in this paper is as suggested by (Melander, 2014). Melander (Melander, 2014) attest that a
case study is a phenomenon and is recommended for the study of a complex unit with
multiple variables especially in trying to understand a phenomenon. The logical approach
to this work is presented in Fig 1.

37
 Figure 1: Research Design (Modified from (Melander, 2014)

Case Studies

Both cases studied in this paper were surveying studies and both were initiated at the end
phase of two separate NPDP. The end phase is the phase during which the projects were
being finalized. This work started with a single case and thereafter one more case study
was added. According to (Dubois and Gadde, 2002) a single case study would have been
enough where the context is purely for understanding and has been properly selected.
Table 1 presents an overview of the two case studies. Both these case studies are
conducted at different organisations, located at different areas within the Gauteng Province
in South Africa. The two case studies have similarities with regards to company culture
and location. Moreover, both cases involve a product that is important to the firm, as well
as the inclusion of technology that is new to the firm and is delivered by an external
supplier.

Table 1: Case study description

Case 1 Case 2
Product Pumps Filters
NPD duration 2 years 1 year
Industry Mining, water and municipal Automotive, mining,
construction
Technology Pump Filter
Technology uncertainty High Low
Degree of innovation High Low
No of supplier involved Two one

38
Data Collection

Data collection was conducted by form of interviews, internal and external documents,
brochures, company web pages, factory visits, and technical documents. The most
consistent and relevant data was obtained from interviews. The interviews focused mainly
on individuals involved in the NPDP. An interview guide with interview questions and the
main topics for discussion was prepared. Additional follow-up questions were also noted.
The interviews in this study were conducted in group interviews during NPDP meetings
and also with face-to-face. One-on-ones were
assuming that some individuals may not be comfortable in speaking their views freely.
Table 2 presents the interview overviews.

Table 2: interview overviews

Case No. of Team members Interview Time period

interviews duration
Case 1 6 Design Engineer, Project 10 hours 4 months
Manager, Draughtsman, Foundry
Engineer, Quality Engineer,
Foundry Technician
Case 2 3 Product Manager, Engineering 12 hours 6 months
Manager, Sales Engineer, Buying
Manager, Sales Representative

Questionnaire
The questionnaire is aimed at collecting information on the factors that would lead to
formation of collaborative relationships in organizations and focused on three areas. The
interview questions were developed based on literature review and were asked from the
participants during interviews. The idea was to ask the respondents the questions and rate
their answers to determine the negative as well as positive aspects. The three areas are
cultural and demographic factors, extent of collaboration, decision factors (supplier
selection) for engaging with other organizations.

Data analysis
The collected data was analyzed, hence the data was organized, divided and categorized.

Cross analysis

Eisenhardt (Eisenhardt, 1989) pointed out that cross case analysis is preferable when
studying case studies, however the researcher should to be well familiar with each case.
For this purpose, the matrix for comparison were identified and presented in Table 3.
These matrix focused on the similarities and differences of both organisations in
partnership.

39
 Table 3: Matrix for comparison

Case 1 Case 2
Involvement
Similarities Buying firm has a Buying firm has a Purchasing
Purchasing department department
No participation in the technology No participation in the
selection technology selection
No member from the Purchasing No member from the Purchasing
department in the project team department in the project team

Differences Purchaser did not have prior Purchaser had prior knowledge of
knowledge of the supplier the supplier
No participation in the supplier Participation in the supplier
selection selection

Results
The total number of people interviewed was 47, some were interviewed in groups and
others on one-on-one as indicated in table 2. Below results are as per questions answered
by each correspondent. For this paper, only the key questions answers are shown.

Demographic and Cultural Factors

Number of years in operation:

Both companies have been in existence since 1800s and their suppliers with an average 40
years in operation and an average 12.5 years dealing with each other.

Number of employees in the organization:

Both companies are in employment of over 30 000 people worldwide and their suppliers
are at an average of 5 000 employees each.

Spenditure on suppliers and sales revenue:

Both companies reflected that they have spent 18% on average of their turnover on
suppliers

Physical distance between supplier and client:

40
The average distance between the main supplier and the customer 230 km for both cases

Table 4: Frequency of communication

Very high 21.2%

High 49.1%
Neutral 5.6%
Low 19.7%
Very low 4.4%
Total 100%

Table 4 presents the results obtained regarding the frequency of communication between
partners.

Collaboration Factors

Figure 2: In your view was collaboration successful?

The 74.47% indicates that most correspondents viewed collaboration as it was successful.

Table 5: Supplier Involvement in the early planning stages

Very high 7.2%

High 34.5%
Neutral 14.7
Low 26.4%
Very low 17.2
Total 100%

The results to this question indicate a proportion of almost equal high and low involvement
in the planning stages of the business

41
 Table 6: Joint problem solving extend of joint problem solving

Very high 17.2%

High 48.3%
Neutral 29.4%
Low 15.4%
Very low 5.1%
Total 100%

Supplier Selection Factors

Table 7: Supplier design and manufacturing capabilities

Very important 40.2%

Important 35.8%
Neutral 12%
Low important 12%
Not Important 0.0%
Total 100%

Supplier design and manufacturing capabilities appeared (Table 7) to be one of the factors
used for strategic fit used by the two organizations.

Table 8: History on development costs, speed and competitiveness

Very important 53%

Important 42%
Neutral 5%
Low important 0.0%
Not Important 0.0%
Total 100%

Table 8 indicates that all parties in partnership understood the importance of

competitiveness in the industry.

Table 9: Overall demographic, cultural factors and collaboration factors results

(combined)

Collaboration Factors in General % Agree (strongly) %Disagree (strongly)

Product development process more 85 6

efficient
Effective and efficient way to better 68 4
respond to customer needs
Quick reaction to market 69 4
opportunities

42
Low levels of commitment from one 64 14
of the parties causes conflict and
frustration
Product risks becoming more 58 15

needs rather to a broader target

market
Possible further partnerships for the 35 24
future after current partnership
expired
Risk of possible competition on the 36 34
same product or similar
product/service
Risk of losing proprietary 29 27
information/ leaking
Partnership easy to manage 7 65

Process often stalls and cause to 4 70

longer development process
Costing is viewed too high in 4 89
partnerships

Table 9 shows that an overwhelming majority of respondents felt that collaboration had a
positive impact on the product development partnership.

Findings and discussion

This paper was conducted to further more contribute to the field by providing an additional
study where supplier selection is viewed from the perspective of both the buying firm and
the supplying firm. It has been realized from this study that supplier selection criteria are
divided into three areas:
- Basic criteria - what the firm considers to be the minimum number of criteria met
for a firm to be considered as a future collaborator in NPD.
- Product criteria - those that evaluate the technology or product of the supplying
firm
- Firm criteria - includes a number of criteria that assess the supplier according to its
management and organization technology.
The basic criteria ensure that the supplying firm fulfills the minimum criteria for

expertise withi s characteristics are

assessed.
Results show that the majority of the interviewed individuals felt that the supplier-
client partnership yielded a positive impact and enhanced the process efficiency (Peterson
et al., 2005, Johnsen, 2009 and Hoel & Wanger, 2005).
Respondents noted that the partnership often focuses too much detail to a point where the
product becomes too specific to one customer rather than to a whole targeted market. The
issue of organizational culture having an effect on successful collaboration proved to be

43
correct. Participants noted that the culture of an organization is vital towards the strategic
fit of a supplier within a buying organization. Trust, communication and commitment are
seen as the basic requirements towards collaborative culture and ease towards fitting in of
two organization. This is to ensure that what is said to be confidential stays confidential.

Conclusion
The South African manufacturing industry is currently faced with challenges that include
low economic growth and shortage of skills in order to compete effectively in the global
markets. Companies have to constantly look at ways to which they can cut down of
unnecessary spending, non-value adding operations, staff and other means to reduce their
operating costs. To tap into the new technology, the South African manufacturing
companies need to focus their attention in attracting the technologically frenzy suppliers
into strategic partnerships. To do this, it is essential for companies to investigate so to
understand the pros and cons that come with such partnerships. Supplier-client partnership
goes beyond the transactions in attempt to collaborate. Firms have to be aware and
understand the importance of the factors associated with supplier-client collaboration.
Studies on NPDP are reportedly to have been largely done in the developed countries
within the technology intensive industries. The key contribution of this paper is that it
shows that companies are faced with challenging and pressured economic landscape. If
companies in South Africa need to invest in supplier-client partnerships, they need to be
aware of the factors associated with collaborations and not only the transaction and
contracts.
This paper also shares a light regarding the dynamics of collaboration within the South
African context. Managers across the manufacturing industry would need to fully
understand the complexities and the importance of various factors in ensuring successful
suppler-client partnerships. About 75% of the correspondents participated in this study
view collaboration as beneficial their organizations. Participants also indicated an
accelerated product development process where customer requirements are fully attended.
The gap in expertise and skills between the parties in partnership was addressed better with
effective leadership in place. The overall research and development costs decreased and the
development time reduced significantly. Lack of commitment from one of the partners
causes delays and frustration and penalties needed to be set out for defaulters

Reference
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45
[Paper ID 112]

May Lwin1 and Kriengsak Panuwatwanich2

Abstract
Since 2016, Myanmar has undergone political and economic reforms. A movement
to develop the country with economic growth is a significant matter for the country.
In Myanmar, the construction sect
in terms of investments and job opportunities of citizens. Electricity used
for the construction industry leads to insufficient energy output of the country. Moreover,
waste and pollution are inevitable
building development in Myanmar is in its initial stage but currently lacks governmental,
or voluntary support to devise appropriate rules and regulations for green construction.
In particular, the lack of awareness among developers, stakeholders, architects, engineers,
contractors, employees and the public about green building has worsen the development
progress. This paper reveals why green building development is needed in Myanmar
and provides the overview of the current level of green growth in Myanmar. In addition,
this paper compares widely used seven existing environmental assessment tools around
the world LEED, BREEAM, Green Mark, Green Star, Three Star Chinese Green
Building Label-3, CASBEE, and HQE as references for the development of green building
rating tool with the view to identify aspects that are compatible with the local conditions
of Myanmar.

1
M.Sc. Student, School of Civil Engineering and Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand, Email: maylwinn1991@gmail.com
2
Assistant Professor, School of Civil Engineering and Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand, Email: kriengsak@siit.tu.ac.th

46
Introduction
Myanmar is located in South East Asia and starts to transform from isolated economy to
middle income country. Myanmar is also a member of United Nations and ASEAN as a
country which craves development by opening the door for investments. Total country area
is 677,000 Square kilometers which is covered by mountain ranges, rivers, and forest.
Myanmar has over 60 million people and 135 ethnic groups (Aung, 2013).
Myanmar experiences a rapid population increase and urbanization problem especially
in Yangon, the largest city of the country. High rise buildings, luxury residences,
condominiums, and affordable housing are booming in Yangon and the government aims
to build 1 million homes for public requirements by 2030. Hence, foreign and local
investors are encouraged to subsidize in infrastructure such as housing, bridges, roads, and
industrial zones with the aim of sustainable development and high quality. Myanmar is a
place with abundant natural resources such as water, land, and minerals and a worthwhile
place for foreign investments. However, new construction and infrastructures entail to be
fueled by electricity, and energy demand is a current crisis for Myanmar which has no
adequate energy output for the whole country. Clean and cost-effective energy is also a
special need for residents. What is more, waste and pollution from forthcoming factories
and buildings are another factors to consider for environmental protection. Government has
not set standards and specifications to define a green building. Hence, it is difficult to
recognize what constitutes a green building design and construction among engineers and
architects in the construction industry (Tin, 2007). Moreover, companies and government
organizations have no experts for modern technology, and less awareness about role of
engineers for environmental sustainability. Traditional construction method impacts on
environment and society. Besides, city planning is a preferential issue which needs to be
considered, for residential building construction due to waste management and drainage
systems are not systematic in Myanmar at present (MCEA, 2018). Thus, green building
design including energy efficiency, water efficiency, pollution reduction and indoor
environmental quality is required for the construction industry.
Green building is a widely adopted construction technique around the world to build
sustainable city. It is also a method which can minimize natural resources depletion for
building consumption, pollution from construction materials, environmental degradation,
and increase the wellbeing of the occupants (Milad, 2013). Moreover, the assessment tool,
a green building standard for the whole cycle of a building, which recognizes whether a
building meets green building objectives, is the first step in the implementation of green
building practice in all countries. In addition, if there is the awareness for green building,
customer demand will rise and companies will be more interested in green construction
that leads to green building development. Hence, public awareness about green buildings
and certification systems that will be suitable for local conditions are needed at the initial
stage of sustainable development in Myanmar.

Factors Effecting Requirements of Green Buildings in Myanmar

Insufficient Current Energy Supply and Uncertainty for Future Energy Potential

For Myanmar, as a developing country, inadequate energy supply is a major problem for
modifying all kinds of sectors for the economic development. The highest amount of
electricity generation is a demand for future infrastructure development in Myanmar
(Oxford Business Group, 2017). According to National Electrification Plan (NEP) by the
World Bank and United Nations, energy production targets are at 50% by 2020, 75% by

47
2025 and 100% by 2030 including renewable energy, 1/5 of total energy generation
(Oxford Business Group, 2017). Although Myanmar has been going forward since 2016 by
the policy of the new government for energy sector, there is still energy crisis and
uncertainty for future. While one third of the country has access to energy supply, most
areas of the country have not been connected to the national grid lines. Some rural areas
use off-grid solar power and power generated by diesel (Oxford Business Group, 2017).
Myanmar has the lowest rate of electricity generation around the world with 160 kWh per
capita consumption a year in 2014 and increases 263 kWh in 2015/2016 which is 1/10 of
UK consumption (Oxford Business Group, 2017). Current installed capacity of the whole
country is 4,422 MW in 2014 which is lower than Asian countries 32,600 MW in
Thailand and 26,300 MW in Vietnam (Roman et al., 2017). In 2015-2016, 5,029 MW has
been produced by the mixed use energy system (Tint, 2017). According to the Asia
Development Bank, energy demand increases 15% yearly and it will be doubled by 2020.
Hydropower is applied mostly for electricity generation in Myanmar, but it is not possible
to rely solely on it for a long term. Although coal is planned to be used for filling the gap
of Myanmar energy sector, local people are against the coal plant projects for detrimental
effect of green-house gas emissions. Myanmar is a country which possesses solar and wind
power potential for renewable energy because of the geographical conditions of the
country. However, energy generation potential is on uncertain pathway with the lack of
clear master plan and investments within the country.

Limited Water Supply and Inadequate Waste Water Treatment

Water resources sustainability is essential for all people around the world. In Myanmar,
there are enormous sources for water usage but some areas are distant from resources and
water supply connection system. In the largest city, Yangon, 135 million gallons of fresh
water are supplied from Yangon City Development Committee every day and occupants
consume over 200 million gallons a day. Thus, most people in extended urban areas
depend on natural lakes, rivers, and tube wells (Zay, 2015). Newly constructed high rise
buildings in Yangon rely on 30 million gallons of water from tube wells daily because the
current water supply of Yangon is unable to support water sufficiently. The more
underground usage of water, the more dangerous the stability of buildings and some
buildings constructed on soft soil are at risk of settlement in some townships (Zay, 2015).
Yangon, surrounded by the sea, will encounter salt water intrusion if ground water from
tube wells is extracted too much. Salt water intrusion will occur from the base when the
fresh water at upper layer is depleted. Yangon would not become a smart and sustainable
city if ground water sources face risky condition. Hence, Myanmar needs to apply water
resources effectively in the construction industry.
Rapid increasing in population also leads to deterioration of waste water management
system of the city. Waste water from household and factories run off to streams, lakes, and
river c
conventional sewage system in cities, black water is stored in septic tanks and water is
permeable into the soil after many years. Grey water from household flows to the surface
drains without proper individual treatment and waste water flooding can be occurred by
blocking trash in the drain in rainy season before reaching to main pipelines (U.S.
Embassies, 2017). There are not enough treatment plants that connect to the main pipelines
to discharge treated water to rivers. Moreover, waste from factories and other areas run to
the streams and rivers directly without prior treatment (Dickella and Matthew, 2016). This
is the main reason affecting the health of the residents from hazardous water sources. JICA
has a plan for an upgraded system to link all waste lines and treatment plants from new

48
areas of Yangon in greater Yangon project 2040. Consequently, water conservation and
systematic waste water treatment system, as part of the green building design is a necessity
for the construction sector in Myanmar.

Carbon dioxide Emissions and Climate Change

Nowadays, climate change is a global issue and Myanmar cannot be separated from other
countries that suffer from global warming, even though vast amount of CO2 is not emitted
as much as other industrialized countries. As a country moving forward for the
development, economic growth and environmental conservation are in need of
consideration in parallel. Approximately, 500 billion tons of CO 2 has been released by
burning fuel, gas, and oil from rapid population growth, increasing urbanization and
industrial revolution, and about half of emissions have been tracked in the atmosphere
(Mardiana and Riffat, 2015). For Myanmar which has plans to put into effort of energy
necessity, this is an anxious issue for the future (MCEA, 2018). With economic
development, energy consumption and green-house gas emission are great environmental
challenges that will impact prospects of a country (Mardiana and Riffat, 2015). Ancha
Srinivasa, a principal climate change specialist at ADB remarks that Myanmar acquires to
take an action of carbon reduction for climate change control when new investments are
performed (Fatima, 2017). The massive amount of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions
around the world can be a succeeding problem for vulnerable people to climate change
from lower part of Myanmar (Fatima, 2017). In central region of Myanmar, drought,
scarcity of water, and crops depletion can be in trouble of the livelihood of rural people.
Rising sea level that results from soaring ocean temperature is the base of cyclone for
people in costal line and almost 140,000 of Myanmar residents were killed by cyclone
ation Programme
of Action (NAPA) to climate change of 2012, it is predicted that average temperature will

consumption is about 35% of the total and CO 2 emission from buildings is almost 30% of
the total as well in both developed and developing countries (Mardiana and Riffat, 2015).
Hence, renewable energy technology should be applied in building performance for the
purpose of reducing energy consumption, and it will also be helpful for controlling the
emission of CO2 and climate change adaptation (Mardiana and Riffat, 2015).

Solid Waste Management and Construction Industry

In Yangon, environmental deterioration and health problems are mostly affected by

inadequate solid waste management system, like many cities in developing countries (Mya,
2016). Households and industries produce around 1690 tons of waste daily and waste is
collected by manpower and garbage truck supported by Yangon City Development
Committee (YCDC). There are six waste disposal landfill sites in Yangon and one of them
can generate electricity from bio-gas (U.S. Embassies, 2017). YCDC has not set planning
for equipment and needs investment to improve solid waste service (Mya, 2016). In the
whole country, 5,616 tons of rubbish are produced daily and it is expected that waste
increases 21,012 tons per day, 0.85 kg/capita/day by 2025. Waste recycled volume and
number of recycled industry have not yet been defined (Dickella and Matthew, 2016).
With the lack of measures to reduce the use of plastic bags and dumping biodegradable and
non-biodegradable waste separately, systematic garbage dumping is not still practiced in
Myanmar (Mya, 2016). Moreover, the limitation of landfill sites within city boundary has
become considerable fact in correspondence with population growth (Dickella and
Matthew, 2016). Fifty percent of trash from landfill site comes from buildings and

49
households. Construction materials derives from different kinds of resources, and reduction
of construction waste is also a fact that needs to be examined. With reference to green
building rating systems, waste management is one of the criteria and municipal waste
collection will be effective if individual waste management technique is utilized in
buildings (Mahesh and Dhananjay, 2016).

Green Buildings Movement in Myanmar

Green Building Committee Building Engineering Institute Myanmar

Building Engineering Institute (BEI) was successfully established by Myanmar

Engineering Society (MES) and Committee for Quality Control of High-Rise Building
Construction Project (CQHP) on 23rd November 2014 in Yangon. Six committees are co-
founded under BEI, including: (1) Architecture, (2) Structure, (3) Geotechnical, (4) MEP
(M&E), (5) Construction, Quality Control & Safety, and (6) Green Building. Objectives of
this organization are to promote the building sector and technology and to enhance the
welfare of society by linking all stakeholders from related engineering fields, to cooperate
institutional organizations, industries and the government, to complete codes, rules and
regulations and references, and to contribute seminar, training and conference for technical
improvement (MES, 2014).

Green Building Chapter in Myanmar National Building Code

Initial stage of Green Building Certification System of Myanmar has been introduced by
representatives from the Green Building Committee, BEI as section 2.12
ARCHITECTURE FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND GREEN in the Myanmar National
Building Code 2016, which is the guideline for Myanmar Construction Industry. The
purpose of this section is to provide green building criteria and basic requirements for
energy efficient building design in Myanmar. This chapter includes green building criteria

energy materials, considering air circulation and natural lighting in building design, and

waste water for w

g carbon emission reduction, enhancing greenery to reduce urban heat

island effect, decreasing pollution, and landfill waste. This code is proposed for new
construction, extension and retrofitting of commercial building types (excluding religious
buildings, low cost housings, and the public buildings by the government or other non-
government organizations) of more than 100,000 sq-ft area within Yangon and other
places similar to Yangon. It also demonstrates environmental sustainability standards by
referencing International Green Construction Code (version 2) and green building design
guide by Building and Construction Authority, Singapore. The specified building types
must act in accordance with these standards. This code will develop unceasingly for design

In addition, climate change in Yangon is considered in this code to mitigate global

warming. Green building engineering and technology which is appropriate to geographical
condition, climatic background, and construction market of Myanmar is a requirement to
carry on this proposed code for green building development in Myanmar (GBC-BEI
Myanmar, 2016).

50
Green Building Construction in Myanmar

According to the Myanmar Times article on 1 st of May 2017, U Ye Htun Aung, managing
director of Team 6 engineering solution and control Company, remarks that although the
government has not set rules and regulations for green building, there are some buildings
in Myanmar which are qualified under the certification of Green Mark, Building
Construction Authority -
on requirements to specify as a green building and Junction
City shopping mall is attempting to achieve green certification from BCA, Singapore,
especially for hotel tower, office tower, and shopping mall phase 1 (Tin, 2007). Ten hotels
in Myanmar have been selected to confer ASEAN green hotel award which is honored to
hotels in the ASEAN region annually. This prize has been awarded for resorts and hotels
which meet the requirements of Green ASEAN hotel standard including 11 criteria at the
ASEAN Tourism Forum 2018 observed in Chiang Mai, Thailand (Shwe, 2018).

Comparison of Seven Green Building Rating Tools

Green building rating tools have been introduced since environmental conservation reaches
at center of global concern (Lizawati et al., 2015). In recent years, green building rating
tools have been applied in order to promote the sustainability of build environment
(Mpakati-Gama et al., 2012). Rating tools can be defined as standards to assess the
building performance that corresponds with a set of assessment criteria (Lizawati, 2015).
Moreover, these can be used as technology to promote the quality of building in the
construction industry (Zuhairuse et al., 2009). This paper considers seven widely
recognized green building rating systems namely LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design, United States), BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment
Method, United Kingdom), BCA Green Mark (Singapore), Green Star (Australia), Three
Star Chinese Green Building Label-3, CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System for
Build Environment Efficiency, Japan), and HQE (High Quality Environmental Standard,
France).

Overview of Assessment Tools

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

LEED was established by US Green Building Council (USGBC) and Green Building
Certification Institute (GBCI) in the year 2000. LEED is a type of non-profit organization
and has eight criteria for assessment such as location and transportation, sustainable sites,
water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental
quality, innovation, and regional priority. The certification level is defined as four stages -
Platinum (80-100 points), Gold (60-79 points), Silver (50-59 points), and Certified (40-49
points). LEED is applied for building design and construction, interior design and
construction, building operations and maintenance, homes, and neighborhood development
(plan and build project) of commercial buildings, schools, healthcare, and single and
multifamily homes (USAID, 2014; USGBC, 2018).

BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM)

51
BREEAM was founded by the UK Government, Building Research Establishment and
BRE Trust in 1990 and stands as a non-profit organization. There are ten green building
criteria in BREEAM management, transport, land use and ecology, water, energy,
materials, health and wellbeing, innovation, waste and pollution. The score level is
classified as Outstanding 85+, Excellent 70, Very Good 55, Good 45, Pass 30,
and Unclassified < 30. Office, retail, industrial, data centers, education, healthcare,
residential, mixed use, other buildings, and courts and prisons are certified by BREEAM
(USAID, 2014; BRE, 2016).

Green Mark, BCA

Singapore Building and Construction Authority introduced Green Mark certification

system in 2005 as a governmental organization type. Buildings are certified with five
assessment criteria climatic responsive design, resource stewardship, building energy
performance, smart and healthy building, and advanced green effort. Green Mark Platinum
(70 and above), Green Mark Gold Plus (60 to <70), Green Mark Gold (50 to <60) are
awarded to different types of buildings such as non-residential and residential buildings,
housings, schools, and commercial buildings. Moreover, Green Mark considers districts,
parks, and infrastructure beyond buildings (USAID, 2014; BCA, 2017).

Green Star

Green star was lunched in Australia by Green Building Council Australia (GBCA) in 2003
and it is a type of non-profit organization. Green star divides criteria as nine categories
management, transport, land use and ecology, water, energy, material, indoor environment
quality, innovation, and emissions. The point scale is defined as Assessed/Zero Star (less
than 10%), Minimum Practice/One Star (10%-19%), Average Practice/Two Star (20%-
29%), Good Practice/Three Star (30%-44%), Australian Best Practice/Four Star (45%-
59%), Australian Excellence/Five Star (60%-74%), and World Leadership/Six Star
(75%+). Green Star is responsible for communities and precincts, design and construction
of new buildings, major refurbishments, new interior fit outs, public buildings, and
sustainable building operations (USAID, 2014; GBCA, 2017).

Three Star, Chinese Green Building Label-3

Three star, introduced by Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD)

in China in 2006, includes seven main criteria namely operational management, land
saving and outdoor environment, water saving and water resources utilization, energy
saving and utilization, materials saving and materials resources utilization, indoor
environmental quality, and preferences. Three star is applicable for public and residential
buildings. The score level is based on 3-Star (80), 2-Star (60), and 1-Star (50) for green
building certification (USAID, 2014).

Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE)

(MLIT), and Institute for Built Environment and Energy Conservation (IBEC) in 2001.
CASBEE covers all residential and non- residential buildings. The assessment criteria are
divided into two main categories Q (built environment quality) which consists of quality
of service, outdoor environment on site, and indoor environment, and L (Build load) which
consists of resources and materials, energy, and off-site environment. The point system is

52
designed by the result of BEE (building environmental efficiency) from Q for building
performance divided by L for environmental impact. Certification level of CASBEE
depending on BEE are: Superior: S (BEE 3.0 and Q 50), Very good: A (BEE 1.5),
Good: B+ (BEE 1), Slightly poor: B- (BEE 0.5), and Poor: C (BEE<0.5) (USAID
2014; IBEC, 2010).

High Quality Environmental Standard (HQE)

HQE is a green building rating tool in France and it was initiated by HQE Association for
France Scheme, and supported by Cerway for International Scheme in 2012. HQE is a type
of non-profit organization and is based on eight criteria for certification such as
maintenance, site, water, energy, components, indoor environmental quality, waste, and
worksite. HQE enables residential, non-residential, and detached houses. Credit awards for
buildings are HQE PASS (between 1 and 4 stars), HQE GOOD (between 5 and 8 stars),
HQE VERY GOOD (between 9 and 11 stars), HQE EXCELLENT (12 stars and more with
HQE and Cerway, 2014).

Similarities and Differences between Criteria and Categories

By comparison of the above seven existing rating systems, BREEAM, the first certification
system, proposed rating categories in 1990, which have been adopted by other rating
in

from most tools can be seen in BREEAM and Green Mark in different names

remaining 6 rating systems. BREEAM, Green Star, Three Star, CASBEE, and HQE
evaluate for advancing the management procedure in all phases of the project with the
green building objectives whereas LEED and Green Mark are lack of consideration of the

BREEAM and HQE are prioritized for considering the contamination. Five common
criteria which are inserted as the basic need of every certification system in all selected 7
green building rating tools are as follows.
Land Use and Ecology
Water
Energy
Materials
Indoor Environmental Quality

Other different categories which are included in only some rating tools among the
considered seven tools are as follows.

53
 Management
Transportation
Innovation
Waste
Pollution
Regional Priority
Advanced Green Effort

Comparison of Points and Credits

Almost all rating tools, except CASBEE which is emerged from Japan, designate score
level upon criteria by percentage or points to determine the building with green standards.
In CASBEE scoring system, Building Environmental Efficiency (BEE) is an assessment
specification which is attained from Build Environment Quality, Q (performance of a

building is deliberated more sustainable when the slope is steeper in the graph with higher
value of Q and lower value of L. Among the nominated seven rating tools compared in

and HQE with the intention of promoting management system of the whole project
performance as design, construction, and maintenance in accordance with objectives of

energy usage and applying renewable energy in a building for mitigating green-house gas
emissions in the environment, as the main criteria with 30% of total score. Likewise,

Qua

climate resilience, the purpose of site selection, and preservation of existing green space
and natural characteristics) is the focus of Green Mark as represented by the score

ed in

are described 6% and 9% in BREEAM and, 2% and 6% in HQE respectively. To sum up,

green products for preventing natural resources depletion and minimizing environmental
water

Table 1. Points Percentage of Selected Green Building Rating Systems

Criteria LEED BREEAM Green Mark Green Star Three Star HQE
Energy 30% 20% 18% 20% 18% 14%
Indoor 15% 14% 18% 15% 17% 43%
Environmental
Quality
Materials 12% 9% 13% 13% 16% 8%

Water 10% 6% 9% 11% 17% 8%

54
 Land Use and 9% 7% 25% 5% 17% 13%
Ecology
Transport 15% 8% 9%
Management 14% 13% 15% 6%
Innovation 5% 7% 9%
Waste 6% 3% 2%
Pollution 9% 5% 6%
Regional 4%
Priority
Advanced 14%
Green Efforts

(Note: CASBEE is excluded due to having different assessment method from other
systems)

Developing Green Building Rating System for Myanmar: Future Work

Green building rating tools are widely used not only in developed countries but also in
various ASEAN countries to assess the environmental performance of a building.
Myanmar has taken an initial step to execute own rating system as a developing country in
order to move forward. Based on the comparison of the Green Building Rating systems, it
can be seen that the similar criteria that have been adopted across all the systems fall in the
areas of: Energy, Indoor Environmental Quality, Materials, Water, and Land Use and

g systems from
one country to another, one thing needed to be considered is that they are suitable or not
with the local climate, economy, technology advancement, construction market, and
geographical conditions. Therefore, this study aims to investigate in the future the Junction
City, Yangon and Sedona Hotel, Inya Win which are certified as green buildings by Green
Mark, Singapore, as case studies. The collection of engineering drawings and documents
about these buildings and site observations will be carried out as the first step, and
followed by questionnaires and interviews of representative persons (e.g. architects, civil
engineers, M&E engineers, managers and developers) who participated in these projects
during design, and construction period. Questionnaires are divided into three parts; firstly,
technical questions from site observation to architects and engineers which will be

implementation. The future study will also ex

sustainability standards from Singapore, as reflected in Myanmar National Building Code
2016. For the second component, challenges and difficulties while attempting to achieve
green mark certificate from BCA, Singapore will be examined in order to assist the

condition of green materials and products in Myanmar, and how much degree of
knowledge and experience about green building objectives and standards the experts have,
will be conducted for the case of awareness about green buildings in Myanmar. The
desired outcomes will support partly Green Building Committee BEI (Myanmar) to
adopt some technical standards from Green Mark, Singapore and to improve green

system.

55
Conclusions and Recommendation
By consideration of green building requirement and current green movement in Myanmar,
certification system is fundamental to regulate the green buildings practice. Besides, rating
tools can provide awareness for green environment and sustainable development. As a
responsibility of the government, the environmental friendly building design to reduce
green-house gas emissions and the waste pollution, should be taken into consideration in
public housing projects that will be implemented for the increased population. To be
successful in green building development, understanding about the green building
objectives and unity of key players from all related fields are required. Hence, it is time to
share relevant information and knowledge about sustainable building practices between
professionals and the government for public awareness. Moreover, the comparison of
seven green building rating systems demonstrates that the energy efficiency is the most
common criteria with highest score points for assessment, followed by the aspects of Land
Use and Ecology, Water, Materials and Indoor Environmental Quality. Although, these
common criteria have been, to some extent, considered in the current Myanmar National
Building Code, the study concluded that to further develop a green building rating system
for Myanmar, the remaining criteria should be considered with respect to the conditions
that are domestic to the country, basing on the experience gained from the construction of
buildings that have already been certified as green. Further understanding into the
challenges and opportunities observed through these buildings will be the aim of the future
research.

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M., 2009. Development of rating system for sustainable building in Malaysia. Issue 3,
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57
58
[Paper ID 42]

Nien-Tsu Tuan1

Abstract
Since its inception, the Critical Success Factor (CSF) concept has been increasingly
adopted by industries to achieve business goals. However, the conventional approaches
used for identifying critical success factors are underpinned by the mechanism paradigm.
The me
elements into account. Neither does it promote interaction between the relevant
stakeholders. This paper proposes a systemic approach called Interactive Management
(IM) to complement the conventional ideas in determining the critical success factors.
The Interactive Management process embraces the relevant stakeholders to collectively
identify the critical success factors through four phases: generating critical success factors,
clarifying the generated critical success factors, structuring a systemic digraph showing
the interlaced relationships between the critical success factors, and identifying the real
critical success factors in the systemic digraph. An example is provided to demonstrate
how Interactive Management methodology can be used to identify the real critical success
factors.

1
Department of Construction Economics and Management, University of Cape Town, Private Bag 3,
Rondebosch 7701, South Africa, Tel. +27-21-6503443 Fax. +27-21-6502746,
Email: nien-tsu.tuan@uct.ac.za

59
Introduction
Since its inception, the Critical Success Factor (CSF) idea has been gaining ground in the
identification of competitive strategy for organizations. It has been used for establishing
business strategies in various industries, e.g. R&D projects (DS & Thomas, 2015),
automobile industry (Luthra, Garg, & Haleem, 2015), and mobile learning (Cochrane,
2014). However, the frequently used techniques for exploring CSFs are dominated by the
thinking that sees human as subjects, treats systems elements as independent parts, or
narrows down the scope of investigation to a desirable level. These techniques can be
exemplified by means of interviews, Likert Scale questionnaire surveys, or statistical
correlation analysis. Different from the commonly adopted techniques, this paper uses an
example to demonstrate how Interactive Management methodology
1994) can be employed to identify and prioritize CSFs. Interactive Management (IM) is a
systemic approach echoing soft systems thinking. It enhances learning and interchanging
perceptions among the relevant stakeholders through a disciplined process: generation of
ideas, clarification of generated ideas, structuring the generated ideas, and interpretation of
structured ideas. The output of the IM process is a digraph depicting the relationship
between the systems elements. The following discussion will demonstrate how to use IM
to structure a CSF model. Prior to the demonstration, this paper explains the concept of
CSF and the techniques frequently used to identify the CSFs.

Critical Success Factors

The CSF concept was first put forward by Daniel (1961). It means the key areas that must
be exceptionally well done for an organization to be successful. This idea was then
popularized by Rockart (1979), using CSF method to identify the key areas where things
must be done right for different companies, such as Microwave Associates, an oil
company, and a store-furnishing manufacturer. In some ways, one of the objectives of CSF
method is to reduce the variety in decision making impinging on top executives/general
managers. They are frequently furnished with the enormous amount of unrelated
information. The CSF method aims to provide executives with the critical information
derived from the identified critical areas requiring attention. With the attenuated variety of
information derived from the critical areas, the executives can manage their organizations
in an efficient and effective fashion.
Since its emergence, the CSF concept has been used in different arenas. For example,
Pinto and Slevin (1987) used it to identify the critical factors in successful project
implementation. They identified ten factors promoting project success. The ten factors
range from the factor sweeping across all activities in various projects, like the factor

Mahmood, Asghar, and Naoreen (2014) explored the critical

success factors in research projects at universities in Pakistan. They concluded eleven
critical su
relationship, and transparency. Apparently the eleven critical success factors identified by
them for research projects are not identical to the ten critical success factors of generic
projects identified by Pinto and Slevin (1987). In addition to exploring the project
management arena, the CSF idea leaves visible traces in other issues as well. Cochrane
(2014) investigated the critical success factors in transforming pedagogy towards mobile
learning. Luthra et al. (2015) probed into the critical success factors for achieving the
sustainability in the automobile industry. Sahney (2008) studied the critical success factors
for E-business. For Sahney, the critical successful factors refer to the design characteristics

60
strategic planning in different industries.
There are some criticisms of the CSF idea. Cooper (2008) summarizes various
criticisms from extant literature. For example, due to the limitation on short-term memory,
managers might reduce CSFs to a manageable number. There may be other CSFs not
taken into account. Focusing on a measurable factor is another problem: the focus on

concern is about the dynamic environment: the dynamic environment requires that the
critical success factors identified for an organization should be frequently revisited to

hamper the CSF idea that carves out its own line in different research domains through
different techniques. The common approaches used to identify CSFs are briefly reviewed
in the next part.

A Review of Commonly Used Approaches to the

Identification of Critical Success Factors
Using literature review to generate a list of CSFs is a predominant method (Baccarini,
2003; DS & Thomas, 2015; Luthra et al., 2015; Shenhar, Levy, & Dvir, 1997). The
collated CSFs from literature may then be used to develop an instrument for surveys. The
human subjects rate the CSFs predetermined by the researchers. The score received by
each critical success factor reveals how the predetermined CSFs are ranked by the subjects.

relationship is aimed at determining whether a critical success factor is more important

than another critical success factor. But the spokesperson for CSF (Rockart, 1979) urges
researchers to note that the CSFs of each industry is characterized by the very nature of the
industry itself. When zooming into organizational levels, the CSFs are amenable to change
over
CSFs through literature to sweep across all industries and organizations is questionable.
Interviews are frequently used techniques in qualitative research. They are used for
identifying CSFs as well (Mahmood et al., 2014; Pinto & Slevin, 1987; Rockart, 1979;
Shah & Siddiqui, 2006). In general, the interview procedures require researchers to
transcribe the interview, code and categorize the data, and discover the pattern of meaning
from the coding and categorization. To defend that the coding and categorization are not

introduced into the procedures to defend the reliability of the data analysis. Overall, the
findings should reflect trustworthiness, such as credibility, transferability, and
dependability. In general, the output from the interview is a list of CSFs, without
describing the relationship between the identified CSFs. Different from other interview
outputs, Pinto and Slevin (1987) argue that the CSFs in project implementation discovered
the
the

problems of using an interview include lack of interaction among the human subjects and
dismissing interrelationships between system elements. Even if member checking is used
to justify the validity of findings, there is no guarantee that each participant understands
why others uphold different views. The frequency count used to determine the most

due to the lack of interaction.

61
 Statistical analysis is another frequently used technique in quantitative study. It has
also been used to investigate the relationship between CSFs and other variables. For
example, Dvira, Lipovetskya, Shenharb, and Tishlerc (1998) used the multivariate method
to investigate the relationship between the CSFs of the defence projects and critical
management variables. They mention that the multivariate method has proved to be useful
in reducing the dimensionality of variables space. This idea is employed to identify the
CSFs in their research as well. The CSFs were reduced from four success dimensions to

ntify CSFs (Rockart,

1979). It implies that determining CSFs is a subjective business. Therefore, reducing the

participants. The statistical analysis hints that reaching consensus among different views is
subordinate to discovering invariant principles through statistics.
The reviewed methods that have been used for identifying CSFs are not exhaustive.
There are other approaches used for identifying CSFs as well, such as Analytic Hierarchy
Process (Chua, Kog, & Loh, 1999). In general, the reviewed methods are characterized by
lack of interaction, reduction of problem space, seeing the identified CSFs invariant in
time, or paying no heed of the interrelationships between system elements. Human are seen
as subjects in most of the frequently used methods. Therefore the commonly adopted
approaches do not enhance learning or dwell on the systemic relationship between system
elements. Warfield devised Interactive Management (IM) methodology (Warfield, 1976), a
methodology aligned with soft systems thinking. IM can be used to structure the systemic
relationship between CSFs in an interactive way. The next part explains how to use IM to
identify CSFs and structure the interrelationships between the identified CSFs.

Identifying CSFs through Interactive Management

In its early development stage, IM was called Interpretive Structural Modelling (Warfield,
1976). elaborated Interpretive Structural Modelling and
called the new methodology Interactive Management. IM has been used to study various
problems. For example, Nthunya, Tuan, Shaw, and Jay (2017) used IM to explore the
major factors causing basic education problems in Lesotho. Tuan (2018) applied IM to
explore the aggravating relationship between the factors leading to AIDS epidemic in
South Africa. The earlier version of IM, i.e. Interpretive Structural Modelling, was also
used to investigate CSFs (Sahney, 2008; Tripathy, Sahu, & Ray, 2013; Yadav & Barve,
2015). However these works need to be augmented by incorporating the vital features of
IM into the inquiry. For example, given the democratic nature of IM (Alexander, 2002),
the facilitator of an IM workshop needs to justify that the constituency of the participants is
representative. Furthermore, the interrelationship between the CSFs to be structured is a

higher leverage to promote other CSFs. These structured interrelations can reveal the
relative importance of the identified CSFs. The following discussion demonstrates how the
major IM phases can be used to identify CSFs.
The first step of IM is to identify the relevant stakeholders who will be the participants
of the IM workshop. The constituency of the participants should be justifiable, e.g.
identifying the relevant stakeholders through the questions proposed by Manson and
Mitroff (Jackson, 2003). The questions range

62
workshop is between six to twelve participants . The ideal
be seen as sample size. The participants of an IM
workshop can be seen as the representatives of a committee. It is not sensible to claim that

committee is whether it is representative and knowledgeable. Assume that a company

intends to identity the CSFs for the business that they operate. The company has identified
six participants who are willing to attend the IM workshop. Besides, the constituency of
the six participants is legitimate.
The second step is to generate CSFs. Each participant carries out silent generation of
CSFs based on their own perceptions. The reason of generating CSFs silently is to avoid a
power situation entering into the inquiry process. When each participant completes the
generation of CSFs, the facilitator may start to collate the generated ideas for entering the
next phase.
The third step is to clarify the generated CSFs. As people might use the same words to
express different ideas or use different words to express the same idea, the clarification
phase promotes the shared understanding of the generated ideas between the participants.
This phase requires the participants to collectively review all of the generated ideas
through the assistance of a facilitator. Therefore a properly equipped venue is needed for
the group to collectively review the generated CSFs. In the process of reviewing the
generated CSFs, the participants might decide to merge certain CSFs into one, delete
certain CSFs, or rephrase the CSFs whose meanings are unclear. Assume that the
participants of the scenario case have collectively generated and clarified eight CSFs,
shown as Table 1. The list of CSFs in Table 1 is only used for demonstration purpose. In
the real world, more CSFs could be generated for modelling.

Table 1. Example of Identified Critical Success Factors

Serial Number Critical Success Factors

1 a skillful team
2 resources / financial support
3 top management support
4 recognition of project team
5 absence of red tape
6 sharing high quality information
7 customer support
8 establishment of clear measurement of success

The third step is to structure a model/digraph showing the interrelationship between the
identified CSFs. The digraph is structured by the group through answering a series of

elements. To determine
achievement of critical success factor A significantly helps to achieve the critical success

to avoid linking two CSFs when the intensity of the relationship between them is weak.

promote factor B. If success factor A has the power to promote success factor B, success

63
factor A should be given focus from a strategic point of view. It is noteworthy that the

success factor A helps to achieve success factor B and success factor B helps to achieve
success factor C, then it is plausible to infer that success factor A helps to achieve success

ant situations. This phrase might give rise to

the contextual question due to the possibility of causing

semantic confusion.
When the group answer the series of contextual questions, a binary matrix is gradually
completed. If the group decides that the relationship exists between the two posed
elem

extracted. Warfield (1976) explains the process of extracting the digraph. But it is not in
the scope of this paper. Currently there is software capable of carrying out the modelling
process and extracting the digraph, such as Concept Star. The software provides the
options for modelling loops in the system. Assume that the group carried out extensive
debate and answered all questions required to complete the binary matrix. The digraph
extracted from the binary matrix is shown as Figure 1.

Figure 1. An Example of Critical Success Factors

The fourth step is to interpret the model built by the group. The facilitator of an IM
workshop should be knowledgeable about IM and be able to carry out the interpretation of

arrow linking the two elements means that the achievement of crit

generate the greatest leverage because it significantly helps to achieve all of the critical

element is the critical success factor lying in the second stage: critical success factor 2

success factors. As for the two rightmost elements (establishment of clear measurement of
success & recognition of project team), they have no power to achieve other critical

shows a loop existing between two CSFs. The loop exists in the fourth stage box

64
comprising two system elements: factor 1 (a skillful team) and factor 6 (sharing high

quality informa l
systemic nature of CSFs which is a component leading to complexity.
The model structured in Figure 1 is not aimed at establishing universal laws. The IM
methodology emphasizes learning and consensus. Through the IM process, the participants
learn why others view the problems in different ways. The interactive process of building a
model enhances the consensus among the relevant stakeholders. Because the environment
and perceptions might change over time, the built model serves as the starting point for
iterative learning.

Conclusions
This paper demonstrates how IM can be used for identifying/prioritizing CSFs. The output
of IM process is a digraph depicting the holistic relationship between the identified CSFs.
This output is not visible in the methods frequently used for identifying CSFs in the
surveyed literature, such as interview, questionnaire survey, and statistical analysis. In
order to pick out the CSFs that can generate the greatest leverage, this paper proposes to

In
addition to the

factors. The s

requests for the change in the scope of work, including minor variations. It is unlikely to
obtain the support from customers if their requests for minor changes are completely

to broaden the spectrum of appreciating CSFs. However, the IM is a methodology

anchored in soft systems thinking. Its inquiry process is to pursue learning and consensus
among the stakeholders, rather than eternal laws.

References
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practice and action research, 15(2), 111-122
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66
[Paper ID 104]

Anna -Piechna1

Abstract
Work safety control and analysis of accidents during the construction performance
are one of the most important issues of the construction management. The paper focuses
on the post-accident absence as an element of the occupational safety management.
Somehow, the length of the post-accident absence can be treated as an indicator of building
performance safety. The paper attempts to answer the question whether it is possible
to use boosted classifier ensembles to predict the post-accident absence length using a
small set of historical observations, and which classification algorithm is the most
promising to solve the prediction problem. It also proves that there is a dependence
between the length of the post-accident absence and the cause of the accident or working
conditions The choice of boosted algorithms is not accidental. Thanks to the use of
aggregation methods
it is possible to build classifiers that predict precisely and do not require any initial data
treatment, which simplifies the prediction process significantly. The model of the
prediction problem has been clarified. To identify the most promising classifier ensemble
the prediction accuracy measures of selected classification algorithms was analysed.
The data used to build models was gathered on national (Polish) construction sites.

1
Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Mechanics and Petrochemistry,
17

67
Introduction
An accident at work is defined in ESAW (European Statistics on Accidents at Work)
methodology as a discrete occurrence during work which leads to physical or mental harm.
Fatal accidents at work are those that lead to the death of the victim within one year, while
non-fatal accidents at work collected within ESAW (2013, 2016) are those that imply at
least four full calendar days of absence from work. For many years, in a majority of EU
Member States, the highest incidence of accidents has been reported for persons employed
in construction. In addition, for decades, more than half of all absence days registered are
concentrated in only three sectors of economic activity: manufacturing, construction and
wholesale and retail trade. According to ILO (2014) report, averagely, every 10 minutes
one construction worker bears death during his work. This puts the construction industry at
the head of the most hazardous professions basically due to high variability of working
conditions.
Accident statistics are being gathered and analyzed in all countries - in Poland by GUS
(Main Statistical Office), in Europe by Eurostat, worldwide by ILO. However, collecting
acc -and-

accidents, and occupational groups burdened with the highest risk of accident. In Poland

database and a mathematical model of an accident event development in the construction

zed costs
of accidents and the length of a post-accident absence. A study on the above-mentioned
papers and global research carried out by Saiful, Razwanul and Tarek (2017), Mistikoglu
et al. (2015), Chua and Goh (2004), or Chan, Leung and Liu (2016), indicates that there is
a strong need to build models of advisory systems supporting H&S management in its
various aspects. Such systems should be effective, easy to use, and predict precisely with
the historical data.
The paper matches up with work safety modelling problems. It attempts to answer the
question whether it is possible to use boosted decision trees (a selected type of classifier
ensembles) to predict the post-accident absence length using historical observations, and
which algorithm is the most promising to apply in the prediction problem.

Why the post-accident absence and classifier ensembles?

The paper focuses on the post-accident absence as an element of the occupational safety
management. According to Drozd (2015), the length of the post-accident absence can be
treated as an indicator of building performance safety. It is strongly affected by the
working experience of the injured and the size of the company. In Polish conditions the
absence decreases with the increasing size of the company, which proves that larger
construction companies pay more attention to works safety.
To solve the prediction problem classifier ensembles are suggested. In contrast to other
prediction methods, classifier ensembles consist in building different models of the same
phenomenon and then combining their judgments (Walesiak & Gatnar, 2009). The multi-
model supervised learning in statistical data analysis has been used successfully in picture
recognition, medical and biological sciences, customer segmentation, business modeling,
etc. However, it is still less popular in project and construction planning, which is a pity,
because aggregation algorithms, especially those based on decision tress or random forests,
are thought to be the most effective classifiers. They
do not require any initial data treatment, pre-processing, or analysis, which simplifies the

68
prediction process significantly. They can also be used in case of missing data, what
happens when collecting information on the construction site.
Mathematical model of the prediction problem
To predict the length of the post- consider set U containing N
observations which are different accidents at work. Each observation is described by
a vector of attributes [xi1, xi2 iL, yi]. There are two kinds of attributes: predictors
(called the input data) X1 L and one target attribute Y (called the output data).
Variables x i1, xi2 iL , yi i (i =
The value of the target attribute is a class label. Therefore, set U can be defined as (1):

X1 XL
x11 ... x1L y1 (1)
x 21 ... x 2 L y2
xi , yi N ( L 1)
.
... ... ... ...
x N1 ... x NL yN

Predictors are the circumstances of the accident. They are usually recorded to the
accident report, and these are: size of the company (the level of employment), work
experience of the injured, type of work performed by the injured just before the accident,
source of the accident, mechanization of works performed by the injured just before the
accident. The target attribute is the length of the post-accident absence. The goal of the
classification problem is to construct, using the historical data, a mathematical model that
predicts the class of the unlabeled examples. This means that the dependence between the
length of post-accident absence Y and X=[X1 XL] is being
sought.
Classification can be done using a single classifier or a classifier ensemble, where a
variety of classifiers (either different types of classifiers or different instantiations of the
same classifier) are pooled before a final decision is made. Intuitively and mathematically,
classifier ensembles provide an extra degree of freedom in the classical variance tradeoff,
allowing solutions that would be difficult or impossible to reach with a single classifier
(Oza & Tumer, 2008). There are several methods of combining classifiers: bagging
(bootstrap aggregation), boosting, stacking, etc. In the present paper boosting technique is
being analyzed. In this technique learners are learned sequentially with early learners
fitting simple models to the data. The training set used for each member of the series is
chosen based on the performance of the earlier classifier in the series (Opitz & Maclin,
1999). Observations wrongly classified by a single classifier receive a higher weight in
order to be chosen to the next training set, so the algorithm is "forced" to learn using them.
The final classifier arises as a result of weighted component voting.
To build prediction models the data collected on 87 different construction sites in
Poland and presented by Drozd (2015) was used. The information about accidents was
obtained from the statistical accident reports made after each accident. The observed
predictors and the range of their historical values are collected in table 1.

Table 1. Predictors and their historical values.

Observed predictors values

company size numeric (number of
from 4 to 241
(the level of employment)

69
 experience of the injured Numeric (number of years from 1 to 16
workers of work in construction)
type of work performed by
1 in case of work at heights,
the injured just before the binary
0 in other cases
accident
1 if the accident was caused by

the source of the accident
the state of mechanization
of works performed by the
injured just before the
accident
psycho-physical state or
improper behaviour, incl. not
binary using protective equipment),
0 if the accident was caused by
inappropriate workplace
organisation and improper
protection of the workplace
1 if work was performed with
equipment being moved or with
binary
machine in motion, 0 in other
cases

In the examined data collection the target value (the length of the post-accident
absence) varied between 2 and 29 days, while its mean value was 24.4 days and standard
deviation was 5.9 days. It should be mentioned here that, in Poland, if you are absent from
work for more than 30 days, you are directed to repeat detailed medical examinations
before returning to work. Therefore, for minor injuries, 29 or 30 days are usually the
highest values. The problem that is being discussed and proposed methodology of its
solution are of a discriminatory type. Therefore, the length of absence was divided into 6
separate classes (intervals): 0-5 days, 6-10 days, 11-15 days, 16-20 days, 21-25 days and
26-30 days.

The experiment
To answer the question whether it is possible to use boosted decision trees to predict the
post-accident absence length, and what is the prediction accuracy, two aggregation
algorithms were examined: AdaBoost.M1 and Logit Boost. Five different classifiers were
tested:
Decision Stump a weak, one-node decision tree,
random tree classifier a class for constructing a tree that considers randomly
chosen attributes at each node and performs no pruning,
J48 tree a class for generating an unpruned or a pruned C4.5 decision tree,
LMT tree a classifier for building logistic model trees, which are classification
trees with logistic regression functions at the leaves; the algorithm can deal with
binary and multi-class target variables, numeric and nominal attributes and missing
values;
REPT tree a fast decision tree learner, which builds a decision tree using
information gain and prunes it using reduced-error pruning (with backfitting).
To obtain training sets it was acted in two ways: 70% dataset split and cross-validation
with different number of folds (incl. leave-one-out cross-validation) were performed. The
maximum number of iterations was set to 100 and no resampling was allowed. All the
calculations were performed in WEKA 3.8. environment.

70
 The best predicting algorithms are gathered in table 2. The prediction accuracy is a
percentage of correctly classified instances, while MAE stands for a mean absolute error.

Table 2. Comparison the prediction accuracy obtained with different ensembles.

Classifier Max. Aggregation Max. prediction MAE

prediction algorithm accuracy of a
accuracy of a classifier ensemble
single classifier
Decision AdaBoost.M1 65,3% 0,23
58,6%
Stump LogitBoost 77,0% 0,08
LMT 74,7% AdaBoost.M1 75,8% 0,11
J48 72,4% AdaBoost.M1 77,0% 0,08
Random tree 73,6% LogitBoost 77,0% 0,08
AdaBoost.M1 79,3% 0,12
REPT tree 69,0%
LogitBoost 79,3% 0,16

Discussion and conclusions

Accuracy measures for different ensembles and models built in Weka indicate that,
whatever the loss function is, logit (LogiBoost algorithm) or exponential (AdaBoost.M1),
classifier ensembles, as expected, provide better prediction accuracy than a single decision
tree. The best improvement is observed for the weak Decision Stump classifier. Better
prediction (at 81,6%) was obtained only with Random Committee aggregation algorithm
and Random Tree classifier being aggregated, which was a result of supplementary
calculations. Similar prediction accuracies, ca. 75-80%, were achieved within Random
Forest method and for different bagging ensembles. It means that value of ca. 80%
accuracy is a ceiling value for the data being analyzed, whatever the aggregation method
is. It's not bad but it's not excellent either. Moreover, when analyzing the confusion matrix
and detailed accuracy measures, such as the F-measure and PRC Area, see Fig. 1, it was
noted that the prediction accuracy for classes 0-5 and 6-10 is very low, regardless of the
aggregation algorithm. Then, in the course of further research and in order to build a
reliable decision model it is necessary to expand the knowledge database with observations
for which the post-accident absence varies between 0 and 10 days.

71
 Fig. 1. Classifier output for LogitBoost algorithm and Random Tree as a base classifier an extract from
Weka application window view.

The research proved that there is a strong dependence between the length of the post-
accident absence and classifier
ensembles based on boosting algorithms are a valuable tool to support prediction of the
length of post-accident absence, even if the set of historical data used to learn the classifier
is relatively small or there are data missing. The most time-effective algorithms: boosted
J48 decision tree and Decision Stump will be analyzed in further research.

Reference
Chan, I.Y.S., Leung, M.Y. and Liu, A.M.M., 2016. Occupational health management
system: A study of expatriate construction professionals. Accident Analysis &
Prevention, 93, 280-290
Chua, D.H.K. and Goh Y.M., 2004. Incident Causation Model for Improving Feedback of
Safety Knowledge. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 130(4),
542-551
Drozd, W., 2015. Regression analysis of accident absenteeism and variables describing
working conditions. Monography 480 Recent advances in civil engineering:
Construction management. Cracow: Cracow University of Technology Publishing.
Drozd, W., 2017. Analysis of Cost Regression and Post-Accident Absence. AIP
Conference Proceedings, 1863 (1), 230004.
European Statistics on Accident at Work ESAW, 2013. Summary methodology. Eurostat
Methodologies and Working Papers. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European
Union.
European Statistics on Accident at Work ESAW, 2016. Accidents at work statistics
[online]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/
index.php?title=Accidents_at_work_statistics [Accessed May 2018].

72
Gatnar, E., 2009. Multi-model approach in discrimination and regression, Warsaw: PWN.
(in Polish)

Construction Industry in European Union Countries. Archives of Civil Engineering,

61(4), 13-34.
International Labor Organization ILO, 2014. A Vision for Sustainable Prevention, XX
World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, Global Forum for Prevention, 24-27
August 2014, Frankfurt, Germany.
Statistical learning systems, Warsaw: Akademicka
Oficyna Wydawnicza Exit. (in Polish)
Mistikoglu, G. et al., 2015. Decision tree analysis of construction fall accidents involving
roofers. Expert Systems and Applications, 42(4), 2256-2263.
Oza, N.C. and Tumer, K., 2008. Classifier ensembles: Select real-world applications.
Information Fusion, 9(1), 4-20.
Opitz, D., and Maclin, R., 1999. Popular Ensemble Methods: An Empirical Study. Journal
of Artificial Intelligence Research, 11, 169-198.
Saiful, M., Razwanul I., and Tarek M., 2017. Safety Practices and Causes of Fatality in
Building Construction Projects: A Case Study for Bangladesh, Jordan Journal of Civil
Engineering, 11(2), 267-278.
Modelling of the development of an accident situation in the
construction industry. Thesis (PhD), Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland.
Walesiak, M., and Gatnar, E., 2009. Data analysis in R, Warsaw: PWN. (in Polish)

73
[Paper ID 149]

Ewa Chodakowska1 Joanicjusz Nazarko2

Abstract
Technology management in complex ecosystems requires advanced technology assessment
tools. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a powerful tool for a multi-criteria
comparative performance assessment of different objects (Decision Making Unit DMU)
in the same class. However, the DEA method is capable of adequately differentiating
DMUs only when the number of analysed criteria is a few times less than the number of
DMUs. Application of DEA in technology assessment requires prior data redundancy
reduction due to the multiplicity of technology assessment criteria. The literature suggests
various approaches to limiting the cardinality of the criteria sets for the performance
analysis using the DEA method. One of the popular approaches is to create synthetic
criteria by means of the Principle Component Analysis (PCA). This paper, in turn,
proposes a sophisticated rough sets concept. Due to the nature of technology analysis,
namely, a small number of objects and many criteria with linguistic values, the proposed
approach based on the concept of rough sets seems to be appropriate.

1
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering Management, Bialystok University of Technology, Wiejska
45A, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland, Tel. +48 85 7469880, E-mail: e.chodakowska@pb.edu.pl
2
Full Professor, Faculty of Engineering Management, Bialystok University of Technology, Wiejska 45A,
15-351 Bialystok, Poland, Tel. +48 85 7469880, E-mail: j.nazarko@pb.edu.pl

74
Introduction
The primary goal of technology assessment is to identify technologies that can generate the
highest economic and/or social benefits to prioritise future investments. Technology
assessment is a prospective activity that allows to select the research and innovation
projects which may translate into faster development of regions. At the enterprise level,
proper management of technologies is the basis for building a long-term competitive
advantage, determining the ability to sustain development. The importance of the problem
of proper prioritization of technology means that different approaches, methods and tools
are being developed in the area of technology assessment (Nazarko, 2017).
The discussion on the portfolio of methods with the potential to be used in technology
assessment is the subject of many publications: Porter (1995), Aaltonen (2009), Magruk
(2011), Halicka (2016). One of the most popular typologies presented Popper (2008) who
proposed a typology of 33 foresight methods: quantitative, qualitative, mixed, and
exploratory or normative. Cagnin et al. (2013) suggest combining methods traditionally
classified as quantitative with qualitative due to the fact that qualitative may ensure greater
involvement of potential stakeholders, while the quantitative higher objectivity of the
assessment. Triangulation, understood as the integration of various types of information
and techniques, is indicated as an approach with higher value in use for decision-makers.
However, the review of foresight projects show the domination of quality methods (see:
Kononiuk et al. (2017), Popper (2008), Li et al. (2017)). In the implemented foresight
projects, one of the most frequently used methods was the Delphi method (Proskuryakova
et al. (2014)).
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a powerful tool for a multi-criteria comparative

used for enterprises, non- on. A few published

applications also indicate its legitimacy and suitability for technology assessment.
However, DEA is still underused for technology management. Among the published
works, significant numbers concern the assessment of technology considering the need for
sustainable development, utilising the advantage of DEA to include information on
undesirable effects of technology development. For example, Kwon et al. (2017) assessed
European countries regarding the green-energy technology using a two-stage DEA
evaluating energy generation with regards to C0 2. Environmental performance of European
countries were also of the object interest in Chodakowska and Nazarko (2017) work
Sueyoshi and Goto (2014) examined the corporate sustainability of the Japanese
industrial sector. Fan et al. 2
utilisation -
towers in a power plant. Liu et al. (2013) considered eco-efficiency of water
systems in 31 provinces, regions, and municipalities in China.
There are also works on technology analysis by DEA, which consider non-ecological
criteria. Lee et al. (2013) used fuzzy AHP and DEA to prioritise R&D resources in energy
technologies to establish the strategy against high oil prices. Lee et al. (2008) set R&D
priorities in technology foresight context. Yu and Lee (2013) presented combining scores
calculation using DEA and AHP for clustering similar technologies established based on
required input resources to select promising emerging nanotechnology.
Numerous works are available demonstrating new approaches or models of DEA in the
context of technology analysis. Amin and Emrouznejad (2013) proposed a new non-
iterative DEA on the dataset of robot selection from Karsak and Ahiska (2005). Earlier,
using the same data set, Alinezhad et al. (2011) proposed input-oriented DEA CCR
multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model. The dataset from Khouja (1995) used

75
Saen (2009) to demonstrate an assurance region-nondiscretionary factor-imprecise DEA
(AR-NF-IDEA) models for technology analysis.
In the technology analysis, it is necessary to consider many stakeholders and many
aspects of the assessment. The criteria taken into account in the analysis of technologies
always result from the context of the assessment and are implied by the subject and field
of analysis. The challenge of the data aggregation stage is to reach a consensus on the
weights of individual criteria or areas that will balance different opinions, values, needs.
Klincewicz and Manikowski (2013) developed a set of 184 detailed evaluation criteria,
divided into 12 thematic groups: innovation, competitiveness, strategy, organisation
supplier experience, the importance of technology for organisation supplier, marketing,
technology applications, technical aspects, production technologies, patent protection,
social and ethical aspects, and ecology. In the situation of a specific assessment,
considering the purpose of the research task, the characteristic of criteria appropriate to the
analysed technologies can be selected from the set, e.g. only economic, technological,
ecological and social. Nevertheless, the set of criteria is usually quite large (for example:
Technology Foresight in the Czech Republic: 35 criteria in 6 fileds (K. Klusacek (2003)),
NT FOR Podlaskie 2020: 21 criteria (Nazarko and Magruk (2013)).
The DEA method is capable of adequately differentiating DMUs only when the
number of analysed criteria is a few times less than the number of DMUs. Application of
DEA in technology assessment requires a prior data redundancy reduction due to the
multiplicity of technology assessment criteria and, sometimes, subtle differences between
them. Many approaches have been developed to reduce the number of evaluation criteria in
the DEA framework. A popular choice is to create synthetic criteria using the Principle
Component Analysis (PCA) (Adler and Golany (2001), (2002)). Rough sets are primarily
used for the induction of decision rules. Revett (2008) discovered decision rules that
predict the features influencing the outcomes measured clinically in a patient dataset. Yang
and Wu (2009) used the rough sets theory to induce decision rules to set significant
symptoms of diseases on the basis of data from a Taiwanese otolaryngology clinic. The
analysis of data and setting rules is often preceded by cardinal reduction of attributes.
Dimitras et al. (1999) used a rough set to reduce and discriminate between enterprises to
predict business failure. Both methods, i.e. PCA and rough sets, can be combined for the
simplification of systems by the elimination of attributes whose values have no influence
on decisions or do not distinguish objects. An algorithm for feature selection using PCA
and rough sets in facial pattern recognition and mammogram experiments was proposed by
Swiniarski and Skowron (2003).
The contribution of this article is a proposition of a concept of rough sets to reduce
the number of criteria in the context of technology analysis by DEA.

Methods
The rough set theory introduced by Pawlak (1982) is founded on the assumption that
each object is associated with some information, i.e. attributes. An object characterised
by the same values of attributes is indiscernible (similar) given the available information
(Pawlak and Skowron, 2007).
Let be an information system, where is non-empty, finite set of objects
called the universe, and a non-empty finite set of attributes. With every subset of
attributes , the indiscernibility relations are defined as:

76
Objects satisfying relations are indiscernible by attributes from . The
partition of generated by is denoted as .
An attribute a B A is dispensable in if , otherwise, a is
indispensable in . The minimal subset such that , is called
a reduct of A. The set of all reducts of A is denoted as . The intersection of reducts
of A is referred to as a core of B A: . In other words, the reduct
must be an independent set of attributes and must be able to distinguish between objects.
The idea of core and reducts illustrates the definition-based algorithm of discovery
them in Fig 1.

Fig. 1. Definition-based algorithm for the core and reducts

Due to the computational complexity of the definition-based algorithm given above, it
is suggested to use the indiscernibility matrix M(IS) of the information system:
, where .
, consist of the attributes that are single in the matrix.
is the minimum subset of attributes and has a non-empty intersection with each
non-empty element of the matrix M(IS). The problem of finding minimum or nearly
minimum reducts is one of the main problems of the rough set theory. There are many
propositions of reduct generations algorithms, both exact and approximate.

77
 The selection of a satisfactory set of attributes from the obtained should
consider two criteria (Dimitras et al., 1999): the reduct should contain as small number
of attributes as possible, and the reduct should not miss the attributes judged by the
decision makers as the most significant.
The idea of attribute reduction using the indiscernibility relations is an interesting
proposition of preparing data for prioritising technology. Firstly, a typical task of
technology assessment is a selection from few technologies characterised by a dozen of
criteria. Attribute reduction methods based on a correlation matrix/covariance (like PCA)
is not statistically valid. Secondly, technology assessment is usually done by linguistic
descriptions
values is associated with the appearance of the problem of an
unintentional change in the relationship between answers.
DEA, originally proposed by Charnes et al. (1978), evaluates technologies regarding
potential effects/benefits (referred to as outputs in the DEA nomenclature) in relation
to expenditure of implementation/development costs (inputs) based on a weighted sum
of outputs to inputs. The weights are optimally selected for each unit being assessed
to maximise its score using linear programming algorithms. The final score ranges from
0 to 100%.
Considering the most appropriate DEA model among many possibilities and
extensions, authors believe that the fuzzy DEA model is worth noting due to the
aforementioned need to code linguistic responses. In addition, despite the limitation of the
number of criteria using the rough set theory, the number of analysis objects in the
technology assessment task will often not be significantly larger than the number of
criteria. The result will be in a large subset of effective objects. Therefore, it will be
reasonable to use a super-efficiency (SE) model proposed by Andersen and Petersen
(1993) to differentiate efficiency units (final efficiency score can exceed 100%).
In summary, to evaluate the technology based on the proposed rough sets concept SE
fuzzy DEA model is proposed:
(1)
i
r

where:
efficiency score of unit
the vector of weighs,
triangular fuzzy input,
triangular fuzzy output,
m the number of fuzzy inputs,
s the number of fuzzy outputs,
n the number of DMUs.
And the concept of the -cut was applied and two models which give upper and lower
bounds and triangular fuzzy numbers as proposed by Azadeh and Alem (2010):
(2)

78
 Both the DEA model and the fuzzy membership function have been chosen arbitrarily
among many possibilities based on a subjective assessment of the simplicity of the
solution.
The used hybrid rough sets, i.e. the fuzzy SE DEA model, for technology assessment
scheme consist of few stages as illustrated in Fig. 2

Structuring Criteria Technology

a data set reduction assesment

Defining a list of Determining reducs of Applying SE Fuzzy DEA

technologies criteria set
Defining a list of criteria Criteria reduction
Seting criteria values

Fig. 2. Scheme of the hybrid rough SE fuzzy DEA model for the technology analysis
The first stage for the structuring of a dataset consists of the identification of available
alternative technologies, defining criteria and setting criteria values. The data are collected
through interviews with experts. Then obtained dataset is treated as IS and the number
of criteria is limited to the use of the rough set rules. The DEA on reduced data allows
prioritising technologies.

Results and discussions

To illustrate the concept of the rough and fuzzy DEA method, the assumptions for four
hypothetical technologies were made. Twelve variables were adopted: six input (resource)
and six output (benefits) criteria with a range of values from a set of linguistic terms,
respectively: three variants for inputs and two for outputs transcoded into fuzzy numbers.
Tables 1 and 2 respectively present that linguistic terms code and random values.
Linguistic values represent the answer from the questionnaire determining the
cost/resource needed (weak, moderate, strong) and the importance/future positive effect
(yes/no).

Table 1. Linguistic terms and appropriated fuzzy numbers

Linguistic value Fuzzy numbers Code
Input Weakly (0, 2, 4) (0, 0.2, 0.4) 0
Moderately (3, 5, 7) (0.3, 0.5 ,0.7) 1
Strongly (6, 8, 1) (0.6, 0.8, 1) 2
Output Yes (0, 3, 6) (0, 0.3, 0.6) 0
No (4, 7, 10) (0.4, 0.7, 1) 1

Table 2. Technology criteria values

input output
i1 i2 i3 i4 i5 i6 o1 o2 o3 o4 o5 o6

79
T1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
T2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1
T3 2 1 2 2 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1
T4 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1

Considering the input IS, the set of attributes and the set of
technologies using the algorithm from Fig. 1:
and . Analogously for the output IS,
, , ,
. Under the assumption of =0.5, the results of fuzzy SE-DEA for each
are given in Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3. Upper and lower bounds of efficiency values

.
DMU Lower Upper Lower Upper Lower Upper Lower Upper
T1 31.6% 61.4% 33.3% 163.6% 33.3% 245.5% 31.6% 61.4%
T2 93.3% 300.0% 109.0% 600.0% 145.7% 900.0% 93.3% 300.0%
T3 78.7% 1000.0% 63.0% 1000.0% 63.0% 1000.0% 78.7% 1000.0%
T4 133.3% 600.0% 33.3% 300.0% 33.3% 300.0% 133.3% 600.0%

Table 4. Upper and lower bounds of efficiency statistics

DMU Average Lower average Upper average Min Max
T1 82.71% 32.45% 132.98% 31.6% 245.5%
T2 317.66% 110.33% 525.00% 93.3% 900.0%
T3 535.43% 70.85% 1000.00% 63.0% 1000.0%
T4 266.65% 83.30% 450.00% 33.3% 600.0%

Four different proposals of reducts differentiating the input set were obtained. The
most adequate subset must be found. It would be reasonable to use expert knowledge. In
the presented example, the high dispersion of results indicates a significant uncertainty of
the assessment. Considering the average, the best technology is T3; however, due to the
large range of the best and worst assessments, technology T2 should also be considered.

Conclusions
Technology assessment is often based on a large dataset with vague and imprecise data due
to the lack of information or human subjective judgment. This paper built a two-stage
hybrid rough SE fuzzy DEA model for the technology analysis.

80
 The concept of the rough set theory has been proved to be a useful tool for the analysis
of information tables describing a set of objects by multi-valued attributes and has been
applied in many applications, mainly in machine-learning expert systems. The rough set
theory can be successfully used to reduce the number of dimension criteria and to remove
some duplicate, correlated information in complex technology assessment systems. The
numerical experiments provided that the hybrid approach integrating DEA and rough set
algorithms are a possible solution for the technology analysis task. In the example the set
of 12 criteria was reduced to 5. Using SE fuzzy DEA the range of score for each
technology was obtained. One of the most popular fuzzy DEA model was employed to
show the limiting of the cardinality of the criteria sets by rough sets concept. Other fuzzy
approaches and DEA models can be tested to check the stability of solutions.
In future works, the recommendations and suggestion for reduct selection in DEA
context should be developed. In addition, to increase confidence in the results, it is worth
comparing and assessing the consistency of results from the proposed approach and other
proposition of limitation criteria set. It is also worth mentioning the possibility of
combining the PCA method and the rough set concept for the reduction of attributes in the
DEA framework.

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2. THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS OF PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

84
[Paper ID 168]

Hesham S. Ahmad1, Wejdan Abu-Elhaija2 and Yousef Qandoos3

Abstract
Site visits to construction projects are considered essential to help engineering students
understand many of the topics included in the study courses. Site visits are also important
in helping engineering students gain more knowledge about common procedures
and materials used during the life-cycle of construction projects, and thus better prepare
the undergraduate students for the real work after graduation. However, site visits
for undergraduate student groups may include safety risks, in addition to the fact that
trainees need to spend considerably extended period of time for learning during the long
life-cycle of construction projects.
The aim of this study is to propose a project of a learning centre for engineering
students that provides a safe and easy-to-reach site while allowing faster learning of
engineering practices. The proposed project is its planning phase, and is named
Infrastructure Learning Hub (ILH). A questionnaire survey was conducted with 108 under-
graduate students from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology in Al-Zaytoonah
University of Jordan (ZUJ). The questionnaire aims at revealing the evaluation of the
engineering students about the training and site visits system currently applied in the
University. Also, the
importance of the proposed ILH, and their preferable type for the project.
The results of the questionnaires showed a high importance for the implementation
of the ILH project, and to have better coordination and scheduling for site visits with
construction projects and organizations. This study intends to pinpoint the courses which
require more practical emphasis in order to improve learning outcomes. The results
can be very important for other engineering faculties to enhance the learning process
and gain competitive advantages.
Keywords: construction, engineering students, learning, project, safety

1
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, P.O. Box: 130
Amman 11733 Jordan, h.ahmad@zuj.edu.jo
2
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, P.O. Box: 130
Amman 11733 Jordan , b w.elhaija@gmail.com
3
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, P.O. Box: 130
Amman 11733 Jordan, c yousef_y_f@hotmail.com

85
Introduction
Site visits to construction projects are essential for undergraduate engineering students to
help them to become more familiar with work environment, and to make them more ready
for real work after graduation. Training on construction projects is not only important on
the final stages of the engineering study, but it is important from the early stages to
improve stu
subjects. A trainee needs to wait a full life-cycle of a construction project to go through all
the different stages of a project, which is not possible during the limited time period
specified for engineering training (about 8 weeks in ZUJ).

In the literature some projects, especially lab-scale and computerized models, were
designed and implemented for teaching and training of students in specific engineering
topics. Some studies have developed models to test the behavior of different materials
when subjected to forces, such as earthquake and wind effects. Other studies have used
software programs to build virtual models for teaching students such as Building
Information Modeling (BIM) and Revit software (Nejat et al., 2012).
The aim of this research project is to propose a learning and training tool for
engineering students to become more familiar with the different stages, tools, procedures
and materials of construction projects, in relatively high level of safety and less time and
effort for learning compared with the common training process during the life-cycle of
construction projects. Practical engineering exercises can be performed to improve

This study recommends designing and developing a construction project model to

provide an effective learning tool for many of the engineering courses such as survey,
construction materials, engineering drawings, quantity survey, infrastructure networks,
concrete design, construction project management, electrical and mechanical systems
design etc.

Engineering Training Program and Site Visits

The engineering training is a compulsory requisite for the engineering students in all the
universities in Jordan. The main aim of the engineering training program is to train the
engineering students to practice and apply the knowledge gained during the stages of their
study to qualify them for the future career they desire in their specialty of study. The
duration of the engineering training is normally 8 weeks, and a student can start training
after finishing 3 years of the 5 years of the required engineering study. Normally, a list of
qualified companies is approved by the engineering faculty, and the trainees are tested and
evaluated by the training companies and by the college training supervisors. Random visits
by the supervisors are conducted to insure the commitment of the trainees.
Normally, site visits during the study semesters are non-compulsory, and depend on the
availability of projects which are easy to reach and access, and also depend on the
motivation of the lecturers. In most of the engineering colleges, site visits are not included
in the study plans or course outlines. Sometimes, one or two scientific trips are conducted
during the semester which are open to interested students from different stages and
enrolled in different course. These trips either conducted during working days that
contradict with the time of classes, or during non-working days where many students seem
to lack motivation to attend these trips.

86
 The aim of this study is to apply a project that motivates site visits for engineering

Infrastructure Learning Hub (ILH)

Infrastructure Learning Hub (ILH) is a project proposed to be applied in and sponsored by
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan. The project will be designed to enhance the
engineering training and site visits effectiveness for the students of the different
department in the Faculty of Engineering and technology including Civil and Infrastructure
Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Technology of Alternative
Energy and Architecture. The project can also attract sponsoring from interested
organization, and can provide services to people and organizations from outside the
university. In the questionnaire survey of this study, the respondents were asked to choose
their preferable shape of the project from the following alternatives:
1. Three dimensional Virtual Reality (VR) technology to model a construction
project, and allow users to go through the different items in the project and
investigate its related work methods, tools, materials, tests, etc.
2. Interactive software program that can be accessed through internet and provide
information about construction stages, materials, tools, tests, etc.
3. Mobile application that allows users to go through a construction project and to
retrieve useful information about work procedures, tools, materials, tests, etc.
4. Small size models that describes different parts of construction project and present
related information.
5. Real size building, supported by written information and monitors, that the learner
can walk through and investigate the different construction stages and related
materials, tools, tests, etc.
6. Real size building, supported by electronic mobile application, that the learner can
walk through to identify the different construction stages and items, and the
different tools and materials used for the execution of these items. The mobile
application provides detailed information for the existing items and materials as
needed.

Literature Review
A study by Gharehbaghi and McManus (2003) has identified important skills and abilities
that learners should gain to manage construction projects effectively. The study introduced
objectives which are important for construction managers such as the ability to set
achievable and effective goals, monitor and control the project, and ensure delivering work
successfully within the constraints of time and budget. To achieve these objectives,
construction managers should possess professional skills such as time management,
resource management, budgeting, and risk management. According to the study, successful
manager must also know how to give the right task to the correct person, how to involve
the client in the stages of the construction project and know the closeout procedure of the
project.
Two studies by Cline (2008) and Cline (2011) has identified and discussed teaching
strategies of construction project management in higher education. In the first study, Cline
(2008) has determined key competencies needed by construction project managers. It was

87
found that the five most important skills for effective project management are leadership,
construction management, professional and ethical judgement and plan reading.
In the second study by Cline (2011), qualitative interview method was conducted with
ten current faculty members of U.S. construction management colleges to determine which
teaching strategy is the most often used when teaching construction management students.
The teaching strategies used in this study have been developed in previous study by Pratt

study developed five different perspectives on teaching, including Social Reform,

Nurturing, Transmission, Apprenticeship and Developmental Perspectives. The results of

o the student the

(Pratt, 1998)) perspectives were the most commonly used
perspectives in teaching. Although, the transmission perspective was found to be the most
commonly used by the interviewees, they all believed that the transmission teaching could
be the least effective of all perspectives.
Accreditation standards and criteria for construction education programs was
developed by the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE, 2004). These
standards emphasizes that an effective construction management curricula should be
responsive to evolving construction knowledge, technologies, and management trends.

Related Existing Practices

A study by Magoha (2002) has discussed the methods and tools existing at the time of
conducting the study to enhance the effectiveness of the training of engineers and
technologists. According to the author, the development of new technologies has
encouraged the achievement of new engineering training concepts. The study has
recommended the interactive methods to make the engineering teaching and learning more
interesting. The study has proposed effective instructional methods for training engineers
and technologists, including the computer as an engineering design tool, virtual reality,
multimedia (combination of audio and visual materials), teaching and learning with the
internet (e-learning), web-based engineering experiments and modular engineering
teaching equipment. The author argued that, the effectiveness of the teaching or learning
methods to be used depends on the objectives of learning, group size, local constraints,

of time and facilities.

Study Objectives
Site visit of construction projects is normally an important practice used to improve
understanding of engineering students to many of the topics in the engineering courses. In
these visits, students can only see few stages of the construction processes. To see most of
the construction stages, trainees need to spend long time during the project life-cycle. Also,
the site visits can be associated with high level of safety risk for the large groups of
students.
This project aims at proposing a model of a construction project. This model can help to
show variable stages, procedures, tools and materials of construction projects effectively

applied in this project and many engineering related information can be introduced to help
accelerate learning and improve understanding of different engineering topics. Also, the

88
project will provide practical training that makes students more familiar with projects and
more ready for work after graduation.
Questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the existing procedures and systems
followed for engineering training and site visits. Also, the questionnaire assesses the
expected usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed project (ILH) in the opinion of the
engineering students. It is expected that this project will help educators in the teaching
process, and will help students to learn better, faster and safer.
The proposed project (ILH), if applied successfully, can provide competitive
advantages for engineering graduates in the engineering industry. The project can improve
knowledge and skills for the engineering students to make them more ready for the work
after graduation. Also, it will help students to better understand different engineering topics
during the different engineering courses.

Questionnaire Survey
Questionnaire Objectives
The main aim of the questionnaire survey is to investigate and evaluate the opinions of
engineering students about the engineering training and site visiting procedures currently
used in the Faculty of Engineering and Technology in ZUJ, and the opportunity to develop
these procedures by proposing a project (ILH) for engineering learning development. The
questionnaire is composed of three main sections.
The first section asks respondents to provide their information such as specialty and
stage of study. The second section is dedicated to investigate the opinions of respondents
about the effectiveness and sufficiency of the existing engineering training and site visit
procedures. This section also includes an open ended question that asks respondents to
provide briefly, according to their opinions, a list of the most important constraints that
negatively affect the effective implementation of site visits to construction projects.

project (ILH) that should be easy for students to reach, and should enhance learning during
their engineering study and also to enhance qualification for engineering career after
graduation. This section also asks the respondents to select from different alternatives their
preferable type for this project, and optionally to provide their additional ideas and
suggestions.

Sample Analysis (Section 1)

From a population of about 1,000 students enrolling in the Faculty of Engineering and
Technology, 165 students were contacted that represent about 16.5% of the population.
This percentage is greater than the recommended percentage in previous studies (Al-
Hmadani et al., 2006). The questionnaire was distributed electronically to students in
courses which are normally enrolled by fourth and fifth year civil engineering students.
This student level of study was chosen to ensure that the questionnaire respondents have
high level of awareness about the subject of engineering training and site visits.
With a response rate of about 68.5%, 113 students have completed the survey. Five poor
responses were rejected, to makes the total number of accepted questionnaires for the
analysis equals 108 responses. Most of the accepted respondents (about 95%) are studying
civil engineering, and only 5% are studying mechanical and architectural engineering.
Also, the majority of the accepted respondents are undergraduate students in the 4 th year
(60%) and 5 th year (33%). The rest of the respondents are graduates (3%), and students in
the 3rd year (3%) and 2nd year (1%).

89
Evaluation of Existing Procedures (Section 2)
The results of the second section of the questionnaire evaluate the existing adopted training
program and assess the importance for site visits during the enrollment in the engineering
courses. The results indicated that only about 54% of the respondents are agreeing and
strongly agreeing that the training program adopted in the study plan is adequate for
providing the knowledge and skills required for effective starting of their career after
graduation. Also, only about 50% of the questionnaire respondents feel that the existing
training program adequately support the learning and understanding process required
during the enrollment in engineering courses.

Existing training program is adequate for Existing training program is adequate for
giving the knowledge and skills required for giving the learning and understanding
work after graduation. required during course enrollment.

Figure 1. Adopted Training Program Adequacy for Professional Qualification and Study
Learning
Furthermore, the results showed that 98% of the respondents agree and strongly agree
that site visits during the enrollment in engineering courses are needed and important for
the effective learning and understanding of engineering courses. Only 26% of the
respondents feel that the site visits conducted during their enrollment in the engineering
courses are adequate for the effective learning and understanding of the courses contents.

Site visits are needed and important Site visits conducted during
during enrollment in courses for enrollment in courses are adequate
learning and understanding of for learning and understanding of
Figure 2. Importance and Adequacy of Site Visits during Enrollment in Courses

90
 The last question in the second section is an open ended optional question that asks
respondents to briefly list the most important constraints, which in their opinion cause lack
of effective site visits during their enrollment in the engineering study. This question was
completed by 67 respondents, resulted in 136 points categorized and listed in Table 1. The
written constraints by respondents resulted in 28 sub-constraints categorized into five main
groups of constraints.
As shown in Table 1, the constraints related to time are the most constraints written
ination,
and then awareness. Factors such as Time pressure for students during the study semester,
time conflict between the course classes and site visits, lack of coordination between the
department and engineering organizations, and difficulty of transportation to sites are the
most constraining factors discussed by the respondents. Furthermore, factors such as lack

including the site visits in course plans and descriptions, are moderately discussed in the
responses.

Table 1. Constraints of Site Visits during Enrollment in Courses

1. Awareness 1.1. Student lack awareness and/or interest 7

1.2. Student lack of motivation 6
1.3. Lecturers lack of awareness and/or interest 5
1.4. Management lack of awareness and/or interest 4
1.5. Projects' managers are unwilling to allow site visitors 3
1.6. Difficulty for students to connect the theoretical 1
knowledge with its application in the field
1.7. Students unawareness of the work terms in projects 1
1.8. Site engineers are unwilling to give information 2
Total= 29
2. Coordination 2.1. Lack of coordination with organizations and projects 15
2.2. Difficulty of organizing large number of students 4
2.3. Lack of cooperation from students 1
2.4. Site visits not included in course plan or syllabus 7
2.5. Lack of clear definition and objectives for a site visit 1
2.6. Lack of available skilled people to provide information 5
and take responsibility during visit
2.7. Difficulty of getting management approvals 4
2.8. Poor planning beforehand 2
2.9. Lack of coordination between students and Instructors 1
Total= 40
3. Time 3.1. Time pressure for students during semester 17
3.2. Time conflict between classes and site visits 15
3.3. Need for multiple visits to see variable stages 5
3.4. Time pressure for lecturers during semester 3
3.5. Time pressure for engineers in projects 1
Total= 41
4. Safety 4.1. Lack of project safety awareness for students 5
4.2. Lack of safety tools 1
4.3. Low safety level inside project sites 2
Total= 8
5. Location 5.1. Unavailability and difficulty of transportation 10
5.2. Cost of transportation 4
5.3. Lack of projects inside or near the University 4
Total= 18
136

91
Importance and Types of the Proposed Project (ILH) (Section 3)
In the third part of the questionnaire, a project (ILH) was proposed as a model that can
provide students with important practical information normally learned from engineering
site visits and engineering training. The project is supposed to provide a safe site that is
easy to reach. One of the expected objectives of this project is to represent variable types of
works with its different details and materials for the different items and stages during the
construction project life-cycle. This part of the questionnaire survey is dedicated to
evaluate the importance of the proposed project and the preferred type for it according to
the opinions of engineering students.
The first question in the third section asked the respondents to evaluate the importance of
the proposed project (ILH) for students to gain knowledge and skills required for effective
starting of specialized engineering jobs. The second section investigates the evaluation of
respondents for the importance of the proposed project (ILH) to gain effective learning and
understanding during enrolled courses. The results of the two questions, as shown in
Figure 4, indicate the high importance of the project (ILH) in the opinions of the
engineering students.

Importance of developing an engineering Importance of developing an engineering

project (ILH) that helps supporting project (ILH) that helps providing effective
knowledge and skills required to work learning and understanding in the enrolled
Figure 3. Importance of ILH for the Engineering Students

Finally, the third question in the third section seeks the preferences of the respondent
engineering students for a number of suggested types or forms of the proposed project. The
respondents were permitted to choose more than one answer if they have similar preference
for several alternatives. Also, the respondents were asked to ignore the financial factor
when they make their selection. Adding other suggested solutions were also enabled for the
respondents.
The results, as shown in Figure 5, showed that the most preferable type of the proposed
project in the opinions of the questionnaire respondents is to develop a real size building,
supported by electronic application, the learner can walk through it to identify the different
construction stages and items, and the different tools and materials used for the execution
of these items, accompanied with a mobile application that provide detailed information
for items and materials when needed. The second preferable type of the project, as shown
in Figure 5, is applying three dimensional virtual reality technologies to model a

92
construction project, and allow users to go through the different items in the project and
investigate its related work methods, tools, materials, tests, etc.

describe the different tests required during the execution of projects can be added to the
suggest to coordinate scheduled and well organized visits with the help of
interested construction organizations to go to a list of projects during important stages of
lding

should be supported with the various materials, tools and modern equipment used in

Figure 4. Types for a Proposed Project for Engineering Learning Selected by Respondents

Conclusion
This study has highlighted a proposed project for developing a construction project model
named Infrastructure Learning Hub (ILH) dedicated to provide safe and effective place for
students to practice engineering training and site visits. The project should be designed to
provide information on the different stages and items of construction projects combined
with the needed procedures, tools, equipment, materials and tests. A questionnaire survey
was conducted (with a total of 108 accepted responses) to evaluate the existing training
system and site visits for engineering students according to their opinions.
Furthermore, the proposed project was introduced to engineering students, and then the
students were asked to evaluate the importance of the project, and to decide their preferable
shape for it. Most of the respondents to the questionnaire are students in the Civil
Engineering Department in the 4th and 5th year (final year) of their study.
The conclusion of this study can be summarized as follows:
About half (50-54%) of the respondents have not agreed that the existing training
program is adequate to gain the required knowledge and skill needed for effective
learning and understanding the different engineering courses and to effectively start
their career after graduation.
Most of the respondents (98%) have agreed and strongly agreed that site visits to
construction projects during their enrollment in engineering courses are needed and
important for the effective engineering learning and understanding.

93
 Only, about quarter of the respondents (26%) have agreed that the site visits conducted
during their engineering study are adequate for the effective learning and understanding
of engineering courses.
Investigating the constraints, which cause lack of effective site visits during the
engineering study, has showed that the constraints related to time pressure and lack of
coordination among management, lecturers, construction organizations, and project
staff, are the most critical constraints.
The results for evaluating the importance of the proposed ILH project for learning
showed that most of the respondents (98%) see this project as important and very
important for effective learning and understanding during the enrollment in courses,
and for gaining the knowledge and skills required for the effective start of their career
in engineering.
Different types were proposed for the learning project (ILH). The most selected type
from the alternatives was a real size building supported by electronic application where
the learner can walk through to identify the different construction stages and items, and
the different tools and materials used for the execution of these items, supported with a
mobile application that provide detailed information for items and materials when
needed. The second preferable type of the project, is applying three dimensional virtual
reality technology to model a construction project and allow the user to go through the
different items in the project and investigate its related work methods, tools, materials,
tests, etc.
The results of this study are significant for gaining more effective planning for education
and training methods, and improving the effectiveness of future engineers in the
construction industry. This project is still in its early stages that include analysis of end-
users opinions and needs. Future stages will contain deeper planning and details of the
project design, implementation and operation.

Reference
Al-Hmadani, M., Al-Jadri, A., Qandaleje, A., Bani-Hani, A. and Abu-Zenh, 2006.
Scientific research methods fundamentals of scientific research. First edition,
Amman, Jordan.
American Council for Construction Education ACCE, 2004. Standards and criteria for
accreditation of postsecondary construction education degree programs. Document
103.
Cline, R.C., 2008. Teaching key competencies of effective construction project managers to
adults in higher education. Thesis (PhD), University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.
Cline, R.C. (2011). "Effective Construction Management Teaching Strategies". 118th
ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, June 26-29, 2011, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Gharehbaghi, K., and McManus, K., 2003. Effective construction management. Leadership
and Management in Engineering, 3(1), 54-55.
Magoha, P.W., 2002. Effective methods and tools for training engineers and technologists:
regional trends. World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education, 1(2),
209-216.
Nejat, A., Darwish, M.M., and Ghebrab, T., 2012. BIM Teaching Strategy for Construction
Engineering Students. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
Pratt, D., 1998. Five perspectives on teaching in adult and higher education. Krieger
Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida.

94
[Paper ID 33]

Douglas Aghimien1, Clinton Aigbavboa2, Ayodeji Oke3 and Chanda Musenga4

Abstract
Base on the awareness that construction activity is posing a great danger
to the environment; the call for sustainability in construction has become popular. This
paper, therefore, set out to assess the adoption of sustainable construction (SC) practices
within the Zambian Construction Industry (ZCI). The specific objectives were to assess
the level of usage of different SC practices, as well as the factors affecting this level
of usage. To achieve this feat, a questionnaire survey was adopted and information
was gathered from construction professionals within the private and public sector in
Lusaka, Zambia. Data gathered were analysed using percentage, mean item score, Kruskal-
Wallis H-Test, and factor analysis. The study revealed that the adoption of SC practices
within the ZCI is below average, while the most adopted practices include value
management, design for the environment, construction ecology, and life-cycle assessment.
The factors affecting SC practices are sustainability knowledge and awareness related
factors, finance-related factors, government and policies related factors, sustainability
materials, and measurement related factors, and construction-related factors. The study
contributes to the body of knowledge as it reveals the adoption of SC practices in Zambia,
an area deficient of academic attention in sustainability discuss.

1
Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, FEBE, University
of Johannesburg, South Africa, Email: aghimiendouglas@yahoo.com
2
Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, FEBE, University
of Johannesburg, South Africa, Email: caigbavboa@uj.ac.za
3
Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, FEBE, University
of Johannesburg, South Africa, Email: aoke@uj.ac.za
4
Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, FEBE, University
of Johannesburg, South Africa, Email: chandamusenga@gmail.com

95
Introduction
The construction industry is a major contributor to the development of every country. The
activities in the sector are driven by public and private projects which include construction
of hospitals, roads, schools, stadia and commercial and residential property. In Zambia, the
construction industry has continued to grow over the last 12 years at a steady annual
average rate of 17.5 percent (Seventh National Development Plan, 2017). Despite this
growth and the significant contribution of the industry to the development of the country,
the industry like its counterparts in other countries around the world is believed to have a
negative impact on the environment. This is evident in land degradation, high energy
consumption and pollution being experienced in recent times (Du Plessis, 2002). Thus, it is
not surprising to see that there is an increasing clamour among scientists and scholars, that

system (Ametepey and Aigbavboa, 2014).

Addressing this issue of the activities of the construction industry posing danger to the
onstruction (SC) was proposed as a way of making the
construction processes, activities and practices more economically, socially and
environmentally responsive (Abidin, 2010). This concept was based on the desire to secure
the future generations ability to meet their needs through the application of sustainability
principles in meeting present needs. Considering the constant call for sustainable
construction; one that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs (Aghimien et al, 2016), it is important for the
Zambia Construction Industry (ZCI) to keep pace with this global movement by adopting
SC practices. The ZCI is no different than that of other developing countries where poor
SC has been noted (Alabi, 2012; Al-Saleb and Taleb, 2010; Baron and Donath, 2016;
James and Matipa, 2004). If SC projects are to be achieved within the country, then more
adoption of SC practices is needed.
SC practice in Zambia is observed to be an area deficient of literature in academic
discussion of sustainability. There is a paucity of information in existing literature as
regards SC practices being carried out within the ZCI. Based on this background, this study
assessed the use of some SC practices in the delivery of construction projects, and the
factors affecting the adoption of SC practices within the ZCI, with a view towards
proffering possible measures that will lead to increase in SC in the country.

Literature Review
Kibert (2013) noted that over the years, new technologies and concepts have emerged with
the aim of achieving sustainability in the construction industry. Examples such as Building
Information Modelling (BIM) and high efficiency photovoltaic are impacting approaches
to project design and collaboration. Other philosophical and scientific concepts have risen
due to the paradigm shift towards sustainability such as biomimicry, cradle to cradle
design, construction ecology, design for the environment, ecological economics, ecological
footprint, life-cycle assessment, and life-cycle costing. Other technological are
Industrialized Building System, Value Engineering, and lean construction (Hussin et al.,
2013; Oguntona and Aigbvaboa, 2017; Oke et al., 2015).
Studies have shown that the sustainability level in construction projects being
delivered in most developing countries is low, and Zambia is no exception (Alabi 2012;
James and Matipa, 2004). Several factors have been held accountable for this poor SC, and
it is only through the understanding of these factors, that effective measures can be put in
place to overcome them. Davies and Davies (2017) submitted that the implementation of

96
SC in Nigeria is deterred by the construction industry inability to move away from the
traditional methods of construction. Aghimien et al. (2018a) also observed that the major
factors affecting SC in Nigeria are construction related. The study noted that if
sustainability in construction is to be achieved within the country, then the construction
industry must be ready to abandon the traditional method of construction for more
innovative sustainability oriented methods.
Kibert (2008) identified the perceived higher first costs as one of the deterrents from
the adoption of SC. In agreement Ametepey et al. (2015) and H kkinen and Belloni
(2011) pointed that there is a fear of higher investment costs for SC as compared to
traditional building. To aid the promotion of SC, Shi et al. (2013) suggested that life cycle
cost should be incorporated during the assessment of the various costs and their
implications. Aside fear of high cost, H kkinen and Belloni (2011) noted that the absence
of building codes and regulations would hinder the adoption of SC. Powmya and Abidin
(2014) further stated that government plays a key role in the enforcement of regulation,
revision of existing legislation and policies, the introduction of building codes, incentives
and other fiscal instruments to spear-head SC adoption.
William and Dair (2012) identified the lack of knowledge, information, and
understanding as the major barriers to the delivery of sustainable structures. In addition,
Opoku and Ahmed (2015) recognized the importance of public awareness and proper
knowledge and understanding of sustainability as being essential to the successful
promotion of SC practices. Alabi (2012) observed that there is a low level of awareness of
the concept of sustainability among construction participants in Nigeria. In a similar vein,
Aghimien et al. (2018a) noted that sustainability awareness and knowledge related factors
are the second most crucial barrier to SC in the country. In Kuwait, Al-Sanad (2015) also
discovered that SC implementation is low, and this can be as a result of lack of awareness
of the concept within the country. Baron and Donath (2016) on the other hand observed
although there is considerable awareness of the concept of SC in Ethiopia the major barrier
SC faces is incorrect implementation. It was observed that SC in the country in most cases
is either completely neglected due to; budget constraints, lack of alternative building
materials, or knowledge, or it is reduced to the issue of sustainable resource management.
Aghimien et al. (2018a) therefore conclude that the poor understanding of the concept of
SC in its holistic form can be a major barrier towards achieving SC.
Pitt et al. (2009) and Powmya and Abidin (2014) found that increased involvement and
constructive interaction from the demand side which includes the clients, buyers and users
would see an improvement in the number of structures that are completed using SC
practices. Aside demand issues, Du Plessis (2002) and Opoku and Ahmed (2015) found
that there is a shortage of skilled employees involved in the implementation of sustainable
practices. Shi et al. (2013) on the other hand observed issue surrounding green materials
availability. One other factor observed by Mousa (2015) was that the client-driven nature
of the industry leaves little room for sustainable products. This is because clients with
insufficient knowledge prematurely eliminate any sustainable alternative that is not
commonly used. This tends to result in fewer sustainable solutions offered at high prices
due to lack of interest from consumers and lack of healthy competition.
Based on the foregoing, it is evident that extant literature exists with regards to SC
practices and its challenges in developing countries around the world. However, no
significant literature exists as to these ha
poor delivery of SC projects. Therein lies the gap in literature. If the construction industry
-being and
that if generations to come, understanding the level of adoption of the different SC
practices and the factors affecting the use of these practices is crucial.

97
Research Methodology
The study assessed SC practices within the ZCI, using a quantitative survey method. The
study was conducted among construction professionals within the private and public
sectors in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. Lusaka was selected based on its central
location and due to the fact that it provides administrative functions to the entire country.
The city is also the center of the provision of high order services such as financial and
technical services, construction and even manufacturing activities (Mulenga, 2003). The
construction professionals involved in the study were those registered with the various
professional bodies in Zambia and in other parts of the Southern Africa region. A total of
75 construction professionals were selected for the study using the convenience sampling
approach.
The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire which was designed
in sections. The first section gathered information on the background of the respondents.
education, profession and experience were asked.
The second section harnessed information regarding the construction practices being used
and the factors affecting the adoption of SC practices within the ZCI. A 5 point Likert
scale was adopted in measuring these questions. Based on the number of selected
participants for the study, 75 questionnaires were distributed, out of which 44 were duly
filled and returned. This represents a response rate of 59%, which is deemed adequate for
the study. Data gathered on the background information of the respondents were analysed
using percentage. Mean Item Score (MIS) was used to rank the identified SC practices,
while factor analysis was conducted on the factors affecting the adoption of SC practices.
Kruskal-Wallis H-Test which is a non-parametric test was employed in testing the
significant difference in the view of the different construction professionals with regards to
the used of the identified SC practices. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested
value of 0.889 and 0.925 derived for
both the adoption and the factors affecting SC practices. This result means that the
questionnaire used is reliable since the alpha value tends towards 1.

Findings and Discussion

Background Information
The result from the analysis of the background information gathered from the respondents
revealed that more quantity surveyors (30%) participated in the study. This is followed by
Architects (4%), Engineers (39%), Construction Managers (16%), and project managers
(2%). Most of these respondents (57%) work in private organisations while 43% of the
respondents were government employees. In terms of educational qualification, 11% of the
respondents had a diploma, 57% had a degree, 30% had a master degree, and 2% had a
doctoral degree. The average years of experience of the respondents is over 6 years. This
result indicated that the professionals have a considerable level of experience, and a
considerable level of academic qualification to give significant answers to the questions of
the research.
Sustainable Construction practices in the Zambian Construction Industry
Result in Table 1 shows the ranking of the SC practices by the respondents as well as the
chi-square and significant p-value derived from the Kruskal-Wallis H-Test conducted. The
result from the Kruskal-Wallis test shows no significant difference exists in the view of the
different construction professionals as regards the adoption of 12 out of the 13 assessed SC
practices. However, there seems to be some level of disparity among the different
professionals in terms of the adoption of lean construction within the ZCI, as a p-value of

98
below 0.05 was derived. This disparity can be as a result of the understanding of lean
construction concept among these different construction professionals in the industry. A
cursory look at the table also shows that only 4 out of the 13 assessed SC practices have a
mean value of above average of 3.0. These include value management (mean = 3.77, p-
value = 0.149), design for the environment (mean = 3.50, p-value = 0.478), construction
ecology (mean = 3.27, p-value = 0.214) and life-cycle assessment (mean = 3.20, p-value =
0.639). The average overall level of adoption of SC practices with the ZCI is 2.70, which
below average of 3.0.
Abidin (2010) and Bowen et al. (2010) submitted that in Malaysia and South Africa
respectively, there is the poor adoption of SC concept within the construction industry.
Findings of this study agree with these submissions as SC practices adoption of below
average was discovered. Value management has been stated as an effective approach
towards achieving sustainability in construction. Evidence of this submission abounds in
literature (Abidin and Pasquire, 2005; Abidin and Ijias, 2006; Al-Saleh and Taleb, 2010;
Oke et al., 2015; Yeomans, 2002). Findings from this study reveal that construction
professionals in the ZCI are aware of the use of value management as a sustainability tool
and are using it in the delivery of construction projects within the country. However,
biomim
models and then emulates their forms, processes, and strategies to offer a sustainable
approach towards achieving sustainable environment (Oguntona and Aigbvaboa, 2017), is
yet to gain recognition within the ZCI. Thus if SC construction is to be achieved within the
country, then there must be an increase in the adoption of other sustainable construction
practices within the industry.
Table 1: Implementation of SC Practices in ZCI
SC Practices Mean Rank Chi-Sq. Sig.
Value management 3.77 1 6.770 0.149
Design for the environment 3.50 2 3.500 0.478
Life cycle costing 3.27 3 5.804 0.214
Life - cycle assessment 3.20 4 2.532 0.639
Lean construction 2.86 5 12.284 0.015**
Construction ecology 2.75 6 1.601 0.809
Building Information Modelling 2.61 7 3.844 0.428
Ecological economics 2.61 7 5.534 0.237
Industrialized Building System 2.48 9 5.119 0.275
Ecological footprint 2.45 10 9.037 0.060
Cradle to Cradle design 2.02 11 6.389 0.172
Biomimicry 1.82 12 4.184 0.382
Nanotechnology 1.80 13 1.535 0.821
Average 2.70
** Significant at p < 0.05

Factors the Affecting SC Practices in ZCI

The data gathered on the factors affecting SC practices in ZCI were subjected to factor
analysis (FA) in order to analyse and group them into more manageable size. To conduct
FA, the suitability of the sample size was considered. Although there have been several
disparities as regards the ideal size of a sample for FA to be conducted, Preacher and
MacCullum (2002) suggested that as long as the communalities are high, and the expected
number of factors is small, fewer worries should be placed on sample size. Zhao (2008)
went further to suggest a communalities figure above 0.6 as being suitable irrespective of

99
 the sample size being adopted. The result from the communalities analysis revealed that all
the 15 assessed factors have communalities figure above 0.6. Kaiser Meyer Olkin (KMO)
measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's test of sphericity were also used to ascertain
the suitability of the data for FA. The result of the KMO test conducted gave a value of
0.635 and a significant level of 0.000 for test. According to Tabachnick and
Fidell (2007), the KMO index ranges from 0 to 1, with 0.6 suggested as the minimum
value for a good FA. Also,
whether the correlation matrix is an identity matrix and this should be significant at p <
0.05. The result of the KMO and Bartletts test derived in this study, coupled with the 0.925
value obtained from the reliability test carried out, also proves that the use of FA for the
data gathered is appropriate.
Since the data gathered met all the necessary requirement, FA was conducted using
principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation. Result revealed 5 components
with eigenvalues greater than 1 were extracted with 0.50 set as the cut-off point for the
factor loading. The final statistics of the PCA and the components extracted accounted for
approximately 78% of the total cumulative variance, which is well above the 50% limit
stated by Stern (2010). The five extracted factors and their variables are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Rotated component matrix
Component
SC Practices 1 2 3 4 5
Inadequate knowledge of sustainable design 0.902
Lack of awareness of sustainability benefits among 0.857
construction stakeholders
Lack of interest in the issue of sustainability 0.822
Lack of demand for sustainable products and cultural 0.734
resistance to change
Lack of financial incentives 0.784
Ignorance of life cycle costing 0.764
Fear of higher investment costs 0.697
Lack of government policies or support 0.876
No local green certification available 0.821
Lack of building codes on sustainability 0.733
Lack of environmentally sustainable materials 0.855
Lack of sustainability measurement tools 0.806
Delay in decision making 0.740
Poor construction methods adopted within the industry 0.906
Lack of technical expertise on sustainable construction 0.788

Discussion of Extracted Factors

A. Sustainability Knowledge and Awareness Related Factors
The first principal component has the highest factor loading of 4 factors and it accounts for
35.4% of the total variance explained. These factors include; inadequate knowledge in
sustainable design, lack of awareness of sustainability benefits among construction
stakeholders, lack of interest in the issue of sustainability, and lack of demand for
sustainable products and cultural resistance to change. Looking at the latent properties of
these factors, this component was therefore ustainability Knowledge and
. The study of William and Dair (2012) carried out in England
shows that the lack of knowledge, information, and understanding is the major factor

100
affecting the delivery of sustainable structures. Whang and Kim (2015) also noted issues
relating to sustainability awareness while assessing the sustainability adoption from
Baron and Donath (2016) observed that in Ethiopia lack of
Knowledge is an issue for SC adoption. Aghimien et al. (2018a) also submitted that poor
knowledge of the concept of SC in its holistic form can be a major problem towards
achieving SC. The finding of this study is in line with these submissions as sustainability
knowledge issue is seen as a major factor affecting SC practices within the ZCI.
B. Finance Related Factors
The second principal component has three factors loading on it and it accounts for 15.4%
of the total variance explained. These factors are lack of financial incentives, ignorance of
life cycle costing, and fear of higher investment costs. These factors were subsequently
finance-related The issue of finance serving as a constraint to the
adoption of SC practices in construction has been observed in past research. Kibert (2008)
noted that the perceived higher initial cost of SC is one of the factors affecting its adoption.
Ametepey et al. (2015) and Hakkinen and Belloni (2011) has also made a similar
observation. Findings of this study agree with these submissions as financial issues are
seen to be the second most significant factors affecting the adoption of SC in ZCI. Shi et
al. (2013) have earlier suggested the importance of life cycle cost during the assessment of
the various costs associated with SC. The ignorance of this obviously leads to the
assumption that SC is expensive, whereas, on the overall, it can actually be cheaper than
the conventional building. This is evident in the submission of Hydes and Creech (2000)
where it was stated that ignorance in the estimating of capital costs of energy-efficient
measures and possible overall cost savings is a factor affecting SC. Zambia being a
developing country, it is not uncommon to see clients trying to be conservative with the
little finance available to them, hence paying more than they had originally bargained for,
might not be acceptable. It is therefore not surprising to see that the fear of SC leading to
higher investment cost is a factor affecting SC in the country. Aigbavboa et al. (2017)
stated that the idea that SC has a higher investment cost is an assumption made without
thorough analyses of the overall life-cycle cost. The study described this assumption as a
rofessionals.
C. Government and Policies Related Issues
The third principal component accounts for 13.2% of the total variance explained with
three factors loading on it. These factors are lack of government policies or support, no
local green certification available, and lack of building codes on sustainability. Looking at
government
and policies related issues . The role of government in the delivery of SC cannot be
overemphasized. Powmyer and Abidin (2014) have stated that government plays a key role
in the review and enforcement of legislation and policies, and in the introduction of
building codes, incentives and other fiscal instruments necessary for SC adoption in any
country. However, findings from this study have revealed that in Zambia, there is a lack of
government policies and support which is evident in the non-existence of green
certification and building codes on sustainability within the country. This situation deters
the use of SC practices as there is nothing to guide construction professionals towards
achieving SC. This finding is in agreement with the submissions of Aghimien et al.
(2018a), Alsanad (2015), Ametepey et al. (2015), and Osaily (2010) that lack of
government policies and support is one of the barriers of SC in Nigeria, Kuwait, Ghana,
and Palestine.
D. Sustainability Materials and Measurement Related Factors

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This fourth component account for 7.4% of the total variance explained and it has three
factors loading on it. These factors include; lack of environmentally sustainable materials,
lack of sustainability measurement tools, and delay in decision making. This component is
subsequently named sustainability materials and measurement related factors According
to Shi et al. (2013), sustainable materials are crucial to the successful adoption of SC.
However, some of these materials are often expensive and stakeholder conflicts of interest
can result in uncertainties and loss of trust. As a result, the desire to use sustainable
materials might be frustrated on a given project. Similarly, Davis and Davis (2017) stated
that there is difficulty in sourcing green products. This will lead to the importation of some
of these materials, and this contradicts some of the features of sustainability. Abidin et al.
(2003), and Baron and Donath (2016) submitted that lack of available alternative
sustainable materials is a major factor affecting SC in Malaysia and Ethiopia. The finding
of this study is in line with these submissions, as lack of sustainable materials is seen as a
factor affecting SC practices in Zambia. Aghimien et al. (2018b) observed that despite the
availability sustainability performance measurement tools being developed in countries
around the world, there is no evidence of same in Nigeria. This has invariably affected the
delivery of SC within the country. A similar situation exists in Zambia, as there is the
absence of sustainability measurement tools. This makes it difficult to evaluate the
sustainability nature of construction works being carried out within the ZCI, thus
discouraging the adoption of SC practices within the country.
E. Construction Related Factors
The last principal component has two factors loading on it and accounts for 6.8% of the
total variance explained. These factors are poor construction methods adopted within the
industry, and lack of technical expertise on sustainable construction, and it is subsequently
construction-related Zambia like every other developing country suffers
from poor sustainable construction as a result of the construction methods being adopted
(James and Matipa, 2004). Aghimien et al. (2018a) observed that one of the major barriers
to the adoption of SC practices is the unfavourable construction methods. The finding of
this study agrees with this submission. Also, Opoku and Ahmed (2015) mentioned that
shortage of technical expertise in terms of SC has a great effect on its delivery. Du Plessis
(2002) also posited that the lack of adequate trained professionals to support sustainable
construction is an issue deterring SC in most countries. This is because in developing
countries many projects are carried out by SMEs who outsource personnel when required.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Based on the findings of the study, it is therefore concluded that the adoption of SC
practices within the ZCI is below average. This implies that more need to be done to
improve the use of SC practices in the delivery of construction projects. The most used SC
practices are valued management, design for the environment, construction ecology, and
life-cycle assessment. The factors affecting SC practices in the ZCI are sustainability
knowledge and awareness related factors, finance-related factors, government and policies
related issues, sustainability materials, and measurement related factors, and construction-
related factors.
Based on the findings, the study recommends the need for public awareness of the
inherent benefits of SC and training of construction participants in SC practices. This
training can be done through seminars and workshops organised by the different
construction professional bodies for their members. Also, educating construction clients
and other stakeholders on the overall life-cycle cost benefit of SC through seminars,
workshops, and other public functions is necessary. Construction professionals also need

102
to be trained in the other SC practices that are least used within the ZCI at present. The
government can also help by promoting the development of a framework for the adoption
of SC practices in all construction activities within the in the country. It is believed that the
findings of this study will serve as guidance for construction participants in the quest to
deliver SC projects in Zambia. The identified factors will help them to understand what to
avoid and what to embrace in the delivery of construction projects that are sustainable.

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[Paper ID 91]

Ferdinand Fidelis Ayegba1, Adeagbo Dorcas2 and Calistus Ayegba3

Abstract
Construction craftsmen performance is one of the crucial aspects of labour productivity
that requires proper attention for effective projects delivery in the construction industry.
The level of construction craftsmen low performance has been seen to be a significant
factor which contributes toward inefficient construction projects productivity. Therefore,
the objective of this research is to assess the impact of skills acquisition on the productivity
of Nigerian construction craftsmen. A quantitative research methodology was employed
in this study via a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed
to 100 respondents that comprise of 85 craftsmen and 15 trainers in 2 training institutions
associated with crafts training. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics such
as mean, standard deviation, standard error and percentages. The finding shows that
the skills required of craftsmen to improve productivity can be highly mitigated by factors
such as job insecurity/employee turnover resulting from lack of construction jobs
or redundancy and these skills acquisition towards productivity can also be driven
by consistently engaging these craftsmen which enables them to acquire additional skills
by performing multiple tasks. The findings indicate the need to link off-the-job and on-the-
job training of craftsmen through the involvement of institutions associated with crafts
training.

Keywords: craftsmen, construction industry, productivity, skills acquisition

1
University of Jos, E-mail: ayegbafidelis@yahoo.com
2
University of Jos, E-mail: adeagbod1@yahoo.com
3
FUT Minna, E-mail: calistus.ayegba@futminna.edu.ng

106
Introduction
The construction industry in many developing countries is greatly concerned with the low
level of skilled workers' productivity due to economic, social, physical and psychological
related factors influencing the performance of the skilled workers Naoum, (2016). Low
productivity of skilled workers' is one of the most serious tasks facing the construction

global economy, sk
the low level of quality performances of the skilled workers in the construction industries
in most developing countries (Davenport, 2008). Arshad and Malik, (2015) assert that
productivity improvement can be achieved when construction workers with high skills and
knowledge, together with sound physical and mental health perform tasks with efficiency
and effectiveness. In most countries, the cost of operatives comprises 30 % to 50 % of the
overall projects' cost, and thus, it is regarded as an accurate reflection of the efficiency of
the operation (Kazaz, Manisali & Ulubeyli, 2008).

introduction of a long-
vision consists of a set of objectives and programmes designed to launch the nation into the
league of the twenty most developed economies of the world by the year 2020 (Adewale,
Siyanbola, & Siyanbola, 2014). Almutairi, Arif, and Khalfan, (2016) stressed that several

the construction industry as a critical factor for the vision 20:2020 to be achieved.
Therefore, the issue of low-
order to establish a substantial foundation to improve it so as to achieve efficiency of work
and higher productivity which inform the justification for this study.

Research Questions
This research addresses the following questions:
1. What are the factors that militate against effective skill acquisition of these craftsmen?
2. What is the most efficient training method(s) for craftsmen skills development?
3. What is the most efficient approach in addressing the challenges to craftsmen skills
development?

Related Literature
Productivity Improvement of Nigerian Craftsmen
Solomon, Hashim, Mehdi and Ajagbe, (2012) mentioned that productivity improvement is
a central challenge for managers in all types and sizes of organisations. Managers are being
asked to get more mileage out of all their resources: human, financial, information, and
materials. Productivity is an output-input ratio.
Abiola, (2004) added that inputs include all resources consumed to produce those outputs.
The author mentioned that labour is one of the input resources consumed but so too are
capital, material and energy. Productivity is reaching the highest level of performance with
the least of expenditure of resources. It is ultimately the ability to produce the desired
result. Training offers the craftsmen the ability to perform their work effectively and
efficiently, and these qualities are a recipe for workers' productivity (Bilau Bustani, Sani

107
and Ijigah, 2014; Abiola, 2004). Therefore, construction craftsmen when employed must
be trained to the industries standards while those already employed must continuously be
trained and retrained in order to improve their productivity. Realising these facts, however,
many studies had been channeled to the challenge of productivity in the Nigerian
Construction industry.
Liberda, Ruwanpura and Jergea, (2003) identified the relative importance of fifty-one
productivity factors which were classified into three groups as Human, External and
Management. According to these authors, human factors include workers' boredom and
fatigue, workers' attitude and morale, workers' physical limitations, workers' absenteeism,
workers experience, workers' skill and the team spirit of the crew. External factors include
union rules and influences, adverse weather conditions, noise, dust, radiation, congested
work area, change in drawings and specifications, changes in the contract, demand over-
quality work and the nature of the project (size and complexity). Management factors
cover such aspects as protective gear, unrealistic schedules, overtime, multiple shifts,
disrespectful treatment of workers, salary and benefits, incompetent personnel, and
overcrowded work areas. Others are poor inspection programme, unsafe working
conditions, inadequate equipment, inadequate supervision, crew composition,
constructability, interruption and disruption, lack of cooperation between craftsmen,
inadequate communication, lack of workers training and education, cleanliness of
construction site, changes in foremen, lack of detailed planning, and non-availability of
information, materials, tools and equipment.

Implications of Unskilled Labour on Productivity on Cost, Time, Quality and Project

Success
Labour is a significant component of construction work in Nigeria. Unlike in developed
economies such as the UK, USA and Germany where operations on construction sites are
highly mechanised. Construction work in Nigeria is low tech and labour intensive.
Solomon et al. (2012) defined productivity as the amount of products or services produced
compared to the amount of goods or labour used to produce them. In construction, labour
productivity is better known as labour output and is measured as the amount of work done
over a period. Olomolaiye and Ogunlana, (2009) observed that production outputs in key
building companies in Nigeria were lower than they ought to be. Reasons for this were
linked to inefficient methods, lack of appropriate tools and poor supervision. This agrees
with a study carried out by Alinaitwe, Mwakali and Hasson, (2007) which ranked
incompetent supervisors and lack of skills of the workers as the two most significant
causes of low productivity of construction workers in developing countries.

Poor Workmanship
Several authors including (Medugu, Rafee, Bustano, Bala, Abdullahi and Mbamali, 2011;
Dantong, Lekjeb & Dessah, 2011; Bilau, Bustini, Sani & Ijigah, 2014) agrees that poor
workmanship is one of the problems that the Nigeria construction industries are facing the
use of incompetent craftsmen lead to poor workmanship. Poor workmanship could result to
rework due to incompetent craftsmen, though many factors leads to poor workmanship,
that would not be discussed, only rework which result to cost and time overruns in project
delivery process and has become a cankerworm within the Nigeria construction industry.

108
Rework
Rework in construction projects is referred to as the unnecessary effort of redoing a
process or activity that was incorrectly implemented in the first instance (Ekambaram,
2006; Abdullah, Bilau, Enegbuma, Ajagbe, Ali & Bustani, 2012).
In construction projects, rework which lead to cost and time overruns can result from an
array of factors such as poor workmanship by incompetent craftsmen, errors, omissions,
failures, changes, poor communication and poor coordination. To some extent, the level of
rework in construction projects would be dependent on external factors such as excessive
workload, market conditions for instance, increased defects and from limitations on the
availability of competent subcontractors (Ayegba and Dzasu, 2014; Dai et al. 2009;
Enshassi et al. 2007).
Rework and wastages are considered as non-value adding endemic symptoms that could
adversely affect the performance, productivity and ultimately profit margins (Ekambaram,
2006; Abdullah et al. 2012).
Some Previous studies indicated that the costs of rework in poorly managed projects can be
as high as 25% of contract value and l0% of the total project costs (Abdullah et al. (2012).
The significance of Reducing Rework: Durdyev and Mbachu, (2011) posit that project
rework occurrences adversely impact project performance in such areas as costs, time and
stakeholder satisfaction. Hanna et al. (2008) find that the direct impact of rework on
project management transactions includes (a) additional time to rework (b) additional costs
for covering rework occurrences (c) additional materials for rework and subsequent
wastage handling (d) additional labour for rework and related extensions of supervision.

Time overruns
Ijigah, Ogunbode and Ibrahim, (2012) opine that time overrun is one of the causes
resulting from rework which adversely affect performance, productivity and ultimately
profit margins. The problem of project time overrun is of international concern. As
numerous studies related to causes of time or cost overruns have been conducted
worldwide and mostly in developed countries (Ijigah, et al. 2012).
According to Hewage and Ruwanpura, (2006); Ibeanu, (2006); and Kazaz et al. (2008)
time overrun is the extension of time beyond planned completion dates usually traceable to
contractors. Ugwuja, (2010) defined it as the time lapse between the agreed estimation or
completion date and the actual date of completion. Odesola and Idoro, (2014) describe
time overrun as the time during which some part of the construction project is completed
beyond the project completion date or not performed as planned due to an unanticipated
circumstance. Time overrun affects the project owners, contractors, end users and other
project participants. Project owners may be affected through lost benefits that could have
accrued from the completed facility, while contractors may have to spend more on labour
and plant, pay penalties as per the contract or even lose other profitable contracts because
resources for the next job are tied up on delayed projects (Odesola et al. 2012; Olatunji et
al. 2007).

Cost overrun
Odesola et al. (2012) and Ijigah et al. (2012) posit that cost overrun is also one of the
causes resulting from rework which adversely affect the performance, productivity and
ultimately the profit margins of the construction work.

109
Awe, Stephenson and Griffith, (2010) contributed that rework also triggers claims for extra
costs and time wasted in redoing or repairing defects by direct impacts of rework on
project management transactions which include (a) additional time to rework (b) additional
costs for covering rework occurrences (c) additional materials for rework and subsequent
wastage handling (d) additional labour for rework and related extensions of supervision
manpower (Oyelere, 2007; Wang, 2008; Awe et al. 2010).
Research Methodology
Quantitative research approach with descriptive research design was adopted and the
administration of questionnaires for the study was limited to Abuja the Federal Capital
Territory and the Plateau state of Nigeria. Abuja was selected considering its cosmopolitan
nature, the political activities, as well as the large volume of construction and development,
works going on in the city. Hence construction craftsmen with experience were readily
available, while Plateau State is known as Home of Peace and Tourism and as such, an
attraction for investors and further harbouring institutions associated with crafts training
such as; the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Technical College Kuru etc. was considered
which gave the researcher an opportunity to interact and obtain the views of trainers and
trainees of these institutions.
The interviews were conducted at the convenience of the craftsmen and trainers,
mainly at the construction sites and institutions of training respectively. The study targeted
construction sites where works were ongoing for ease of meeting craftsmen during their

identification of other meeting places. On arrival at the site, effort was made to identify
who was in charge of the site (employer, lead craftsman, contractor, foreman or the site
representatives) and to seek their permission. In an effort to cause the least disruption,
during the

convenience by prior appointment. As with the craftsmen, before the commencement of

the interview the respondents were given an explanation of the purpose of the interview
and how they had been identified. The respondents were each given a chance to voluntarily
participate in the interview and they were assured of the confidentiality of the information
gathered.
Five commonly used categories of craftsmen were covered in this study, namely:
carpenters, masons, iron benders, plumber and electricians which were assessed through
the questionnaire. The questionnaire has a total of 21 questions divided into three sections.
The first section solicited general information from the craftsman, for instance, a number
of years worked in construction, age, and education. These questions were intended to
collect biographical data that would provide a contextual background for the rest of the
survey. Being direct and relatively easy to answer, these general questions were also
intended to put the respondent at ease, hence their positioning at the beginning of the
questionnaire (Bourque & Fielder, 2003). Subsequent sections dealt with issues concerning
the aim and objectives of the study.
Simple random sampling technique was employed to cull a smaller sample size of 100
comprising 85 craftsmen and 15 instructors from a large population estimated to be 630
comprising 450 craftsmen and 180 trainers of craftsmen. This technique was adopted
because it is the least bias of all sample techniques and also it is devoid of subjectivity;
each member of the total population has an equal chance of being selected. The study
covered five medium-sized construction sites in Abuja, Nigeria and two institutions
associated with crafts skill training in Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria. The eighty-five

110
craftsmen comprised; 24 masons, 17 carpenters, 13 electricians, 21 plumbers and 10 steel
fitters responded to the questions while 15 trainers/instructors in ITF Jos and Technical
College Kuru.
Statistical analysis was executed with the assistance of the International Business
Machines, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) statistics software. This
software was selected because it is well established and suitable for analysing the type of
data that were collected in this study. The data collected were mainly of a nominal or
categorical nature and were manipulated using various descriptive statistics such as mean,
standard deviation, standard error and percentages.

Results and Discussions

Table 1. Factors affecting Productivity of Craftsmen

Factors Mean SD Rank
Job insecurity/Employee turnover 4.02 0.94 1
Incessant Rework and Estimation Error 3.98 1.10 2
Time Overruns 3.93 0.88 3
Poor Workmanship 3.90 0.86 4
Absence of Training and Equipment Breakdown 3.81 1.00 5
Inappropriate Tools and Equipment Breakdown 3.51 0.97 6
Grand Mean 23.18

Table 1 and figure 1 gives an in-depth analysis of factors affecting the productivity of
craftsmen for productive performance; job insecurity/employee turnover was considered
very high in terms of its severity with a mean score of 4.0241. And next in ranking
includes; incessant rework and estimation error 3.9882 and time overruns 3.9398 while the
absence of training and equipment breakdown and inappropriate tools/equipment
breakdown had mean scores of 3.8118 and 3.5181 respectively. This simply means that
disengagement of crafts workers due to redundancy periodically confronting Nigerian
construction industry due to change in political leadership, late budget approval and
allocation of inadequate funds to the construction sector which also leads to lack of
construction activities, deeply affects their productivity as it offers them no room to
practice and improve their skills.

111
Table 2. Additional Skills, Skill Upgrading Institutions and Criteria for Selection of
Trainee
Description Options Frequency Percentage
(%)
Additional Skills Masonry 5 5.9
Performed by Craftsmen
Bricklaying 7 8.2
(Trade skills)
Carpentry & Joinery 1 1.2
Electricals 7 8.2
Plumbing 3 3.5
Painting 3 3.5
Roofing (metal structure) 5 5.9
Roofing (timber structure) 2 2.4
Steel fixer (bar bender) 3 3.5
Tiler 3 3.5
Plant operator 13 15.3
Non 38 44.7
Others 10 11.8
Total 85 100.0
Skill Upgrading ITF Training 18 21.2
Institution
NBTE Training 13 15.3
(Training source)
Others 4 4.7
Total 35 41.2
Missing System 50 58.8
Total 85 100
Criteria for Selection of Ability to pay training fee 2 13.3
Trainee
Level of education 1 6.7
Age 7 46.7
Aptitude 5 33.4
Total 11 100

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In addition to the trade skills and in contrast with formal training curriculum, the
respondents acquired additional skills such as; plant operation, painting and so on. Table 2
shows some of these additional skills possessed by the craftsmen and plant operation had
the majority of 15.3% followed by electrical and bricklaying with 8.2% each. These
findings suggest that the acquisition of additional skills is part of the progression of
craftsmanship following subsequently to the attainment of trade skills and improvement of
productivity.

Skill upgrading is necessary to prepare craftsmen for changes in the construction sector, for
instance, new technology and materials. Nevertheless, the majority (51.4%) of the
respondents formally upgraded their skills after their initial training in Industrial Training
Fund (ITF) while 37.1% upgraded theirs in National Board for Technical Education
(NBTE) as presented in Table 3. The lack of formal skill upgrading does not necessarily
imply that these craftsmen are not upgrading their skills but rather the format of their
training continues to be informal. From the study, it was further discovered that 11.4%
received further training in other institutions like polytechnics which are also associated
with craft training.

Instructors in training institutions explained that; ability to pay fees and age (18.2% and

and further argue that youthfulness and fee payment were driving factors that make trainee
show more commitment in training and further argue that other criteria like aptitude test
and physical fitness were insignificant for the selection of trainees.

Figure 1. Factors Affecting Productivity of Craftsmen

113
Figure 2. Addressing Challenges to Craftsmen Skills Development

Conclusion
The research indicates that the skills required of craftsmen to improve productivity can be
highly mitigated by factors such as job insecurity/employee turnover resulting from lack of
construction jobs or redundancy and these skills acquisition towards productivity can also
be driven by consistently engaging these craftsmen which enables them to acquire
additional skills by performing multiple tasks. The study further indicates the need to link
off-the-job and on-the-job training of craftsmen through the involvement of institutions
associated with crafts training since the collapse of the formal method of craft training has
led to the existence of alternative methods of skilling particularly given the rapid growth of
the informal construction sector. These alternative modes of skilling are classified as of-
the-job or informal skilling, and finally, the study considers criteria for training.

Contribution to Knowledge
This research represents a significant contribution to knowledge and understanding of
efficient methods of skills development amongst craftsmen in Nigeria. It highlights the
type of skills that craftsmen acquire and the motivation behind such acquisition. In
addition, it has identified the factors that militate against effective skill acquisition of
craftsmen as well as the most efficient approach in addressing the challenges to craftsmen
skills development. Given that construction craftsmanship is a significant part of the
construction industry in many countries particularly in the developing world, and the
problems facing the construction sector are mirrored in other countries as indicated in the
literature review, the research forms a basis for the enhancement of appropriate and
sustainable craft training systems in many countries other than Nigeria. In addition, the
findings form a basis for the formulation of policies aimed at the creation of viable training
programs for construction craftsmen. Such policy interventions should ideally encourage
the building of linkages between the formal training institutions and informal trainers in an
effort to address the weaknesses of skilling e.g. by increasing the level of theoretical
instruction and introduction of appropriate technology. This would allow for the
integration of both formal and informal craftsmen training as a means of addressing the
shortages and inadequacies in craftsmen skills.

114
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Abdullah, A., Bilau, A. A., Enegbuma., W. I., Ajagbe, A. M., Ali, N.K., & Bustani, A.S.,
2012. Small and Medium Sized Construction Firms Job Satisfaction and Evaluation in
Nigeria. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 2(1), 35-40.
Abiola, R.O., 2004. Productivity Improvement in Project Organization. Journal of the
Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, 46(5), 17-22.
Ayegba C. and Dzasu W.E. (2014) Appraisal of Systematic training practices by building
construction firms in Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Technological Research. 9 (1) 24-
30
Ade, A. B., M. A. A., Habila .H. K., & Anthony, B. S., 2015. Review of shortage of skilled
craftsmen in small and medium construction firms in Nigeria. Journal of Environment
and Earth Sciences. 5(15), 98-109.
Adewale, P. O., Siyanbola, A. B., & Siyanbola, S. O., 2014. Building craftsmanship skill
020: Imperatives and daunting challenges.
International Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, 6(4), 36 42.
Alinaitwe, H.M., Mwakali, J.A & Hansson, B., 2007. Factors affecting the productivity of
building craftsmen studies of Uganda, Journal of Civil Engineering and Management,
13(3), 169-169.
Almutairi, Y., Arif, M., & Khalfan, M., 2016. Moving towards managing offsite
construction techniques in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: a review. Middle East
Journal of Management, 3(2), 164 178. doi: 10.1504/MEJM.2016.078533
Arshad, M. N., & Malik, Z., 2015. Quality of human capital and labour productivity: A
Case of Malaysia. International Journal of Economics, Management and Accounting,
23(1), 37 55.
Awe, E. M., Stephenson, P., & Griffith, A., 2010. Impact of Vocational Training on
Skilled Labour Shortage within Nigerian Construction Sector. Paper presented at the
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Dai, J., Goodrum, P.M., Maloney, W.F., & Srinivasan, C., 2009. Latent structures of the
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Time Overrun of Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) Construction Projects in
Nigeria. International Institute for Science, Technology & Education (IISTE) Earth
Science 2(10), 93-104.
Kaming, P., 2007. Factors influencing craftsmen's productivity in Indonesia. International
Journal of Project Management, 15(1), 21-30. doi: 10.1016/S0263-7863(96)00019-1
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Liberda, M., Ruwanpura, J. Y., & Jergeas, G., 2003. Construction productivity
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Infrastructure, 9(3), 63-73.

116
[Paper ID 153]

-
Kehinde Alade1, Victor Olabode2, Olawale Ojo 3 and Abimbola Windapo4

Abstract
This research considered and assessed planning in the execution of construction projects
in Akure South-Western, Nigeria. The study identified the level of planning before
execution of Construction Projects takes place, and the hindering and helpful factors
for project-planning in the study area. Primary data was collected through the use
of questionnaires. A total number of ninety-four (94) questionnaires were administered
to five (5) Construction firms and eighty-nine (89) out of these were retrieved, representing
ninety-five percent (95%) of the questionnaires administered. Analysis of the result
revealed that the level of execution of project planning within the Construction
organizations
in the study area examined is low mainly due to inadequacy of plants and equipment
and the technical expertise for project planning. This study recommended that project firms
should develop their personnel in planning techniques training. In addition, Construction
firms are to ensure that preventive maintenance approach is adopted to tackle the
challenges of plants, equipment and machine breakdown/inadequacy that mainly impedes
their planning strategies.
Keywords: Assessment, Construction-projects, Project-execution, Project-planning,
Nigeria

1
Federal University of Technology, Akure, ktalade@futa.edu.ng
2
Federal University of Technology, Akure
3
Federal University of Technology, Akure
4
University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

117
Introduction
This study assessed planning in the execution of Construction projects in Akure, South-
Western Nigeria, considering the hindering and helpful factors. Planning involves
anticipating the future and formulating systematic programs of action to attain desired
goals (Argwala, 1983), and it occupies a key position in the successful execution of
projects (APM, 2016) further, planning remains central to project success (Laufer and
Tucker, 1987).

Project planning according to Zilicus (2012) is the expression of the objectives of a project
in terms of scope, schedule, resource requirements, cost estimation, quality and risk
management, that enables the Project Manager to translate project requirements into Work
Breakdown Structure, tasks lists, Gantt Charts, Resource Assignment, risk register, etc. In
the construction context, projects are becoming progressively more complex necessitating
the need to seek for best solution during execution.

Construction projects continue to grow in size and complexity as technology advances.

This complexity also stems from the different parties involved in construction projects.
Effective planning allows for the efficient use of manpower, equipment and material
resources thus making the project more economically viable whilst adhering to health &
safety processes at all times. Poor planning of projects can lead to huge reduction or total
loss of the profit (Stargatt, 2013). This study thus, examined the level/frequency of
planning in the execution of construction projects within the Akure metropolis in Ondo-
State, Nigeria. Since planning and execution are different phases that form part of the
project life cycle, the study considered the synergy between these two variables (Project
Execution and Control Plan). The aim of such consideration is to examine how solutions
can be proffered to problems being faced in the construction industry/sector with respect to
the level of planning and impediments to planning in project execution.

Literature Review: The Planning phase in Project execution

The importance of planning is relatively prominent compared to other phases in the project
lifecycle and it has remarkable influence on project success (Heravi, Coffey and
Trigunarsyah, 2015). The project planning and review stage is the foremost factor for
project success according to the research report of APM (2015). Although considerable
resources are constantly being allocated to planning, Laufer and Tucker (1987) expressed
growing concern over the failure of construction planning to achieve its goal in many
construction projects. In most developing countries, planning is failing to live up to
expectations according to Argawala (1983).

Although project plan in advance, cannot take care of all unforeseen events, risks, and
deviations nevertheless, it provides direction, unifying frame work, performance standards,
and helps to reveal future opportunities and threats (Constructor, 2015). This implies that
we will still be in a better position having a plan than having none. Ha (1987) revealed
that, planning for the sake of planning is of no use as the value of plan lies in its
implementation. Also, cutting corners in project planning is a recipe for disaster, no matter
what the reason is (Priority Management International, 2017). Progress is measured
against the planned targets, and the schedule is corrected. Hence, a professional and

118
effective planning and control system is a critical factor demanded for success in
construction projects.

In a related development (VAL, 2017) mentioned that, Project planning does take time, but
it is worth the effort. Despite the role and importance of planning, a considerable number
of tools and techniques available for modeling a project schedule (PMI, 2013). In a related
development VAL (2017) mentioned that, Project planning does take time, but it is worth
the effort for two main reasons.
i. Project planning and funding
Funders have less funding available than they once did and they receive more funding
requests than they can approve. In this competitive environment, a strong project plan will
make your application stand out from the crowd. The information in the project plan can
also be used in funding applications, so creating a strong project plan also saves time on
preparing applications.

ii. Project planning and effectiveness

Project planning helps you look at where you are, where you want to go and how you will
get there. This evaluation process will help you set up projects which are needed in your
community and help your group be successful.

3. Research Methodology
planning performance, projects planning influencing factors (requirements); use and
method of planning tools application; challenges encountered by indigenous contractors in
project planning; and indicators of success in project planning. The study was conducted in
Akure, located in the southwest geo-political zone of Nigeria. It consists of two local
government areas namely Akure South and Akure North Local Government Area. The

performance, projects planning influencing factors (requirements); use and method of

planning tools application; challenges encountered by indigenous contractors in project
planning; and indicators of success in project planning.
As a mechanism for obtaining information and opinion, self-administered questionnaires
have a number of advantages when compared with other survey methods. Questionnaires
Adams
(1997), the best way to acquire information free of bias and with increased accuracy
concerning domestic contractors is from contractors themselves, independent consultants
who work in the industry and, clients' supervisory staff (who are referred to as public-
building professionals), who work closely with the contractors. The target population for
the research consist of mainly medium and large indigenous construction firms registered
within categories B, C and D in Nigeria.
A total number ninety-four (94) questionnaires were administered to the five firms, out of
which eighty-nine (89) could only be retrieved, which constitute ninety-five percent (95%)
of the questionnaires administered. Professionals such as Architects, Builders, Engineers,
Quantity surveyors, were involved in the research as part of the population. The Population
for the study comprised of Architect - 20, Structural Engineer - 25, Builder 20, Quantity
Surveyor 25, Mechanical Engineer 10, in Akure, Ondo State, and South West Nigeria.

119
Results and Discussion
It is impossible to forecast all unexpected potentially disruptive events while developing a
project plan (Radosavljevic and Horner, 2007). As a result, it is quite normal to expect
changes in project plan in later phases, where higher information is available. Hence, the
need to assess the level of planning as reflected in Table1 is the summary of the responses
by 89 respondents on their various professional opinions on the level of planning of project
execution within their organizations.

Table 1: Level of Project Planning in Study Area

Frequency Percentage
Very Low 13 15
Low 25 28
Moderate 18 20
High 22 25
Very High 11 12
Total 89 100.0
Mean = 2.92 (Moderate)

#Mean Rank: Very High = 4.21-5.00, High =3.41-4.20, Moderate = 2.61-3.4, Low =1.81-
2.6, Very Low =1-1.80
Source: Researchers Field Report, 2018

The table 1 reflects that 25 respondents stated that the level of planning of project
execution within their organizations is low, and at 28% made up the largest proportion of
the total responses. Eleven respondents of the entire population opined that the level of
planning of project execution within their organization is very high, which made up the
smallest proportion of the total, at 12%.
A total of 28% of the respondents stated that the level of project execution planning within
their organization is low while 20% disagreed rated it to be moderate. Twenty-two
respondents at 25% stood on the notion that the level of planning of project execution
within their organization is high. Summarily, a mean of 2.92 indicate that the level of
project planning by the contractors.
Challenges of Executing Project Plan in the study area
The table 2 below is the summary of the challenges in executing the Project plan in the
study area. Project plans failed due to several challenges militating against them and top
amongst these challenges is plants, equipment and machine breakdown, inefficiency and
inadequacy. Out of 89 respondents, 69 respondents stated that the contribution of plants,
equipment and machine breakdown to inefficiency in executing project planning is very
high. These respondents further opined that, most project plans could have been effective
provided that machines and equipment used by the contractors do not breakdown during
operation. Machine, equipment and plants breakdown forced several construction
contractors to stop work abruptly or reduced their efficiencies. In addition, 11 respondents
rated the effect of plants, machines and equipment breakdown on project plans execution
to be high. The respondents stated that this breakdown could have been averted provided
effective plants maintenance is in place within the organization. They further raised that
most construction firms in Nigeria lack good maintenance culture.

120
Table 2: Challenges of executing Project plan in the study area
Challenges in Executing Very High Moderate Low Very Mean RII Rank
Project Plan High Low
Plants, equipment and 69 11 6 3 0 4.64 0.928 1
machine
breakdown/inadequacy
Technical incompetence 70 9 2 3 5 4.53 0.906 2
Accidents on site 66 10 7 4 2 4.51 0.902 3
Communication problem 34 29 11 8 7 3.84 0.768 4
between functional areas of
business
Inadequate project 31 26 13 12 7 3.70 0.74 5
documentation
Poor weather conditions 29 25 19 7 9 3.65 0.73 6
Increase in prices of 29 23 18 11 8 3.61 0.722 7
materials/labour
Too many variations 28 25 16 9 11 3.56 0.712 8
Material shortage or late 32 19 14 14 10 3.55 0.71 9
delivery
Late honouring of 26 20 24 14 5 3.54 0.708 10
payments certificates
34 17 13 13 12 3.54 0.708 10
Disputes 27 25 16 11 10 3.54 0.708 10
Delays 33 15 16 16 9 3.53 0.706 13
Design deficiencies 28 18 23 12 8 3.52 0.704 14
Environmental regulations 9 24 14 15 27 2.51 0.502 15
Absenteeism of 10 21 18 16 24 2.37 0.474 16
workers/shortage of
craftsmen
Cultural influence 6 9 19 25 30 2.36 0.472 17

Source: Researchers Field Report, 2018

Few respondents (6) stated that the effect of machine breakdown is moderate while 3
respondents adjudged it to be low. This challenge is ranked first with a mean score of 4.64
and a relative importance index (RII) of 0.928 as shown on Table 2.
Technical incompetence of contractors was also found to be a factor militating against the
execution of project plans by the contractors in the Nigerian construction industry. The
Nigerian construction industry is flood with unskilled labour, who at several times frustrate
execution of project plans due to their illiteracy level. Their inability to interpret Gantt
charts, architectural plans and computer simulation results severely affects the execution of
project plans. The use of project management (PM) software has grown and continues to
grow at a rapid pace in all industries. This is especially apparent in the construction
industry. Project management software is regularly used in the construction industry as a
tool for better planning a project.
A total of 70 respondents rated the effect of technical incompetence on project plan
execution to be very high, 9 respondents rated it high, 2 respondents rated it moderate
while 5 respondents rated it to be very low. The respondents opined that reduction in the

121
use of unskilled labour and manpower training will help in solving the challenge of
technical incompetence within the industry. This challenge is ranked with a RII score of
0.906 as shown in Table 2.
In addition, accidents on site, communication problem between functional areas of
business, inadequate project documentation, and poor weather conditions were all found to
be challenges posing threats to the execution of project plans within the Nigerian
construction industry. This is by their RII scores of 0.902, 0.768, 0.740 and 0.730
respectively as shown on Table 4.8. Site accidents as a result of poor safety policies and
strict adherence to procedures by the labour also affects project planning and its execution.
Facilitating communication in a project requires appropriate structure and communication
systems linking all stakeholders throughout the whole project life cycle (Chan and
Kumaraswamy, 1997).
Communication is important in project planning of construction projects in two main
aspects. First, the construction industry operates primarily as a system of sub-contracting
business and professional alliances. Poor communication within stakeholders, which
sometimes leads to disputes on sites, as opined by the respondents also contributes
adversely to executing project planning. This is corroborated by previous findings.
Therefore, it becomes critical for all involved parties to communicate in order to
understand the project plan (Aulich, 2013).
Second, lack of timely and effective communication leads to different issues like change in
the project plan (Chan and Kumaraswamy, 1997). Communication during the project life
cycle helps understanding the issues of executing project plan and eliminating those
obstacles. Delays in construction process is also identified as a militating factor in
executing construction project planning. This is shown by a RII score of 0.706.
Corroboratively, different situations such as construction environment, working cultures,
management style, project characteristic, methods of construction, local construction
practices, geographical condition, stakeholders, the government policy, economic situation,
availability of resources, and political situation are some of the reasons of delay variation
in literature (Yang et al., 2013 ,Toor & Ogunlana, 2008)
Factors like cultural influence (RII = 0.472), absenteeism of workers/shortage of craftsman
(RII = 0.474) and environmental regulations (RII = 0.502) also contributes to poor project
planning and its execution although their impact is minimal as shown on Table 4.8.
Absenteeism of workers/shortage of craftsmen is not common phenomenon within the
Nigerian construction industry due to the high national unemployment rate. Several
unemployed nationals, mostly male, sees the manual labour within the construction
industry as a way out of the unemployed situation.

Hypothesis Testing
Planning may occur during the construction phase, which consists of all activities beyond
mobilization and completion of preconstruction planning. This planning also covers risk
management and can be focused on a single deliverable or the coordination and overlap of
pothesis is to determine if there
is a significant relationship between factors affecting project planning and execution of
construction projects or not. The statistics shown in Table 3 is the Pearson Product
Moment Correlation Coefficient, to test if factors affecting project planning has significant
relationship with execution of construction projects. The statistical results show that
Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient is significant at 95% confidence level
(because Significant value (p = 0.002) < .05), so the null hypothesis, H0: There is no
significant relationship between the factors affecting project planning and execution of

122
construction projects, be rejected and the alternate hypothesis H1: There is significant
relationship between the factors affecting project planning and execution of construction
projects, be accepted. Furthermore, the computed Pearson Product Moment Correlation
Coefficient (r) shows that there is a positive relationship (r=0.341) between the factors and
construction projects planning execution in Akure, Ondo state. This shows that an
improvement in the factors affecting project planning will lead to a significant
improvement in its execution.

Table 3: Correlation Analysis of factors affecting project planning and construction

projects execution
Factors
Construction Projects
Affecting
Execution
Project Planning
Pearson Correlation 1 .341
Factors Affecting Project
Planning Sig. (2-tailed) .002
N 89 89
Pearson Correlation .341 1
Construction Projects
Execution Sig. (2-tailed) .002
N 89 89
Researchers Field Report, 2018

Conclusions and Recommendations for future study

Sound implementation planning is a pre-requisite for effective Project execution. Realistic,
resource based implementable plans can be formulated by using techniques such as
PERT/CPM and estimating activity times, linkages and resource requirements realistically
through an interdisciplinary group-process where experiences of many persons is pooled
together. Here also a data bank on similar projects (past and present) would be useful.
Good computer software packages are available for project planning with PERT/CPM,
equipment scheduling, manpower planning, cost optimization and control, monitoring etc.
In summary, a mean of 2.92 indicate that the level of project planning by the contractors is
moderate. The level of project planning can be considerably increased if adequate timing
and experienced practitioners are involved in the process. In addition, c
compliance and use of computer software also influences the construction project planning
of the organization. Several computer software for performing flawless project planning
has helped several contracting firms in planning effectively the work breakdown structures
(WBS), resources allocation, cost budgeting and capital rationing. Planning activities, such
as finding critical paths in a project with thousand activities or controlling such a project,
without planning software, requires numerous experts and extensive time. In support of
this finding, it takes considerably more than a computer and some project management
software to manage projects effectively, the introduction of project management software
has revolutionized the practice of project management and has assisted project managers in
accelerating their tasks

123
Planning may occur during the construction phase, which consists of all activities beyond
mobilization and completion of preconstruction planning. This planning also covers risk
management and can be focused on a single deliverable or the coordination and overlap of

is a significant relationship between factors affecting project planning and execution of

construction projects or not. The null hypothesis was therefore rejected.

the following recommendations are made for future study:

i. To improve on the low level of planning, the contracting firms dealing with
construction projects should have a well-trained staff (Project Managers, Project
Engineers, Quality control staff, Finance and Account) on a number of planning
softwares. The human resource directorate in the organizations can foster this.

ii. Construction firms should ensure that preventive maintenance approach is adopted
to tackle the challenges of plants, equipment and machine breakdown/inadequacy
rather than the corrective maintenance approach.
Exposing technical personnels to further training and workshop can also help in tackling
Technical incompetence which also serves as a major challenge in execution project
plan.
iii. All factors affecting Project plan should be properly considered during project
planning, because no matter how precise one factor is managed and controlled, if
other factors in the project go out of the control, that one factor may go
uncontrollable as well. This emphasizes on the significance of considering all of the
factors as a system and not treating each of them solely.

References
Adams, S. O. (1997). Contractor Development in Nigeria. Perception of Contractors and
Professionals., 15: 95 - 108.
Agarwala, R. (1983). Planning in developing countries, lessons from experience. World
Bank.
APM (2015) Conditions for project success. Research report. Assessed 25/08/2018 from
https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/find-a-resource/conditions-for-project-success
Chan, D., & Kumaraswamy, M. (1997). A Comparative Study of Causes of Time Overruns
in Hong Kong Construction Projects. International Journal of Project Management
ConstructionReviewOnline. (2017). Construction Review Online. Retrieved from
Construction Review Web site: https://constructionreviewonline.com 07/08/2015 planning-
in-construction
Evanston, A. M. (2016). Lack of Planning and Prioritization Skills. Excelle

Heravi, A., Coffey, V., & Trigunarsyah, B. (2015). Evaluating the level of stakeholder
involvement during the project planning processes of building projects. International
Journal of Project Management, 33(5), 985-997.
Laufer, A., & Tucker, R. L. (1987). Is construction project planning really doing its job? A
critical examination of focus, role and process. Construction Management and
Economics, 5(3), 243-266.
Li, L., Li, Z., Wu, G., & Li, X. (2018). Critical Success Factors for Project Planning and
Control in Prefabrication Housing Production: A China Study. Sustainability, 10(3), 836.

124
Ha, P.-h. S. (1987). Project planning and control in the construction industry of Hong
Kong. HongKong.
McNabb, D. E. (2009). Research Methods for Political Science: Qualitative and
Quantitative Methods. New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited.
PMI. (2013). Annual Report.
PriorityManagementInternational. (2017). Priority Management International Inc.
Retrieved from:
http://www.prioritymanagement.com/newcastle/resources/resource.php?resource_id=72
Stargatt, D. (2013). Planning a construction project using a mechanize access platforms.
Project Management Resource.
The Constructor. (2015). Planning of Construction Project. Civil Engineering Home, 1.
Thomas, M., Jacques, P. H., Adams, J. R., & Kihneman-Wooten, J. (2008). Developing an
effective project: Planning and team building combined. Project Management
Journal, 39(4), 105-113.
Voluntary Action Leicestershire (VAL, 2017). Importance of Project Planning. Retrieved
from Voluntary Action Leicestershire: http://www.valonline.org.uk/project-planning/2-
importance-project-planning

125
[Paper ID 109]

Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu1, Lamine Mahdjoubi2, Patrick Manu3

and Clinton Aigbavboa4

Abstract
With more than 80% of all construction projects overrunning their budget, there is a need
for more efficient management of the estimated 10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
that is expended annually on construction across the world. It has been proposed that
better information and data management through Building Information Modelling (BIM)
will lead to cost savings and greater predictability. Notwithstanding the role of quantity
surveyors (QS) in modelling and managing construction cost, they remain among the least
capable of assimilating BIM into their existing traditional processes. Despite increasing
need for BIM capability assessments for projects, there remains, no tool specifically

is unclear the attributes that indicate BIM capability of QS firms as well as QS practices on
projects. This study sought to address this through a review of BIM capability assessment
frameworks in order to ascertain their suitability for QS practices. An expert focus group
discussion was then used to identify peculiar attributes suitable for QS BIM capability
assessment as a precursor to the development of a comprehensive model of QS BIM
capability maturity. Findings reveal that most QS BIM capability attributes relate
to processes including criteria for effective information definition and data management
such that they are consistent with QS measurement standards. The BIM competence of
staff also emerged as one of the key attributes highlighting the need for QSs to improve
their knowledge, skills and experience in the application of BIM amidst current low levels
of adoption. The proposed attributes would assist the development of performance and
maturity indicators that would help QS firms better understand their own capability as well
as the requirements for delivering costing services through BIM on projects.

Keywords: costing, information modelling, quantity surveying, projects, competence,

maturity

1
University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom,
Email: Abdul.Mahamadu@uwe.ac.uk
2
University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom
3
University of Manchester, The School of Mechanical, Aerospace & Civil Engineering,
Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
4
University of Johannesburg, The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment,
Johannesburg, South Africa

126
Introduction
The majority (circa 80%) of construction projects overrun their budget (Flyvbjerg, et
al., 2004; Ahiaga-Dagbui and Smith 2014), thereby making it imperative for more efficient
management of financial resources expended annually for the delivery of construction.
Global initiatives on IT adoption for construction envisage significant cost savings from
implementation of novel digitally driven processes. For instance in the UK Government
hopes to achieve up to 33% cost savings through the digitisation of processes with
Building Information Modelling (BIM) (BIS, 2013). Notwithstanding the role of quantity
Surveyors (QS) in modelling and managing construction cost, they remain among the least
capable of assimilating BIM into their existing traditional processes: only a meagre 10% of
the mostly SME QS firms are reported to be using digitised BIM-based practices (RICS,
2014). Despite the increasing need for BIM capability assessments for projects, there

performance. Emerging tools and frameworks have been designed for organisations with
high design responsibility (such as architects) rather than for QS who directly manage and
control spending on projects (Succar, 2009; van Berlo et al., 2012; NIBS, 2012; CIC, 2013;
Succar et al., 2013; Kam et al., 2014; Du et al., 2014; Giel and Issa, 2014).
The aim of this study is therefore to develop a BIM capability assessment framework
specifically for QS BIM utilisation, benchmarking and performance. This will aid the
development of a set of metrics for evaluating the ability of QSs to deliver services through
BIM as well as serve as an evaluation tool to aid alignment of QS BIM implementation
with performance expectations. In this article, the attributes that determine a QS

comprehensive capability maturity model.

Quantity Surveying Practice and the Use of BIM and Related

Technologies
The major role of QSs in construction projects is costing and managing cost related
activities, this requires expertise in the measurement of quantities of building elements
with procedures such as quantity take-off (QTO), cost modelling as well as other contract
administration and commercial management functions. The traditional approaches to QS
relies on traditional paper based tools (Mitchell, 2012; Ismail et al., 2016). The potential of
BIM to create efficient working approach among construction professionals has however
been proven by the wide adoption of 3D BIM by architects and engineers in optimising
design visualization and evaluation of design choices (Wu et al, 2014). Building
contractors have also adopted 4D BIM for construction planning and scheduling but the
adoption of 5D (use of BIM for costing and commercial applications) is relatively low
t al., (2015) 5D BIM is a critical element of
building lifecycle management through precise cost estimation as well as elimination of
human related errors. Furthermore, Reizgevicius et al., (2018) have highlighted the
importance of QS practices such as life cycle costing and reliable cost analysis of different
construction scenarios in the attainment of sustainability through BIM use.
The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) has increased the opportunities for QSs to
collaborate with all other industry professionals through the facilitation of open data
formats for the transfer of information across various applications (RICS, 2014). BIM
offers a faster and effective approach to generate relevant data for QS functions in order to
develop cost estimates through automated extraction of quantities from building models, it
also enables parametric links for automatic updates of quantities when design changes
occur (Olatunji et al., 2010). The efficiency of delivering cost-effective projects has been
greatly influenced by innovative technology thus critical processes such as cost planning,

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cost control, cost estimating and analysis can now be achieved more effectively using BIM
application and platforms (i.e. 5D BIM) (RICS, 2014; Ismail et al., 2016). There are more
opportunities offered by innovative technology towards improving the efficiency of project
costing and QS practice overall. Most QS functions can therefore be more easily achieved
with the application of digital technology and data analytics (Wu et al, 2014; RICS, 2014).
Ashworth and Hogg (2007) predicted the expansion of QS practices to cover automated
measurement, environmental and sustainability analysis, facilities management, legal
services, investment advice and quality management through adoption of digital
technology. Although there is a perceived threat to the QS profession with the prospect of
replacing people with technology, the opportunities ahead are more than the threats (Wu et
al, 2014). Aside the expanding opportunities in the scope of QS practice, there is an
important role for QSs in the BIM development market. The skills required to drive such
5D BIM is however enormous and QS practice requires some capacity building (Sher et
al., 2009; Ismail et al., 2016).

Organisational Capability and the Implementation of BIM

Capability Maturity Models (CMM) have been adopted for the assessment of the
quality of organisational processes within software firms since the late 1970s (Paulk et al.,
1993). Some of the most popular models include the quality management maturity grid by
Crosby (1979) and the CMM by Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI)
(Paulk et al., 1993). According to Eadie et al. (2011) maturity models are characterised by
structured elements representing key process areas as well as capability stages for
progressing in these process areas. Thus, a maturity model aids the identification of critical
process
function (Crosby, 1979). They are popularly used in performance management to provide
guidance on steps towards improving performance in key organisational process areas.
Similarly, with the emergence of BIM, the maturity modelling concept has been adopted to
model BIM capability (Succar, 2010; NIBS, 2012; Giel and Issa, 2014). Succar et al.
the quality, repeatability and degree of excellence
According to Succar (2010) BIM maturity is primarily used to
benchmark performance improvement milestones during BIM implementation or use. The
notable BIM capability maturity frameworks and toolsets include the Capability Maturity
Model (CMM) by the National Institute of Building Science (NIBS, 2012); the Indiana
University BIM proficiency matrix (IU, 2009); the BIM capability framework by Succar
M
Quickscan (van Berlo et al., 2012); the BIM readiness frameworks by Gu and London
(2010); BIM pre-qualification and selection framework (Mahamadu et al., 2017a) and

frameworks relative to QSs is however, the fact that none of them has been specifically
developed for QSs. Some generically apply to construction organisations (NIBS, 2012;
Succar, 2010; CIC 2013; Mahamadu et al., 2017a) while others apply to project scenarios

all of the other frameworks do not specifically target particular disciplines however most
suited for originations with design responsibility (Mahamadu et al., 2017a). Some other
frameworks have been developed for assessment of the product (i.e. BIM model) maturity
(Du et al., 2015).
While these emerging standards, frameworks and tools have provided basis for the
identification of appropriate BIM capability criteria, none of them specifically address
peculiar needs of QSs and QS practices. The only model with criteria for assessment cost
related BIM modelling process is the ARUP model (Azzouz and Hill, 2017). However, this

128
model pertains to BIM model maturity for pr
maturity. Furthermore, it relies on a generic set of criteria that are used for assessing other
disciplines such as Architecture, Mechanical and Electrical, thus, the criteria are not
specific to QS. From the review of state-of-the-art, it is clear that no BIM capability
assessment tool exists for QSs, neither is it clear if the generic capability attributes
proposed in existing frameworks are suitable for QS processes and organisations.

The Identification of Key Attributes for a BIM Capability Maturity

Model for Quantity Surveying
The development of capability maturity models requires the identification of key
attributes often referred to as key process areas (KPA) which represent the primary areas of
performance in an organisation or system (Paulk et al., 1993; Succar, 2009; Eadie et al.,
2011
competencies and resources that are required for the attainment of goals (Paulk et al.,
1993). The conventional notion of KPAs is that they must include processes, people and
personnel, policy, systems and resources required to perform functions effectively and
efficiently (Succar, 2010; Mahamadu et al., 2017a). This study therefore explored the

precursor for developing a comprehensive capability and performance benchmarking

framework based on capability maturity modelling principles.

Methodology
A focus group discussion (FGD) involving experts in the application of BIM for QS
was used to identify a list of attributes that denote a QS organisations ability to use BIM.
This process allowed experts to propose criteria as well as review generic criteria derived
from a review of literature and existing BIM capability frameworks. The FGD further
aided the exploration of expert views on the potential of BIM for transforming QS
practices as well as review the current capacity and capability issues in industry. A total of
seven experts were engaged in the FGD. The FGD participants comprised mainly of QSs,
BIM Managers, BIM Consultants and a QS software developer. All participants had a vast
experience in the application of digital technologies for construction as well as QS practice
in general. They were recruited from reputable organisations with departments or projects
responsible for digitisation of QS functions. High level of expertise was a criterion for
selecting participants and was also in order to meet the requirements for selecting
participants when using expert group methods for data collection (see Hallowell and
Gambatese, 2010). The following criteria were specifically relied on in selecting
participants: senior professional or academic in BIM and QS; a minimum of five years of
industry experience; and possession of professional QS or BIM qualifications. The
background information of FGD participants is presented in Table 1. FGDs normally
involves a small group of participants to ensure effective management of the data
collection by the researchers (Polkinghorne, 1989). Focus group methods are the preferred
approach for interrogation of phenomenon to high levels of detail and depth while reducing
interviewer-domination (Polkinghorne, 1989; Creswell, 2013). FDGs have been previously
used for the identification of capability attributes in the development of capability maturity
models (see Mahamadu et al., 2017b). The FGD was adopted to allow the participants to
experience regarding QS BIM capability in order to
enrichen the discussions.

129
Table 1. Background of FGD Participants

ID Role/Position Experience in Experience in Qualification

Construction Digital
Construction
1 BIM Manager 20 BSc 7
2 Director - QS Software
40 12 BSc
Development (*MICE)
3 Associate Director - QS and
Commercial Management 15 5 BSc
(*MRICS)
4 Construction Manager 10 2 MSc
5 Digital Construction Consultant 16 15 BSc
6 Associate Director - QS and
Commercial Management 14 3 BSc
(*MRICS)
7 Academic and Professional QS
30 10 MSc
(*MRICS)
*Notes: BSc = Bachelors Degree; MSc = Masters Degree; MRICS = Member, Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors; MICE = Member, Institution of Civil Engineering

Findings and Discussions

The QS BIM capability attributes derived from the FGD is presented in Table 2. In
total 18 key capability attributes were proposed. Some of the attributes proposed are
similar to proposed attributes in BIM capability and maturity frameworks but uniquely
differ given its focus on the QS practice. The criteria that are similar to previously

qualifications; Hardware; Software; Network capacity; Leadership; Policy; and Roles and
responsibilities (Succar, 2010; Kam et al., 2014; Mahamadu et al., 2017a). The criteria
peculiar to QS BIM use include: Scope of QS services rendered digitally; Commercial and
cost data security; Commercial data security; Cost model progression specification; Cost
data exchange protocols; and 5D BIM execution planning.

Table 2 Summary of Quantity Surveying BIM capability attributes

No. QS BIM Capability Attributes Key process area
(KPA) category
Technology

Process
People

Policy

1 Staff Competence X
Skills, knowledge, experience and expertise among staff.
Professional and academic qualifications relevant to 5D BIM and
digital technology application.
2 Organisations experience X
Historical/previous use of 5D BIM and digital technologies within
organisation and on projects.
3 Organisations qualifications and certification X X
Formal certifications indicating BIM capability, maturity,
competence, standards and use of protocols.

130
4 Scope of QS services rendered digitally X
Delivery of core costing and QS functions through BIM, advanced
digital technologies and data analytics.
5 Hardware X
Hardware to support 5D BIM, data capture, storage, analytics and
advanced visualisation.
6 Software X
Software to support 5D BIM, data capture, storage, analytics and
advanced visualisation.
7 Network capacity X
Adequate and secure network infrastructure to support 5D BIM
through centralised or cloud based interoperable data exchange.
8 Workflow management X
Process maturity within organisation for object-based, model-based
or network-based integration of cost services into BIM (5D).
9 Commercial and cost data security X
Protocols, infrastructure and services that ensure commercial data
privacy, protection and integrity.
10 Cost model progression specification X
Model progression specifications for 5D BIM modelling within team
and for specifying to other project consultants.
11 Cost data exchange protocols X
Protocols that ensure interoperable use of information from other
consultants for 5D BIM (i.e. Data naming conventions and model
element breakdown structures that conform or are mapped unto the
classifications in QS and measurement standards such as NRM,
ICMS, SMM)
12 Quality assurance X X
Availability and use of quality assurance protocols and tools to
ensure data integrity, accuracy and conformance in 5D/BIM models
and outputs.
13 5D BIM execution planning X
Project based execution planning and protocols for strategic
implementing 5D BIM.
14 Roles and responsibilities X
Availability of specific BIM roles within organisational hierarchy
15 Leadership X
Availability of executive sponsorship, champions and dedicated
implementation committees for 5D BIM implementation
16 Policy X
Clear statement of purpose and objectives for BIM use within
organisation as well as level of importance placed on digitisation
within broader company vision, mission or policies.
17 Research and development X X
Directed work and resources for innovation and improvement of
products and processes for 5D BIM
18 Digital culture X
Demonstrated culture of preference for technology oriented processes
in organisation or willingness to use innovative technologies for QS
functions.
Related KPA frequency 5 3 4 9
Note: 5D BIM as used in the description of attributes refers to all applications of BIM to costing and quantity
surveying functions.
Abbreviations: CPD Continuous Professional Development; ICMS- International Construction Measurement
Standards; NRM- New Rules of Measurement; QS- Quantity Surveying/Surveyor; and SMM- Standard Method of
Measurement.

Based on the categorisation of BIM maturity elements by Succar et al. (2012), the

131
attributes were reclassified into four distinct categories. The classification of attributes was
as follows: technology, process, people and policy. The technology category describes
specific abilities related to physical artefacts including software, hardware and data or
networks. The process category is used to describe activities, workflows, services,
procedures for delivering BIM. The people category describes knowledge skills and
competence possessed within an organisation or by individuals for delivery of BIM
objectives. Finally, policy dimension describes guidance and principles of action adopted
for the attainment of BIM implementation goals.
The majority of attributes (n
supports the primary definition of BIM which emphasizes its process laden nature (see
Succar, 2009). Capability maturity models are also premised on a philosophy that process
improvement is responsible for the attainment of objectives in digital technology use
(Paulk et al., 1993). Significant amount of the process criteria were related to the
management of information and data exchange. This finding brings into focus the role of
interoperability in the effective delivery of QS functions through BIM (RICS, 2014). While
the IFC has increased the opportunities for QSs to collaborate with other disciplines, there
remains a need for protocols to facilitate process and organisational interoperability (RICS,
2014). The attributes proposed thus highlight the need for capacities in the definition and
classification of data such that they are consistent with QS and measurement standards
such as Standard Method of Measurement (SMM), International Construction
Measurement Standards (ICMS) and the New Rules of Measurement (NRM). The majority
of proposed QS BIM capability attributes align with a systems and hard technology
deterministic view of BIM capability (Mahamadu et al., 2017a). The category with the
second highest n
competence and experience of individuals and the organisation as a whole in delivering QS
related services through BIM. According to Succar et al. (2013), the ability to adopt BIM-
related processes is dependent on proficiency among staff, as well as its aggregated effect
on the entire organisation through collective learning as well as the distribution of roles
and responsibilities. Existing BIM frameworks and toolsets (Succar, 2009; van Berlo et al.,
2012; CIC, 2013; Succar et al., 2013; Kam et al., 2014; Giel and Issa, 2014) have similarly
recognised people centric competency measures as influential determinants of BIM
capability. The concern is however the low level of QS BIM adoption which will
invariably delay the process of developing a critical mass of QSs experienced in the use of
BIM related process and technology.
The findings reveal critical QS BIM capability attributes as well as dominant categories
of attributes. The dominance of particular types of the QS BIM capability attributes does
not however, indicate their importance thus there is a need for further research to determine
the relative importance of criteria.

Conclusion
The use of BIM within QS practice is becoming more necessary as a result of high
levels of BIM use and diffusion across other segments of the construction industry. Despite
the potential of BIM, however, QSs continue to lag behind in adoption as a result of
capability issues among other reasons. A review of studies reveal that majority of emerging
tools and frameworks have been developed for organisations with high design
responsibility (such as architects) rather than for QSs who directly manage and control
spending on projects. Consequently, there are serious limitations regarding the suitability
of criteria in existing BIM capability and maturity frameworks for use in QS scenarios.
This study thus sought to address this by proposing QS specific BIM capability attributes.
Findings reveal that most QS BIM cap

132
effective information definition and data management such that they are consistent with
QS and measurement standards. The proposed QS BIM capability attributes highlight the
key process areas for the development of performance and maturity indicators that would
assist QS firms to better understand capability issues as well as BIM implementation
priorities. A limitation of this study is the lack of prioritisation of attributes to determine
which is the most important. Subsequent phase of this study will however address this and
prioritise these attributes as well as identify definitions of maturity levels for each. This
study relied only on expert judgement, thus future studies could adopt longitudinal,
ethnographic approach or case studies to explore further, the attributes identified in the
current study as well their relative importance in practice.

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134
[Paper ID 62]

Douglas Aghimien1, Clinton Aigbavboa2 and Ayodeji Oke3

Abstract
Though studies on maintenance issues in government-owned institutions in Nigeria
abound, there is a paucity of information with respect to maintenance issues in the private
institutions. This study, therefore, assessed the building maintenance practices in private
tertiary institutions in the country with a view to providing an environment that is
conducive for learning within private institutions in the country. A quantitative survey was
adopted through the use of questionnaire administered to maintenance officers and
construction professionals from two private tertiary institutions in the country. Data
analyses were done using percentage, mean score, and standard deviation. Findings
showed that maintenance staff of these institutions are inexperienced in maintenance
related issues, while the major building elements with maintenance issues are plumbing,
electrical, painting, and roofing. The most used maintenance approach is the corrective
maintenance, while the major factors affecting building maintenance are lack of fund, poor
technical expertise on maintenance issues, and poor maintenance culture of building users.
It is believed that the findings of the study will assist top management of private
institutions within the country in making crucial decisions regarding the maintenance of
their buildings.

1
Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, FEBE, University
of Johannesburg, South Africa, Email: aghimiendouglas@yahoo.com
2
Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, FEBE, University
of Johannesburg, South Africa, Email: caigbavboa@uj.ac.za
3
Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, FEBE, University
of Johannesburg, South Africa, Email: aoke@uj.ac.za

135
Introduction
The need for proper maintenance of building structures in order for them to attain their life
expectancy period cannot be overemphasised. Similarly, the maintenance of educational
building structures is crucial for the delivery of quality education, as their function goes
beyond just serving the present generation. Abdul-Lateef et al. (2010) stated that in order
to achieve an environment that is conducive for learning, maintenance of educational
buildings is important. Edmond et al. (2010) also noted that at the organisational level,
most organisations have realised the need for maintenance in their daily activities, and
have therefore made the maintenance of existing building assets a top priority. The story is,
however, different with government establishments and projects in Nigeria. According to
Adenuga et al. (2010), public buildings in the country, including higher institution
buildings, are in very poor and in deplorable conditions. Although millions of Naira is
spent to erect these buildings, they are left, immediately after commissioning to face steady
and rapid deterioration, decay and dilapidation.
Studies have been carried out to ascertain the poor state of most government-owned
higher institution buildings in the country, and the dissatisfaction among users have been
noted (Ajayi et al., 2015; Amole, 2009; Edukugho, 2013; Sawyerr and Yusof, 2013). Also,
studies on the maintenance management of these institutional buildings are equally evident
(Abisuga et al., 2016, Abisuga et al., 2017; Olatunji et al., 2016). However, all these
studies were centered on government-owned institutions. While this is important, issues
surrounding building maintenance in private institutions needs to also be addressed, as the
growth of private institutions in the country is becoming overwhelming. In 2012, the
country was said to have a total of one hundred and twenty-two universities, and forty-
three percent of them were privately owned (Okojie, 2012). This number today has
undoubtedly increased with more private institutions springing forth in the country (Adama
et al., 2018). The maintenance of buildings within these private institutions merits research
attention, as quality education depends on having conducive and well-maintained building
facilities.
Based on this knowledge, this study assessed the building maintenance practices in
private tertiary institutions in Nigeria with a view to providing an environment that is
conducive for learning within private institutions in the country. The objectives set towards
achieving this aim were to determine the major building elements with major maintenance
issues, examine the common approach to building maintenance being adopted, and assess
the major factors affecting building maintenance in private tertiary institutions in the
country. The subsequent sections of the paper show a summary of the review of related
literature, the methodology adopted for the study, the findings and conclusion. Based on
the findings of the study, recommendations were made.

Literature Review
Studies have stressed that maintenance is very vital to individuals and organisations, and
not only is it necessary to maintain the function of the building but to minimise
maintenance costs and to ensure a safe environment for building occupants (Adenuga,
2008; Suwaibatul-Islamiah et al., 2011). According to Abdul-Lateef (2010) maintenance is

engineering services after completion, repair, refurbishment or replacement to current

standards, to enable it to serve its intended function throughout its entire lifespan without

ation, organisation, and

136
Smith (2003) stated that the maintenance of the built environment has a continuous effect
on everyone since we depend on the state of our homes, offices, and factories not only for
our comfort but also for our economic survival.
Building maintenance can be classified into reactive and proactive maintenance, and
the combination of these two approaches in practice has been noted in recent times. The
reactive maintenance involves responding to issues when they occur, while the proactive
maintenance is carried out to avoid the occurrence of any problem in the nearest future
(Dakhil et al., 2016). Mukelasi et al. (2012) reviewed the critical success factors in
building maintenance management of local authority in Malaysia and observed that
maintenance approach being adopted is more of reactive rather than proactive in nature. A
similar scenario has been observed in Nigeria and Ghana (Adenuga 2008; Adenuga et al.,
2010; Issahaku, 2013). Horner et al. (1997) in the study of building maintenance strategies
observed three different strategic approaches to maintenance, which are, corrective,
preventive and condition-based maintenance. A similar observation was made by Lee and
Scott (2009) in the study of acceptable maintenance standard and resources from a building
maintenance operation perspective. It was noted that maintenance strategy, in general,
includes corrective, preventive or maintenance based on condition. The preventive
maintenance is a planned maintenance approach, which involves a time-based maintenance
that requires regular task of maintenance irrespective of the condition of the structure. The
corrective maintenance, on the other hand, is an unplanned maintenance approach, which is
failure-driven. This implies that a building and its associated facilities are operated until
unexpected breakdown of these facilities or malfunctioning occurs before maintenance is
conducted. The condition-based maintenance entails periodic inspection of building
facilities to check and replace when a faulty condition is observed before breakdown can
occur.
Building maintenance in most developing countries has been adjudged to be poor and
ineffective. In an attempt to determine the causes of poor building maintenance, several
factors have been identified. Iyagba (2005) observed that issues relating to design and
method of construction in most cases determine the usefulness of buildings, the manner of
usage and the ease of maintenance. Asiabaka (2008) noted that the issue of lack of policy
guidelines for infrastructural development and maintenance in buildings is a major
problem affecting building management and maintenance in Nigeria. In a similar vein,
Mohammed and Hassanain (2010) observed that most residential buildings in the country
are occupied by a large number of occupants than what they were originally designed for.
This puts a strain on the building and its services, thus making maintenance difficult. In
Ghana, Issahaku (2013) noted factors such as insufficient funds for a maintenance job,
persistent breakdown through indiscipline and ignorance of building users, the attitude of
users and misuse of facilities, and lack of skilled manpower to maintain work in buildings
to be affecting building maintenance. Ogunmakinde et al. (2013) in a study of the factors
affecting building maintenance in government residential estates in Ondo State observed
that funding of maintenance work is a crucial factor affecting this process. It was also
discovered that maintenance is only carried out whenever a fault is detected, thus implying
that corrective maintenance is majorly adopted in the area. Dakhil et al. (2016) assessed
the barriers to the implementation of proactive building maintenance in Iraq and noted
issues such as technical, management and administration, financial, human behaviour and
attitudes, spare parts, and lack of institutional and training facilities. More specifically,
factors such as corruption, lack of standards, quality control, and misuse of the building
were dominant.
In the education arena, Abdul-Lateef et al. (2010) carried out an appraisal of the
building maintenance management practices of Malaysian universities and observed that

137
expenditure on maintenance was inadequate, and there was poor management of the
resource and maintenance services which was causal to the poor service delivery,
maintenance backlogs and poor user satisfaction being experience in these universities.
Aliyu et al. (2015) assessed building maintenance management practice at the Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa university teaching hospital, Bauchi. The study revealed that misuse of the
property by the users, wears and tears of materials due to the constant usage of the
property, and natural factors from unforeseen circumstances were the major problems
leading to maintenance issues in the hospital. Abisuga et al. (2016) carried out an
assessment of educational building conditions and the health of users in Lagos State
Polytechnic, Nigeria. The study discovered that plumbing and dampness problems,
cobwebs, dust, and electrical issues were prominent maintenance issues in the institution.
Olatunji et al., (2016) carried an assessment of the maintenance culture in tertiary
institutions in Nigeria and observed that the assessed tertiary institutions have a structure in
place to carry out maintenance work but do not have a formal organogram showing the
hierarchy flow of authority. Their maintenance departments were characterised by
inexperienced staff and although maintenance works were properly funded, frequent
occurrences like underestimating and cost overrun were evident.

Research Methodology
The study assessed the building maintenance practices within a private university and a
private polytechnic in Osun State, Nigeria. The study employed a quantitative survey
approach and data were gathered through the use of questionnaire administered on
maintenance officers and members of the Works and Physical Planning Units of these
institutions. The questionnaire was adopted as the instrument for data collection due to its
ease of usage and the ability to cover a wide range of respondents (Tan, 2011). The
questionnaire used was designed based on information gathered from the review of related
literature. The questionnaire was designed in two parts. Part A dwelt on the background
information of the respondents. Information gotten from this part provides a quality check
to the data gotten from the other part of the research instrument. Part B dwelt on questions
geared towards identifying the major areas with maintenance issues within the institution,
the major maintenance approaches adopted, and the factors affecting building maintenance
in the institution. These objectives were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 54
questionnaires were distributed, and they were all retrieved and ascertained fit for analysis.
The reason for the 100% response rate is based on the fact that the total population of the
study falls within a manageable and reachable size. Data analyses was done using
frequency and percentile in analysing the background information of the respondents,
while mean score and standard deviations (SD) were used to determine the major building
elements with maintenance issues, the level of awareness and usage of the identified
building maintenance approaches, and the factors affecting building maintenance in these
institutions.

Results and Discussion

Background information of respondents
Analyses of the data gathered on the background information of students revealed that
more male (71.9%) participated in the study than female (28.1%). Most of the respondents
(59.4%) are not construction professionals, nor do they have prior knowledge of building
maintenance before joining the maintenance unit of these institutions. Sixty-nine percent
(69%) of them stated that they have not been involved in any building maintenance related

138
activities prior to their engagement as maintenance officers. About 88% of these
respondents have spent between 1 to 2 years with the maintenance units of these
institutions, while the average years of working in the maintenance unit is calculated as
1.8 years for all the respondents. This result on the background information of the
respondents signifies that the maintenance unit of these institutions is filled with
maintenance officers with little experience in the maintenance field. This situation is bound
to affect the manner at which maintenance works are being executed by these individuals.
A similar submission was made by Olatunji et al., (2016) that in public tertiary institutions
in Nigeria, there is a structure in place to carry out maintenance work but they do not have
a formal organogram showing the hierarchy flow of authority. Their maintenance
department is characterised by inexperienced staff. The result from both studies shows that
there is no difference in the maintenance structure of educational buildings in both private
and public institutions in the country. Thus, there is the need for critical evaluation of those
charged with the maintenance of educational buildings it in the country.

Building elements with frequent maintenance issues in private tertiary institutions

In assessing the building elements with maintenance issues, major building elements were
presented to the respondents and they were asked to rank them based on the level of
occurrence of maintenance work. A scale of 1 to 5 was adopted with 1 being very low
occurrence, 2 being low occurrence, 3 being average occurrence, 4 being high occurrence,
and 5 being very high occurrence. Result in Table 1 shows the mean value of these
elements and their associated standard deviations (SD). According to Field (2005) a SD of
below 1.0 shows little variability in the data and consistency in agreement of respondents.
However, the reverse is the case when SD is above 1.0. The Result from the table shows
that there is a considerable amount of consistency in the view of the respondents as only
two building elements have a SD of above 1.0.
Assessment of the table shows that out of the ten assessed building elements, seven
have considerable maintenance issues as a mean value of above average of 3.0 was
derived. Chief of these elements are plumbing works, electrical works, painting and
roofing with a mean value of 3.94, 3.81, 3.75 and 3.53 respectively. The least building
elements with maintenance issues are metals works, structural elements and block work
with a mean value of 2.81, 2.63, and 2.53 respectively. Ofide et al. (2015) have earlier
observed that the major areas where maintenance issues emanate in higher institutions in
Niger State are plumbing, electrical, roof, windows and doors. Abisuga et al. (2016)
carried out an assessment of educational building conditions and the health of users in
Lagos State Polytechnic and discovered that plumbing and dampness problems and
electrical issues are among the prominent maintenance issues in the institution. However,
contrary to the findings of this current study, Ali et al. (2013) discovered that in Malaysia,
the most common defects arising from maintenance issue are building
missing slot underneath floor slab which led to more defects.
Table 1: Building elements with building maintenance issues within the institution
Building Elements Mean Rank SD
Plumbing 3.94 1 0.801
Electrical 3.81 2 0.961
Painting 3.75 3 1.107
Roofing 3.53 4 0.879
General Environment 3.47 5 0.915
Aluminium works 3.25 6 1.270

139
Furniture and fittings 3.22 7 0.941
Metal works 2.81 8 0.859
Structural works 2.63 9 0.970
Block work 2.53 10 0.816

Approaches to building maintenance adopted in private tertiary institutions

This study employs the classification of Horner et al. (1997) and Lee and Scott (2009)
which state that the approaches to maintenance can either be preventive, corrective or
condition-based. Respondents were presented with these three approaches and they were
asked to rank them based on their level of awareness and their level of usage. Brief
definitions of these three approaches were given in the questionnaire so as to enable the
respondents adequately answer the stated question. The result in Table 2 shows the level of
awareness of the different approaches to maintenance among the respondents and the level
of their usage in the institution. From the table, it is evident that the level of awareness of
the identified approaches is above average, with corrective maintenance having the highest
mean value of 3.56 with a SD of 0.948 and preventive maintenance having the lowest
mean value of 3.31 with a SD of 0.965. These SD shows that there is a considerable
amount of consistency in the view of the respondents as regards their level of awareness of
these maintenance options. However, there is some level of inconsistency in their level of
awareness with regards to condition-based maintenance approach which ranked second
with a mean value of 3.44 and a SD of 1.134.
Considering the fact that most of these respondents do not have prior knowledge of
maintenance before joining the maintenance unit of the institution, it is expected that their
level of knowledge of these approaches should be somewhat low. Result proves otherwise.
This can be as a result of the fact that most of these respondents have been with the
maintenance unit for an average of about 2 years, which should be enough for them to
know the way and manner maintenance is being carried out within the institution. Also, the
brief description of these approaches given in the questionnaire serves as a way for them to
categorical state the maintenance approaches as known to them.
In terms of the level of usage, result reveals that there is a considerable amount of
consistency in the view of the respondents as regards the level of usage of these
maintenance approaches, as a SD of below 1.0 was derived for all the approaches assessed.
The most used approach is the corrective maintenance with a mean value of 3.78 and a SD
of 0.975. This is followed by condition-based maintenance with a mean value of 3.28 and
SD of 0.991. Preventive maintenance is ranked as the least used approach with a mean
value of 2.97 and SD of 0.782. This result implies that maintenance work in these
institutions are mostly reactive than proactive. This finding is in line with Ogunmakinde et
al. (2013) submission in public buildings in Nigeria, that maintenance is only carried out
whenever a fault is detected. The finding also agrees with Ofide et al. (2015) submission
that building maintenance management practices of higher education institutions in the
country are mostly corrective in nature. This situation is not peculiar to public and
educational buildings in Nigeria alone as Issahaky (2013), Dakhil et al. (2016) and
Mukelasi et al. (2012) all observed a similar situation in Ghana, Iraq, and Malaysia.
Table 2: Level of awareness and usage of maintenance approaches
Awareness Usage
Approach Mean Rank SD Mean Rank SD
Corrective 3.56 1 0.948 3.78 1 0.975
Condition-based 3.44 2 1.134 3.28 2 0.991

140
Preventive 3.31 3 0.965 2.97 3 0.782

Factors affecting building maintenance in private tertiary institutions

In assessing the factors affecting building maintenance in private tertiary institutions, some
factors were identified from literature and were presented to respondents to rate based on
their level of significance. Result in Table 3 shows the ranking of these factors. A quick
view of the table shows that there is consistency in the view of all the respondents in 9 out
of the 13 assessed factors as a SD of below 1.0 was derived. Also, 11 out of the 13
assessed factors have a mean value of 3.0 and above, which means these factors have a
significant effect on effective maintenance practice in these private institutions. Chief of
these factors affecting effective building maintenance practices are lack of funds, poor
technical know-how of maintenance personnel, and poor maintenance culture of the
building users with a mean value of 3.78, 3.56 and 3.41 respectively. The least significant
factors are problem of policy implementation and the age of the building with a mean
value of 2.63 and 2.09 respectively.
Considering the fact that private tertiary institutions are owned by individuals, there is
the possibility of funds being a major issue in terms of quality maintenance practices, as
institution owners might want to be cautious of their available fund. This will invariably
lead to poor maintenance of structures and the adoption of unfavourable maintenance
practices such as correcting defects as they occur, rather than being proactive about them.
According to Abdul-Lateef et al. (2010), expenditure on maintenance of educational
buildings in Malaysia is inadequate. In Iraq and Ghana, Dakhil et al. (2016) and Issahaku
(2013) also noted that issues surrounding funding have a significant effect on building
maintenance. This implies that the issue of poor funding of building maintenance is not
synonymous to Nigeria alone. This finding also corroborates the submissions of Akinsola
et al. (2012) and Ogunmakinde et al. (2013) which state that issue of lack or insufficient
funds allowed for maintenance is a major factor affecting effective maintenance of
buildings in Nigeria.
Aside from having funds, the availability of personnel with the right technical
expertise to handle maintenance issues is important. Poor technical know-how of
maintenance personnel will to a large extent lead to poor maintenance practice. This seems
to be a major issue in the assessed tertiary institutions as the background information of the

issues. According to Olarenwaju et al. (2015), the availability of qualified and competent
construction and maintenance professionals is significant in the drive towards achieving
quality maintenance operations. This finding is in tandem with the submissions of Issahaku
(2013) and Ofide et al. (2015) which stated that lack of skilled manpower to maintain work
in buildings is also a major problem affecting maintenance of buildings.
Building users should note that they have a duty to care for buildings which they
occupy. Poor maintenance culture of the building users can considerably frustrate the
efforts of a maintenance unit. Considering tertiary institutions which accommodate
students from diverse background and attitudes towards property usage, it is not surprising
to see this factor emanating among the crucial factors affecting building maintenance in
these tertiary institutions. Issahaku (2013) observed that in Ghana, building maintenance is
affected by the persistent breakdown of building services due to indiscipline and ignorance
of building users, the attitude of users and misuse of facilities. Dakhil et al. (2016) also
mentioned that technical issues relating to building designs, and human behaviour and
attitudes in terms of usage of the facilities are affecting proper maintenance. A similar
observation was made by Mohammed and Hassanain (2010), Ogunmankinde et al. (2013)

141
and Aliyu et al., (2015) in Nigeria. The finding of this study is in tandem with these studies
as the poor maintenance culture of users is seen to be affecting the effective building
maintenance in the assessed institutions. The age of the building which is ranked the least
might not have a significant effect on the maintenance practices in the assessed institutions,
as these private institutions are fairly new in the country. Most of their buildings are newly
constructed.
Table 3: Factors affecting building maintenance in private tertiary institutions
Factors Mean Rank SD
Lack of funds 3.78 1 1.237
Poor technical know-how of maintenance personnel 3.56 2 0.878
Poor maintenance culture of the building users 3.41 3 0.979
Lack of communication between users and maintenance 3.34 4 1.066
personnel
Insufficient maintenance personnel 3.31 5 1.176
Lack of support from institution management 3.22 6 0.792
Corruption among maintenance personnel and management 3.09 7 1.088
Faulty design and construction 3.06 8 0.982
Inadequate facilities usage information 3.06 8 0.982
Lack of incentives for maintenance personnel 3.03 10 0.822
Poor initial planning 3.00 11 0.950
Problem of policy implementation 2.63 12 0.833
Age of the building 2.09 13 0.734

Conclusion and Recommendations

This study assessed the building maintenance practices of tertiary institutions in Nigeria
using a private university and polytechnic as a major focus. Through the use of a survey
approach and quantitative data gathered from maintenance officers within these
institutions, the study has been able to determine the characteristics of the maintenance unit
in private tertiary institutions, the building elements with frequent maintenance issues, the
maintenance approaches mostly adopted, and the factors affecting building maintenance.
Based on the findings, the study concludes that although there is a maintenance unit within
private tertiary institutions, they are characterised by inexperienced staff. This will
invariably affect the manner in which maintenance works are being carried out within the
institution. The building elements with frequent maintenance issues are plumbing,
electrical, painting, and roofing, while corrective maintenance is the most common
approach being adopted. The factors affecting building maintenance are lack of funds, poor
technical know-how of maintenance personnel, and poor maintenance culture of the
building users.
Building maintenance in tertiary institution need more capable hands; only
maintenance professionals with considerable experience should be employed within
maintenance units. This is necessary if effective building maintenance practices are to be
adopted and sustainable educational buildings are to be achieved. Also, there is the need
for a radical shift from corrective maintenance to a more proactive approach. This will help
improve the lifespan of structures within the institutions and also help reduce cost spent on
total replacement of building facilities, as faults would have been detected and corrected
earlier. Adequate attention should be given to building elements such as plumbing,
electrical, painting, and roofing during and after construction as they have proven to be
areas with considerable maintenance issues. Although private institutions are privately
operated, Government can still help in ensuring standard and quality education is delivered

142
through adequate maintenance, by creating policies that will encourage the adoption of
proactive maintenance culture and create avenues for the enforcing of same. Also,
sensitising students and staffs as regards the need for proper usage of school structures is
necessary.
It is believed that the findings of the study will assist top management of private
tertiary institutions within the country in making crucial decisions regarding the
maintenance of buildings within their institutions. It will also help those within the
maintenance unit to know the areas with frequent maintenance issues and where to focus
available resources for an effective outcome. However, despite the contribution of the
study to the body of knowledge, its findings cannot be generalised as it was limited by
scope (Osun State) and size (2 tertiary institutions). Thus, further studies can be conducted
in other private tertiary institutions in the country in order to compare results. Also, further
studies can be conducted by assessing the effect of building maintenance on the welfare
and performance of students within these private tertiary institutions.

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[Paper ID 71]

John-Paris Pantouvakis1 and Alexander Maravas2

Abstract
During construction operations, fleet management aims at maximizing the uptime
and efficiency of construction machinery while also minimizing the cost of ownership
through lifecycle planning and management. In the deterministic approach, theory suggests
that one type of machinery is considered to be critical. However, taking into account the
real circumstances under which projects are performed with issues such as machine
reliability, worker performance, and/or errors in estimating the scope of work, it is evident
that there are significant limitations to the existing approach. Hence, to address this issue,
uncertainty in fleet productivity is modelled with fuzzy set theory. In this context, the
notion of composite criticality under which the productivity of a fleet depends on more
than one type of machinery because of the fluctuations of the individual productivities is
introduced. To this purpose, a simple case study is presented to illustrate this concept. It is
concluded that this approach leads to a better understanding of the estimation of activity
duration and cost estimation which in turn means better project scheduling and financial
planning.

Keywords: construction management, fleet management, fuzzy systems, financial

planning, uncertainty management

1
Professor, Centre for Construction Innovation, Department of Construction Engineering
and Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens,
Athens 15570, Greece, Tel +30-210-7721268, Email: jpp@cental.ntua.gr
2
Researcher, Ph.D.,Centre for Construction Innovation, Department of Construction
Engineering and Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of
Athens, Athens 15570, Greece, Email: amaravas@mail.ntua.gr

146
1. Introduction
In construction operations project managers are faced with the task of completing activities
under multiple constraints while ensuring the optimal use of available machinery. In this
context, construction equipment fleet management involves a variety of functions
including machine maintenance, safety audits, GPS tracking, optimal fleet composition,
cost tracking, fuel consumption monitoring and operator training. In ensuring efficiency, a
primary goal is to maximize machinery uptime and reduce idle times by ensuring
continuous flow and usage of machinery in all project activities. Similarly, managers seek
to minimize rental or ownership costs by mobilizing the optimal number of necessary
machinery.
Productivity estimation remains a difficult task to be performed at the pre-construction
stage (Pantouvakis, 2018). For many years the deterministic approach has dominated the
methodological approach to the estimations of machine productivity and consequently fleet
composition. In construction operations, productivity theory and performance handbooks
provide an excellent base for estimating the productivity of construction equipment.
Thereafter, in determining fleet composition, the primary assumption is that in a group of
machines the productivity of the machinery with the lowest productivity will determine the
total production capability. However, productivity rates differ between projects because of
the varying environments, characteristics, and level of management implementation (Park,
2006). Also, taking into account issues such as productivity, machine reliability, worker
performance, and/or errors in estimating the scope of work, it is evident that there are
significant limitations to the existing approach. Finally, the study of a fleet of machinery in
which there is uncertainty in the productivity of its individual components poses a
significant challenge.
The purpose of this paper is to apply fuzzy set theory to examine issues of uncertainty
and imprecision in machinery fleet composition. Initially, uncertainty is examined on the
productivity of individual machines. Thereafter, the notion of composite criticality is
introduced, under which the productivity of a fleet of machines depends on more than one
type of machinery because of the fluctuations of the individual productivities. The concept
is exemplified in an earthworks project. Finally, the conclusions and possibilities for future
research are presented.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Performance Handbooks
Performance handbooks, provided by the manufacturers of construction machinery have
assisted project managers in estimating productivity and optimizing fleet composition. The
Caterpillar Performance Handbook (2016) includes productivity estimations and guidelines
for a variety of equipment such as tractors, graders, loaders, excavators, backhoe loaders,
forest machines, pipelayers, scrapers, trucks, landfill compactors, pavers and asphalt
pavers. The Performance Handbook serves as an aid which, when coupled with experience
can assist in estimating true machine performance and optimizing fleet composition.
Similarly, the Specifications and Applications Handbook (Komatsu, 2013) has extensive
guidelines on productivity estimation. Overall, performance handbooks combined with
productivity theory as in Peurifoy (2010) and Nunally (2007) provide an excellent basis for
productivity analysis.

147
2.2 Match Factor
In earthworks activities, Douglas (1964) published a formula based on the ratio of loader
productivity to truck productivity that can be used to determine the optimal number of
trucks to balance shovel output. Morgan and Peterson (1968) introduced the concept of the
match factor which is very useful in providing a measure of the productivity of a fleet and
quite similar to the Douglas ratio. A match factor of 1 represents a balance point where
trucks are arriving at the loader at the same time they are being served. If the ratio exceeds
1, the trucks are arriving faster than they are being served and a queue is formed. If the
ratio is below 1, the loaders are serving faster than the trucks arriving (Burt and Caccetta,
2007). In theory, a match factor of 1 is an indication of a maximized productivity level.

2.3 Fuzzy Set Theory

Fuzzy Set Theory is used to describe and quantify uncertainty and imprecision in data and
functional relationships. A fuzzy subset A of a universe of discourse U is characterized by
1] which associates with each element x of U a number
A(x) in the interval [0, 1] which represents the grade of membership of x in A. In fuzzy set
theory, the triangular membership function which is defined by three numbers a, b, c is
frequently utilized. As such, a triangular fuzzy number ~ x a, b, c has the following
membership function:
0, x a
( x a ) /(b a ), a x b
A ( x) (1)
(c x) /(c b), b x c
0, x c
The rules that determine the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
division of fuzzy numbers are called fuzzy arithmetic (Kaufman and Gupta, 1985).
The min ( ) and max ( ) operators are useful in finding the maximum or minimum of
two membership functions (Kaufman and Gupta, 1985).
A( ) B ( z ) ( A ( x) B ( y)) (2)
z x y

A( ) B ( z) ( A ( x) B ( y)) (3)
z x y

As such the union and the intersection of two fuzzy sets are determined as:
( x) ( x) ( x) max ( x), ( x) (4)
( x) A ( x) B ( x) min ( x), ( x) (5)

In describing linguistic variables defined by fuzzy sets, Zadeh (1975) proposed that
they can be characterized either by atomic terms (words which always occur together) or
composite terms that contain one or more atomic terms. Furthermore, he defined a formula
for calculating composite truth variables based on the min operator. As such, the
interpretation of a composite of two fuzzy sets (such as and B) is based on the fuzzy
min operator (Ross, 2004). In applying fuzzy set theory in project scheduling, McCahon
and Lee (1988) explained the difference between the comparison method and the
composite method in studying two fuzzy variables. The former compares fuzzy numbers
based on metrics and considers one as being larger than the other, while the latter forms a
new fuzzy number from pieces of the component fuzzy numbers. In this paper, the
composite of two fuzzy sets refers to creating a new fuzzy set from parts of the component
fuzzy sets.

148
3. Productivity Analysis Model
The purpose of the model is to utilize fuzzy set theory to represent uncertainty in the
estimation of machinery productivity and the process of fleet composition based on
Performance Handbooks and traditional productivity theory. Additionally, a fuzzy version
of the well-established match factor is presented.

3.1 Machine Productivity

In the case of a construction project that involves earthworks, the fuzzy productivity of a
single excavator can be calculated with the formula (Maravas and Pantouvakis, 2011):
~
~ 60 Ve f ~
Qex ~ ex (6)
ts
~
where Q ex : the fuzzy production rate of an excavator in m3/h, 60: a conversion factor, Ve :
~ ~
the crisp bucket capacity in m 3, f : the fuzzy bucket fill factor, ts : the excavator cycle
time in min and ~ : the operational efficiency.
ex
Similarly, the fuzzy productivity of a truck can be calculated by the formula (Maravas,
2016):
~
~ 60 Vtrans ~
Qtr ~ tr (7)
ttr
~ ~
where Qtr : the fuzzy production rate of a truck in m3/h, Vtrans : the fuzzy volume of
~
the material to be transferred in m3, t : the fuzzy cycle time of the truck in min and ~ :
tr tr
the operational efficiency.
Additionally, the fuzzy cycle time of the truck is given by the formula:
~ttr ~tmov ~tdu ~ tre ~tman ~ tload (8)
~ ~
where tmov : the fuzzy time for moving to the dump area in min, tdu : the fuzzy time for
~ ~
dumping in min, tre : the fuzzy time for returning to the load area in min, tman : the fuzzy
~
time for maneuvering in min and tload : the fuzzy time for loading in min.
Finally, the total required fuzzy production rate of a worksite can be calculated as:
~
~ V ~
Qws (9)
t ~
~ ~
where Qws : the fuzzy productivity of the worksite in m3/h, V : the volume of

earthworks in m3, ~ : the fuzzy swell factor, t : the contractual completion time in hrs and
~ : the operational efficiency.

3.2 Fleet Composition and Productivity Analysis

After estimating the uncertainty in trucks and excavators, fleet composition requires to find
the optimal combination of these two types of construction equipment in order to meet
project constraints. A deterministic analysis would state that in the case that the excavators

149
are critical it be acceptable for the trucks to form queues. Similarly, if the trucks are
critical, then the excavators will have periods that they are not able to load the trucks. If we
apply fuzzy set theory to traditional fleet composition we have the following equations
(Maravas, 2016):
Excavators are Critical
~ ~
nex int(( Qws / Qex 1)) (10)
~ ~ ~
Q fleet QEX nex Qex (11)
~ ~
ntr int(( Q fleet / Qtr 1)) (12)
~ ~
QTR ntr Qtr (13)
Trucks are critical
~ ~
ntr int(( Qws / Qtr 1)) (14)
~ ~ ~
Q fleet QTR ntr Qtr (15)
~ ~
nex int(( Q fleet / Qex 1)) (16)
~ ~
QEX nex Qex (17)

~ ~
where QEX : the fuzzy productivity of all excavators in the fleet, Qex : the fuzzy
~
productivity of a single excavator, QTR : the fuzzy productivity of all trucks in the fleet,
~ ~
Qtr : the fuzzy productivity of a single truck, Qws : the required productivity of the work
~
site, Q fleet : the fuzzy productivity of the fleet of excavators and trucks, ntr : the number of
trucks, nex : the number of excavators, int: the integers in a fuzzy set.

Applying equations 10-17 along with the underlying assumption that one type of
~ ~ ~
machines is always critical yields values for nex , ntr , QEX and QTR . Similarly, Q fleet
should be the minimum of the membership functions EX (x) of the excavator productivity
~ ~
( QEX ) and TR (y) of the truck productivity ( QTR ). Thus, applying the minimum operator
(Maravas, 2016):
~
Q fleet EX ( ) TR
(z) ( Q EX ( x) QTR ( y)) (18)
z x y
In applying this formula, the membership function of the fleet productivity is not
necessarily a triangular fuzzy number but in some cases a composite function that is
derived from the membership function of the productivities of two or more type of
machinery. In this context, the notion of composite criticality is defined as the situation in
which the productivity of a fleet depends on more than one types of machinery because of
the fluctuations and uncertainties of the individual productivities. Hence, the composite of
two fuzzy productivity sets, form a new fuzzy set (from parts of the component fuzzy sets)
that defines the criticality of the fleet.
~
In direct accordance with the deterministic analysis, the fuzzy match factor ( MF ) is a
measure for comparing the productivity of two types of machines. In the case of an
earthworks project involving excavators and trucks it can be calculated as:
~ ~ ~
MF QEX / QTR (19)

150
 ~
Furthermore, the analysis of the fleet productivity Q fleet is much more intuitive with
~
the fuzzy agreement index. Hence, the Agreement Index of the fleet (AIfleet) is AI( QEX ,
~ ~ ~
QTR ) of QEX in relation to QTR and is calculated as follows:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
AI fleet AI (QEX , QTR ) (areaQEX QTR ) /( areaQTR ) (20)

4. Example
4.1 Excavator and Truck Productivity
Consider an excavator manufactured by Caterpillar with a bucket capacity of 3 m 3, a
bucket fill factor of 0.81, 0.83, 0.84 , a cycle time of 0.51, 0.52, 0.54 min and an
operational efficiency of 0.78, 0.80, 0.81 . As shown in Table 1, the direct application of
~
eq. 6 yields a fuzzy productivity estimate of Q ex = 210, 230, 240 m3/h. Similarly, for a
Caterpillar truck, using the fuzzified parameters of productivity from the Performance
Handbook, where the volume of transferred material is 17.8, 18.0, 18.2 m3, the cycle time
is 17.5, 18, 18.5 min and the operational efficiency is 0.69, 0.75, 0.81 then the fuzzy
truck production rate will be 40, 45, 50 m3/h (Table 2). The cycle time estimate is
calculated by applying a 3% uncertainty to the respective crisp times i.e.
~
t tr t mov t du t re t man t load =8+1+4+1+4= 18 min and ttr = 17.5, 18.0, 18.5 min.
Because of the non-linearity of fuzzy arithmetic, the value of the excavator and truck
productivity is an approximation of a triangular fuzzy number.

151
 Finally, if the volume of the earthworks is 97000, 100000, 103000 m3, the swell
factor is ~ = 1.55, 1.60, 1.65 , the operational efficiency is 0.72, 0.75, 0.78 , the
contractual completion time is 6*20*8=960 hrs (6 months), then the required productivity
of the site is:
~ 97000,100000,103000 1.55,1.60,1,65
Qws = 200, 222, 245 m3/h.
960 0.72, 0.75, 0.78

Table 1. Fuzzy Productivity of a Caterpillar Excavator

Parameter Values
bucket capacity (m3) 3
fill factor 0.81, 0.83, 0.84
cycle time (min) 0.51, 0.52, 0.54
operational efficiency 0.78, 0.80, 0.81
~
excavator production rate (m3/h) Q ex 210, 230, 240

Table 2. Fuzzy Productivity of a Caterpillar Truck

Parameter Values
3
volume of transferred material (m ) 17.8, 18.0, 18.2
cycle time of truck (min) 17.5, 18.0, 18.5
operational efficiency 0.69, 0.75, 0.81
~
fuzzy truck production rate (m3/h) Qtr 40, 45, 50

4.2 Fleet Productivity

Consider a fleet of excavators and trucks that have to complete an earthworks project. In
applying uncertainty analysis, as shown above, it is possible to define the individual
~
productivity rates with fuzzy numbers, i.e. Qex 210, 230, 240 m3/h and
~
Qtr 40, 45, 50 m3/h. Furthermore, the fuzzy productivity of a homogeneous group of 5
~ ~
similar trucks is QTR 5 Qtr 200, 225, 250 m3/h. Understandably, as the number of
trucks increases, so does the spread of the cumulative uncertainty of the group.
Table 3 shows the fleet productivity for some different compositions. In the issue of
determining the critical machine, in case A that we have 1 excavator and 4 trucks and since
~ ~ ~ ~
QTR is definitely smaller than QEX it is evident that Q fleet QTR meaning that the trucks
are always critical (Figure 1). Similarly, in case C, if there are 6 trucks and 1 excavator,
then the excavator is always critical. However, in case B, the combination of 1 excavator

152
and 5 trucks leads to an instance of composite criticality. Overall, in Figure 1, in cases A
and C, one type of machinery is definitely critical but there is also a waste of extra
production capability since the total production is constrained by the lowest resource. In
case B, there is a better matching and balancing of the two types of machines even though
it is not possible to determine which one is critical because of a situation of composite
criticality.

Table 3. Productivity of a Fleet of Trucks and Excavators

~ ~ ~ Criticality
Qfleet (m3/h) QTR (m3/h) QEX (m3/h) n tr nex
A 160, 180, 220 160, 180, 200 210, 230, 240 4 1 trucks
B composite 200, 225, 250 210, 230, 240 5 1 composite
C 210, 230, 240 240, 270, 300 210, 230, 240 6 1 excavator

Figure 1. Criticality in Different Fleet Compositions

Figure 2 helps us understand and interpret the situation of composite criticality. The
~
single excavator has a productivity of QEX = 210, 230, 240 m3/h and the 5 trucks have
~
QTR = 200, 225, 250 m3/h. The resulting productivity of the fleet is depicted by the
shaded area which is not a triangular fuzzy number. In the region of low risk (possibility
level of 1 to that of 0.66) the trucks are critical since they have lower productivity. In the
region of higher risk (possibility level of 0.66 to that of 0) the excavator is more likely to
be critical because it has lower productivity. Physically, this means that for this particular
combination in some cases the trucks are arriving at the loader faster than they are being

153
served or the loaders are serving faster than the trucks arriving. Hence, contrary to
deterministic analysis, no one type of machinery is definitely critical.
The agreement index for this fleet composition is:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
AI fleet AI (QEX , QTR ) (areaQEX QTR ) /( areaQTR ) 21.65 / 25 0.86 which
can be interpreted as a relatively high degree of matching and balancing of the two types of
machinery.

Figure 2. Composite Criticality between Trucks and an Excavator

Figure 3 shows a graph of the fuzzy Match Factor which is calculated as:
~
~ QEX 210, 230, 240
MF ~ 0.84,1.02,1.20
QTR 200, 225, 250
The value of the match factor shows that there is a high level of matching that is very
close to the ideal value of 1. Additionally, the match factor has a considerable spread of
about +/- 18%. Overall, in the presence of uncertainty, there are situations of composite
criticality under which the productivity of the excavators is lower than that of the trucks
and vice versa. The agreement index and the fuzzy match factor help in quantifying the
degree of machinery matching.

154
 Figure 3. Fuzzy Match Factor

5. Discussion and Conclusions

At the level of individual machines, this paper shows how the fuzzy productivity of
excavators and trucks can be estimated based on fuzzifying parameters such as the bucket
fill factor, the cycle time and the operational efficiency. Thereafter, a methodology is
presented in order to find the optimal composition of a fleet of machines that have
uncertain production rates. In the process, the paper has challenged the well established
deterministic assumption, that in a fleet of construction machines one type is definitely
critical. On the contrary, if productivities are characterized by fuzzy numbers, in some
cases it is difficult to determine which machine is critical because of composite criticality.
In the presence of uncertainty, a fuzzy match factor with a value near 1 and a small
spread is an indication of a maximized production level. However, such a match factor,
besides high efficiency, may also imply a situation of composite criticality because of the
interference and overlapping of fuzziness. Similarly, a fleet Agreement Index close to 1
indicates optimal matching. In this particular example, composite criticality means that in
some cases the trucks are arriving at the loader faster than they are being served and in
others, the loaders are serving faster than the trucks arriving. Overall, when dealing with
two different types of machinery in a fleet, it is usually required that their productivities are
The situation of composite criticality
may actually be more efficient than having definite criticality.
While this paper has used an approach of applying fuzzy set theory to well-established
methodologies in Performance Handbooks and traditional productivity theory equations,
there may be potential in applying concepts presented in this paper to a fuzzy expert
system regarding fleet management. Fuzzy expert systems, which can be useful in
estimating productivity, are based on many fuzzy if-then rules that relate the input factors
to the output factors. As illustrated by Fayek and Oduba (2005) and Zhang et al. (2003) to
this extent a) system inputs would have to be defined b) linguistic descriptions of the
inputs and numerical scales would have to be set c) the outputs would have to be defined
and d) a detailed set of rules relating the inputs to the outputs would have to be presented.
Finally, additional future research can be directed into studying fuzzy costs along with
fuzzy productivities. Thus, extensive search and optimization algorithms can be applied in
determining the optimal composition and operation of construction fleets in the presence of
uncertainty. Also, field testing of this theoretical model in an actual project may assist in
verifying the concept. Overall, the proposed methodology can lead to a better
understanding of productivity estimation, which in turn means better project scheduling
and financial planning.

155
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Peurifoy, R.L., Schexnayder, C.J., Shapira, A. and Schmitt, R., 2010. Construction
Planning, Equipment and Methods (8th Edition). USA: McGraw Hill.
Ross, T.J., 2004. Fuzzy Logic with Engineering Applications (2nd Edition). Chichester-
West Sussex, England: Wiley.
Zadeh, A., 1975. The Concept of a Linguistic Variable and its Application to Approximate
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Zhang, H., Tam, C.M. and Shi, J.J., 2003. Application of fuzzy logic to simulation for
construction operations. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 17(1), 38-45.

156
[Paper ID 79]

Katarzyna Anna Kuzmicz1 and Erwin Pesch2

Abstract
The Chinese project One Belt One Road, in Europe often referred to as the New Silk Road,
triggers infrastructural investments enabling seamless transportation of goods
on the Eurasian route. Since most of these goods are transported in containers, optimal
location of inland container depots, where containers wait for future repositioning after
they had been emptied at the importers, is an interesting problem. In this paper conditions
determining optimal location of inland container depots in the Polish part of the NSR
are analysed. They include: proximity of container transhipment terminals located
on the Polish stretch of the NSR, structure of highway network enabling distribution
of containers by trucks to other destinations, as well as green aspects mainly referring
to avoidance of city congestion caused by trucks transporting containers.
Keywords: container depots, empty containers, intermodal transportation, location
problem, New Silk Road

1
International China and Central-Eastern Europe Institute of Logistics and Service Science,
Faculty of Engineering Management, Bialystok University of Technology, ul. Wiejska 45A,
Bialystok, 15-351, Poland, E-mail: k.kuzmicz@pb.edu.pl
2
Department of Manage
D-57068 Siegen, Germany, E-mail: erwin.pesch@uni-siegen.de and Centre for Advanced
Studies in Management, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Jahnallee 59, 04109
Leipzig, Germany

157
Introduction
The Chinese Initiative One Belt One Road (OBOR), also referred to as the New Silk Road
(NSR) embraces development of rail (One Belt) and maritime (21 st century Silk Road)
transportation corridors linking Europe with China. It can be considered as an important
factor triggering changes in Eurasian intermodal transportation. For some kinds of cargo
rail option may become attractive because of the significantly shorter lead time in
comparison to maritime transportation. Although the price remains much higher, for those
goods for which time of transportation is important rail becomes a good alternative. It
could be attractive for example for food producers like meat and dairy products but it has
to be taken into consideration that currently these goods are banned from transportation
through Russia. Some producers of computers and RTV equipment like HP and Samsung
have already shifted their transportation on the Eurasian route to rail taking benefit from
the shorter lead time and higher flexibility of inventory supplementation.
Since trade imbalance between China and Europe remains high, an important problem
of containers arriving loaded from China and returning empty persists. In the past years,
trade imbalance between China and EU amounted to EUR 176 billion (Eurostat 2018).
China has been the largest partner for EU imports, and the second largest partner for EU
exports, e.g. in 2017. Among EU states The Netherlands has been the largest importer from
China and Germany the largest exporter to China. Poland imported from China goods
summing up to 16 322 mln Euro, which accounts to a share of 27,8 % of Polish import
from countries outside the EU. Polish export to China sums up to 2062 mln Euro, which
stands for 5% of the Chinese share in Polish export to countries outside the EU.
The majority of goods exchanged between Poland and China consists of machines, other
manufactured goods and chemicals (similarly like in case of goods exchanged between
the EU and China Figure 1).

Figure 1 EU exports to and imports from China by product group 2017 (EUR billion)

Source: Eurostat 2018

country to Germany and further to Western Europe. However enhanced by the new
transport possibilities offered by the NSR initiative, intensive efforts of Polish exporters
to enter the Chinese market and play an active part in the NSR are made. The dynamics

158
of Polish-Chinese trade exchange is promising. In 2017 the total turnover of trade
exchange between Poland and China increased by 20% and Polish export to China rose by
18% (Kalwasinski, 2018).
In 2016, 1075 000 tonnes of goods were exported from Poland to China by rail and
1421 000 of tonnes were imported by rail from China to Poland (Statistics Poland, 2017).
The intermodal connections between Poland and China are growing, according to PKP
Cargo, the Polish Railway company, they comprise 18% of all intermodal connections of
Poland (Rynek Kolejowy, 2018). Currently train services on the route China-Poland are
performed every day and most of the loads contain industrial machines and bulk. Taking
the Chinese demand into account, export of Polish food, cosmetics, chemicals, paper and
wood can be intensified.
Due to its geographical location Poland can serve as an important hub facilitating
distribution of goods in Europe. Since freight on the Eurasian route is mainly transported
in containers, container depots, enabling storage of empty containers as well as their repair,
maintenance and cleaning, might importantly influence freight traffic in this region.
In this paper the criteria for choosing a location of a container depot in Poland
is discussed. In this process the structure of the highway network enabling distribution
of containers by trucks to other destinations, as well as green aspects mainly referring
to avoiding city congestion caused by trucks transporting containers are taken into
consideration.
The reminder of this paper is constructed as follows: first the role of a container depot
in a container transportation chain is underlined and location criteria, introduced in the
literature, are presented. Later the infrastructural situation in Poland in the light of the NSR
corridor is described and a recommendation of a depot location is formulated.

Depot location problem

Since container storage capacity of ports and rail terminals is limited and it is often
impossible to extend the storage area due to the neighbourhood constraints, container
depots are established in the proximity of the terminals. Container depots can be defined as
large facilities located in the vicinity of sea ports or rail transhipment terminals embracing
different zones in which different activities are performed, e.g. the reparation, cleaning and
storage of empty containers (Palacio et al., 2013). In container depots leased or carrier
owned containers are handled, custody of containers between shippers is transferred and
storing containers that are currently surplus is performed. Container depots serve
as a supply point for empty containers, and servicing/repairing containers under contract
(Rahimi et al., 2011). Transporting empty containers back to their origin or owner/leasing
party is more expensive than keeping them hinterland in a depot where they wait for
repositioning. The cost and space required for transportation of a full or empty container
is similar but empty containers do not generate profit.
Inland container depots are an essential element of container transportation chains.
Location of a depot should be chosen in a proximity of an array of importers and exporters
using containers. Importers, after unloading cargo from containers, send them either back
to the port/rail terminal, or directly to the exporters (in the frame of the so called street
turns) or they transport them to container depots where they wait for future demand
(Kuzmicz, Pesch, 2018). Inland container depots can also support rail container terminals
and ports as storage places reducing congestion at their sites and reducing costs
of transportation of empty containers to the rail terminals/ports. A role of a container depot
in the container transportation chain is illustrated in the Figure 2.

159
 Rail
transhipment
Exporter terminal Importer

Inland depot Street turns

Exporter

Transhipment
Port Port
port

Figure 2 Container depot role in container transport chain

With the predicted rise of intermodal transportation on the NSR the increase
in capacity of container storage space is inevitable. When the inventory capacity limit is
outperformed, the stack height is increased, often from a standard height of 3-4 containers
up to 8 (Mittal et al., 2013). Such storage areas spoil the landscape and negatively
influence the prices of land (Perez-Rodriguez, Holguin-Veras, 2014; Ramphul et al., 2017).
Another important aspect is the increased traffic around container storage places causing
increase of CO2 emissions, noise, congestion and risk of accidents. Therefore location of
a depot should be distant from residential areas.
Truck delivering or pickup of containers at the depots should be well managed in order
to avoid congestion and unnecessary waiting times. Time intervals of service should be
established and they can be priced differently in order to equally spread the truck arrivals
over the planning horizon (Kuzmicz, Pesch, 2017; Jarocka, Ryciuk, 2016).
As storage space is rare and costly and the number of empty containers that need
to be stored might accumulate to a substantial amount, decisions are necessary where
to locate empty container inventory. This requires high quality forecasting methods
in order to foresee the amount of inbound and outbound empty containers.
Insufficient planning of retrieving containers causes reshuffling. It means unnecessary
movements of containers which occurs when among any two containers positioned (not
necessarily directly) on top of each other the bottom container need to be retrieved earlier
(Kuzmicz, Pesch, 2018). As a consequence the top container has to be removed before
the bottom container becomes accessible. Reshuffling causes cost and energy consumption
and should be avoided as much as possible. Methods for optimally stacking and retrieving
containers to/from storage yard blocks have been described in Kovalyov et al. 2018 and
Nossack et al. 2018.
The main objective in determining the optimal location of a depot is cost reduction
of transporting containers. Palacio et al. (2013) propose a multiobjective approach based
on the multicommodity capacitated location problem with balancing requirements aiming
not only to minimize costs but also to minimize the environmental impact caused
by the setting up and maintenance of container depots and by the transport operations
inside and in the proximity of the depots. They consider the capacity of the depots

160
as a fuzzy constraint and they use a fuzzy optimization approach to address the problem.
They go a step further in their study of 2018 (Palacio et al. 2018) where they design
a container depot logistic network minimizing the cost of the whole system,
the environmental impact of transport and the environmental impact of establishing and
operating of depots with the use of a three-objective, fuzzy optimisation model. They
extend the model of Gendron et al. (2003a, 2003b) by adding two objective functions and
considering one more kind of nodes.
Demand and supply of containers is difficult to forecast. Therefore some authors tried
to model the location problem in empty container repositioning under uncertainty. Mittal
et al. 2013 generate scenarios to solve optimal location of a container depot problem and
formulate a two stage stochastic program with recourse. They address it as a strategic
empty container relocation problem as it requires decisions about facility location in the
transportation network. They consider the fixed cost of building new depots and
transportation cost of repositioning of empty containers. By this means their model
solution can recommend opening of a depot with higher fixed cost of opening because
of the benefit of lower transportation costs. Another group of costs included in the model
are costs concerning environmental impact.

Infrastructural conditions in Poland

Container depots in Poland in the frame of the NSR should serve as supporting storage
places for container terminals with limited capacity. They should be located in proximity
to the container terminals receiving (empty) containers from the EU for freight transport
to Asia or closer destinations, or receiving loaded containers from China for redistribution
within the EU. Depots should be close to importers and exporters using containers and they
should be located with good access to the highways to enable convenient distribution
of containers. Therefore the access to road and rail transport network should be taken into
account. In the Figure 3a and 3b both networks are presented with the border crossings
indication in case of the rail network presented in the Figure 3b.

Under construction
Existing
Under design

Figure 3a. Roads and highways in Poland Figure 3b. Railway network in Poland

161
Source: A map by Sliwers derivative works of Source: PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A.,
, CC BY 3.0 Licence, www.plk-sa.pl
File: DocelowyUkladDrog.svg, Wikipedia 2018

Both densities of roads and railways are much higher in the Western and Southern-
Western part of the country. Container depots are needed to support the container terminals
located on the NSR and link them to highways.
In Poland inland container terminals have smaller share in transhipments than sea
terminals. Terminals located in the central part of Poland in Warsaw, Pruszkow, Lodz and
Kutno have 11% of share in the annual potential of TEU transhipment in Poland. Another
important region is Gorny Slask, where terminals Slawkow, Gliwice, Dabrowa Gornicza
have 13% of the annual transhipment (Jacyna et al., 2017). There is a big discrepancy
in terminal location with the majority located in the central and Western part of the country
(Figure 4).

Figure 4 Container terminals location in Poland

-Litwin, J. Litwin, M. Baszczak, 2014

The terminals with the biggest transhipment potential are Polzug HUB Terminal
Poznan, PCC Intermodal
Euroterminal Slawkow and PKP Cargo Centrum Logistyczne Malaszewicze. The last two
are crucial border crossings receiving trains with containers from Eastern countries
including China.
The main route of the NSR part in Poland leads through Malaszewicze transhipment
terminal (at the border crossing with Belarus), which requires a shift from broad
to standard track width. The trains to/from China also go through Warsaw and Lodz. Lodz
serves as the main logistic hub on the Polish stretch of the NSR, 25% of trains China-
Poland is served there (Jakobowski et al., 2018). As a consequence of the political
instability in Ukraine, the flow of trains from/to China goes through Belarus, Russia and
Kazakhstan. By the shift of train transport from Ukraine to Belarus container terminal
Slawkow, which formerly received trains from the East coming through Ukraine, lost its

162
significance on the NSR and Malaszewicze took over this role in this region. Since most
of the trains coming from China go through Malaszewicze, the insufficient capacity of this
terminal (14 pairs of trains per day (Jakobowski et al., 2018) cause a capacity bottleneck so
that further trains need to wait in Belarus or even Kazachstan. In 2017, Malaszewicze
received 2200 trains from China with 40 containers each. Over the last years, it was
a significant rise from 17 trains yearly in 2011. According to experts predictions, in 2030
the trains from China will bring to Poland 1 billion TEU, which will be five times more
than in 2017. The increase of container transport is supported by Chinese subsidy to each
container reaching 3000-5000 of US $ (Rzeczpospolita 2018).
The insufficient capacity of Malaszewicze triggered searching of the Chinese side for
other border crossings on the North-Eastern border of Poland. The trials have been
performed in Kuznica Bialostocka and Siemianowka. Furthermore the modernisation
works of the tracks on the route Malaszewisze-Warsaw will contribute to congestion and
will result in moving some of the trains to the North-East. Therefore development
of intermodal infrastructure including establishment of a container depot in the North-
Eastern region is important to meet the future demand. A depot located near Kuznica
Bialostocka or Siemionowka terminals at the North-Eastern border crossings and close
to the roads to provide convenient transport to local industry (importers and exporters) and
further to the North and Central Poland could serve well supporting the container transport
in this region. Since in the Northern-Eastern region of Poland many dairy products,
machines and mechanical parts producers are located, they seem to have a potential
to increase export to China and therefore increase their demand for containers.
Another desired location for a container depot would be a proximity of Lodz
as a central hub on the NSR and a place well connected to the industry. There are plans
to extend the terminal in the city but it will have a harmful impact on the city in terms
of congestion and detrimental emissions. Therefore locating a container depot in some
distance from Lodz and good connection to the highways, so that containers can be further
distributed by trucks to containers users, is advisable.

Conclusions
The location of container depots might be a result of competing regions for market share
(cf. Kress, Pesch, 2012) where not only location, but also price decisions,
i.e., the incorporation of price competition into competitive location models, has
an important relevance. As a result there might not exist any price equilibria or the multiple
local equilibria in prices can be found. Different price sensitivity levels of customers may
actually affect optimal locations of depots. Kress and Pesch (2016) provide first insights
into the performance of heuristic algorithms for these location problems.

Acknowledgements:
This study was supported by Bialystok University of Technology (S/WZ/1/2014).

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China [Accessed on 17.05.2018].

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165
[Paper ID 80]

- -
Mohamed Amine Masmoudi1, Katarzyna Anna Kuzmicz2, Erwin Pesch3,
Emrah Demir4 and Manar Hosny5

Abstract
In this paper a new variant of the Heterogeneous Dial-a-Ride Problem (HDARP)
is innovatively applied to a routing problem of trucks picking up and delivering full
and empty containers in the logistic chain, including container depots, importers
demanding full containers and exporters requesting empty containers. On the route
different types of trucks pick-up and deliver full and empty 20- and 40-foot containers. We
consider trucks that are operated by alternative fuel, as well as the need for refuelling of
trucks in any alternative fuel station to eliminate the risk of running out of fuel during its
route. The objective of the paper is to contribute to the optimization of container truck
transport routing with multiple pick-ups and deliveries by providing a mathematical
programming model aiming at minimizing the transportation cost as well as the negative
environmental impacts.
Keywords: dial-a-ride problem, full and empty containers, green vehicle routing,
intermodal transportation

1
Geneva School of Business Administration, University of Applied Sciences Western
Switzerland (HES-SO) 1227 Carouge, Switzerland, E-mail: mohamed.masmoudi@hesge.ch
2
International China and Central-Eastern Europe Institute of Logistics and Service Science,
Faculty of Engineering Management, Bialystok University of Technology, ul. Wiejska 45 A,
15-351 Bialystok, Poland, E-mail: k.kuzmicz@pb.edu.pl
3
Department of Manage
D-57068 Siegen, Germany, E-mail: erwin.pesch@uni-siegen.de and Centre for Advanced
Studies in Management, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Jahnallee 59, 04109
Leipzig, Germany, E-mail: erwin.pesch@uni-siegen.de
4
Panalpina Centre for Manufacturing and Logistics Research, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff
University, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK, E-mail: DemirE@cardiff.ac.uk
5
Computer Science Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences (CCIS), King
Saud University (KSU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, E-mail: mifawzi@ksu.edu.sa

166
Introduction
Container transportation on long distances is performed by sea and rail. On short distances
between ports, transshipment terminals, container dep
containers are transported by trucks. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development - OECD (54 member countries) predicted global trade-related freight and
emissions to quadruple by 2050. As the majority of goods are transported in containers, the
container traffic on the road will rise significantly. Therefore a problem of optimal routing
of trucks, transporting containers, especially with consideration of environmental issues is
worth attention.
In container truck transportation the following three basic types of service can
be differentiated (Nossack and Pesch, 2013a,b):
an order request from an importer for moving a full container from an origin terminal
to a given location, where the cargo is unloaded from the container, and then to move
the empty container to its destination;
an order request from an exporter to move an empty container from an origin terminal
or a depot to a given location, where some freight is loaded into the container, and then
to move the full container to its destination, mostly a terminal;
a request of transporting an empty container from a given container terminal to an
empty container depot, or vice versa.
For each order, hard time windows may be present at each of the visited locations.

After a pickup request for an emptied container has been conducted, an empty container
is released at the destination location (where cargo was unloaded) and is either transported
to a depot or to the origin location of a delivery request for an empty container. Thus, each
pickup request has to be followed by a delivery request/depot. Similarly, each delivery
request requires an empty container at the origin location and either receives an empty
container from a depot or a pickup request, i.e., a pickup request/depot has to precede a
delivery request. This empty container assignment problem is solved in the first phase of
the method by Nossack and Pesch (2013a,b) by constructing pickup and delivery pairings
such that each pickup and delivery request is paired exactly once and each pairing is
feasible related to the time windows.
An excellent survey on the fundamental problem of empty container repositioning in
intermodal transport supply chains embracing trade route between Asia and China in
particular, can be found in Kuzmicz and Pesch (2018).
Trucks can transport one or two containers. The maximum weight of a loaded module
(truck-trailer) is restricted by national law depending on the type of road used for
transportation. It is estimated that transportation of two heavy containers, despite the heavy
pressure on the road, is more environment friendly than transporting each container
separately, and can contribute to CO2 emission reduction even by 35% considering the
amount of CO2 to the amount of load transported (40.net 2016). Consequently it also
contributes to lower fuel consumption.
In the DARP it is assumed that Conventional Vehicles (CVs) are used to serve the
customers. In classical routing problems it is usually assumed that Conventional Vehicles
(CVs) are used to serve the requests. Furthermore, it is normally assumed that CVs have
unlimited fuel tank capacity; thus, there is no need for the vehicle to refuel during its
service route to customers. However, CVs are one of the main contributors to emissions,
such as greenhouse gases (GHGs) and air pollutants. In fact, the European Environment
Agency (EEA) has estimated that transportation is responsible for approximately 22% of
GHG emissions in 2012. To overcome the environmental challenges as well as the limited
energy resource concerns, the transport industry looks for solutions that make use of

167
Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs) (i.e., alternative fuel trucks), such as biodiesel or ethanol
operated vehicles. It is obvious that AFVs can help in reducing GHGs emissions compared
to CVs that use gasoline or diesel ( -Hooks, 2012). In this regard, AFVs
have started to gain attention in the last few years, due to their benefits in the field of
transportation routing (see, e.g., -Hooks, 2012; Adler and Mirchandani,
2016;
the current work within the context of the container routing problem.
The routing of container transportation service is exemplified in the Figure1.

Figure 1. Container truck transportation routing

In the exemplified case a truck picks up two loaded containers at a terminal at a depot
or a terminal D and visits client C1 where one container is emptied. Later it continues with
one full and one empty container. At client C2 the remaining full container is emptied and
the truck continues with two empty containers to container terminal T. At container
terminal T two empty containers are left and two full containers are picked up. The next
stop is at client C3 where one container is emptied. Later the truck visits once more client
C1 where the empty container is filled. With two full containers it goes to client C4 where
the two full containers are emptied. The truck finishes its route at depot D with two empty
containers. -
containers are picked up or dropped off, respectively.
Different models can be used for container truck routing. Here a Dial-a-Ride Problem
(DARP) has been applied. Typically applications serve to optimize transportation of elder
and/or disabled people with reduced mobility but also in shared taxi services (Santos,
Xavier 2015) or courier services (Hunsaker and Savelsbergh, 2002) with multiple pick-up
and delivery.
The contribution of this paper includes a mathematical modelling of the
aforementioned truck routing problem as a heterogeneous dial-a-ride problem with mixed
fleet and refuelling of vehicles.
The reminder of the paper is the following. First, the general idea and standard
application of a DARP is presented, later a problem description of HDARP applied
to routing of a container pick-up and delivery in the logistic chain of container depots,
terminals, exporters and importers is described. Then a mathematical model is proposed
followed by a short description to computational experiments.

168
The heterogenous dial-a ride-problem
The DARP involves designing vehicle routes and schedules for different users who
specify pick-up and delivery requests between origins and destinations under a number
of constraints, typically concerning trip duration, time windows, and vehicle capacity.
It is a generalisation of a number of vehicle routing problems such as the Pick-up and
Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem (PDVRP) and the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time
Windows (VRPTW) (Cordeau, Laporte, 2007). The specificity of this problem relies on a
variable vehicle capacity. There is a static and dynamic version of DARP based on
schedules fully planned in advance, and with consideration of requests incoming on the
day of the service. However in reality it is difficult to imagine a pure static or pure
dynamic situation because most of the requests would be scheduled in advance but some
requests for moving a container could be placed on the day of the service.
DARP with Heterogeneous users and/or alternative fuel vehicles called HDARP
(Parragh, 2011) is a generalization of the DARP, but it has not been extensively studied
in the literature. The first time a formal definition of the HDARP was introduced
by Parragh (2011). The authors consider two types of conventional fuel vehicles and four
different resources (i.e., staff seat, patient seat, stretcher and wheelchair). They propose a
Branch-and-Cut (B&C) and Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) algorithms and solved
36 instances with up to four vehicles and 48 requests. In a related study, Parragh et al.
(2012) introduce a variant of the HDARP, in which the requirements like lunch break
constraints are considered. In Braekers et al. (2014), multiple depots of heterogeneous
vehicles and users are considered to reduce the total routing costs. The authors propose a
B&C and a Deterministic Annealing metaheuristic to solve instances containing 2-8
vehicles and 16-96 requests. More recently, Masmoudi et al. (2017) applies a hybrid
Genetic Algorithm (GA) to the standard HDARP. The proposed algorithm was tested on
small and medium benchmark instances for the HDARP with up to 8 vehicles and 96
requests proposed by Parragh (2011) and Braekers et al. (2014). To best of our knowledge,
the hybrid GA provides the best-known results on these instances so far, and outperforms
current state-of-the-art algorithms for the standard DARP and HDARP. In another study,
Masmoudi et al. (2016) augment the multi depots and coffee break concepts on the
standard HDARP. They propose hybrid methods based on nature inspired algorithms and
tested them on both newly generated instances and on the benchmark Multi-Depot HDARP
instances of Braekers et al. (2014). Recently, Braekers and Kovacs (2016), extend the
single period HDARP to a Multi-Period DARP and consider a limited number of drivers to
serve each user over a predefined number of days.
For other variants of (H)DARP applied to real concepts the interested readers are
referred to surveys on the DARP by Cordeau and Laporte (2007) and Molenbruch et al.
(2017).
Container transportation is performed by a mixed fleet of different types of vehicles.
We assume usage of trucks carrying 20-foot containers and tractors with semi-trailers
carrying one 40-foot container or two 20-foot containers or one 20-foot and one 40-foot
container (see Figure 2).

169
 a truck with a 20-foot container

a tractor with a semi-trailer carrying a 40-foot container

a tractor with a semi-trailer carrying two 20-foot

containers

a tractor with a semi-trailer carrying a 40-foot container

and a 20-foot container

Figure 2. Trucks and tractors with semi-trailers carrying containers

Fuel consumption is dependent on this construction of the transportation module

and on the weight of the containers and whether they are transported full or empty.
Consolidating containers and limiting the number of trucks leads generally to lowering
the fuel consumption needed for the transportation task.
Due to the limited driving ranges of the AFVs (around 120 miles) because of their
-Hooks, 2012), these type of vehicles need to be
refueled from Alternative Fueling Stations (AFSs). In fact, in the context of the DARP, not
taking the refueling requirements beforehand in planning the service route may cause
service disruption due to shortage in fuel, and possible violation of the problem constraints,
such as the visiting time windows and/or the maximum ride time of drivers. Such
violations can largely lead to the dissatisfaction of customers, which impacts the overall
service quality and breaks one of the main conditions of the DARP. Therefore, effective
transportation planning should take into consideration the visits of users as well as visits to
AFSs, since the need to refuel the tank is frequently encountered during the customary
working day, especially when traveling long distances (Erdogan and Miller-Hooks, 2012).
Another realistic assumption in routing problems is the use of an appropriate fuel

and Laporte, 2011; Demir et al., 2012; 2014a, b).

The green vehicle routing problem

Sanguinetti et al. (2017) indicate six classes of eco-driving actions, driving, cabin comfort,
trip planning, load management, fuelling, and maintenance.
The Green Vehicle Routing Problem (GVRP) with consideration of the alternative fuel
tank capacity limitation is an extension of the VRP that has received an increasing
attention recently. -Hooks (2012) were the first authors that introduced
the GVRP, where refuelling stops are incorporated. The authors proposed a mixed integer
linear model to minimize the travel distance and developed two efficient heuristics and
tested them on instances with up to 500 users. Other studies on GVRP with refuelling can
be found on Felipe et al. (2014) and Adler and Mirchandani (2016). An in-dept
investigation of GVRP is developed by Lin et al. 2014.
The incorporation of real fuel consumption and emission in the context of the green
vehicle routing (GVR) has been widely studied in the recent literature, where these factors
play an impo

170
emissions (see, e.g., and Laporte, 2011; Demir et al., 2012, 2014a; and Goeke
and Schneider, 2015; Franceschetti et al., 2017; and Androutsopoulos and Zografos,
2017). Demir et al. (2014b, 2015) performed a thorough study of energy consumption of
related routing problems.
Although the concept of heterogeneous vehicles and/or users have been already studied
within the context of (H)DARP, what distinguishes our study is that we consider a mixed
fleet of trucks that differs in their capacity.

Problem definition and model formulation

The Container Mixed Fleet Heterogeneous Dial-a-Ride Problem (CMF-HDARP) can be
formally described as follows. Consider a graph with node set and arc set
, where is further partitioned into subsets; corresponds
to users requesting a transport service. In other words, a user can be identified with an
ordered pair of nodes , , where is the pick-up location of a loaded container and
or, for convenience , is the predefined drop-off/delivery location. Alternatively, we
say container is picked up at location and delivered to its destination n+i. If the
container is empty, one of the two locations might be a result of the optimization. Let
and be the not necessarily disjoint subsets of nodes
corresponding to pick-up and delivery locations, respectively. Moreover,
defines the set of Alternative Fuel Stations (AFSs). Nodes 0 and
correspond to the origin and destination depots, respectively. Thus, we get
. There is an non-negative travel cost , depending on travel speed and a
transportation time associated with each arc ( ) from set We assume the speed to be
constant over an arc ( ) as done in Goeke and Schneider (2015), and the number of stops
that can be made for refuelling is unlimited. When refuelling takes place, it is assumed that
the tank is refilled to its maximum capacity. The time windows to visit any refuelling node
is set as [0, T], where T is the length of the planning horizon. Moreover, a mixed fleet
of heterogeneous vehicles composed of trucks and tractors with semi-
trailers is available to transport all containers.
We note that in the mathematical model there is a differen
nodes and visits to AFSs nodes/depot, where user nodes must be visited exactly once,
while AFS nodes may be visited more than once or not visited at all. Also, the depot must
be visited at the start and end of the tour, and can also be considered as an AFS node.
Moreover, in order to allow some vertices to be visited more than once, while others are
visited exactly once, we augment a set of dummy vertices on the graph , such that
n and Miller-Hooks, 2012; Goeke and
Schneider, 2015). Each of these nodes represents a potential visit to an AFS or depot.
Thus, the graph will consist of .
Each truck has a capacity that gives the amount of resource available on each
vehicle , where each type of resource is dedicated to: the full 20-foot container , full
40-foot container , empty 20-foot container and empty 40-foot container .
Each vehicle type contains a fuel tank capacity , which is consumed and reduced at a
fuel rate on each travelled arc (i,j). Each pick-up location is associated with a
demand requirement of transport space for each resource , and a time
window , where and represent the earliest and latest visiting time,
respectively, of this location. A positive value indicates that there is a request for an
empty truck position suitable to capture a container at location . A negative demand value
means, a container is dropped from the truck and the position becomes available for a pick-
up of another container either at the same location or at a subsequent one on the route. A
value of zero either indicates that there is no container demand or supply at location or

171
the number of containers of the same type (resource) dropped and picked at this location is
the same. A maximum container transportation time is considered as a service
promise for maximum waiting time. In addition, a service time is imposed when visiting
each node , and a refuelling time is considered when visiting a recharging
station node .
As studied in Demir et al. (2012), for the fuel consumption rate of the vehicles, the
constant fuel rate required on each arc ( ) can be calculated as a function of the
mechanical power and a couple of other parameters.
In summary, the CMF-HDARP consists of determining a set of routes to satisfy
the
the following conditions: i) the pick-up node must be visited before the corresponding
delivery node, ii) the total demand for the route must not exceed the capacity of each
resource of the vehicle, iii) each node must be served within its time window; if a vehicle
arrives early, it must wait until the beginning of the service, iv) the maximum
transportation time of each container must be respected, v) the pick-up and delivery nodes
of each container must be visited by the same vehicle, vi) each vehicle must be refuelled
at any AFS node if the remaining tank fuel level is not enough to visit any node , and
vii) each route should start and end at the same depot and the route has a maximum
duration of .
Now we present the integer programming formulation for the CMF-HDARP, which
is based on Cordeau (2006) and inspired by the formulations of the HDARP of Parragh
(2011) and the GVRP with refuelling of er-Hooks (2012). The CMF-
HDARP can be formulated as follows: Binary variable is equal to 1 if vehicle travels
from node to and 0 otherwise. Variable indicates the load of resource on vehicle
immediately after visiting node . Continuous variable represents the time that the
vehicle begins its service at node . Moreover, continuous variable represents the
transportation time of loaded container (from location) on vehicle . Continuous
variable represents the remaining fuel level in the tank upon arrival to node with
vehicle . It is noted that is set to at each visit to any alternative fuel station node f
.

172
 The objective function (1) minimizes the total routing costs assuming that the travel
costs are proportional to the travelled distance. Constraints (2)-(4) guarantee that each
pick-up and delivery location is served by a vehicle. Constraints (5)-(6) ensure that each
vehicle starts at the origin depot and ends at the corresponding destination depot, while
constraints (7) satisfy flow conservation. Constraints (8) and (9) enforce the consistency
with respect to vehicle capacity constraints. Constraints (10) ensure that the load variable
on the depot is set to zero, which means that the vehicles leave the depot with empty load.
This can be adjusted to values one or two if empty containers are picked there. Constraints
(11) define the ride time of each container transported from to in each route, which
is bounded by constraints (12). These constraints also impose the precedence relation
between the pick-up and delivery nodes of a user. Constraints (13) define the beginning of
service at each node and the consistency of the time variables. Constraints (14) impose
time windows compliance. Constraints (15) ensure that the time duration of the route for
each vehicle is limited by . Constraints (16) impose that the fuel level is reduced based
on the distance travelled between nodes and and the fuel consumption rate, where is
a constant applied to each arc ( ) . Constraints (17) guarantee that the fuel level
is reset to its maximum after visiting each recharging station node. Constraints (18)
guarantee that the remaining tank fuel level of the vehicle is enough to return to the initial
depot or to reach a fuel station from any user location. Finally, constraints (19) guarantee
that the decision variables are binary.

173
Conclusions

The problem is certainly NP-hard as dial-a-ride problems are NP-hard. However, it is

a challenge to see how far a standard solver can get in solving instances of these problems.
An initial implementation in CPLEX is intendent which then will be enriched by
a decomposition. Earlier experiments let us hope that competitive results for smaller to
medium sized problems can be achieved within an hour of run time.
Container truck transportation routing with several pick-up and delivery with
optimizing transportation cost, fuel consumption and pollution emission is a topical
problem requiring further investigation. In this paper a new and more realistic version is
proposed and its application to container truck transportation can be perceived as
innovative. We considered a mixed fleet of vehicles (Alternative Fuel Vehicles) composed
of both alternative fuel trucks and tractors with semi-trailers subject to constraints of
capacity of transporting 20-foot and 40-foot full or empty containers including refuelling
of vehicles.
Our model is limited in that respect that the vehicles will be refuelled in each visit
of the station.
In a centralized decision process, as mentioned above, a global optimum maximizes a
kind of social welfare while different transport requests do not equally contribute to the
emissions and pollution. As a consequence the clients wish to participate in the
development of a fair solution and fair pricing strategy. Therefore the transport company
might develop a mechanism (a game) so that all clients can reach a satisfying solution, see
Kress et al. (2018a,b). In the ideal case the mechanism encourages the clients (or players)
to provide truthful information in any negotiation process with the transport company or
competitor and to discourage selfish behaviour. A mechanism is needed where selfish
behaviour does not provide any advantage in comparison to truth-telling. Moreover the
clients have the insight and understand the functions of the mechanism. In an equilibrium
no client would like to change its position in the transport sequence and the transport
company would focus on those equilibria that maximize the social welfare. For details, see
Kovalyov and Pesch (2014). Fast and efficient methods need to be developed in order to
find an equilibrium as this might be a strongly NP-hard problem or good approximations
of an equilibrium are to be found.

Acknowledgements:
This study was supported by Bialystok University of Technology (S/WZ/1/2014).

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176
[Paper ID 138]

Ruveyda Komurlu 1 and Akin Er2

Abstract
Billion-dollar investments are quite common in oil and gas industry and owners generally
prefer engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contracts since they would like
to minimize their risks and guarantee the most consistent project cost and shortest timeline
scheme. Considering the size of contracts, owners are unsurprisingly seeking an ideal
tender awarding method to avoid deviation from project schedule or budget and get the
maximum benefit for them. They may prefer to award the EPC contract directly (i), have a
front-end engineering design (FEED) study done first and award the EPC contract
afterwards (ii), or set up a convertible contract and convert it to EPC after an open book
cost estimate (OBCE) process (iii). It is a question of concern which option for large-scale
oil and gas projects is the most favourable. As a case study, outcomes of a project which
was administrated with a conversion type of contract will be reviewed in detail, and a
number of principles based on lessons learned will be listed. Thus, the authors aim to
provide a verifying approach for the interpretation of EPC conversion type contract
management based on analysis of the distinguishing features of large-scale oil and gas
projects.

Keywords: convertible contracts, FEED study, EPC contracts, OBCE (open book cost
estimate), oil and gas projects.

1
Department of Architecture, Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey,
ruveydakomurlu@gmail.com
2
TUPRAS General Management, Kocaeli, Turkey, akin.er@tupras.com.tr

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Introduction
Oil and gas companies should invest several projects every year. This is inevitable for
them as there are so many forcing factors like new environmental regulations, operational
requirements, modernization, renovation, profitability, etc. Some of these projects cost
more than billion-dollars. Considering the negative consequences of mistakes that could be
made during the investment period of such projects, owners are unsurprisingly
investigating for the correct contract strategy which fits well with their project objectives.
In general, contract strategy refers to organizational and contractual policies which are
selected for the execution of a specific project (Ebeltagi, 2009). It is one of the key
parameters which has significant effects on the project. Risk allocations of project actors,
namely owner, contractor and vendor, are tightly linked to that decision given by the owner
at the beginning of the project. Tendering process, responsibilities, interfaces between
phases, management policies are all evolved around that decision which certainly means
that contract strategy has also an important impact on the project schedule and the budget
(Bower, 2003).
This article will primarily focus on contract strategies which could be followed during
a project. After making an overview of the characteristics of large scale projects in oil and
gas, EPC lump sum type contracts will be reviewed individually. Different methods of
EPC contracting will be discussed. Finally, an implementation of a conversion type EPC
contract will be evaluated as a support for theoretical conclusions. By this way, it is aimed
that an approach to verify the interpretation of EPC conversion type contract management
will be provided.
Overview of Contract Strategies
Main Components of Contract Strategy
Contract strategy shapes the management decisions of all parties in the project. It basically
depends on three main components namely project delivery method, contract price
arrangement and contract clauses (Moazzami et al., 2013).

Project Delivery Method

Project delivery method determines the sharing of responsibilities of each project phase
between the parties of the contract. There are four types of project delivery methods
(Moazzami et al., 2015):
Design - Bid - Build (Traditional)
Design - Build or EPC
Construction Management (CM)
Relational contracting models
Design - Bid - Build, Design - Build and Construction Management methods are
compared in Table 1.

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 Table 1. Comparison of Project Delivery Methods

Construction
Design - Bid Build Design - Build or EPC
Management (CM)

consists engineering,
Basic construction contracts procurement and performs construction
characteristics construction management on behalf of
completed the owner
phases

procedures are well defined

before construction
Advantages
during design
development have no
significant cost impact
duration
up a smaller organization
at an early stage

takes the
coordination and risk

Disadvantages favor of counterparties

duration
and expensive contractors
direct involvement
at the beginning

Relational contracting model also offers a contract to represent a relationship between

the parties. However, unlike the other three models, it introduces a degree of flexibility
into the contract on the basis of understanding the other party's objectives (Faisol et al.,
2005). By this way all project participants intend to work as one integrated team in the
project from design stage until completion (Salamah, 2017). Alliance, IPD (Integrated
Project Delivery) and project partnering contracts could be listed in this group.

Contract Price Arrangements

Provision of the contract price is another component of the contract strategy. It could be
classified into three main categories in view of some studies (Bower, 2003, Fisk and
Reynolds, 2014) about the subject.
Price Based Contracts
Cost Based Contracts
Guaranteed Maximum Price Contracts
Price Based Contracts, Cost Based Contracts and Guaranteed Maximum Price
Contracts are compared in Table 2.

Table 2. Comparison of Contract Price Arrangements

Cost Based Guaranteed Maximum

Price Based Contracts
Contracts Price Contracts

contract cost based contracts

Basic for all costs plus fee
characteristics
owner up to a maximum fixed
amount

179
 design are well defined design are not mature

Types (Admeasurement)

time intervals

Payment Types time

intervals or achieved
milestones

Total price is
not known since it is related
Advantages / to actual quantities
Disadvantages Total price
is known, risks are
transferred to the contractor

Contract Clauses
Contract clauses principally adjust general responsibilities of parties during the execution
of the project. Main body of contracts usually describes basic matters of the project like
parties, reference documents, scope, price, time for completion, bonus and penalties.
General and special condition of contracts typically explains definitions, guarantees and
liabilities, risk distributions and details of work execution. Owners should define contract
clauses considering their contract strategy.

Parameters Designated Contract Strategy

Although some projects have almost same scopes, it should be recognized that each project
is unique since it has its own conditions, constraints or opportunities. Thus, taking into
account some key factors, owners should determine the contract strategy specifically for
each project. Those key factors could be listed as follows (Schramm et al., 2010):
Risk allocation between owner and contractor
Type, location and size of project
Division of responsibilities between parties
Interfaces between project phases
Market situation
Splitting of works and services between concerned parties
Project time constraints

Legal regulations, qualifications of potential contractors, availability of specific

construction equipment and payment method (Ducros and Fernet, 2010) could be also
added to the listed factors above. Hence, owners should evaluate their resources, objectives
and project characteristics before deciding their contract strategy.
Characteristics of Large-Scale Oil and Gas Projects
Project Development Stages
A large-scale oil and gas project should pass various stages (Figure 1) which begin with
idea generation and ends with operational start up. The first four stages express the
maturity of the project, whereas the last two are implementation of the project. The end of

180
first four stages are called decision gates where project cost estimates should be updated
and investment feasibilities should be reassessed.

Maturity of Project Implementation of Project

Idea Conceptual Basic Commissioning

FEED Project Execution
Generation Design Engineering & Start-up
Pre-feasibility Feasibility Part of Detailed
Detailed Engineering
Engineering Procurement
Construction

GATES

Figure 1. Project Stages

Fast Track Execution

Project execution stage consists of three main phases i.e. detailed engineering, procurement
and construction. Each phase requires several months to be completed. Hence, project
duration of those projects lasts much more than many other construction projects.
However, owners want to put their projects into operation quickly because they want the
return of their considerable investments as soon as possible. To shorten the duration of
execution period such phases should be overlapped. Therefore, large-scale oil and gas
projects are fast track projects. However, this approach also brings the risks of revision and
rework.

Traditional Project Execution

Project Maturity Period
Detailed Engineering
Procurement
Construction
Commissioning & Start-up
Fast Track Project Execution
Project Maturity Period
Detailed Engineering Saved
Procurement time
Construction
Commissioning & Start-up

Figure 2. Fast Track Project Execution

Estimation Range of CAPEX

Accuracy of CAPEX is another important point in those projects. It directly affects the
financial parameters of the investment (e.g. net present value, internal rate of return) and
has a significant role at the investment decision. Thus, owners would like to know
CAPEX with a certain degree of accuracy before the commencement of the project
execution. However, due to aforementioned facts, accuracy of project cost is a question
mark for decision makers. AACE 18R-97 (2016) recommends five estimate classes and
corresponding accuracy ranges regarding maturity level of project deliverables.

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 Table 3. AACE Cost Estimate Classification (AACE, No: 18R-97, 2016)

AACE Recommended Practice - 18R-97

Corresponding
Estimate Maturity Level of Project Stage
Expected Accuracy Range
Class Deliverables
L: -20% to -50%
Class 5 0% To 2% Conceptual Design
H: +30% to +100%
L: -15% to -30% Basic Design or
Class 4 1% To 15% H: +20% to +50% Early Stage of FEED
L: -10% to -20%
Class 3 10% To 40% H: +10% to +30%
FEED
L: -5% to -15% Final Stage of FEED or
Class 2 30% To 75%
H: +5% to +20% Project Execution
L: -3% to -10%
Class 1 65% To 100% H: +3% to +15%
Project Execution

Complexity
Large-scale oil and gas projects are complex projects since they are multi-discipline and
multi-phase projects. Fast track execution creates interfaces between phases due to
overlapping and brings management difficulties like other type of projects carried out in
this way. Multiple contractors, financing scheme, etc. are some other factors that may
increase the complexity. Own
and the required level of management organization.

Cost of Design Changes

Several key design decisions are given by the owners during project development.
However, cost of change could be significantly high in large-scale oil and gas projects.
The relative cost of making a design change in the various phases of such project has been
stated in Table 4 (Fenton et al., 2015).

Table 4. Relative Cost of Making a Design Change

Phase Impact Relative Cost (USD)

Process Design Package
tens of engineering hours Thousands
Basic Engineering
Detailed Engineering hundreds of engineering hours tens of thousands
Sourcing thousands of engineering hours hundreds of thousands
engineering, construction time,
Construction Millions
equipment
engineering, equipment, millions to tens of
Post Start-up
installation millions

EPC Contracting Methodologies

Considering the characteristics of large-scale oil and gas projects, EPC lump sum
contracting appears as the most advantageous strategy for the owners. Because, it ensures
to owners not the least but the most reliable budget and minimum risk. Fast track execution
enables to complete project in the shortest duration. Owners could manage the project with
a smaller organization compared to alternative strategies. On the other hand, some
disadvantages of the strategy could be mentioned such as maximum contingency in the
contract price and less involvement of owner in the detailed design. Nevertheless,

182
considering benefits of the aforesaid advantages, owners widely prefer EPC lump sum for
the execution period of their projects.
It is possible to follow different methodologies while awarding an EPC contract.
Owners may prefer to award the EPC contract directly (i), have a front-end engineering
design (FEED) study done first and award the EPC contract afterwards (ii), or set up a
convertible contract and convert it to EPC after an open book cost estimate process (iii).
Last two methodologies have been developed to minimize the disadvantages of EPC
contracting in course of time.
In case of a direct EPC contracting, the owner defines the project frame and assigns a
contractor to follow all engineering, procurement and construction activities of it. The role
of owner is mainly limited to project controls and contract management. The contractor
bears the risks and responsibilities. Therefore, contract price includes the maximum
contingency. If project frame was not clearly defined in the bidding document, possible
design changes might result significant change orders. However, project duration will be
the minimum.
In order to minimize aforesaid drawbacks, owners may prefer to have a FEED contract
first and award the EPC contract afterwards. By this way, design development will reach a
reasonable level of maturity before EPC contracting. Project cost could be estimated more
precisely since long lead items become ready for purchase orders and quantities could be
reckoned pretty close to exact figures. Cost deviation is inversely proportional to level of
information. However, this methodology requires two awarding periods both for FEED
and EPC. In the second awarding, if the EPC contractor is selected different than the FEED
contractor, that will create a discontinuity in the detailed engineering. In this case some
owners may request from the EPC contractor to process existing detailed engineering
document once again which results additional time and money.
Convertible contracts prevent the discontinuity of FEED plus EPC contracts. In this
method, the owner and the contractor agree on a two-stage contract. In the first stage,
detailed design is advanced up to a certain level where project cost could be calculated
reasonably accurate. Cost estimation study should be transparent and traceable for the
owner. The process is called as OBCE (open book cost estimate). In this stage, the
contractor could be paid in any price adjustment structure. Later on, the contract is
converted into EPC lump sum following the conversion method previously defined in it.

by the owner. Moreover, the contractor could proceed to second stage immediately and
uninterruptedly after the conversion. As the final outcome of above comparison, it can be
concluded that convertible contracts solve most of the concerns of a project.

Direct EPC
Basic Engineering Bid EPC (included FEED)

FEED + EPC
Basic Engineering Bid FEED Bid EPC

Converted EPC
Basic Engineering Bid OBCE EPC

Conversion Period

Figure 3. EPC Contracting Methodologies

183
Implementation of an OBCE Conversion Contract
Resid Upgrading Project has been executed in TUPRAS Izmit Refinery-Turkey. It is a
typical sample of large-scale oil and gas projects which consist of civil works, steel works,
piping, equipment erection, electrical works, instrumentation etc., thus require coordination
of various sub-contractors for the success of the project (Er and Komurlu, 2017). Total cost
of the project is 2.7 billion dollars including financial expenditures. Basic engineering of
main three units was completed prior to bidding stage. EPC package was including basic
engineering of smaller units and detailed engineering, procurement, construction of the
the
previous large-scale projects. However, considering the size of the package and level of
information for bidders, it was anticipated that the contingency amount in the tenders could
be extremely high. Thus, an OBCE conversion contract has been implemented in the
project.
Timeline of the project is shown at Figure 4. The project was divided two stages
namely OBCE Period and Project Execution Period (EPC). There is a two months
conversion period between two stages, in which OBCE calculations were rechecked and
EPC contract was put into final form. However, an extra four months have been spent to
finalize for financial agreements due to creditors involvement that was not forecasted at the
initial planning. The two stages, i.e. OBCE and EPC, were clearly defined in the contract.
The contract gave right to TUPRAS not to continue the project after the OBCE stage. By
this way, last decision gate was kept in the contract.
Contract price adjustment was set on fixed price for both the OBCE and the EPC
stages. The total project cost has been separated into five categories; detailed engineering,
itemized materials (equipment), bulk material, construction and ancillary costs
(transportation, customs, insurance, training services, etc.). A lump sum price was agreed
for detailed engineering considering the OBCE and the EPC stages separately. For other

necessary for the conversion.

Year Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5 Y6
Quarter Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2

OBCE 16 months
Conversion Period 2 months
Financial Agreements 4 months
EPC 36 months
Commissioning&Start-up 6 months

Figure 4. Timeline of Resid Upgrading Project

the contractor for each cost category during the bid. However, allowance ratios are defined
by TUPRAS in the bidding document to cover some potential costs of the contractor which
could not be foreseen during the OBCE studies. Allowance ratio was between 3% and 5%
in this project, and was defined to cover items listed below:
Increments in quantities that may occur due to detailed design development after the
conversion,
Small design changes due to construction requirements at site,

184
 Consumables that could not be included in quantities,
Wastes due to nature of manufacturing or construction activities,
Normal levels of rework due to construction errors, bad welds, and incorrect
installations,
Lost, damaged or broken materials.
Itemized materials correspond to equipment which are defined in the basic engineering
design packages. Those equipment were grouped in order to define purchase order
packages according to their types and properties. The contractor collected minimum three
bids for each PO packages from the vendors which were listed by TUPRAS in the contract.
Bids were transparently opened and evaluated with the participation of both parties and
that procedure has been applied to 98% equipment during the OBCE. Moreover, for long
lead items, vendors were called to face to face meetings, and after technical and
commercial negotiations, awarded bids were decided. TUPRAS sent letters of intention to
awarded vendors on behal
period. Regarding bulk material, bids were requested in unit price base. Total cost has been
calculated according to the bill of quantities taking into account the detailed engineering
document developed until the end of OBCE studies.
Construction cost was also studied in unit price base. The project was divided into
seven construction packages. Bill of quantities of each package have been calculated
according to the developed detailed engineering document. Awarding stage has been
conducted with the participation of both parties. Also, final negotiations have been done in
this category and subcontractors were agreed for each construction package prior to the
conversion.
Ancillary costs were determined in several ways. The method of collecting bids was
preferred upmost. If it is not possible to use such method, in-house data of both parties and
rule of thumbs were used.
A complete file including all OBCE studies has been issued at the beginning of
conversion period. All data have been reviewed again together by both parties. Total lump
sum price of the project has been calculated as shown at Table 5. Finally, opportunities
which could decrease the total price were discussed by the managements of the parties and
lump sum EPC price was determined.

Table 5. Simple Illustration of Lump Sum Conversion Calculation

COST
OBCE Allowance Fee Converted Cost
CATEGORIES
Detailed Engineering - - - CC1 = Lump sum price
CC2 = C2 x (1+ a2%+
Itemized Materials C2 a2% F2%
F2%)
CC3 = C3 x (1+ a3%+
Bulk Material C3 a3% F3%
F3%)
CC4 = C4 x (1+ a4%+
Construction C4 a4% F4%
F4%)
CC5 = C5 x (1+ a5%+
Ancillary Costs C5 a5% F5%
F5%)
SUM = Total Project
Price

Regarding the EPC stage, the project was completed on time and on budget. This is one
of the results of good preparation and planning conducted during OBCE period.
Commissioning & start-up periods were also accomplished successfully. However, an

185
extra four months has been spent before the commencement of EPC to finalize the
financial agreement which is not generally forecasted in such kind of projects at the
beginning. This should be noted as a learning outcome from the project.

Conclusions
EPC convertible contracts enable the owner to optimize the combination of some important
project parameters such as initial cost, change order ratio, duration of the project and
management organization. Therefore, it becomes a preferred contracting method for large-
scale oil and gas projects in recent decades. This method could be utilized in other sectors
with similar characteristics and constraints, such as mining, IT etc., where the cost of large-
scale projects could not be estimated efficiently at the bidding stage.
A successful implementation has been applied in TUPRAS Izmit Refinery Resid
Upgrading Project. Regarding the lessons learned from that project key principles for
future use are advised as below:
OBCE studies should be done in a transparent manner with the participation of the
owner and the contractor.
The owner should define the procedure clearly which should be followed during OBCE
studies and conversion calculation in bidding document.
The owner should have a compact but experienced project team. Commercial
evaluations should be done regarding the recent development of engineering studies
and technical evaluations. Thus, an OBCE coordinator should be assigned to
synchronize both commercial and technical groups.
Vendor list should be included in the contract by the owner. If the contractor proposes

Engineering should reach a certain level of progress before the conversion for a clear
scope definition and reasonable accuracy of quantity calculation. That progress figure
is suggested as 50% to 60% (Moazzami et al., 2013). However, regarding the Resid
Upgrading Project, an engineering progress of 40% to 45% seems reasonable for the
conversion. The figures below show the engineering progress of the project at the time
of the conversion:
Engineering Services:
Detailed Engineering 43,21%
Procurement Services 61,29%
Home-Office Construction Services 70,00%
Weighted Progress of Eng. Services 45,30%
Final negotiations with vendors and subcontractors should be done after the purchase
order packages reach a certain level maturity.
Total cost of categories should be reported periodically during OBCE studies. By this
way, content of final OBCE report could be established prior to the conversion period
with the consent of both parties which may help to shorten the conversion process
significantly.
It is hoped that these findings may be applied in other similar projects regardless of the
industry, and it helps improve the efficiency of EPC contracts.

Reference
AACE International Recommended Practice No.18R-97, 2016. Cost estimate classification
system as applied in engineering, procurement and construction for the process
industry. https://web.aacei.org/resources/publications/recommended-practices

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Bower, D., 2003. Management of procurement. London: Thomas Telford. ISBN: 0-7277-
3221-8.
Ducros, M., Fernet, G., 2010. Project management guide. Paris: Editions Technip. ISBN:
978-2-7108-0952-4.
Ebeltagi, E., 2009. Construction project management. Lecture Notes, Mansoura
University, Department of Structural Engineering, Egypt.
Er, A., Komurlu, R. 2017, Importance of Planning in Refinery Projects and
Recommendations for Successful Planning, Journal of Architecture and Life, 2(2),
2017, (253-264), ISSN: 2564-6109, DOI: 10.26835/my.349372
Faisol, N., Dainty, A.R.J., Price, A.D.F., 2005. The concept of 'relational contracting' as a
tool for understanding inter-organizational relationships in construction. IN:
Khosrowshahi, F. (ed.), Proceedings 21st Annual Association of Researchers in
Construction Management Conference, Vol. 2, 1075 1084.
Fenton, M., Armstrong, K., Huebsch, J., 2015. Convertible lump sum EPS contracting
model how to get the plant you need now and still enjoy in 20 years? Procedia
Engineering 138 (2016): 206 219
Fisk, E.R., Reynolds, W.D., 2014. Construction project administration. New Jersey:
Pearson Education. ISBN: 978-0-13-286673-6.
Moazzami, M., Ruwanpura, J., Jergeas, G., 2013. Conversion method for applying
convertible contracts in oil and gas project. 4th Construction Specialty Conference,

ISBN: 978-1-894662-22-2.
Moazzami, M., Deghan, R., Jergeas, G., Ruwanpura, J., 2015. A theoretical framework to
enhance the conversion process in convertible contracts. International Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management 2015, 4(6): 248-262.
Salamah, Y., 2017. Alliance contracting models in construction projects: leadership and
management. Master Thesis, Metropolia University of Applied Science, Helsinki,
Finland.
Schramm, C., Meissner, A., Weidinger, G., 2009. Contracting Strategies in the oil and gas
industry. 3R International, Special Edition 1/2010, 33-36.

187
[Paper ID 120]

John Nagel1, Amelia Saul2 and Syed M. Ahmed3

Abstract
Over the past decade, drone usage has skyrocketed both in the United States and all over
the world. From applications of surveillance to potential delivery systems, people
continuously brainstorm new ideas on how to utilize these machines on an almost daily
basis. One recent initiative within the construction industry drone usage for surveying. The
benefits to this practice are quite extraordinary. Contractors have the ability to see their
this greatly enables
contractors to see the whole picture and to put progress into perspective. The purpose of
this study was to (1) collect information on drone usage in the construction industry; (2)
outline basic factors to be put into legislation to allow for the safety of both general
aviation and drone users while in operation; and (3) analyse the effectiveness of drone
usage. This study surveyed and interviewed construction companies and current attorneys
to research these topics and provide recommendations for future drone use. The
possibilities are endless and expansion of this field will continue to grow. The construction
industry is poised to benefit immensely from drones and the expansive capabilities they
bring.

Keywords: construction industry, drone, drone usage, legislation

1
Graduate Student, Department of Construction Management, East Carolina University,
E 5th St, Greenville, NC, USA, Email: nagelj16@alumni.ecu.edu
2
Graduate Student, Department of Construction Management, East Carolina University ,
E 5th St, Greenville, NC, USA, Email: saula12@students.ecu.edu
3
Professor, Department of Construction Management, East Carolina University ,
E 5th St, Greenville, NC, USA, Email: ahmeds@ecu.edu

188
Introduction
Over the past decade, drone production and usage has skyrocketed both in the United
States and across the entire world. From applications of surveillance to potential mail
delivery systems, people are continuously brainstorming new ideas on how to utilize these
machines on an almost daily basis. Each sector of industry has or is currently determining
whether or not drone usage is feasible.
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV, aka drone), is a miniature pilotless aircraft, which
is either controlled by a remote or an app and uses aerodynamic forces to navigate and
perform desired functions (Joshi, 2017). They are used to carry small payloads, perform
delivery and minor services, carry video and static cameras for photography and
videography, and perform commercial and military inspections and operations (Joshi, 201).
Many industries are already developing drone technologies and how they may benefit
certain fields and tasks. Of the many sectors of application, one of the more recent
initiatives has been within the construction industry.
Within the construction industry specifically, contractors using drones have the

have the ability to visualize the whole picture and to put progress into perspective. When in
the planning and designing stages, engineers and architects always develop blueprints.
Although these blueprints will contain cross sections and elevations for clarity, the
blueprints will always have plans with a birds-eye-view as well. When out on the job site;
however, an engineer or contractor has very few ways to see this view in person apart from
the drawings. In the past, the only chances one might have in obtaining this view would be
to climb to the roof of an adjacent building or high elevation. Other options would include
utilizing a lift or crane to achieve a similar vantage point. Although effective, using these
methods not produce the same effect and utilizes much needed time and resources.

Surveillance was the key opening where drones made their debut in the construction
industry. Now contractors can have that plan view or overview with the help of a drone.
Currently, contractors use drones to obtain progress or status updates for ongoing projects.
These images or recordings may also be provided to owners or customers. In addition,
drones have the capability to capture images and/or video with which contractors may use
in advertisements, contract bids, and for owner updates. Drones may also survey areas
where it is harder to reach on foot or by land vehicle for traditional survey team members.
Drones may also play a crucial role in inspecting structures in areas that are difficult or
dangerous to access. However, there are some dangers that drones place on other various
industries such as the general aviation industry. With extremely stringent guidelines and
rules, this may result in an end or decrease in drone usage in the future.

Background
In society today, drones are being utilized in numerous ways. Many industry sectors, in
addition to the construction industry, have realized the potential of drones and are working
to implement them in daily operational tasks. Although the construction industry is one of
the leaders in drone technologies, there are other sectors that currently utilize drones more
frequently. According to Snow (2016), the Photo/Film and Real Estate Industries are by far
the biggest users of drone technology (Snow, 2016). Other industries making advances
with drone technology are Agriculture, Utilities/Energy/Infrastructure, and Emergency
Services (Snow, 2016).
Within the construction industry, current uses of drones are somewhat limited. The
majority of drone operations involve a specific type of surveying or surveillance.

189
According to Rachel Burger (2018), drones are affecting the construction industry in
surveying and management (Burger, 2018). She emphasizes and breaks down these two
topics even further. For surveying, construction companies can survey land, survey
existing infrastructure, and provide security surveillance. Burger writes that drones are
-
-eye v
-
to write about how
Drones greatly reduce the labor and time involved in producing accurate surveys.
Drones eliminate much of the human error involved in the process and have the ability to

2018, para. 2).

In addition to the use of drones in the construction industry for various surveying
options, drones have also been used to improve the creation of Building Information
Modeling (BIM) models. Jhohn (2017) explained how drones can be used in BIM models
during preconstruction, construction, post construction, and safety maintenance. It is
important to understand that drones are not only used for surveying, but also have benefits
when used with BIM. Patterson (2017) stated many benefits of using drones to aid in BIM
including for site inspections, land surveying, point cloud scanning, aerial photographcy,
monitoring stie activity, and conducting structural inspections.
After reviewing literature on current drone usage, there were three dominant issues.
First, drones are primarily used for surveillance the most currently. Construction
companies use drones for progress updates, to inspect infrastructure, to provide jobsite
surveillance and security, and act as a constant communication link between the jobsite and
home office. Secondly, the next emerging technology for drones is the use of mapping and
modeling. Due to the limited publications on this subject matter, the construction industry
stands to benefit greatly if this technology can be harnessed and used on an almost daily
basis. Ideally, it needs to be implemented in the beginning stages of construction. Finally,
drones are still relatively expensive to operate compared to traditional construction costs.
With the level of qualification needed to fly currently and the rise in demand recently,
hourly rates for drone operators are likely to stay high until the supply of drone operators
increases. From the results of the literature review, it is evident that drones are a growing
force within the construction industry. Construction industry personnel have only scraped
the surface of their benefits.

Current Drone Regulations

Since the conception of UAVs,
them has grown immensely. However, this has also brought to light some of the downsides
and negative effects of drone usage in our skies. The Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) has been the largest opponent to drone usage. Although one would think the FAA
would love another invention that operates in the sky, it remains the fiercest opponent of
drones and the steady increase in drone usage. Because many drones are relatively
inexpensive and simple to operate, a large portion of the public has taken interest in them.
Drones can be found all
found in the air around their houses. The major problem with this is the rest of the user
population of our skies: manned aerial vehicles. After the conception of the airplane in the
early twentieth century, usage grew exponentially. In this day in age, the skies are packed
full of both private and commercial airplanes. Drones pose a major risk to these general
aviation operators.

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 In order to become a certified general aviation pilot, an individual is required to go
through rigorous studying and testing to take to the air on his or her own. Mistakes in an
airplane have the potential for very serious and/or deadly effects. However, mistakes when
operating a drone may only have the effect of losing a few hundred to thousand dollars in
machinery as well as a potential for property damage. Within the last few years, drone
strikes, as they have come to be known as, have increased almost as rapidly as drone use.
For this sole reason, the FAA has significantly cracked down on drone usage and drone
operators. Initially, the fear was of a potential end to drone usage in the construction
industry. This would result in a setback to contractors, owners and other stakeholders. The
value that drones add to the construction industry is incredible, but specific rules and
regulations must be drafted and passed by the FAA.
Throughout the early years of drone usage, there was seldom legislative movement on
this issue. However, the U.S. Congress and the FAA today are beginning to take strides
towards safe operation of private and commercial drones especially in regards to the rest of

issue rules making commercial UAV use legal by 2015

Unfortunately, it took the FAA longer than expected to determine and draft these rules.

currently has jurisdiction over the commercial use of UAVs

Therefore, this research study will aid in the impact of this endeavor.
To any reader with limited knowledge of Federal Aviation Administration regulations
for aircraft, or even aviation in general, these rules have the capability to seem quite
overwhelming. In an article written by Vincent (2016), he simplifies these rules for the
average reader. He states the main points are these rules are:
Drones have to remain in visual line of sight of the pilot no first-person-
view cameras
Pilots must be at least 16 years old
Operation is only allowed during daylight hours or twilight with appropriate
lighting
Maximum groundspeed of 100mph and maximum altitude of 400 feet

(Vincent, 2016, para. 3).

With this simplified explanation of the rules, it seems that current drone regulations are
not extremely overbearing. However, this will be determined when interviews are
conducted with current drone operators and attorneys with experience in drone legislation.

Research Methods
The three primary methodologies for this study were a literature review, surveys, and
interviews. The literature review focused on specific construction tasks that drones are
currently utilized for. Additionally, the literature review researched current laws in use
today on private and commercial pilots as well as current drone operators. The information
from the literature review built a better foundation on current drone usage as well as
aeronautical knowledge and rules that pilots are subject to. The literature review was used
to develop the survey instrument.

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 Figure 1: Data Collection

Surveys & Interviews

Due to the scope of the research objectives, there were two separate surveys created. All
contacts used for this study were either discovered during literature review or through
personal contacts. Other sources, chosen through literature review, were construction
companies, drone users, and attorneys. All respondents of the study were from varying
geographical locations in the United States of America.
The first survey, Survey A, was created and sent to sources working either directly or
indirectly for the construction industry. The first survey included questions on the
ition in the construction industry, their experience and/or
training with drones, and their opinions of drones in the construction industry. Twenty-six
different sources were contacted initially. Nineteen of these contacts were a result of my
literature review. The remaining seven were personal contacts. Out of the twenty-six
surveys sent out, only thirteen were returned.
The second survey created, Survey B, was created and sent to legal sources. The
majority of these recipients were all attorneys. This second survey focused on the second
research question of this study: legal issues with drone operations. As mentioned earlier,
the attorneys selected and contacted as sources for this study all had some level of
experience with aviation legislation and its impact drone operations. This survey included

Federal Aviation Administration laws for drones and general aviation, their opinion of the
current state of laws regarding drone operations, and any future predictions for legislation
regarding drone usage especially for the construction industry. Following the literature
review and contacting personal sources, ten attorneys were initially contacted for this
study. There were two attorneys that came from personal sources. The other eight were a
result of literature review. From the ten attorneys initially contacted, five responded to the
surveys.
These surveys served well as the basis for the creation of semi-structured interviews as
my third research method utilized. Semi-structured interviews allowed me to focus on
specific aspects of my research questions. However, it also allowed for further discussion
into any survey responses that peaked my interest or provided even greater detail.
All interviews were conducted by phone due to geographical separation from all
sources. Out of the thirteen contractors and construction professionals who responded to
initial surveys, nine responded to requests for interviews. Two declined due to scheduling
conflicts and no further response was determined from the remaining two sources. Out of

192
the five attorneys who responded to initial surveys, there were only two who scheduled
interviews.

Results
Once all information was collected through surveys and interviews, a comparison was
performed and data was grouped by similarity. Overall, each research question was
addressed and answered. With the youth of drone usage throughout the entire construction
industry, many companies still do not have ample amounts of recorded and conclusive
data. In the case of this absence during interviews, sources were asked to give a best
answer for certain questions. These results are identified and explained below.

Drone Uses
Compared to the information discovered during literary review, sources confirmed
that drones are utilized for many of the same tasks across the majority of construction
companies. The most common uses, in rank order, are: surveying; marketing; progress
updates; planning and/or mapping. Other uses included communication and modeling;
however, these were only noted by two sources. The chart below depicts the summary for
drone uses from all thirteen construction companies interviewed for this study.
The most commonly reported drone task for respondents was surveying. Marketing
comes next in significance. Sources responded that drone survey provided the best time
and cost savings for projects. During the literature review portion of this study, background
research stated that communication, modeling, security, and inspection were all common
uses of drones. However, the thirteen sources interviewed for this study do not utilize
drones for these tasks. Each source was directly asked why these four tasks were not
utilized. For communication, most sources responded that the costs associated with
keeping a drone flying over a project for extended periods of time exceeded simply making
an in-person site visit. Additionally, all project managers and superintendents have cell-
phone and email access on-hand so sources did not feel the need to utilize drones for this
reason.
Modeling was the only task with one vote. Only one company interviewed is currently
using mapping software with their drone capabilities. However, the project manager
interviewed stated that this is the most recent technology advancement for drones and
construction companies. This source believes that drone mapping will continue to grow
and expand within the next three to five years and may potentially be the most desired use
for drones. However, there needs to be much more work done in order to advance the
software and drones capabilities.
One common factor from across this study was the time saving measures of a drone.
Each source was asked about operating hours for drones and how that compared to
traditional employee-driven tasks. Unfortunately, due to the youth of drone activities in the
construction industry, only limited quantitative data was submitted from sources. Out of
the twelve sources that utilize drones for construction tasks over employees, only three had
recorded the time savings in hours. As a result, the figure below is only limited to data
from three companies. However, as drone use continues in the future of the construction
industry, it is certain that more data will be recorded for a more accurate picture of the time
savings drones provide. The four figures below depict the time savings of the top four most
popular construction tasks that drones are utilized for. Sources were asked to list the
number of hours spent per week on average for each task performed by a drone and the
traditional employee.

193
 Figure 1 & 2: Response results for time savings (hour per week) for surveying tasks &
planning/mapping when comparing traditional employees to drones

Figure 3 & 4: Response results for time savings (hours/week) for progress update and
marketing tasks when comparing traditional employees to drones

When asked about potential future drone tasks, the proposed tasks do not differ much
at all, if any, from current tasks. The three most popular answers among the thirteen
construction companies interviewed were surveying, modeling, and planning/mapping.
Other suggestions included progress updates, marketing, inspection, and construction.
These results are depicted in Figure 5.

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 Figure 5: Proposed future uses of drones for construction tasks

Additionally, each source was asked for reasons and justifications on their proposals.
The most common answer for surveying was that it is the most popular now and most
likely to remain the most popular. However, eleven out of the twelve companies who
answered with surveying as the top future use stated that further technology advancements
were limited. On the other hand, sources agreed as a majority that both modeling and
planning/mapping had the greatest potential for growth and advancement. Larger
companies are already studying how to implement these technologies into day-to-day
operations on projects. One company has already experimented with drone mapping and
modeling for a new hospital project. Although the project manager still used traditional
methods for both modeling and mapping the project on-site and using three-dimensional
computer modeling programs, the traditional computer models were uploaded to a drone
which mapped the area to determine the accuracy of the computer modeling as well as
traditional mapping. Although the results are still being reviewed, the project manager did
say that the drone mapping software was almost one hundred percent accurate when
compared to the traditional software. With more experience and work, this company is
confident in the software for future use.

Drone Legislature
For the most part, sources also agreed on a level of satisfaction with current drone
legislature and laws. Seventy eight percent of all sources interviewed, both construction
and legal professionals, agreed that the current laws in effect were adequate for drone
usage today. The remaining sources were unsatisfied for varying reasons. The two biggest
reasons for their dissatisfaction were operator certification requirements and airspace
restrictions. Although these four companies understand the reasoning behind the Federal

The four companies agreed that drone operators must have a basic understanding of flying
a drone, but they do not believe that a drone operator needs to pass the exact same
knowledge test that a general aviation pilot is required to pass. Additionally, two firms
ng
on a large multi-story office building. The four-hundred-foot altitude limit on drones does
not allow them to fly a drone high enough over the job-site to see everything in view. The
second company is starting a new project within five miles of a small public airfield and,
therefore, cannot have a drone flown around the jobsite because it encroaches on the
airfield. For these reasons, most companies agree that future changes in drone legislature
will happen.

195
 Figure 6 ith current drone legislation

The three most popular subjects of future drone legislature changes were operator
certifications, airspace restrictions, and vehicle size. As discussed above, construction
companies are pushing for the Federal Aviation Administration to ease the standards for
drone operator certification. All companies agreed that drone operators should not be
required to have the same knowledge required of general aviation pilots. Most companies
also agreed that airspace restrictions should be relaxed some as well. The four-hundred-
foot altitude restriction limits drone use for large projects. In most urban and suburban
areas, general aviation planes must maintain a minimum altitude of 1,500 feet. As a result,
the maximum drone altitude could possibly be increased to as much as 1,000 feet. As for
airspace restrictions near airports, construction companies would prefer that there be a
-
With certain minimum restrictions, companies agree they should still have the ability to
perform limited drone flights around jobsites within this zone. In particular, they agreed on
this if it is coordinated with the local airfield in advance. Additionally, there were other
topics of future legislation changes discussed such as various altitude suggestions and
nighttime operations. The chart below depicts these topics and their significance to this

Figure 7: Topics of future legislation changes proposed by sources

Discussion
New insights have been discovered based on the literature review that was conducted
with some differences. These differences are a result of the smaller group of sources that
responded to initial surveys and the even smaller group who agreed to be interviewed.
With a higher rate of responses and an even larger target audience, there is no doubt that
the construction industry as a whole is in full support of drone use for construction tasks.
The results of this survey provide a smaller scope to the benefits, issues, and concerns of
drone operations from a variety of professionals.

196
 Construction companies are primarily in agreement about the tasks that drones are able
to and will perform. The construction industry has only utilized drones for three to four
years. However, the greatest increase in growth has happened within the last two years or
less. Currently, surveying is the top use of drones and is a direct result of the existing
technologies that the construction industry was able to adopt. The film industry has
adapted and utilized drones for over five years which allowed for the construction industry
to merely adopt the use of cameras on drones for surveying purposes. Although the film
industry is still the leaders in drone use, the construction industry is catching up quickly
every day. Two tasks that will likely not increase by much are marketing and progress

drones. As a result, the only advancements will likely be camera upgrades as well as
picture clarity and resolution. These tasks were some of the first to utilize drones in the
construction industry. Due to the adoption of techniques from the film industry, they will
more than likely remain at the same level of technology.
With the innovation and advancements in modeling and mapping/planning software
systems, these two tasks are the upcoming most popular for drone use on jobsites. As the
software capabilities are enhanced over the next few years, these two tasks have the
potential to match or surpass surveying. As these technologies increase, it will result in a
steady decline in the traditional methods employed by the construction industry.
Traditional surveyor numbers will decrease, and employees may consider learning how to
operate a drone in order to stay in the surveying business. Engineers and project managers
will be forced to acquire new skills on modeling and mapping programs in order to sync
these designs with drones to use on the jobsite. At this rate, universities may consider
adopting drone lessons into their undergraduate and graduate course curriculums for
engineering and construction management students. Perhaps these departments may give
consideration to certificate programs for drones to boost enrollment numbers based on the
level of interest. The possibilities are endless for drones on construction jobsites.
In order to increase the magnitude of drone usage throughout the construction industry,
certain legislative policies must be reconsidered. The two most prevalent issues are
operator certifications and airspace and altitude restrictions. It is agreed by a majority of
the construction industry that the Federal Aviation Administration should not require drone
operators to hold the same knowledge as general aviation pilots. Although a basic level
knowledge of airspace, safety protocols, and drone operation must be tested, further
general aviation knowledge is not necessary for drone operators on the ground. If these
standards are relaxed and less stringent, more construction employees will have the ability
to become certified. Not only will this lessen the demand on current drone pilots, it will
also result in driving down the current prices for drone operators.
In future discussion, construction professionals must push for fewer requirements for
drone operators. The minimum or basic requirements should include a general knowledge
of: airspace; safety protocols to avoid mishaps with infrastructure and/or general aviation;
knowledge and demonstration of drone operation. These simplified standards would
increase the number of employees who could become qualified in drone operations and
flying. In addition to reduced requirements, construction professionals must also push for
relaxed airspace and altitude restrictions. The current limitations hinder drone operations
for certain projects including multi-story buildings and projects close to airports. As long
as drone operators have a firm understanding of airspace and safety criteria, as discussed
above, they should have the ability to fly higher to observe or inspect tall buildings or large
projects near airports. These three issues must be discussed with the Federal Aviation
Administration in detail and reworked with officials for the benefit of the construction
industry.

197
 Limitations of this study are that the focus of the paper is at a base level and needs to
be further developed in future research. Due to limited research on drones in construction,
there is a need for research, especially as the use of drones continues to expand. Future
research needs to focus on the positive and negative effects of drones in the construction
industry and how to improve the use of drones.
Although the film and real estate industries may be the top users of drones currently,
the expectation is that this will change in time. The drone technologies used by these two
industries are relatively simple in nature and well developed. It is almost certain that there
will be no drastic increase in technology which will allow for other industries, such as
construction, to catch up to, if not pass, the level of use when compared to the current

operations into specifically modeling and mapping/planning. Although surveying is the

most popular and efficient task for drones currently, these two tasks will reach similar
levels over the next few years with advancements in technology and greater utilization
rates on jobsites.

Conclusion
Drones provide a critical advantage to the construction industry. They provide effective
time saving measures replacing traditional tasks in a fraction of the time. They provide
unique and innovative views of projects at varying stages of the lifecycle. From the design
stages to the construction stages and further through the maintenance and life of a project,
drones provide a unique and perspective and valuable advantage to the construction
industry.
Currently, the major benefit to drones is surveillance. Although surveying tasks are the
top task for this matter, drones may also provide security and progress updates to
construction companies. The savings in time, money, and effort are paramount to the
success of drones in surveying. Within the next decade or so, it is certain that drones will
have replaced almost the entire surveyor population. This is a result of the relatively low
cost and ease of operation. As drones become more popular, and as more operators are
trained and certified, the cost will continue to decrease as competition increases.
There are two areas that have the most room for improvement and growth for drone
usage. Modeling and mapping/planning activities are expected to increase and may
potentially surpass surveying as the top uses for drones. With the advancements of
software and technology, programs will be able to map an area, apply a model to that area,
and collect data. These data points may include site excavation information, material
properties, and provide stakeholders with a preview of what the project will look like at the
end of construction. The possibilities are remarkable and endless for modeling and
mapping/planning activities. The expectation is to see more and more applications of these
processes over the next few years as they are developed.
In order to continue and encourage the expansion of drone operations in the
construction industry, the Federal Aviation Administration must relax the multitude of
standards it places on operators. Specific to the construction industry, the general
knowledge and certification levels must be scaled back from what all general aviation
pilots must know. As long as the drone operator understands airspace restrictions,
operating procedures for the drone and required equipment, and basic safety factors, they
should be able to operate their drone on jobsites. Additionally, the restrictions on airspace
and altitude must be relaxed some especially on larger scale projects. A ceiling of four
hundred feet for drones limits the perspective and scope that drones may view projects. A

198
ceiling of 1,000 feet would greatly increase this viewpoint. Additionally, drone operators
must be able to fly their drones within five miles of an airport for construction related
tasks. As long as the flight hours and operations are coordinated with the local control
tower and the operator stays within the altitude restrictions, contractors may strongly
benefit on large scale transportation and aviation projects that happen within this five-mile
radius. By changing these standards, it would not only increase the opportunities for drones
within the construction industry, it would also drive operational costs down and result in
additional cost savings.
Relaxed standards would allow for an increase in drone operators which would result
in operating costs decreasing. More affordable drone operations would greatly benefit the
construction company as already discussed. Replacing traditional employee-driven tasks
with drones, such as surveying, saves valuable time and money for construction
companies. Although there are currently no studies on effectiveness of drones, this study
makes it clear that drones provide and effective solution to save time and cost on
construction projects. Within the next decade, it is expected that drones will be used more
and more for surveying, modeling, and mapping/planning. With advancements in
technologies, the possibilities are endless and expansion of this field will continue to grow.
The construction industry is poised to benefit immensely from drones and the capabilities
they bring to the industry.

References
Babel, J. (2014). Up in the Air: The emerging issue of drones in the construction industry.
XL Catlin Construction Insider. Retrieved from
file:///C:/Users/John/Downloads/XLGroup-ConsInsider_Drones_Jun2014.pdf.
Burger, R. (2018). 6 Ways Drones are Affecting the Construction Industry. The Balance.
Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/drones-affecting-construction-industry-
845293.
Jhohn, J. (2017). Can Drones Be Utilized In Construction For Creating Accurate BIM
Models? Engineers & Architects: The Hub for AECO Professionals. Retrieved from
https://www.e-zigurat.com/blog/en/can-drones-be-utilized-in-construction-for-creating-
accurate-bim-models/
Joshi, D. (2017). Commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market Analysis
Industry trends, companies and what you should know. Business Insider. Retrieved
from http://www.businessinsider.com/commercial-uav-market-analysis-2017-
8?r=UK&IR=T.
Patterson, J. (2017). Improving the BIM workflow with drones. Heliguy. Retrieved from
https://www.heliguy.com/blog/2017/05/16/improving-the-bim-workflow-with-drones/
Snow, C. (2016). Introduction to How Drones are Shaping the Future of Construction.
Skylogic Research, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/ColinSnow/intro-
to-how-drones-are-shaping-the-future-of-construction-sites.
Vincent, J. (2016). FAA regulations for commercial drones are now in effect. The Verge.
Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/30/12707502/drone-regulations-
legality-us-faa

199
[Paper ID 45]

Chien-Ho Ko1and Jiun-De Kuo2

Abstract
Materials for modules and payments for your workers are some of the main expenses
for the concrete structures with stiffness. In view of this, module construction is one
of the essential factors if project succeed or not. Traditional module construction that
is involved in those activities without adding values results in wastes. This study aimed
at adopting a compact method to reduce waste in the module works. Compact module
construction model is developed to achieve this goal. Andon of this model is made use
of build a spot assurance system. Labours can be assisted immediately in case of any issues
are raised. Besides Andon, module processes are introduced to Kanban system to decrease
mould stock and fulfil the flow of process behind ceaseless work. There was one real case
discussed to verify if the proposed module applies to all. Application findings indicate that
developed method is able to conduct mandatory banishment in the module flow of process
and add value in the operation.

Keywords: Kanban system, compact, module, Andon

1
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science
and Technology, Pingtung 91201, Taiwan, +886 8 770-3202, ko@mail.npust.edu.tw
2
MS, Department of Civil Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science
and Technology, Pingtung 91201, Taiwan

200
Introduction
Module operations depend on teamwork substantially. However, elder workers may
deteriorate productivity. This worker structural problem directly impacts deliverable in the
project and performance, as well as cost (Sutherland 2005; Chang 2007). For the purposes
of improving the aforementioned problems, scholars have suggested other materials,
including paper, fabric, fiber, Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (FRP), metal, compound, and
composite materials to substitute wooden molds (Arslan et al. 2005; Veenendaal et al.
2011; Spottiswoode et al. 2012; Yip and Poon 2008).
Lean manufacturing is a management rationale utilized by firms to improve flow in
recent years. Construction industry introduced the compact production concept named
(Koskela 1992). A variety of studies proved that compact
construction may be able to replenish construction industry with another kind of
philosophy in the management (Koskela 1992; Ballard 2000; Ko and Chen 2012; Ko
2011). Lean construction could make a breakthrough on the limit of traditional
construction cost and time in the trade (Best and de Valence 2000). The purpose of this
research was to apply a compact manufacturing mode to eliminate waste in module
engineering. This paper started with introduction of background in the study hereof,
wherein production waste, Kanban, and Andon were illustrated, followed by practice of
module construction and development of a compact module construction process. At last,
we validated applicability of the suggested approach through Case Study herein and also
finalized conclusions and direction for any researches in the future.
Background
Kanban
Kanban means a signboard, billboard, bulletin board, and card generally in Japanese
language (Liker 2003). Kanban originates from a stamping line of production at the Toyota
manufacturing site (Li and Yang 2009a). The post-supplementary production pursued by a
stamping production line is considered as a production signal if we view it from the
perspective of consumptive material. Decreased inventory of the storage site supports it
directly; here comes three types of Kanban at Toyota Production System as follows (Li and
Yang 2009b):
Kanban for production
It is a tool used at the interval between the storage site containing finished products
and production line. It plays a role of triggering the production in a post-
supplementary production system.
Kanban for Material Pick-up
This kind of Kanban is used by workers to take the required parts from the storage
yard and record any item with its respective number of part to be collected.
Mark and management Kanbans
This Kanban is a board placed on the facility, which is to be differentiated by two
kinds. One of them enables to display information to everyone and the other one
focuses on displaying administrative figures.

Andon
Andon originates from a kind of loom that was originated from Sakichi Toyoda. It stops
and the alarm lamp lights up when the device detects the broken yarns. Toyota Motor is

201
conducted with quality control with this concept. There is an error sensor installed on a
production equipment, and it stops automatically when the sensor detects a fault. Toyota
Motor also authorizes workers to press the button or pull the Andon Cord to stop the
production line when they find a problem or need help solve problems. Nowadays such
alarm system means a signal-based help (Liker 2003).
Module Process for Operation
Module operational process shall consist of a total of 10 steps as follows, that is: 1)
planning and designing, 2) shop drawing & preparation, 3) material preparation, 4) mold
machining, 5) setting out, 6) module assembly, 7) inspection, 8) monitoring and remedy of
concrete pouring, 9) stripping, and 10) re-supporting module, please refer to Figure 1
(Shen 1996). Contractors design module system and subcontractors prepare for shop
drawing and materials according to the module system. Module subcontractors also will
consult for mold inventory and hardware fittings, with which reordering any materials
from material vendors as per request in case of shortage. Molds are positioned prior to
assembly. Module subcontractor has to review if they are set correct for machining
process, followed by assembly. Modules are assembled with third parties, i.e. piping, rebar,
and wiring. During pouring concrete into the mold, module subcontractors shall assign a
module engineer to avoid collapse of module and take care of emergent explosion, if any.
Molds are stripped based on codes for recycled use in the next one or next project or
storage yard.

Plan & design

formwork

Prepare shop
drawings

Prepare materials

Set out formwork

Inspect
Machine molds
accuracy

Transport Assemble
molds formworks

Monitor & remediate

concrete pouring

Strip and re-support

formworks

Figure 1. Module Flow of Process (Ko and Kuo, 2015)

Any defects occurred to the module system would mostly lead to collapse or
deformation, thereby causing unsuccessful result during pouring concrete in case of none

202
of remedies taken by field workers. The main reason could be attributed to disputed quality
assurance (QA) process, which resulted in wasteful defective products. Such issues require
services with extra expenditure incurred with follow-up procedures, time, energy and
waste.
Lean Module
Module system is built from the design done by general contractor. Insofar it has seldom
emphasis on the quality it is built, or any improvement of quality based on nature, thereby
leading to versified level of quality. Module system with poor performance may bulge,
even falling apart. In addition, the random piled up molds in the piling field which extends
duration in the search and further procedures (Peng 1998). We used Andon and Kanban
systems to establish a compact module construction model in the troubleshooting. Andon
is primarily utilized in the settings of performance assurance sentiment, while the Kanban
system enables to reduce material stock. For the framework of compact module
construction model, please refer to Figure 2.
Toyota Mode adds significance to the setting of the performance assurance culture,
among of which, production line will not restart until solutions are given (Liker and Meier
2006). Amid compact working module, Andon system is used to help module workers stop
works and ask for help in the occurrence of problems. During establishing this culture,
module workers are educated that support is constantly available and no one will be fined
in case of any issue, with which no worry is needed; improvement of performance forms a
culture of cooperation and Andon tool is to develop a quality management system that
emphasizes QA process primarily, which also helps engaged partners (i.e. general
contractor, module subcontractor, third parties) identify and give solutions. However, the
burden of pressure rises up in case of any suspension, i.e. delivery and extra costs thereof;
in this case, the entire team shall identify solutions accordingly, or it causes excessive
waste. Another reason is that we made use of Andon tool to have an effective control on
further issues. Module subcontractors, in general, considered workers as the parties whom
they shall attribute any errors or mistakes, while only improper system, flow and methods
are traced for any mistakes in the compact construction module. Teammates make efforts
in formulating a more effective system, instead of defending themselves.
Kanban system is used to alternate ways of oral confirmation of orders, which responds
to customer requests and reduces potential amount of waste from the materials in the
storage yard and used as a base for communication to give solutions among
superintendents, module foreman and workers. The flow of module construction is thereby
created to control progress.

Kanban
Continuous flow

Quality Inventory
on site reduction

Andon
Figure 2. Lean Module Schema (Ko and Kuo, 2018)

203
Case Study
We used a real case to make illustration on the feasibility of the proposed compact
construction module. The cased building, situated in Pingtung of Taiwan, has a basement
with four stories, which accounts for 2185.3 square meters; module construction on the 2nd
floor was taken as the subject in the case, which accounts for 1646 square meters. Wooden
molds and supports, steel tubes and shaped steel were utilized in the construction, among
of which, it also has scaffold, steel bar, electromechanical, and concrete engineering
works; please refer to Table 1 for total hours module workers spend in the construction.

Table 1: Module Construction Hours by Workers

Activity Workers1 Total hours2

Set out 0.5 4

Prepare storage yard 2 16

Assemble and machine mold 140.5 1124

Strip mold 26.5 212

Arrange mold 14.25 114

Transport mold 35 282

1
1 worker = 1 worker has 8 hours of work.
2
total hours = Workers * 8 hours.

For module assembly and machined process, movements including measure, pull, cut,
pass, nail, and mend add value while walk, search, and wait waste. Transportation of mold
generates value; however, the on-hold moments are wastes. Appropriate layout of site
reduces movements without incremental value, such as by foot, wait while assembling and
machining, as well as transporting module, hence, efficiency shall be improved.
Elimination of movements without incremental value like by foot, search, and wait in
assembling, machining and transportation of modules may decline a total of 570.24
worker-hours (i.e. 71.28 workers), while proposed method may reduce 437.28 worker-
hours waste (54.66 workers) in assembling and machining modules. Productivity increases
from 11.72 to 19.18 square meters per daily worker, while it increases from 46.7 to 88.35
square meters per daily worker during transporting moulds. Please refer to Figure 3 for the
comparative results before/after improvement.

204
 Figure 3. Worker-Hours Improvement
Team work coming from general contractor, module subcontractor and third parties
involving the project forms a kind of free-of-plan culture leads to wasteful on-hold time
among subcontractors due to loss of coordination. The result in the analysis indicated that
the flow of process consists of wasteful movement and main reason is that module foreman
has no plan of layout for the construction site beforehand, thereby generating waste of
movements such as walk, search, and wait during assembling, machining, and transporting
molds. Furthermore, the module foreman instructs workers orally that workers may have
loss of information regarding to the production. Moreover, teams generally are in the
shortage of conceptual on-site quality control that workers are not sure about the process
well and all of these factors constitute wastes of defects.

Conclusions
Waste is generated from current practices in assembling, machining, and transporting
molds. We used compact way to establish compact module construction model, which is a
production system based on reduced waste and value-added customer. The signals
transmitted by Kanban system are followed to reduce mold inventory.
Improved module quality depends on attitude of learning and improving as a whole.
Andon tool and Kanban system may be used to eliminate non-adding-value waste;
however, foreman and superintendent also shall take the resistance of reform into
consideration when they perform transformation. Education is required behind
implementing on the compact module construction model. Workers may resist on the
reform since managerial philosophy varies between compact module construction model
and current practices.

205
References
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Ballard, G., 2000, The Last Planner System of Production Control, The University of
Birmingham, PhD Thesis, UK.
Chang, H.C. (2007). Productivity Analysis of Construction Formwork in Residential
Buildings, MS Thesis, Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University,
Taiwan (in Chinese).
Koskela, L. 1992. Application of the New Production Philosophy to Construction,
Technical Report, Stanford University, USA.

ect, and Production Management, 2(2), 101-

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191-199.

Engineering and Management, 21(4), 444-458.

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Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, Chennai, India, 1283
1290.Best and de Valence (Editors), 2000, Building in Value: Project Delivery, John
Wiley & Sons, New York.
Liker, J. K., 2003. The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest
Manufacturer. McGraw Hill, New York.
Liker, J. K. and Meier, D., 2006. The Toyota Way Fieldbook, Mc Graw Hill, New York.
Li, H. S. and Yang, C. C. 2009a. Meticulously Discuss Toyota Production System. Quality
Monthly Journal, 45(3), 13-18 (in Chinese).
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Peng, Y. H. (1998). Consulting Service for Automation in Architectural Engineering,
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Shen, Taipei (in Chinese).
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Spottiswoode, A. J., Bank, L. C., and Shapira,

30, 767-775.

formwork: Using fabrics for -177.

Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Waste and Resource Management,

161(1), 29-36.

206
[Paper ID 158]

Pimnapa Pongsayaporn1, Thanwadee Chinda2 and Veeris Ammarapala3

Abstract
bbers exporter. Major type of natural rubbers
exported is block rubber. Currently, the transportation of natural rubbers in Thailand
depends mainly on truck mode because of the convenience and extensive network of roads.
However, Thailand confronts road transportation limitations including maximum
acceptable weight, traffic congestion and high fuel prices. Dealing with these problems, the
multimodal connection from roads to container yards (CY) and ports is expected to
decrease logistics cost, and increase various opportunities to trade with neighbouring
countries. This paper, thus, aims at examining key factors influencing the use of
multimodal transportation utilizing the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The principal
components analysis (PCA) method, together with the eigenvalue over 1, factor loading of
0.40, and varimax rotation method, extracted five key factors with a total of 20 associated
attributes, which are the Multimodal Operation, Service Operation, Multimodal Service
Provider, Market Consideration, and Road Constraints factors. The result also pinpoints the
capacity of container yard (CY) or port, accessibility to container yard (CY) or port,
documentation process, logistics cost, adequacy of multimode service provider, and law
enforcement on truck driving hours, as crucial attributes in planning for multimodal
transportation. This paper can be used as a guideline for a feasibility study of multimodal
transportation of natural block rubber in Thailand.

Keywords: factor analysis, key factors, logistics, multimodal transportation, natural block
rubber

1
PhD student, School of Management Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, 131 Moo 5 Tiwanont Rd. Bangkadi, Muang,
Pathumthani 12000 Thailand, Tel: +66-8-69777389, Email: meiw.pimnapa@gmail.com
2
Associate Professor, School of Management Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, 131 Moo 5 Tiwanont Rd. Bangkadi, Muang,
Pathumthani 12000 Thailand, Tel: +66-2-5013505 ext. 6007, E-mail: thanwadee@siit.tu.ac.th
3
Associate Professor, School of Management Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, 131 Moo 5 Tiwanont Rd. Bangkadi, Muang,
Pathumthani 12000 Thailand, Tel: +66-2-5013505 ext. 6008, E-mail: veeris@siit.tu.ac.th

207
1. Introduction
Thailand is a major supplier of agricultural products in the world (Luathep et al., 2016). It
natural rubbers, rice, and cassava (USDA, 2017). In
particular, Thailand is the largest producer and exporter of natural rubbers due to its
tropical climate as well as effective and advanced cultivation methods (BOI, 2017). Nearly
90% of Thailand's natural rubber production is for export and only 10% is used for
domestic consumption (CPD, 2015). Major type of natural rubbers exported is block
rubber. It takes more than one-third of the total amount and still increase with 4.5 %
growth rate because they are mainly used in automobile tires manufacturing in China,
which is the biggest importer of block rubber from Thailand (CPD, 2015).
Currently, the transportation of block rubber in Thailand depends mainly on truck
mode because of the convenience and extensive network of roads (Termpittayapaisith,
2011, The Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning, 2014). However, the
logistics cost of road transportation is higher than the rail and ship modes. Moreover,
Thailand confronts road transportation limitations including maximum acceptable weight,
traffic congestion and high fuel prices (Timaboot and Suthikarnnarunai, 2017). Dealing
with these problems, the multimodal connection from roads to container yards (CY) and
ports is expected to decrease logistics cost, and increase various opportunities to trade with
neighboring countries (Polyiam, 2009). According to Muller (1995), the multimodal
transportation is the combination of two or more modes of movement of goods, such as
road, rail, or sea under the control or ownership of one operator. It is also termed
intermodal transportation , all of which function in exactly the same way (SteadieSeifi et
al., 2013).
In the recent years, there are a number of initiatives of modal shifts proposed by
government. It realizes the important of inland transportation connecting with the export
gateways. Thus, it proposes opment Strategy
2015- ient transportation network for being a regional hub. This
plan aims to enhance the efficiency of multimodal transportation and reduce logistics cost.
The plan includes two main parts; the double track railway project for improving the
transportation network and the development of ports to support the increasing amount of
export products.
In general, block rubber has low price and low value (Timaboot and Suthikarnnarunai,
2017). The most effective transportation mode for block rubber is the mode that can carry
them in large volume (Timaboot and Suthikarnnarunai, 2017) which is a characteristics of
multimodal transportation. According to Tanachodrungsatis (2014), multimodal
transportation is suited with products that can be transported in a heavy bulk and products
that have low value, low selling price per unit, and not perishable. In this respect, the
objective of this paper is to examine key factors influencing the use of multimodal
transportation for block rubber transportation utilizing the exploratory factor analysis
(EFA). It is expected that private companies and government could use the study results as
a guideline for a feasibility study of multimodal transportation of block rubber in Thailand.
The research steps are summarized, as shown in Figure 1.

208
 Research Findings Contributions, Limitations and Recommendations

Figure 1. Research Steps

2. Items Influencing Multimodal Transportation

A total of 20 items influencing multimodal transportation were extracted, with reference to
the citation frequency in the recent multimodal transportation related previous studies (see
Table 1). These items were used in the questionnaire survey development to measure
opinions or experiences of respondents on each item.

Table 1. Items Influencing Multimodal Transportation

No.
1 Government Policy Choi et al. (2014), Corman et al.
(2017)
2

6 -

10

11
12

209
No.
13

14

15

16

17

18
19
20

3. Questionnaire Survey and Data Screening

3.1 Questionnaire Survey Development
To gain information from the rubber production companies and transportation service
providers, a questionnaire was designed and distributed through face-to-face interviewing,
mail, online survey and e-mail. In this study, the questionnaire survey was developed to
extract factors influencing multimodal transportation of natural block rubber in Thailand
utilizing EFA. The questionnaire survey comprised three parts. Part I considered the
information of the respondent and company. Part II consisted of 20 statements related to
items influencing multimodal transportation. A 5-point Likert scale was used to rate the
level of agreement on each statement based on experience, from 1 = strongly
disagree to 5 = strongly agree. An example of statements in Part II is presented in Table 2.
Part III was the open-ended question requesting qualitative data regarding suggestion or
comment about issues related to the multimodal transportation based on
experience.

Table 2. Sample of Questionnaire Survey Questions

Level
NO. Statement
1 2 3 4 5
1 Government policy supporting the multimodal transportation
2 Road traffic congestion
3 Law enforcement on truck driving hours
4 Accident occurrence during road transportation
5 Adequacy of multimodal transportation service providers
6 Good relationship between company and transportation
service providers
Note: Please indicate level of your agreement on each statement based on your experience
using the scale from 1 to 5, for which 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree.

210
3.2 Survey Responses
A total of 1,411 questionnaires were distributed to medium and large rubber production
companies and transportation service providers located in the northeastern and the southern
parts of Thailand. There were 159 returns of questionnaire, representing a 11.27% response
rate. In this respect, all 159 questionnaires were used for further analyses.
It was found that all respondents were in managerial or senior positions in their
organizations, and majority of the respondents (69%) has been working in rubber
production industry or transportation service industry for at least 5 years. This implied that
the respondents had strong practical experience and were competent enough in providing
reliable responses. Moreover, most of the companies (60%) have been exporting their
products through Laem Chabang port with partially using multimodal transportation. This
implied the possibility of enhancing the use of multimodal transportation in their
companies. In summary, these results prove the credential and suitability of the
respondents in providing data for the analysis.

3.3 Preliminary Analysis

The collected data were then screened to confirm its level of confidence. The study applied
two statistical methods, including the normality test and outlier test. The normality in
distribution was tested by examining skewedness and kurtosis before conducting an EFA
(Yu and Richardson, 2015). Skewness measures asymmetry of a distribution of a variable.
The skew value of a normal distribution is zero. A skewed variable is a variable whose
mean is not in the center of the distribution. Kurtosis, on the other hand, measures a
peakedness of the distribution (Kim, 2013). Garson (2009) proposed a reference of
substantial departure from normality as an absolute skew value > 2 and kurtosis value > 7.
In this respect, absolute values of skewness < 2 and kurtosis < 7 are acceptable. The results
showed that the data of all 20 attributes were normally distributed, thus, increasing the
confidence for factor analysis.
The 5% trimmed mean and standardized scores (z scores) were used to detect outliers
in this study. The 5% trimmed mean is a mean calculated by discarding a 5% of the lowest
and the highest scores and then computing the mean of the remaining scores (Walfish,
2006). If a difference between mean and 5% trimmed mean is not beyond the criteria of
0.20, it demonstrated an insignificant influence of any possible outliers within the data
(Pallant, 2007). The results showed that there was no outlier in the collected data. To
confirm the use of 5% trimmed mean method, the influence and presence of outliers was
assessed by standardized scores (z scores) for each case. A case was considered to be a
potential outlier if its absolute standardized residual was greater than 3.29 at p < 0.01, two
tailed test (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2013). The results also showed the absence of outlier
in this study. Therefore, it can be confirmed that the 159 sets of data were suitable for the
EFA.

4. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

Before performing the EFA, the 20 items were categorized into three groups, which are

then performed as a measure of reliability of each group (Tavakol and Dennick, 2011).
According to De Vellis (2003), a minimum considered to
.83, thus
confirming the reliability of all groups.

211
 The Kaiser-Meyer-
to determine if the data was suitable for EFA, and to confirm that the data had patterned
relationships (Yong and Pearce, 2013). By theory, the minimum acceptable value of KMO

significant (p < 0.05). KMO values of all three groups were 0.78, 0.77, and 0.71,
respectively, and all of them were significant at p < 0.05. The results confirmed that all
groups were suitable for applying EFA method.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

12.
13. Company and Service Provider Relationship
14. Green image
15. Logistics Cost
16. Market Competitiveness
17. Transshipment cost

18. Law Enforcement on Truck Driving Hours

19. Road Traffic Congestion
20. Road Accident

Figure 2. Three Groups of 20 Items

Each group was then analyzed with the EFA method to determine how items are
interrelated (Hon et al., 2013) and to reduce the number of items into a smaller number of
factors (Hair et al. 2010). In this study, a principal component analysis (PCA) extraction
method together with the eigenvalue over 1, a cut-off factor loading of 0.40, and varimax
rotation method were applied to examine the dimensionality of items in each group (Hair et
al. 2010). The EFA results classified 20 items into five key factors, accounting for total
variance for each group of 55.75%, 62.66%, and 72.55%, respectively (see table 3). All
confirming the reliability of
the five factors.

212
Table 3. EFA Results

Group I Group II Group

III
Items
Factor Factor Factor Factor Factor
I II III IV V
Capacity of Container Yard (CY) or Port 0.82
Accessibility of Container Yard (CY) or Port 0.82
Delivery Speed 0.79
Punctuality 0.75
Transshipment Equipment 0.74
Multimodal Equipment Design 0.49
Government Policy 0.46
Volume Flexibility 0.42
Documentation Process 0.85
Skilled Employee 0.81
Tracking System 0.75
Logistics Cost 0.84
Green Image 0.82
Market Competitiveness 0.81
Transshipment Cost 0.63
Adequacy of Multimode Service Providers 0.87
Company and Service Provider Relationship 0.84
Law Enforcement on Truck Driving Hours 0.87
Road Traffic Congestion 0.85
Road Accident 0.83
Note:
Multimodal Operation
Service Operation
Market Consideration
Multimodal Service Provider
Factor V Road Constraints

4. Conclusion
Currently, the natural rubber transportation in Thailand depends mainly on truck mode.
The road transportation limitations include maximum acceptable weight, traffic
congestion, high accident occurrence and high fuel prices. The implementation of
multimodal transportation would help alleviate these problems and environmental effects.
It also helps maximize effectiveness of transportation because it can carry more quantity of
goods, while help save energy and save logistics cost.
The study results revealed five key factors influencing the multimodal transportation of
natural block rubber in Thailand, including Multimodal Operation, Service Operation,
Multimodal Service Provider, Market Consideration, and Road Constraints factors. These
factors can be used as a guideline for a feasibility study of multimodal transportation of
natural block rubber in Thailand. The capacity of container yard (CY) or port, accessibility
to container yard (CY) or port, documentation process, logistics cost, adequacy of
multimode service provider, and law enforcement on truck driving hours are found to be
the most important variables for successful implementation of multimodal transportation.

213
 The survey has been limited to a sample of rubber production companies and
transportation service providers in northeastern and the southern parts of Thailand because
they are the new growing area of government plan and the heart of rubber plantation and
production in Thailand, respectively. The results, however, provided a useful fundamental
data in order to increase the use of multimodal transportation.
The 20 items were grouped to explain five latent factors which lead to a baseline model
for further examination of interrelationships among them by using structural equation
modeling.

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transportation system. Transportation Research Part E, 40, 255-270.
Bektas, T. and Crainic, T.G., 2007. A Brief Overview of Intermodal Transportation.
Canada: Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and
Transportation.
BOI, 2017. . Bangkok: Thailand Board of Investment.
Butta, T.L. and Abegaz M.B., 2016. Challenges in the operation of multimodal transport
system: The case of Ethiopian shipping and logistics services enterprise. International
Journal of Applied Research, 2(7), 927-932.
Choi, B.L., Chung, K.Y. and Lee, K.D., 2014. The impact of policy measures on
promoting the modal shift from road to rail. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 18,
1423 1429.
Corman, F., Viti, F. and Negenborn, R.R., 2017. Equilibrium models in multimodal
container transport systems. Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, 29, 125
153.
CPD, 2015. Direction of Thai Rubber Industry in the ASEAN (in Thai). Bangkok:
Cooperative Promotion Department.
Danielis, R. and Marcucci, E., 2007. Attribute Cut-Offs in Freight Service Selection.
Transportation Research Part E, 43.
De Vellis, R., 2003. Scale development: theory and applications: theory and application.
Thousand Okas, CA: Sage.
Garson, D. (2009). Testing of assumptions [online], Available from:
http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/PA765/assumpt.htm.
Hair, J.F.Jr., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E. and Tatham, R.L., 2010.
Multivariate data analysis, 7th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Heljedal, M., 2013. Factors Influencing the Choice between Road and Multimodal
Transportation. Thesis (Master), , Sweden.
Hon, C.K.H., Chan, A.P.C. and Yam, M.C.H., 2013. Determining safety climate factors in
the repair, maintenance, minor alteration, and addition sector of Hong Kong. Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management, 139(5), 519-528.
Islam, D.M., Ricci, S. and Nelldal, B.L., 2016. How to make modal shift from road to rail
possible in the European transport market, as aspired to in the EU Transport White
Paper 2011. European Transport Research Review, 8(18), 1-14.
Kim, H.Y., 2013. Statistical notes for clinical researchers: assessing normal distribution
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Kreutzberger, E., Macharis, C., Vereecken, L. and Woxenius, J., 2003. Is Intermodal
Freight Transport More Environmentally Friendly Than All-Road Freight Transport? A
Review. NECTAR Conference No 7, 13-

214
Kritchanchai, D., Chanpuypetch, W., 2009. A Framework for Decision Support Systems in
Logistics: A Case Study for Thailand Rubber Exports. International Journal of
Logistics and SCM Systems, 3(1), 24-31.
Luathep, P., Jaensirisak, S. and Saengpradab, S., 2016. The impact of transport
infrastructure development on modal shift: case study of rubber goods in the southern
Thailand. KKU Engineering Journal, 43, 225-227.
Muller, G., 1995. Intermodal Freight Transportation (3rd ed.). Westport, Connecticut: Eno
Transportation Foundation.
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36(l), 1-19.
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(ThaiVCML2009), 2009 Thailand.
Roberts, K., 2012. Key Factors and Trends in Transportation Mode and Carrier Selection.
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215
[Paper ID 92]

Millicent Asah-Kissiedu1, Patrick Manu2, Colin Booth3 and Abdul-Majeed

Mahamadu4

Abstract
Implementing separate Environmental Management System (EMS) and Safety and Health
Management System (SHMS) can be costly for organisations and hence the advent
of integrated management systems. The effective implementation of integrated safety,
health and environmental (SHE) management would require companies to have
the appropriate organisational capability. Within the academic literature, it is unclear which
organisational attributes are important for ascertaining integrated SHE management
capability of construction companies. This study sought to address this through
a comprehensive review of literature relating to SHE management in construction and SHE
management systems and models. The study revealed that organisational attributes that
could determine integrated SHE management capability include: senior management
commitment to SHE; SHE risks management; SHE objectives and programs; staff
competencies; resources for SHE implementation; SHE roles and responsibilities; SHE
communications; SHE documentation and control measures; SHE emergency plans; SHE
monitoring and performance measurement; and SHE auditing and management review
to capture lessons learned. These attributes could enable construction companies and other

an integrated SHE management system.

Keywords: organisational, maturity, capability, safety, health and environment

1
University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom,
Email: Millicent Asah-Kissiedu
2
University of Manchester, The School of Mechanical, Aerospace & Civil Engineering,
Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
3
University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom
4
University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom

216
Introduction
economy, it has earned the unenviable rank of being one of the highest contributors to
work-related injury, accounting for not less than 30% of the work-related fatalities, injuries
and illnesses globally (ILO, 2010; Ministry of Manpower, 2017). Additionally, the
construction sector is one of the main sources of environmental pollution and responsible
for the substantial exploitation and consumption of both natural and processed resources
(Geipele and Tambovceva, 2011; Enhassi et al., 2014). For instance, in the USA the
construction sector accounts for about 21% of all occupational deaths from injuries
(Hallowell and Gambatese, 2009). In Botswana, the sector is also responsible for 55% of
workplace accidents (Mosanawe, 2013). In addition to poor safety and health, the
construction industry is also one of the largest industrial contributors to poor
environmental sustainability. In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) countries, construction is responsible for about 25-40% of total
energy use (UNEP, 2007). In the UK, the construction industry is responsible for 33% of
all waste generated (BRE, 2008). Certainly, there is an urgent need to improve safety,
health and environment (SHE) management in the construction industry. To address the
SHE problems in construction, many SHE management solutions and initiatives have
emerged over the years. Amongst these initiatives have been the adoption and
implementation of management systems particularly environmental management system
(EMS) and safety and health management system (SHMS). The parallel implementation of
such stand-alone systems within a company can, however, be costly (Griffith, 2000; Zeng
et al., 2007) and therefore having an integrated SHE management system is desirable.
More so in developing country context where financial resource commitment to
health, safety and environmental issues is scant. The implementation of such an integrated
management system would require companies to have the appropriate organisational
capability. However, there is a lack of clarity within the academic literature, about what
organisational attributes are important for ascertaining integrated SHE management
capability of a construction company. This study, thus, through a review of the literature,

implement an integrated SHE management. The next section presents a brief review of
SHE management and capability maturity literature. Subsequently, the research method
and findings are presented, followed by the discussions and concluding remarks.

Safety, Health and Environmental Management Capability in

construction
Though considerable efforts have been made to address SHE problems in construction, the
industry today is still characterised by accidents, injuries, fatalities, and negative
environmental impacts. Over the last few decades, the construction industry has embraced
management systems (MSs) particularly, EMS and SHMS based on management system
standards as a systematic approach for controlling the key management functions of safety
and environment (Griffith, 2000). Construction companies are therefore implementing
such management systems, to effectively address SHE issues and their associated
undesirable outcomes and also demonstrate and achieve sound SHE performance
The implementation of EMS and SHMS in the industry, though on a low scale have
provided an effective way for organisations to reduce environmental incidents and civil
liabilities, improved awareness of environmental impacts of their operations, increased the
efficiency of operations by cutting waste, lessening injuries and fatalities and improving a
he parallel
implementation of independent systems in a construction organisation is bureaucratic,

217
onerous and costly (Griffith, 2000). More so, in the developing country contexts where
implementation of MSs tend to be low due to limited funds, resources and expertise
(Ayarkwa et al., 2010). As a consequence, an integrated management of SHE through a
single system is desirable to control and manage the key SHE operations, resources and
structure with maximum effectiveness and minimum bureaucracy (Zeng et al., 2007).
The implementation of such a system by construction organisation, therefore require
them to have the appropriate organisational capability in respect of SHE management.
However, conspicuously missing in the body of academic SHE management literature is a
thorough understanding of what constitutes SHE management capability of a construction
company with the responsibility of improving SHE performance. In addition, no studies
have sought to identify and categorise SHE management capability attributes to aid
objective assessment of SHE management capability of construction companies.

Towards SHE management capability modelling in construction

Currently, one of the widely-accepted frameworks for assessing the maturity of
organisations in the performance of its tasks and managing its organisational processes is
the capability maturity model (CMM) and/or its extension, the capability maturity model
integrated (CMMI) (Paulk et al., 1993; Ngai et al., 2013). Increasingly CMM has become
a tool, used to assess and improve organisational processes, systems, products, and
competencies on the evolutionary path towards excellence and the attainment of desired
outcomes (Strut et al., 2006). The concept of CMM has been applied in the construction
industry as a means of accessing capability in areas such as risk management (Zou et al.,
2010), supply chain (Vaidyanathan and Howell, 2007) and BIM (McCuern et al., 2012). In
the area of safety, health and environment, CMM frameworks have been developed to
address safety culture (Fleming, 2001), assess construction site safety management (AC 2E
performance matrix by Carillon Plc), and also for design in the offshore sector (Sharp et
al., 2002; Strut et al., 2006). However, no maturity model exists for assessing a

construction. The first step in developing a CMM for SHE management is to identify and
define the key attributes that will serve as the criteria in assessing capability to achieve the
overall SHE goals of an organisation.
The application of CMM is reliant on the identification of key attributes referred to as
key process areas (KPA) which represent performance indicators for benchmarking
capability and process improvement areas across organisation and systems (Paulk et al.,
1993). These capabilities attributes refer to a set of organisational processes, activities,
practises, competencies and resources that are required or performed to reach some desired
outcomes or achieve a set of goals (Curtis et al., 1995). They largely include processes,
people, policy, and resources required to execute germane organisational functions. This
study, therefore, explored the relevant attributes required for assessing construction

SHE management CMM (SHEM-CMM).

Research Methodology
A comprehensive review of literature related to SHE management and not limited to
construction was used to generate a list of SHE capability attributes. The literature
comprised of safety and health, and environmental management guides and international
standards, journal articles and texts covering SHE management systems/models as outlined
in Table 1. The relevant literature related to maturity models on safety and health, and
environmental management (e.g. Fleming, 2001; Filho et al., 2010), AC2E performance
matrix by Carillon Plc and the design safety maturity models (Sharp et al., 2002; Strut et

218
al., 2006) were also reviewed.
The literature analyses revealed that existing SHE management texts, guides, and
international standards generally follow the Plan - Do- Check- Act (PDCA) management
approach and thus, share common requirements which allow most of the elements to be
integrated. As a result, in developing the list of organisational attributes for ascertaining
SHE management capabilities, information from already established internationally
recognised SHE management standards and published works were extracted, by comparing
their components in order to determine key similarities and differences, thereby
establishing the potential integrated SHE capability attributes. The literature sources and
the SHE management components and practises are shown in table 1.

219
Table 1 SHE management literature sources
Environmental management Safety and health management system Integrated management
system (EMS) standards and (SHMS) standards, guidelines and published system (IMS) standards
published works works and published works
Component/Practices Component/Practices Component/Practices
BSI (2012)

ISO (2015)
EC (2008)
BSI (2003)
(Responsible Care
(2015)
Chan (2011)
HSE (2013)
BSI (2007)
ILO (2001)
BSI (2013)
IOSH (2015)
AS/NZS (2001)
Hughes and Ferret
(2015)
Hamid et al. (2004)
Re bello et al. (2015)

SMC SMC Leadership and commitment

EMS-C SHMS-C Implementation team

PR PR Baseline review
EMS-B SH-B Identification of IMS Hazards,
aspects and impacts identification
IEAI ISHH Risk assessment and identification
PLAN

of control measures
AEAI SHRA Legal and other requirements

PLAN
ICULR ICULR Integrated management policy
ENVPO SHPO Objectives and Targets of IMS
ENOT SHOT Management programmes of IMS

ENVMP SHMP Organisational roles and

responsibilities
SRR SRR Resources
PAR PAR Communication
EINV EINV Participation and Consultation of
Employees
COENVI CSHI Training and awareness
DO

EINV EINV Competence of employees

DO
ITNT ITNT Documentation of the IMS
COE COE Control of documents
EMSDO SHMSDO Operational Control

EMSDC SHMSDC Emergency preparedness and

response plans and procedures

220
 OPC OPC Performance monitoring and
measurement

EPAR EPAR Evaluation of Compliance

MAM PMAM Incidents investigation

EOC EOC Non-conformity and corrective

CHECK
actions

NCP IIVES Records Control

RC NCP Combined Internal Audits

CHECK
EMSAUD RCM Integrated Management review

ACT
TALL SHAUD Continuous improvement and
innovation
MR TALL
PER MR

CERT CERT

ACT
SD SD

CI CI

Notes:

AEAI=Assessment of environmental aspects and impacts in order to select significant aspects; CERT= Certification; CI=Continuous improvement; COE =Competency of Employees;
COENVI=Communication of environmental information to all employers; CSHI= =communication of safety and health information; EMSAUD = environmental management systems auditing ;
EMS- B = EMS budgets ; EMS-C = EMS champion selection; EMSDC=EMS documentation control; EMSDO =EMS Documentation; EINV=Employees involvement; ENVPO =Environmental
policy ; ENVMP=An environmental management program and an action plan ; ENOT = Environmental objectives and targets; EIOPM=Establishment and implementation of operational control
measures; EOC= Evaluation of compliance with relevant laws and regulation; OPC = Operational control; EPAR=Emergency preparedness and response; ICULR= Identification, communication
and updating all applicable legal and other requirements; IEAI = Identification of all environmental aspects and related impact; IIVES= incidents investigations; ISHHR = investigation of safety
and health hazards and risks; ITPT=Identification of training needs and provision training programmes; MAM= Monitoring and measurement; MR = Management review;
NCCPA=Nonconformance and corrective and preventive action; PAR= Provision and Allocation of Resources; PER = Publishing Environmental report; PMAM = Performance monitoring and
measurements; PR= Preliminary review; RC= Records control; RCM = Records control and management; SD = Self-declaration of an EMS/SHMS adoption; SHAUD = SHMS Auditing; SH-B =
safety and health budgeting; SHMP = safety and health management programme; SHMS-C = safety and health and management safety champion selection; SHMSDC=safety and health
documentation control; SHMSDO= safety and health documentation; SHOT = Safety and Health objectives and targets; SHPO= safety and health policy; SHRA safety and health risks assessment
SMC = Senior management commitment and leadership; SRR = Structure, roles and responsibilities; TALL=Taking action on lessons learned

221
Findings and discussions
The SHE capability attributes obtained from a review of the literature are shown in Table 2.
The attributes includes: Senior management commitment; SHE policy; Objectives and
targets; SHE management programme; SHE risk management; Management of outsourced
services; operational control; SHE emergency preparedness and response; SHE performance
monitoring and measurement; SHE incidents investigation; SHE system auditing; Roles and
responsibilities; Training; Employee involvement; Competence; Physical and financial
resources; Communications; Documentation and control; Lessons and knowledge
management. These, SHE capability attributes share similarities with the requirements of
existing integrated management systems, the criteria proposed by Strutt et al. (2006) for the
development of an offshore design safety capability maturity model (DSCMM) and the
health and safety maturity model (HSMM) by Goggin and Rankin (2010). A significant
difference, however, is the reliance on 12 key safety processes areas and 6 key safety factors
in comparison with the 27 capability attributes that emerged in this study.

Table 2 Summary of organisational capability attributes for SHE management

No. Capability attributes Description and examples of indicators of Related key process area
attributes category

Information
Resources
processes
Strategy

People
1 Senior management Senior management commitment to safety, x
commitment health and environment (SHE) management
2 SHE implementation SHE teams solely for the implementation of x
team SHE management in the company
3 Baseline review A x
current status of SHE management processes
4 Hazards, environmental Systems, processes and procedures for SHE x
aspects and impacts hazards and environmental aspects and
identification impact identification
5 SHE Risks assessment Systems, processes and procedures for SHE x
and identification of risks assessment and identification of control
control measures measures
6 Legal and other Identification, having access to and analysing x
requirements applicable legal and other requirements
which apply to all activities
7 SHE Policy An integrated policy that serves as the x
foundation for a company's she development
and implementation
8 SHE objectives and SHE objectives and targets for a company in x
targets line with SHE policy
9 SHE Management x
programme objectives and targets
10 SHE roles and Availability of dedicated SHE roles, and x
responsibilities responsibilities within an organisational
hierarchy
11 SHE resources Provision of physical and financial resources x
for SHE implementation
12 SHE Training Provision of suitable SHE training for x
personnel

222
13 SHE Competence The skills, knowledge and experience of x
personnel to undertake responsibilities and
perform SHE activities
14 Management of Process or a mechanism for assessing the x
outsourced SHE services competence outsourced personnel,
subcontractors and suppliers with regards to
management of SHE
15 SHE Communication Communication of relevant SHE information x
and requirements to personnel and other
relevant stakeholders
16 Employee Involvement in Consultation and involvement of all x
SHE employees at all stages of SHE management
17 SHE Documentation Provision and maintenance of adequate SHE x
documentation and records
18 Control of SHE Processes and procedures for ensuring that x
documents SHE documents are maintained, current and
available to employees
19 SHE Operational Control Processes, procedures and measures for x
controlling SHE risks, to ensure SHE
regulatory compliance in operational
functions and to achieve the overall SHE
objectives.
20 SHE Emergency Emergency procedures and measures to x
Preparedness and minimise the impact of uncontrolled events
Response and unexpected incidents.

21 SHE Performance Systems, processes and procedures to x

Monitoring and monitor and measure SHE performance
Measurement
22 Evaluation of Processes and procedures to monitor and x
Compliance access compliance with SHE regulations and
other applicable requirements

23 SHE Incidents Processes and procedures for investigating x

Investigations the causes of SHE incidents.

24 Non-conformance; Processes, procedures and systems for the x

corrective and preventive identification and correction of problems and
actions prevention of their recurrence.
25 SHE Records Control Processes and procedures for maintenance x x
and management of records of SHE
performance
26 SHE System Auditing Processes and procedures to conduct SHE x
audit to assess compliance and SHE
management system effectiveness.
27 SHE Lessons Learned Learning lessons from inspection, accident x
and Knowledge investigations audits etc. and acting on them.
Management
Related key processes area frequency 5 12 5 1 5

Following the work by Mahamadu et al., (2017) on the determination of Organisational

attributes for design for occupational safety and health capability (DfOSH) and the
categorisation of attributes in capability modelling (Paulk et al., 1993), the emergent SHE
attributes were further reclassif strategy
people
for describing organisations human capital, their roles, responsibilities and involvement in
process
223
 information
resources
related to the financial and physical resources necessary for effective SHE implementation.
From the Table 2, the majority of the SHE management capability attributes are either
process people and then information. The resources
category was associated with the least number. The high number of processes related
criteria is unsurprising and supports the primary ethos of CMMI/CMM which is premised
on a philosophy that key process improvement leads to sustained and repeatable attainment
of goals. For construction companies to effectively manage SHE issues, there is a need for
commitment, leadership and management (including all appropriate organisational
processes), and competent personnel operating in an environment where people are
engaged and trusted (HSE, 2013). The process attributes are therefore recognised as an
important aspect of SHE management capability, albeit the strategy, resources, systems,
information and people that facilitate the processes also need full consideration. However,
the prevalence of particular types of the integrated SHE attributes does not necessarily
indicate their weight or importance and therefore, further research is required to determine
the relative importance of the attributes.

Conclusions
The use of integrated SHE management systems could help construction organisations
manage SHE challenges while reducing the cost of implementing separate or stand-alone
management systems. In order to implement integrated SHE management systems
successful
capability to effectively manage SHE issues. The study explored the integrated SHE
management capability attributes of construction companies as a precursor for identifying
metrics for the development of a bespoke SHEM-CMM. This study, based on the review of
literature, revealed 27 organisational attributes that could determine integrated SHE
management capability. The findings highlight the prevalence of process and strategy
capabilities attributes. The findings also acknowledge the role of people and information
capability attributes. The study further highlights the prevalence of process, people and
strategy capabilities attributes. Overall, the research findings could assist construction
companies and other stakeholders (e.g. clients who appoint construction companies) to

integrated SHE management system. Moreover, it could aid objective assessment of

integrated SHE management capability maturity of construction firms and allow them to
target efforts at addressing any areas of capability deficiency. Future work will involve
refinement of the 27 attributes by the way of further integrating closely related attributes.
Additionally, future work would ascertain the relative importance of the attributes and also
define maturity levels and a scoring method for the assessment of integrated SHE
management capability.

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226
[Paper ID 30]

Calistus Ayegba1 and David Root2

Abstract
There is increasing adoption of framework contracts (FC) for construction project delivery
in South Africa, but it is not yet clear what the performance of the approach
is in accomplishing client's expected outcomes of projects being delivered on time, within
budget and to required quality and satisfaction. In this study, the performance of FC and the
variables that influences the performance is investigated empirically. A qualitative research
methodology was adopted for the study. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews
with key informants of eight purposively selected client organizations employing
FC in South Africa. From the findings, FC is indicated to have performed spectacularly
in dealing with unnecessary cost overruns, time delays, and improvement in the quality
of delivery. However, it was reported that the approach work best for repetitive works
and when a client has the intention of a long-term programme of work. In which case,
clients also have to take care to avoid complacency from the contractors. The results
provide substantial evidence that FC can perform better than the conventional approaches
of short-term relationships and contracts. The result of the study provides insights that
can encourage construction stakeholders to appreciate and adopt FC as a viable alternative
approach for construction project delivery.

Keywords: framework contracts, performance, performance variables, South Africa

1
School of Construction Economics and Management, University of Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa, E-mail:1174370@students.wits.ac.za
2
Professor, School of Construction Economics and Management, University of Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa

227
Introduction
The performance of projects is primarily measured using key indicators such as the cost,
time, quality and satisfaction objectives. Therefore, projects which are delivered within cost
and schedule; and to required quality and satisfaction are regarded to have performed
successfully. Compared to the manufacturing and other industries, construction projects
have a history of poor performance, as reports of construction projects failing to meet
clients expected outcomes proliferate across the globe (for example see: Construction Sector
Transparency Initiative's 2011; Baloyi and Bekker, 2011; Nkado, 2010, Flyvbjerg, Garbuio
and Lovallo 2009). Laryea and Watermeyer (2014) attributed the poor performance of
construction projects to the development and adoption of inappropriate procurement
strategies. Particularly as the traditional construction procurement strategy which is the
most common and widely used procurement strategy in the construction industry has been
found not to be flexible and responsive enough in handling the growing challenges of the
construction industry (Ruparathna and Hewage, 2015; Sinclair, 2011; CIOB, 2010). Thus,
indicating the need for developing and adopting appropriate construction procurement
strategies for construction project delivery.

1
School of Construction Economics and Management, University of Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa, Email:1174370@students.wits.ac.za
2
Professor, School of Construction Economics and Management, University of Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa
The underperformance of the traditional procurement strategy is attributed to the
fragmentation, adversarial, arms-length and short-term relationships which characterised the
procurement strategy (Suprapto et al., 2015; Eriksson and Westerberg, 2011). Therefore, a
shift from the traditional procurement to procurement strategies that internalise
collaboration and long-term relationships such as framework contracts are advocated and it
is gaining adoption in the construction industry.

between two parties to cover a long-term collaborative arrangement, particularly where

clients have a long-term program of work in mind and are looking to set up a process to
govern the individual construction or supply packages that may be necessary during the
term of the framework (Glover, 2008). FC has increasingly gained adoption for construction
project delivery in recent years. For example, a survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered
Surveyors (RICS, 2010) in the United Kingdom (UK), reported an increase from 2.9% to
4.4% of construction projects by value were being procured using the approach in 2007 and
2010 respectively. Creamer (2016) reported that the South African government is
developing FC that can be adopted by municipalities for the procurement of key
infrastructures. Also, the Municipal infrastructure support Agency (MISA) releases an
expression of interest for FC that will cover across twenty regions in South Africa
(Creamer, 2015). The increasing adoption of FC is attributed to the potentials of the
approach in addressing the key failings of short-termism and fragmentation of the
production team and processes of traditional contracting practices in response to the
challenges of complexities and uncertainties in construction (Cohen, 2008). With the
increasing adoption of FC in South Africa, the purpose of this study is, therefore, to
investigate the performance of FC and identified the variables which could influence the
performance of FC projects.

228
Literature Review
Framework Contracts in Practice
Framework contracts (FC) are increasingly being employed as a contracting strategy to
deliver projects successfully in the construction industry. Sources of FC via Scopus in

this topic from 17 countries, with the UK, Germany and Netherland dominating with 10, 5
and 4 publications respectively. FC is reported to be particularly used for high risk, high-
value construction projects such as schools, hospitals, roads, and other significant capital
expenditure (Construction Excellence, 2005).
A survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS, 2010) reveals that 2.9%
and 4.4% construction projects by value were procured in the UK in 2007 and 2010
respectively using FC. Similarly, of the 65 new universities projects awarded in South
Africa from 2013 to 2016, available at the new university website
(www.newuniversities.ac.za), 19 are within FC. Furthermore, in a study examining
innovative procurement practices at Wits University by Laryea and Watermayer (2014), the
FC was explicitly indicated as one of the contracting strategy and procurement innovations
adopted by the university in delivering capital projects that results within 6% control of
budget over a period of 6 years.
In addition, the South African government is adopting FC which can also be embraced
by the municipalities for the procurement of key infrastructures from 2016 (Creamer, 2015).
The rationale for the adoption of FC by the South African government as reported was to
achieve economy of scales, accelerate purchases, reduce the threat of procurement-related
corruption, and ensure better prices, especially for under-resourced municipalities.
Likewise, the municipal infrastructure support agency of South Africa expresses interest in
March 2016 in pioneering FC for managing contractors across 20 regions in South Africa.
The rationale is to reduce the scope of resources dedicated to procurement processes, so as
to focus more resources on project implementation.
Several empirical studies have reported a range of benefits associated with the use of
FC, which include a significant reduction in cost that would have been incurred in several
separate tendering exercises (Morledge and Smith, 2013). Lam and Gale (2015 and 2014)
reported significant cost savings and contractors performance. Also, in a study examining
the procurement of pumps via FC in the UK, Holden (1995) reported a reduction of 90% in
the number of suppliers used and 10-30% reduction in price. Balcik and Ak (2013) in their
study on supplier selection in relief organizations, demonstrated that the use of FC delivered
a 28% increase in response capacity, 13% decrease in delivery delays and 7-14% cost
reduction of relief supplies by the international federation of red cross and red crescent
societies in 2012. From the foregoing, FC has shown to have clear benefits capable of
adding value and significantly contribute to the achievement of project outcomes.

Research Method
Data on the performance of FC and the variables that influences the performance was
elicited from the narrative experience of key informants of organizations that have
employed FC in South Africa. This is typical to qualitative research methodology. This is
typical to qualitative research methodology in which participants are allowed to provide
data in their own words meanings will be informed from their point of view in line with the
interpretivist philosophy (Saunders et al., 2012).

229
 Semi-structured interviews were conducted face to face with key informants of
purposively selected organizations employing FC in South Africa. The Key informant
interviews involve interviewing people, who are selected for their first-hand knowledge
about a topic of interest and are likely to provide needed information, ideas, and insights on
the topic of interest (Kumar 1989; Marshall, 1996). Particularly, the interview questions

and quality of delivery and the factors that influence the performances.
Sixteen key informants from eight organizations with different background and
positions participated in the interviews. The organizations are thereafter coded using the
pseudonyms A1 to A8. The key informants that took part in the study are of diverse set of
representatives with different positions and from a wide range of backgrounds and
experience in construction procurement and FC. The data collected from the key informant
interviews were analysed with the aid of the Nvivo 11 pro qualitative data analysis software
for windows and following thematic qualitative data analysis methodology outlined by
Miles, Huberman and Saldana (2014).

Findings and Discussions

The findings are presented in a case by case analysis using matrix table following Miles et
al. (2014) guide with the aid of Nvivo 11 software. Using supporting direct quotes from the
key informants, Table 1 shows the findings from the study on the performance of FC in
South Africa. The findings are discussed below based on data presented in Table 1.

Table 1 Performance of Framework Contracts

Org Performance of Framework contracts
I.D
A1

A2 -

A3

tender process which is

A4 shattered by the outcomes and

results, in Solplaaitjie, we put 7 hundred million worth of buildings in 14
months, the total cost paid by the client was 3% below the cost on average of
the two projects. In Kimberly, 1% below the starting price adjusted for

architectural competition. Quality was therefore not compromised.

230
 A5

can take forever, with the possibility of a change that can bring forth a cost

A6

A7

safeguards the interest of any company, more than anything else, it also

A8

Framework Contracts Performance Cost-wise

As shown in Table 1, virtually all the organizations indicated that FC performs well and
better than normal contracts cost-wise. This is well illustrated by the responses from A2 and
A4:
-
contracts. If you want to make sure that your cost is controlled then a framework
cont -A2

Solplaaitjie, we put 7 hundred million worth of buildings in 14 months, the total cost
paid by the client was 3% below the cost on average of the two projects. In Kimberly,
1% below the starting price adjusted for inflation and in Mpumalanga we were 1%
-A4

In an African Construction and Totally Concrete conference in South Africa, one of the
concerns was the cost escalations and overruns of construction projects in South Africa and
according to Cokayne (2016) one of the delegates indicated that the cost of projects in South

escalations and overruns of construction projects in South Africa includes the Gautrain
projects in which there were cost overruns from R7 billion to R25.4 billion, the soccer city
stadium project in Johannesburg with cost overruns from R 1.916 billion to R 3.7 billion
and the Moses Mabida stadium Durban with cost overruns from R 1.6 billion to R 3.1
billion (Nkado 2010; Baloyi and Bekker 2011). Comparing these reports to the findings on
the performance of FC cost-wise indicate that FC is very cost effective.
The associated variables reported to have influenced the performance of FC cost-wise
are as follows:

ion and that is to

- A1

231
 - A2

-A3

-A4
The sharing of pains and gains principles which provide incentives for doing w A4
These responses imply that the relationship with contractors, the large scope of work,
early involvement of contractors, the use of NEC form of contracts which ensures on-time
payments and the incentives provided pain and gain sharing of cost are the variables that
influenced the performance of FC cost-wise.

Framework Contracts Performance Time-wise

With regards to the time performance of FC, from Table 1, it can be seen that all the
organizations indicate that FC performs well time-wise when used for construction project
delivery. As A3 and A5 put it:

-A3
assists in terms of it saves time especially for procurement processes that can take
forever, with the possibility of a change that can bring forth a cost implication.
It does support to deliver the project on time compared to the normal contract, without
-A5
The variables that were suggested to have influenced the FC performance time-wise by
the organisations include:

exactly what they

need to do due to the relationship you build, there is not time extension and no variation

he market
related cost of that item and multiply it by the profit and overheads that you have agreed

er for projects based on existing agreements, as opposed to

These findings are consistent with the findings from other studies on the benefits of FC
discussed earlier under the related literature section.

232
Framework Contracts Performance Quality-wise
Table 1 shows that with regards to quality of delivery, most of the organizations indicate
that employing FC assists in improving the quality of their project delivery. To quote from
the interviews transcripts:
an international architectural
competition. Quality was therefore not compromised. It is a quality building; there is no
-A4
-A8
However, some of the organisation does not
improves the quality of their projects as illustrated by A5: I wouldn't say quality wise it is
better, because you've got A5
Nevertheless, the variables that were indicated to have influenced the performance of
FC quality-wise include:
A1
A2
A3
ok some of the savings and put it into the enhancement of quality that was
A4

these three pillars of quality A7

Contractors tend to do the works to the best of their capability so as to maintain the
long-term relationship and for A8

Therefore, the performance of FC quality-wise is a significant factor in maintaining

long-term relationships with contractors and the familiarity of contractors by virtue of the
long-term relationships and the repetitive jobs influences the performance of projects in
terms of quality of delivery.
Other Performance of FC elicited from the organisations are that FC promotes skills
development and better for labour development; and Since its same crop of people that you
use it also enhance safety on site which is better than doing a new induction with a new
person whom you are not sure understands you properly. Nevertheless issues concerning
-term relationships and concerns
eral projects are
some of the drawbacks reported in the adoption of FC.

Conclusions
The use of traditional approaches for construction project delivery is greater in practice but
there is growing adoption of FC in South Africa. The findings from this study show that the
FC strategy performs well with regards to cost, time quality, safety and skills development.
This is in contrast to the reports of poor performance of construction projects using other
procurement methods particularly the traditional procurement strategy. The variables that
influence the performances of FC from the findings are the good relationships build with
contractors, the repetitive works, the pain and gain sharing practices, the use of NEC
contracts and intensive tendering and selection process in selecting suitable contractors for
FC. others are the flexibility provided, the early involvement of the contractors in the
project and the prospect of placing an order for new projects based on existing agreements
without having to go through a new procurement process when FC is in place.
233
 The result of the study is useful in providing insights that can encourage construction
stakeholders to appreciate and adopt FC as an alternative viable procurement strategy for
construction project delivery.

Acknowledgements
The assistance of Mosetengwane Maredi, Nothando Moloi and Lebogang Mokgosi in data
collection for this study is acknowledged.

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235
[Paper ID 78]

Dillip Kumar Das1

Abstract
Preparation of urban development plans is often not treated as a project, specifically
in developing countries despite the time, cost and other resource implications. It is seen that
preparation of the urban development plans and their implementation usually overruns
its schedule, cost and at times become uncertain. So, an argument has emerged that plan
preparation and implementation should be managed by use of project management
principles. Thus, the objective of the study is to explore the challenges in the preparation
of urban plans and their implementation and how project management as an anti-planning
measure will improve the efficiency in preparation of the plans and their implementation.
A Delphi research method involving interviews and discussions with urban planning
and project management professionals and experts was followed. Findings suggest that
preparation of plans and implementation suffer from several challenges under
the conventional process. However, if preparation of plans and implementation are treated
as projects, there will be opportunities for regular monitoring, review and control
as advocated by anti-planning. It will enable keeping a journal of the occurrences
on a regular basis which would allow to diagnose the challenges and obstacles and to take
appropriate remedial interventions.

Keywords: anti-planning, project management, schedule, urban plan

1
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Central University of Technology, Free
State, 20 President Brant Street, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 9301. Email: ddas@cut.ac.za

236
Introduction
Urban areas are central to the economic development of any country. In fact, they are
considered as the engines of economic growth. The urban areas or cities evolve
continuously and are highly dynamic. The smooth functioning of the urban areas and their
sustainable development require coordinated and effective interlinkage among the various
physical, spatial and infrastructural elements as well as their interaction with the socio-
economic activities and the environment. The development of the various elements in urban
areas and their interlinkage, and coordinated function require apposite planning. Further,
although, there are rules, regulations and control measures, the growth of the urban areas
often goes out of control. So, for the planning, and implementation of the plans regular
monitoring is essential. Plan preparation and implementation of the plans for development
of various physical, spatial and infrastructural elements that would help in the functioning
of the socio-economic, transportation activities and influence the environment are complex
processes. The preparation of the plans and their implementation are often conducted by a
team of professionals mandated by a designated authority such as Government, urban
development authorities or municipalities. Planning and implementation incur resources
such as time, cost and human resource. However, preparation of urban development plans is
often not treated as projects, specifically in the developing countries despite the time, cost
and other resource implications. It is usually undertaken by the urban planning and
development authorities following the conventional procedures. Consequently, experience
has evidenced that the plan preparation and their implementation usually overrun the
schedule, cost and at times become uncertain 1. So, an argument has emerged that the plan
preparation and their implementation should be treated as projects and managed according
to the project management principles. Further, anti-planning principles advocate to keep
journals of the events and occurrences on a daily basis that would assist to diagnose the
pitfalls and challenges and take corrective measures (Das, 2014; Newport, 2013). Therefore,
the study examined the following research questions such as:
(1) What are the challenges that plague plan preparation and implementation? and
(2) How project management as an anti-planning measure would improve the
efficiency of plan preparation and implementation for urban areas?
Consequently, the objective of the study is to explore the linkage between project
management and anti-planning in plan preparation and implementation so that efficiency
can be effected. In other words, the study examined the challenges encountered in the plan
preparation and their implementation and how principles of project management can assist
in the efficient plan preparation and implementation.

Urban planning, anti-planning and project management perspectives

Urban Planning

Planning is the conscious determination of a future course of action to achieve the desired
result. Future events, instead of leaving them to chance, are made to happen in a certain
recognized manner through planning. Planning involves choosing of a course of action from
all available alternatives for accomplishing the desired results with judicious use of
resources, within a limited time and with certainty. It sketches a complete mental picture of
things yet to happen in the enterprise through the process of looking ahead. The proposed
course of action is charted out in greater details with the help of a complex chain of plans
like policies, procedures, programmes and budgets focused on the objectives. In the context

1
Urban planning professionals

237
of urban areas, urban planning should basically concern itself with the physical framework
in which the social, political, and economic life of the community takes place. In the spatial
and physical sense urban planning revolves around the issues of how best to arrange land
and buildings to meet the needs of a modern urban civilization. However, planning, since
the dawn of industrial era has been dominated by the pervasive idea of efficiency, which
implies for a condition in which a specified task is performed with low inputs of resources
(Rittel and Weber, 1973). It is seen as a process of designing problem-solutions that might
be installed and operated economically. It is also considered as a problem, which can be
assigned to technically skilled personnel to accomplish the objective or could be relied upon
the efficiency of the experts who could diagnose the problem and solve it while
simultaneously reducing the resource input (Rittel and Weber, 1973). According to Kaiser,
Godshalk, Chapin (1995) and Neuman, (1998), plans can be seen as sets of agendas,
policies, designs and strategies for physical development, encapsulated in a two-
dimensional layout of the physical form of the city, whereas urban development regulations

Generally, these take the form of land use regulations, zoning ordinances and building codes
having the forces of law, which the city development authorities or council are bound to
follow (Birch, 2008: 142). However, the planned endeavour in the urban areas brings
clearly both positive and negative socio-economic outcomes simultaneously (Goodfelloow,
2013; Todes, 2011).
In other words, planning entails identifying the actions that might effectively narrow the
gap between what-is and what needs to be (Rirttel and Weber, 1973). Rittel and Weber
(1973) argue that the planning system can be seen as an on-going, cybernetic process of
governance, incorporating systematic procedures for continuously searching out goals;
identifying problems; forecasting uncontrollable contextual changes; inventing alternative
strategies, tactics, and times sequenced actions; stimulating alternative and plausible action
sets and their consequences; evaluating alternatively forecasted outcomes; statistically
monitoring those conditions of the public and of systems that are judged to be relevant;
feeding back information to the simulation and decision channels so that errors can be
corrected all in a simultaneously functioning governing process (Das, 2014). However,
counter arguments have emerged that such a complex set of steps leading to planning is
highly unattainable and likely to falter because planners deal with societal problems, which
are largely wicked in nature- that are inherently different from the definable problems that
scientists and perhaps some classes of engineers deal with (Beck, Thompson, Ney, Gyawali,
and Jeffrey, 2011; Hardin, 1998; Rittel and Weber, 1973). In case of planning problems in
the urban areas, which are essentially complex social issues and like other wicked problems
they have no stopping rule, there is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution (Beck et
al, 2011, Das, 2014) and every solution to a wicked problem is a one-shot operation (Rittel
and Weber, 1973). In contrast according to some scholars urban planning is simply
considered as a technical and apolitical exercise (Stone, 1993; Ward, 1996).
However, evidences and experiences from history suggest that urban planning has met
with numerous failures than successes. Examples of failures range from the failure of the
infrastructure and housing development process of Caracas the capital of Venezuela
(Thomson, 1983) to a number of cities in India such as the peculiar combination of up
market aristocracy (like Bangalore and Gurgaon fueled by private investors or international
financers like World Bank and the Asian Development Bank) (Goldman, 2008: 3, Roy
2009), and impregnable slums (a classic case of Mumbai) (Roy, 2009). Similarly, the
infrastructure scenario in Lagos, one of the largest cities of Africa is almost deplorable
(Gandy, 2006).

238
of cities in ways that promote their sustainability, inclusiveness and livability (Todes, 2011).
New approaches to planning have been evolving for some time. For example, the 2006

a new urban planning system (Todes, 2011), and -Habitat

(2009), which reflects on the past and present concepts and practices of planning across the

approach that dominated formal planning practice does not address the real conditions and
dynamics of rapidly growing cities in developing countries, and the extent of poverty,
inequality and informality (Das, 2014; UN-Habitat 2009). Plans are static instruments,
which take so long to produce that they become outdated fast, and paid little attention to
implementation, although planning traditions and practices vary considerably, and the
contextuality of planning and the need to develop locally appropriate systems of planning
are essential (Das, 2014; Healey, 2004:47; Todes, 2011).

In contrast to planning in which it requires to figure out in advance when and how to
accomplish objectives, anti-planning advocates throwing out all such rules and just dive in,
and adapting the best as possible to the circumstances. However, it entails to keep a record
of the experience, capturing the thoughts, triumphs, frustrations and the achievements for
later review, and learn from them to do better in future (Das, 2014; Newport, 2013). The
theory behind anti-planning is that it exposes to a much wider swath of the productivity plan
landscape. The problems can be seen in a hierarchical level from simple to complex, which
would allow see things from new viewpoints, assimilate complex concepts, and address
real-world problems and opportunities like Cynefin framework (Snowden and Boone,
2007). Like the Last Planner system, it envisages to working toward planned
accomplishments, doing what can be done to move along a planned path, and when that
becomes impossible, determine alternative paths that accomplish desired goals (Richert,
2017). Newport (2013) argues that the journal will keep things updated on how well the
things are going, which provides the selective pressure needed to drive towards some novel
approaches to get the work done (Newport, 2013). In the landscape of urban development
there are four things, which come out from the anti-planning arguments. First, the things
which start bad may end up in good and the things which start great may not necessarily end
up in so great rather may go worse (Thomson, 1983). Second, the law of nature and natural
growth always do not obey the theories of planning. It is not always possible to contain the
natural growth and therefore it is necessary to respect the law of nature and natural growth.
Third, people are the best to understand and know what is best for them and planning does
not adhere to that. Fourth, from the spatial development point of view anti-planning
advocates that the urban planning should first consider the land for other functions such as,
agriculture, economic development and ecological environment and not for construction
(Chang, Yang, Song, 2010, Das, 2014). Thus, anti-planning is not opposing to planning or
no planning as seen by many. It argues against what planning is all about- it needs to see
what is not needed to do than what is needed to be done (Beck, et al, 2011; Das, 2014; Rittel
& webber, 1973). Anti-planning suggests that it is critical for planners to anticipate more,
and to be confronted with the reality that something might not happen in order to facilitate
the happening of another thing. It boils down priorities, respecting the law of nature, people,
natural growth and determining alternate paths when it is possible to move along a
predetermined planned path. It is not necessarily against planning but provides a way to

239
plan based on the four hypotheses as discussed above so that the time consuming expensive
plans do not go waste leaving the cities in peril (Das, 2014).

Project management
According to PMBOK, Guide (2000) project management is the application of knowledge,
skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirement. It is the
practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to
achieve the desired objectives within the specified time by judicious use of the resources.
Plans can be treated as projects, in other words, as a temporary endeavour designed to attain
the set objectives within the limited resources and time (Nokes, 2007; PMI, n.d). It includes
competing demands for scope, time cost, risk and quality, identifying the requirements and
managing stakeholders with differing needs through an iterative manner (PMBOK Guide,
2000).
Approach of the study
Delphi technique and semi-structure interviews were used to capture the perceptions and
beliefs of the stakeholders (Liggett, McIntosh, Thompson, Gilbert, Storey, 2011). The
methods were found to be suitable for the study looking at the qualitative nature of the
study. The Delphi technique is a process by using a group of experts in the related fields of
the study used for survey and collect the opinions and perceptions of experts on a particular
subject (Yousuf, 2007). According to Linestone and Turoff (1975, p.3), Delphi may be
characterized as a method for structuring a group communication process so that the process
is effective in allowing a group of individuals, as a whole, to deal with a complex problem
(Hsu, & Sandford, 2007; Ludwig, 1997). This forecasting technique collects qualitative or
subjective information, though relatively accurate in a setting of imperfect information, by
combining the knowledge and experience of experts in different fields. It necessitates

back to them a new questionnaire, which contains previous exploration of the results from
the initial information obtained, and allowing them to change their opinion if they so wish
(controlled feedback) in an iterative manner of two to three rounds (Pulido-
- - According to scholars such as Miller (2006) in
contrast to c

qualitative nature and looks for a plausible change in the perspectives the way planning and
implementation are done and how project management can assist, this technique is deemed
to be suitable.
Initially, a number of experts (21) belonging to the field of Urban planning and Design
(8), Architects (4), Project management (3), Academicians from the field of architecture and
urban planning (4) and Urban development executives (officers in charge of
implementation) (2) were consulted and selected as the exerts for the study. The selections
were conducted based on their expertise and experience in the field of study. Of the 8 urban
and planning and design professionals 2 are at the higher level, 5 are from the middle
executive level and one is from the junior executive level. The architects were professional
consultants. Of the 3 project managers 2 are at the middle management level and 1 has been
working as an engineer for a considerable period before becoming a project manager. The
urban development executives are well experienced (more than 10 years in the job) too. All
the academicians selected belonging to mid-career group. However, after the first round
only 18 experts participated and three (one urban planning professional, one academicians
and one architect) did not participate. All the experts are well qualified (at least a bachelor
degree in the relevant field), have sufficient practical and work experience (more than 10
years of experience) and are experts in their filed. So, the sample size and diversity of

240
expertise is found to be acceptable (Donohoe and Needham, 2009; Garrod and Fyall, 2005;
Sobaih, Ritchie, and Jones, 2012; Vera & Haiyan, 2014; Wright, 2001). The questions asked
(discussed) include the aspects related to process of urban plan preparation, challenges
faced during the plan preparation, challenges with regard to implementation, role of anti-
planning and how project management can assist. A Likert scale ranging between 1-6,
where 1 is the greatest importance and 6 is the least importance was also used to receive the
perceptions and opinions in addition to their qualitative response. The qualitative
discussions were made in two rounds (Lin et al., 2014; Song et al., 2013). After the first
round the results were send to the experts to confirm or change their opinions. Anonymity
of the panel members and responses were kept to avoid the individual and mutual prejudices
and bias (Lin et al., 2014; Song et al., 2013).
The qualitative responses were compiled and analysed by use of narrative analysis and
the perceptions on Likert scale responses were analysed by use of the mean value of the
Likert scale responses (Likert index) and the median.

Results and Discussion

The responses received from the experts from round one was compiled and analysed. The
findings were again send to the experts for their confirmation, amendments, or
disagreements in the second round. Once the responses were received after the second
round, the responses were compiled and analysed and the findings are presented below. The
findings and discussions were made based on the themes such as the challenges in the urban
planning process., implementation of the plans and role of project management and anti-
planning thereof. The qualitative responses were also compared with the survey responses
obtained from the Likert scale evaluation (Table 1 and 2) to corroborate or disagree with the
findings.

Challenges in the urban planning process

The urban planning process used particularly by the city development/planning authorities
or municipalities in the developing countries are generally governed by the mandate of the
government. The plans are prepared periodically depending on the priorities and demands of
the situation for different aspects independently or in combination. The plan preparation is
usually carried out by a team of professionals (constitutes of people belonging to different
knowledge areas, and skills) under the leadership of a senior administrative official(s) or
professionals. However, challenges faced in the plan preparation are multifarious. Often, the
planning team or development authority as a whole lack competent human resource from
relevant fields. Usually, all the decisions are taken and works are being carried out by one
or two persons. Sometimes, the unavailability of key personnel also causes challenges and
stall the plan preparation. The experts almost agreed that most of the plans exceed their
schedule due of a number of reasons that includes lack of competent human resource,
unavailability of data, lack of financial resource, bureaucratic bottlenecks and lack of timely

and if it does not happen in the appropriate time and also regularly, then it creates problems
when the plan is opened for public review before the evaluation of the alternate plans or
finalisation of the plans. Further, one of the major challenges is the level of review,
monitoring and control. It does not happen often and in case it happens it lacks in-depth
diagnosis and appropriate remedial measures. Overall, the major challenges in plan
preparation are the schedule and cost overruns, poor monitoring and control as well as the
availability of financial and human resources, which are also corroborated from the Likert
scale analysis as given in Table 1.

241
Challenges in the implementation of the plans
The implementation of the plans usually occurs in the phases depending on the demands
and priorities. The implementation is either done by the planning / developing authorities or
sourced to executive agencies. According to the experts, the needs of coordination of
different agencies, cost, availability of resources (land, infrastructure, budget, equipment,
etc.,) are the major challenges. Moreover, as seen from the Table 1 and agreed by the
experts the implementation usually far exceeds the schedule period, which often occurs
because of the indecision or delay in taking the decisions by the decision making
authorities, and interference of the pressure groups such as political groups and individuals
and bureaucracy. Further, although, review, monitoring and control mechanisms are found
t assist in improving the situation because of different
reasons such as lack of resources such as financial, and human resources, cost, issues
relating to land, etc. Moreover, the lack of objectivity in the review and monitoring,
becomes a major reason against making timely interventions to improve the implementation
situation.
Table 1. Relative importance of the challenges in the urban planning process and
implementation of the plans
Issues Rank Mean Median Scale of Importance
Challenges in the Urban planning 1 2 3 4 5 6
process
Lack of human resource 5 2.61 3 4 5 5 2 1 1
Availability of financial resources 2 2.39 2.5 6 4 3 2 2 1
Timely decision making by the 6 2.72 3 5 3 3 6 1 0
authorities
Data availability 4 2.56 2 6 5 2 2 2 1
Schedule overruns 1 1.89 2.5 8 5 4 1 0 0
Cost overruns 3 2.44 3.5 6 4 3 4 1 0
Bureaucratic bottlenecks 3 2.44 3 5 6 3 3 0 1
Stakeholders engagement 4 2.56 3 5 5 4 2 1 1
7 2.83 3 3 5 5 3 1 1
opinions
Political and pressure group interference 8 3.11 3.5 4 4 2 3 4 1
Review, monitoring and control 6 2.72 3 5 5 4 0 2 2
Evaluation of alternate plans and options 10 3.17 3 4 4 2 3 3 2
Final decision making and final plan 9 3.06 3 5 3 3 2 3 2
preparations
Challenges with regards to implementation
Decision on implementation 5 2.78 3 5 4 3 3 2 1
Resource availability 2 2.50 3 6 4 4 2 1 1
Cost challenges 1 2.22 2.5 7 5 3 1 2 0
Schedule challenges 3 2.56 4 6 6 4 4 0 0
Challenges with regards to implementing 7 3.11 3 3 3 6 3 1 2
agencies
Review, monitoring and control 6 3.00 3 4 4 4 2 2 2
Interference of stakeholders 8 4.06 2.5 2 2 3 2 4 5
Interference of pressure groups, 4 2.67 3 6 3 3 4 1 1
bureaucracy and political groups

Role of project management and anti-planning in the planning and implementation

According to the panel, the cost overrun, schedule overrun and review, monitoring and
control are the three most important challenges in the plan preparation and implementation.
Although, both the activities (planning and implementing) involve, schedule, cost and
resources, it is also seen that they have hardly considered as projects and managed by the
242
use of project management principles. Experts agree that if planning and implementation of
plans are treated as projects, in other words project management principles are adhered to
and managed by project managers, then the schedules can be developed more efficiently
and cost, budget and execution of the plans or implementation will be conducted more
appropriately. Further, the project managers can keep a journal of the regular developments,
progresses, happening and challenges, through regular reviews and monitoring, which
consequently will assist taking remedial measures, which are corroborated from the findings
given in the Table 2. For example, the challenges in the plan preparation can be noted
periodically (almost from the daily to weekly basis) and obstacles and challenges faced
during implementation can be diagnosed and progress of implementation or execution of the
works can be noted and compared to the schedule. In other words, the application of the
project management principles such as review, monitoring and control will keep the track of
the challenges and progress periodically, which are essentially argued by the principles
profess by anti-planning. Besides, if the plan preparation and implementation are considered
as projects then they will follow a project life cycle starting from initiation to ending with
closure, thus limiting the challenges of time, and cost overruns and resource constrains.
Because, essentially, anti-planning measures brought in by project management will assist
in alleviating the challenges in the planning process and implementation of the plans,
thereby making them efficient.
Table 2. Role of project management in the planning and implementation
Issues Rank Mean Median Scale of Importance
Role of project management 1 2 3 4 5 6
Creation of project charter and 7 3.22 2.50 3 4 5 6 0 0
initiation of the project and
mandate
Preparation schedule 1 1.78 2.00 8 6 4 0 0 0
Procurement of resources 7 3.22 3.00 5 5 3 3 2
Control of budget and costs 2 2.17 3.00 5 4 4 2 1 1
Execution of the plans according to 3 2.28 3.00 7 5 5 1 0 0
schedule and availability of
resources
Stakeholders engagement, 6 2.44 2.50 3 4 3 2 2 1
implementation of their demands
Control of the schedule and 5 2.39 3.00 6 5 3 3 0 1
resources
Review and monitoring of the 4 2.33 2.00 6 6 2 2 2 0
execution of the plans
Keeping a journal of daily progress 3 2.28 2.50 7 6 3 2 1 0
and challenges and taking remedial
interventions

Conclusion
Preparation of the urban plans and their implementation in the developing countries face
serious challenges. More often the plan preparation exceeds the schedule and budget.
Despite the availability of organisation and management systems, and involvement of time
and cost, apparently, the plan preparation and implementation are not treated as projects and
do not follow the project management principles. However, arguments have emerged that
interventions should be made to make the process of the plan preparation and
implementation more efficient. Therefore, this study examined the challenges in the
planning and implementation processes and how the use of project management principles
can improve the situation. For this purpose, a Delphi technique was used and the study was

243
conducted based on the combined opinions of the experts. It is found that planning and
implementation of the plans are not treated as projects. The preparation of the plans usually
exceeds the schedule and costs. Resource constraints, interference of the pressure groups,

major challenges that hinder both plan preparation and their effective implementation.
Besides, review, monitoring and control are ineffective and fail to improve the situation.

implementation are treated as projects, and managed by project management principles

following the project cycles, efficacy in the schedule preparation, and control of budget and
costs and resource management can be achieved. More importantly, this will allow breaking
down various activities into small elements that would enable effective review, monitoring
and control of the different activities and events, which will enable keeping of a regular
journal or record and learning from them based on which appropriate alternative and
remedial measures can be taken to improve the efficiency of the plan preparation and
implementation. Consequently, project management can act as an anti-planning measure
which will assist in the improvement of the efficiency of the plan preparation and
implementation. However, a detailed case study on how project management premised anti-
planning contribute to the efficacy of plan preparation and implementation will be
conducted as the further scope of research.

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[Paper ID 75]

Dillip Kumar Das1

Abstract
Real estate industry in India is facing challenges to complete the projects in time. Although,
some studies have examined the issue, studies regarding the management of the projects
by the companies are scarce. Using the case study of real estate projects in the Bhubaneswar
and Cuttack region of India, this study examined the factors that cause delay of the projects
and how the challenges can be alleviated. A survey research method was used to collect
both quantitative and qualitative data. Findings suggest that the majority of the companies
are either family based or of first generation that cause the projects to run on personal
discretion of the owners. Rigorous project management principles, particularly relating
to schedules and finance management are not followed largely. Mishandling of finance such
as the use of finance of one project in another, and investing in other properties such
as for accumulating land, and un-related commercial activities is a major reason for the
delay. Management of the projects by use of project management principles at different
phases of project cycle that include finance management, schedule management, and regular
monitoring of the project could assist in alleviating the challenges of delay of the real estate
projects.
Keywords: delay, finance management, project management, real estate, schedule

1
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Central University of Technology, Free
State, 20 President Brant Street, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 9301. Email: ddas@cut.ac.za

247
Introduction
Real estate industry in India has been in the forefront of the infrastructure development in
recent years particularly after the opening of the economy in the early 1990s. Over the last
three decades it has become one of the major industries in India and is observed to be the
third largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the country. It is estimated
that this sector has a worth USD 93.8 Billion in 2014, and is expected to grow to USD 180
Billion by 2020 (https://www.proptiger.com). The sector is growing at a rate of about 20%
per annum and has Some of the
important factors contributing to this phenomenal growth are the need for 110 million houses
by the year 2022, building of 100 smart cities as declared by the Government of India, ease
of rules and regulations for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and focus on affordable
housing and housing for all by the year 2022. Also, it is argued that the recent Real Estate
Regulatory Bill will boost the realty sector.
However, despite the growth it has not able to balance the supply demand continuum. It
has been experienced that the demand for housing has been increasing exponentially from
the last decade. In spite of the efforts made by the Government through various schemes, it
has not able to manage with the increasing demands. This scenario is observed almost all
over the urban India that includes majority of the medium and large cities. Consequently, a
number of real estate companies both at the private and public sector has started and
become operational. In recent years, corporate sector also has ventured into the business
(http://iasscore.in). The companies that deal with real estate development in the public
sectors are largely Government aided housing or infrastructure development boards, public
limited companies or joint ventures. However, the organisations that operate in the private
sectors include private limited companies, partnership firms, family owned business or
individual enterprises. It is also seen that most of the real estate activities in smaller and
medium cities are being controlled by the family owned business entities, partnership firms
or individual enterprises. Although, many of them are registered with the Registrars of
Companies under the Companies Act of India, 1956, they operate more or less in an
unorganised manner leading to portraying the sector an image of an unorganised sector.
With the rising of urban economy in the country, need for new houses to meet the
demand of already overcrowding accommodation and the high share of youth in the
population aspiring to have their own houses, the demand for houses is expected to further
rise. However, the real estate sector is not able to cope with the demands. The reasons could
range from the lack of finance, lack of timely land availability, delay in construction,
mismanagement by the real estate companies, to red tape procedures (Chandrasekhar and
Ghosh, 2018).
Consequently, the real estate industry in India is facing severe challenges with regards to
completion of the projects and handing over to the clients within the stipulated period.
Although, some studies have been conducted to examine the issue, studies with respect to
the management of projects by the real estate companies are scarce. Therefore, the study
examined the following research questions such as:
(1) What are the factors that play a major role in the delay of the projects?
(2) What is the level of use of project management aspects in the projects?
(3) How the challenge can be alleviated by the use of project management principles?
Based on the research questions the objectives of the study are to identify the factors
that play a major role in the delay of the projects, examine the level of use of project
management aspects in the projects and explore how the challenge can be alleviated by use
of project management principles. The study was conducted by using a number of real
estate companies in the Bhubaneswar and Cuttack region of India. A survey research
method was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Findings suggest that

248
many of the companies are either family based or of first generation. Majority of the
projects are run on the personal discretions of the owners and investors. Further, lack of
finance, mishandling of finance in terms of use of finance of one project in other projects or
investing in other properties such as accumulation of land, and non-related commercial
activities are the major barriers for completion of the projects. Rigorous project
management principles, particularly with regards to schedules are not followed in a large
scale. It is also ascertained that accreditation of companies, employment of skilled
professionals for development of project management plans and management of projects,
appropriate finance management and regular monitoring of the project progress with regards
to schedule will assist to meet the challenges of delay of the projects.

Real estate sector and perspectives of project

management in India
The real estate development industry is in transition particularly in a country such as India.
Traditionally, it constituted primarily of private entrepreneurs and family owned business
houses. However, in recent years large publicly held national or multinational companies
have emerged and are in the process of owning significant amount of property. Further,
corporate real estate has been emerged (Bon, 1995; Bin, Musa and Ahmad, 2012;
Kooymans, 2000; Liow and Ooi, 2000, 2004).
Like any other industries, real estate industry is highly complex and constitutes a number
of vital stakeholders such as developers, contractors, lenders, brokers, property managers,
, (Peiser, 2001). The
complex relationship between the various stakeholders makes this industry highly complex
and unpredictable.
Because of the huge population and the demand for housing, the real estate sector
particularly the housing remains and continues to be one of the most lucrative investment
opportunities that is available in India. The real estate companies are making every effort
through marketing efforts by extending many facilities to attract the investors to develop
real estate projects and also sell to the consumers to gain from the opportunities available
(Chandrasekhar and Ghosh, 2018; Tomer and Chetty, 2017).
However, it is found that the growth and success of the industry is basically direct
consumer driven. The sector grows or regress depending on the availability of the demands
by the consumers. In recent years, the sector is facing serious challenges because of the
reduced demands in many cities of the country. The major reason for such challenges is the
delay in projects (Chandrasekhar and Ghosh, 2018). The developers or real estate
companies are not able to complete the projects in time and deliver to the customers in time,
which is argued to be attributed to land issues (such as lack of availability of land, lack of
clear land titles, and high land prices), lack of availability of finance, difficult approval
procedures, corruption, judicial court interventions in case of conflicts, high taxation and
increase labour cost to a name a few. Further, the sector is plagued by lack of reliability,
commitment and appropriate regulations to control and monitor the sector (Chandrasekhar
and Ghosh, 2018). Consequently, looking at the various challenges faced by the real estate
industry and the consumers, the Government of India has launched Real Estate Regulation
and Development Bill recently. The purpose of the bill is to regulate contracts between
buyers and sellers in the real estate sector and to ensure consumer protection. It also seeks to
establish regulatory authorities at the state level to register residential real estate projects
and standardise the business practices (Chandrasekhar and Ghosh, 2018).
Nevertheless, because of the unorganised nature of the industry and lack of appropriate
regulation and accountability on the part of the entrepreneurs or real estate developers until

249
now, the project management aspect of the real estate projects has been undermined. The
challenge of managing the real estate projects by use of project management principles is
not in vogue, although, it is seen that the projects developed by the Corporate real estate
sector are argued to be largely managed appropriately in an integrated manner. For example,
the organization, investment planning and management, financial planning and
management, construction planning and management and facilities planning and
management, etc., are appropriately considered in an integrated manner as against that of
traditional real estate management in which these aspects are typically looked at separately
or in instances overlooked (Bin, Mohamed and Ahmad, 2012, Bon, 1995; Kooymans, 2000;
Liow and Ooi, 2000, 2004). However, the presence of Corporate real estate in Indian cities
is very marginal and the majority of the real estate development occurs based on the
management principles of the individual entrepreneurs or the company. Further, the linkage
between the lack of project management and delay has been scarcely studied, particularly in
the Indian context.

Study area
For the purpose of the study, the Cuttack- Bhubaneswar twin city region of Odisha state in
India was used as the study area. The study area constitutes two of the growing cities such
as Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and their hinterland in the Eastern region of the country.
Cuttack is considered as the commercial capital of the Odisha Province whereas
Bhubaneswar is the capital city of the Province. The two cities are located at about 20
Kilometres apart and connected by a National Highway and other arterial roads. The
population of the region is around 2.0 million (Census, 2011). The location of large number
of manufacturing industries, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industries,
business, educational and governance activities in and around the region have attracted large
population to the region, which has created a significant demand for the development of
infrastructure particularly in the housing sector. Further, availability of land in the region
provided the impetus for the development of housing and other infrastructures. As a result,
it provided opportunities for the growth of the real sector in the region. Although, the real
estate sector is observed to be growing during the last two decades, in recent times, the
sector is plagued by various challenges such as delay in the completion of the projects,
consumer dissatisfaction, conflict between the real estate companies and consumers, court
cases and judicial interventions, fraud, etc. Most of the challenges are argued to be
emanated because of the delay in the project completion and handing over to the customers.
Thus, it was felt necessary to examine why such delay occurs and how it is linked to project
management.

Methods
A mixed method of research was used in the study. This includes both quantitative and
qualitative research methods. A survey was conducted among 75 stakeholders such as
consumers or house customers by use of a pretested questionnaire through random sampling
process to understand challenges that cause delay. The stakeholders including customers
were selected based on their willingness to be a part of the survey from 9 real estate projects
(housing and housing cum commercial complex) from the Cuttack- Bhubaneswar regions.
The questionnaire includes the perceptions on the factors that cause delay of the projects.
Further, information regarding the management of the projects and related challenges
from four (4) real estate projects were collected from four (4) real estate companies
operating in the region through qualitative discussions with the real estate company
executives. For this purpose, stakeholders such as owners, professional managers, engineers

250
and investors were consulted. The discussions were conducted by use of non-structured
informal interview process. Further, general discussions were conducted among the real
estate company personnel that includes owners, investors, and project managers to
understand divergent viewpoints.
The perceptions of the stakeholders were collected by use of five point Likert scales. For
example, in case of perceptions on the factors of delay the Likert scale was developed with
the points ranging from non-influential to exceedingly influential (1-Not influential, 2-
marginally influential, 3- fairly influential, 4- significantly influential, 5- Exceedingly
influential). Similarly, while evaluating the implementation of project management
principles a similar five point Likert scale was used with points range from very
unsatisfactory to very satisfactory (1-very unsatisfactory, 2- unsatisfactory, 3- somewhat
satisfactory, 4- satisfactory, 5- very satisfactory) (Carifio, and Perla, 2008; Gross, 2018; Li,
2013; Peeters, 2015). The data collected was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively
to examine the major challenges and their interlinkage that cause delay of projects. The
mean score of the Likert scale were used to evaluate the perceptions about the factors
causing delay and implementation of the project management principles in the projects (Das
and Emuze, 2014; Lambsdorff, 2006; Nardo, Saisana, Saltelli, Tarantola, Hoffman,
Giovannini, 2005; Saltelli, 2007; Susan, Jamieson, 2004). The qualitative data was
analysed by use of narrative analysis (Reisman, 1993).

Results
Table 1 presents the ownership pattern of the real estate companies in the region. It is found
that about 65% of the companies are family owned private limited companies followed by
partnership firms (20.51%). More than half of the family owned companies (55% of the
family owned or 35.89% of the total number of companies) are of first generation. Also, the
individual entrepreneurs (8.97%) have a significant presence. However, corporate sector
(2.56%) and public limited companies (2.56%) in the real industry have a very meagre
presence. Thus, it is ascertained that most of the real estate companies are private limited
companies of that include family ownership, partnership and individually owned enterprises
and a significant share of them are of first generation.

Table 1. Ownership of real estate companies

Type of companies Numbers Percentage
dealt with
Corporate sector 2 2.56
Family owned (multi- 23 29.49
generations)
Family owned (first 28 35.89
generation)
Individual 7 8.97
entrepreneurs (first
generation)
Public limited 2 2.56
(Government owned)
Partnerships firms 16 20.51
Total 78

251
Delay in completion of the projects and handing over to the customers is observed to a
significant challenge in the real estate sector in the region. Therefore, it was necessary to
examine the factors that are responsible for the delay. Table 2 presents the factors that
influence delay on aggregate basis. The perception index in the Likert scale points out the
relative importance of the factors and the factors are ranked based on the PI values. Higher
ly to exceedingly high influence on the
occurrence of delay. However, a lower PI (<3.0) indicate no influence to marginal
influence. The evaluation of the factors shows that mishandling of finance (PI= 4.28),
execution of a number of projects simultaneously (PI= 4.24), poor decision-making (PI=
4.12), diversion of fund of one project to other projects (PI= 4.12), misuse of finance for
other unrelated activities (PI= 4.10), diversion of finance to accumulate land for further
development (PI= 4.08), decisions largely taken by owners (PI= 4.02) and diversion of
finance to other business activities (PI= 4.01) are the major factors that influence the
occurrence delay significantly. Further, factors such as lack of project management
personnel (PI= 3.92), poor management (PI= 3.89), decisions largely taken by investors
(PI= 3.76) and lack of finance (PI= 3.43) influence the occurrence of delay fairly. However,
land issues, lack of skilled technical personnel, lack of materials and equipment and
decisions taken by management professionals are not the major cause of concern with
regards to delay of the projects. Thus, it is found that although availability of finance is not
the biggest challenge, the mishandling of finance and diversion of funds to other projects,
purchase of land for future projects and unrelated activities such as investment in other
business activities and entertainment and luxury have significant impact on the delay of the
projects. Similarly, execution of several projects together makes the companies to divert
both funds and other resources such as personnel and equipment from one project to another
impact the smooth execution of the projects. Also, since the majority of the campaniles are
family owned or partnership firms and many of which are of first generation, the owners
generally take the decisions undermining the role of professionals, which ends up in poor
decision making. Besides, it is also found that investors have a fairly significant role in the
decision-making. Thus, poor decision making on the parts of the owners influenced by the
investors without the advice of the professionals contribute to the delay of the projects.

Table 2. Challenges that cause delay in of the real estate projects

Parameters causing delay N Perception index Rank
Poor decision-making 72 4.12 3
Decisions largely taken by 68 4.02 6
owners
Decisions largely taken by 62 3.76 10
investors
Decisions taken by 68 2.32 15
management professionals
Execution of a number of 73 4.24 2
projects simultaneously
Lack of finance 71 3.43 11
Mishandling of finance 73 4.28 1
Diversion of finance to other 63 4.01 7
business activities
Diversion of finance to 67 4.08 5
accumulate land for further
development

252
 Diversion of fund of one 65 4.12 3
project to other projects
Misuse of finance for other 69 4.10 4
unrelated activities such as
entertainment, leisure, luxury,
etc.
Poor management 59 3.89 9
Lack of skilled technical 64 2.46 13
personnel
Lack of project management 67 3.92 8
personnel
Lack of materials and 71 2.34 14
equipment
Land issues 62 2.98 12
1- Not influential,2- marginally influential, 3- fairly influential, 4- significantly
influential, 5- Exceedingly influential

An examination of the implementation of various activities and events of the project

management aspects such as project initiation, project planning, project execution, project
monitoring and control and project closure in four different projects has been conducted and
presented in Table 3. The table revealed that the implementation of project initiation phase
is somewhat satisfactory or satisfactory in three out of the four projects whereas project
planning is done somewhat satisfactorily in only two of the projects. Similarly, project
execution is somewhat satisfactory in the same two projects. However, project monitoring
and control is unsatisfactorily done in all the four projects. Project closure is done to some
extent in only two of the projects. The major issues which are not appropriately considered
in all the projects are resource management, risk management and communication
management at the planning stage. Similarly, during project execution, implementation of

conducted. Further, it is found that all the aspects under control and monitoring such as
project control, control of schedule, control of cost, control of quality, control of resources,
monitoring of communication, monitoring of risk, control of procurement and monitoring of
almost all the projects. Large housing
complex and apartment projects were significantly affected in comparison to the medium
affordable housing complex and housing apartment cum commercial complex projects.
However, reasons for this phenomenon could not be specified. Thus, it is ascertained that
majority of the project management principles were not adhered to in the real estate
projects.

253
Table 3. Use of Project management aspects in the projects
Project management aspects Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 Project 4
Medium Housing Large Housing
affordable Apartment housing Apartment
Housing complex cum
complex commercial
complex
Project initiation
Development of project charter 4 3 2 3
Average 4 3 2 3
Project planning
Defining scope 4 2 1 4
Schedule management 4 3 3 4
Cost management 3 3 3 4
Quality management 3 3 3 3
Resource management 3 2 2 3
Risk management 1 1 1 2
Communication management 3 2 2 3
Average 3 2.29 2.14 3.28
Project Execution
Direct and Manage project 4 4 4 4
Manage quality 3 3 3 3
Acquire resource 4 2 3 4
Develop and manage team 4 3 3 4
Mange communications 3 2 2 4
Implement risk responses 1 2 1 2
3 2 3 3
engagement
Average 3.14 2.57 2.71 3.42
Project monitoring and control
Control schedule 3 3 2 3

Control cost 3 3 2 3
Control quality 3 3 2 3
Control resources 3 3 2 3
Monitor communication 2 2 2 3
Monitor risk 2 1 2 1
Control procurement 3 3 2 4
3 2 2 3
engagement
Average 2.75 2.5 2.75 2.86
Project closure
Close phase or project 3 3 2 2
Average 3 3 2 2
1-Very unsatisfactory, 2- unsatisfactory, 3- somewhat satisfactory, 4- satisfactory,
5- very satisfactory

Discussion and conclusion

254
Delay of projects in the real estate sector is observed to be a challenge in the small and
medium cities of India. The reasons of this challenge is multifarious. According to this
study the challenge is largely emanated from the fact that most of the companies are owned
by family business and the decision-making is largely done by the owners and influenced by
the investors. Also, the other major factors which hamper the timely completion of the
projects are execution of a number of projects simultaneously, poor decision-making,
decisions largely taken by owners and investors, mishandling of finance, diversion of
finance to accumulate land for further development, misuse of finance for other unrelated
activities, lack of project management personnel, and poor management, are the major
factors that influence the occurrence delay significantly as corroborated by scholars
(Chandrasekhar and Ghosh, 2018). The study also revealed that although the project
initiation is satisfactorily done, most of the project management principles are not largely
used in the management of the projects. Further, it is also found that most of the project
management aspects particularly, risk management, finance management, schedule

different phases of the project cycle specifically during the execution and control and
monitoring phases. As put by project managers and professionals, perhaps this happens
because of the lack of understanding about the project management principles and their
implications on the project success2. Similarly, according to project and finance
management professionals the owners like to take the decisions undermining the
professional advices3. However, the owners argue that professional project management
needs professional management teams for different aspects of the project which adds to cost
of the project, which go against the completion of the projects within the scheduled budget
and affordability of the customers4. They also argue that there is no certainty that projects
will be completed within the scheduled cost and time if project management principles were
applied5. However, as seen from the investigation and perceptions of different stakeholders
including the consumers that the majority of the factors that cause delay in the project are
linked to the nonadherence of the project management principles (Bin, Mohamed and
Ahmad, 2012, Bon, 1995; Kooymans, 2000; Liow and Ooi, 2000, 2004). Therefore, there is
a need for the implementation of the project management principles in the different phases
of projects that could perhaps alleviate the challenges of delay in the real estate projects in
India.
The study has certain limitations that includes: it is based on a perception survey of
consumers and stakeholders and it was conducted by considering a limited sample size and
limited number of projects. Also, there is a need to establish the level of influence of
different factors on the occurrence of delay. However, at the current state the study revealed
that lack of significant application of project management principles lead to project delay in
the real estate projects in India.

Reference
Bon, R., 1995. Corporate real estate management practices in Europe and the United States:
1993 and 1994. Facilities, 13(7), 10-16.
Bin, M. Mohd, F. and Ahmad, Z., 2012. Corporate Real Estate (CRE): Public Institution of
Higher Learning in Malaysia. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 36, 273 279.
2
Professionals and project managers
3
Project and finance management professionals
4
Opinion of owners
5
Opinion of the Owners

255
Census, 2011. Census, India,
Chandrasekhar C. P. and
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/c-p-chandrasekhar/a-crisis-is-
building-up-in-indias-real-estate-sector/article9872650.ece, accessed on 27/3/2018.
Carifio, J. and Perla, R., 2008. Resolving the 50-year debate around using and misusing,
Likert scales. Medical. Education, 42, 1150 1152. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j. 1365-
2923.2008.03172. x.
Das, D. and Emuze, F., 2014. Smart city perspectives of Bloemfontein, Journal of
Construction, Project Management, and Innovation, 4(2), 930-950.
https://www.proptiger.com
Gross, E., 2018. The Likert Scale Explained With Examples & Sample Questions
https://www.fieldboom.com/blog/author/ellengross. (Accessed on 02 December 2017).
Iasscore., 2018., Real Estate Sector: Problems and
Regulationshttp://iasscore.in/economy/real-estate-sector-problems-and-regulations-
accessed on 27/3/2018.
Jain, P., 2016. Challenges and Solutions for Indian Real Estate, National Real Estate
Development Council (NAREDCO) & CMD Tulip Infratech.
https://www.proptiger.com/guide/post/challenges-and-solutions-for-indian-real-estate
Kooymans, R., 2000. The outsourcing of corporate real estate management how do
corporate real estate units and outsource service providers view each other and management
issues. Paper presented at Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference, Sydney, January, 1-
13.
Lambsdorff, J. G., 2006. The Methodology of the Corruptions Perceptions Index,
Transparency International and the University of Passau, permanent url:
http://www.icgg.org/downloads/CPI_2006_Methodology.pdf
Li, Q., 2013. A novel Likert scale based on fuzzy sets theory. Expert Systems with
Applications, 40, 1609 1618.
Liow, Kim, H. and Ooi, J.T.L, 2000. Corporate Real Estate (CRE): Public Institution of
Higher Learning in Malaysia. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 2(3), 240-249
Liow, K. H. and Ooi.J. T. L., 2004. Does Corporate Real Estate Create Wealth for
Shareholders?. Journal of Property Investment and Finance, 22(5), 386-400.
Nardo, M., Saisana, M., Saltelli, A., Tarantola, S., Hoffman, A. and Giovannini, E., 2005.
Handbook on constructing composite indicators: methodology and users guide. OECD-JRC
joint publication, OECD Statistics Working Paper, STD/DOC (2005) 3, JT00188147.\
Peeters, M. J., 2015. Measuring rater judgments within learning assessments, Part 1: why
the number of categories matter in a rating scale. Curr Pharm Teach Learn, 7(5), 656 661.
Peiser, R., 2001. Real Estate Development. Elsevier Science Ltd.
Reisman, C. K., 1993. Narrative Analysis: Narrative analysis. Newbury Park, Cal.: Sage.
Sahu, A., 2015. Challenges faced by Real Estate Companies in India,
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenges-faced-real-estate-companies-india-anand-sahu
accessed on 12/2/2018.
Saltelli, A., 2007. Composite indicators between analysis and advocacy. Social Indicators
Research, 81, 65-77.
Susan, J., 2004. Likert Scales: How to Use Them. Medical Education
Tomer A. and Chetty, P., 2017. Challenges faced by the Indian real estate sector.
https://www.projectguru.in/publications/challenges-indian-real-estate-sector/ accessed on
28/3/2018.

256
[Paper ID 84]

Nick Hadjinicolaou1, Jantanee Dumrak2 and Sherif Mostafa3

Abstract
organizations operate within rapid changes of economy and market conditions.
Organizational agility (OA) provides organizations with the ability to adapt rapidly
to internal and external changes productively and cost-effectively. Furthermore,
the adaptive ability and real-time responsiveness of organizations are generally necessitated
for projects and portfolios to reach maturity. While characteristics of OA and portfolio
management maturity (PfMM) have been studied in the existing literature, the relationships
between these two variables have not been fully explored. This study employs canonical
correlation analysis (CCA) not only to investigate relationships among the characteristics
of OA and PfMM but also to present the status quo of the studied variables from Australian
perspectives. The results of the analysis are graphically presented to identify the formation
of each OA characteristics at different levels of PfMM. The research data was collected
from 36 respondents in public and private Australian sectors. The research findings show
diverse combinations of the OA characteristics constructed at different levels of PfMM.
The results also identify specific OA characteristics that highly contribute to the highest
level of PfMM. This allows organizations with limited resources to precisely concentrate
on the characteristics that will improve performance and achieve PfMM.

Keywords: canonical correlation analysis, maturity, organizational agility, project

management, project portfolio management

1
Assistant Professor and Program Director, Global Project Management, Torrens University
Australia, 88 Wakefield Street, Adelaide 5000 South Australia, Tel. +61 8 8113 7811,
Email: nhadjinicolaou@laureate.net.au
2
Senior Lecturer and Program Coordinator, Global Project Management, Torrens University
Australia, 88 Wakefield Street, Adelaide 5000 South Australia, Tel. +61 8 8253 5903,
Email: jdumrak@laureate.net.au
3
Program Director and Lecturer, Construction and Engineering Project Management, School
of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, South Port
4222 Queensland, Tel. +61 7 5552 7357, Email: sherif.mostafa@griffith.edu.au

257
Introduction
The concepts of Organisational Agility (OA) and Portfolio Management Maturity (PfMM)
have evolved around an organisations desire to improve performance and competitiveness.
This has occurred as a result of pressures from digital disruption, merging of technology,
greater customer needs and levels of customer satisfaction demanded. Market competition,
legislative, political and economic pressures (Drew and Coulson-Thomas, 1997) have also
played a role in the need for increased organizational agility. According to PMI (2017c, p.
2), organizational agility is the capability to quickly sense and adapt to external and
internal changes to deliver relevant results in a productive and cost-effective manner .
Agility accelerates organizational learning to meet the pace of rapid environmental change
through flexibility in assembling resources, knowledge, processes and capabilities
(Wischnevsky, 2004; Yang and Liu, 2012). It is believed that agility helps organisations to
sustain their competitive advantage by increasing responsiveness in managing and making
business decisions (Leavy, 2014). However, the application and improvement in Portfolio
Management Maturity (PfMM) demands more than commitments of new policies and
procedures but rethinking in organisational structures, systems and management practices
(Hamel, 2009; Hadjinicolaou et al. 2018) In this research, characteristics of organisational
agility are examined and results of analysis are graphically presented to identify the
formation of each OA characteristics at different levels of PfMM. The research data was
collected from 36 respondents in public and private Australian sectors. The research
findings show diverse combinations of the OA characteristics constructed at different levels
of PfMM. The results also identify specific OA characteristics that highly contribute to the
highest level of PfMM. This allows organizations with limited resources to precisely
concentrate on the characteristics that will improve performance and achieve PfMM.

Literature Review
Portfolio Management Maturity
According to PMI (2017a), Portfolio Management (PfM) aims to achieve strategic
objectives through the centralised management of one or more portfolios. PfM has been
referred as a means to deliver value to organisations with its abilities, at the long-term
organisational level, in selecting the right projects, maximizing resource allocation,
measuring and evaluating portfolio success, strategic alignment and balance, and value
maximization of project/program investment (Gao & Yu, 2013; Killen & Hunt, 2013;
Martinsuo & Killen, 2014). Furthermore, strong strategic portfolio execution is required for
maintaining organisational competitiveness (PMI, 2017). To implement PfM successfully, a
supportive environment with impacting factors in PfM implementation must be identified
(Gao & Yu, 2013). These may include, but not limited to, organization culture and structure,
law limitations, government or industry standard, infrastructure, human resources, staff
management, company task authorization system, market condition, commercial database
and project management information systems. Any changes to these factors will affect the
implementation of PfM positively or negatively. Nevertheless, changes are inevitable and
require responsively adaptive management for PfM to remain effective.
As benefits of PfM, such as organizations become more flexible, impulsive, dynamic,
innovative, creative, communicative, strategic oriented, efficient and motivated (Madic,
Trujic & Mihajlovic, 2011), have been increasing realized, many organisations aim to
maximize and sustain the PfM implementation by achieving the high level of PfM maturity

258
(PfMM). PMI (2015a) identifies five categories of PfMM: ad hoc, getting started, structured
and improving, established and optimized for continuous improvement (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Portfolio Management Maturity (Adapted from PMI 2015a, p5)

Young, Young & Zapata (2014) state that organisational governance, stakeholder
management, management control, risk management, benefits management, portfolio,
financial management and resource management are the key attributes to PfMM. In their
study, PfMM was carefully examined using the Australian Federal Government as a case
study. Their study shows that not only financial management and resource management
were considered as the only key focused areas in PfMM, but also generic attributes of roles
and responsibilities, experience, capability development, planning and estimating and
scrutiny and review that are highly sensitive factors to PfMM. The results showed in
Young, Young & Zapata (2014) are aligned with a study by Pennypacker (2002 cited in
Madic, Trujic & Mihajlovic, 2011, p. 241) that attaining PfMM relies on a set of
knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques applied to a collection of projects in order to meet
or ex

Linking Portfolio Maturity to Organisational Agility

As stated by PMI (2015b), the success of organisations depends on the ability to adapt
quickly in response to changes to sustain competitive advantage. Organizational agility
(OA) is the ability to responsively accommodate changes and implement required actions.
Most important characteristics of OA as identified by PMI (2015b) include flexibility and
adaptability, open communication, openness to change, empowered team members,
experiential learning, rapid decision making, and a strong customer focus. Successful
implementation of OA generally requires continuous communication, collaboration,
engagement and support within organisations.
Martinsuo & Lehtonen (2007) suggest that there is a link between PfM and
organisational performance. PMI (2017) states that organisational resources are a primary
input for PfM and strategic changes driven by the integration of organisational planning and
business analysis enable the planned portfolios to support strategic objectives. Heising
(2012), on the other hand, views PfM as a strategic role that enables organizations to
respond and adapt to changing environmental conditions by monitoring and altering the
project portfolio. Killen & Hunt (2013) discover connections between PfM and OA in

259
supporting organisations with responsive decision making and resource allocation as well as
building dynamic capability at the organisational level. It is also found that OA supports
strategic flexibility by enabling organisations to anticipate, identify, develop and implement
change and investment strategies that are aligned with strategic objectives. Nevertheless, it
has been minimal research on how characteristics of OA interact with different levels of
PfMM. This research, therefore, is to examine the interactions between the studied PfMM
levels and characteristics of OA to gain more understanding and maximizing any positive
impacts resulted from the interactions.

Research methodology
The categorical data were analysed from 36 PfM practitioners who aimed at improving
PfMM through the application of OA. The collected data were coded to conduct a nonlinear
canonical correlation analysis (NLCCA) or known as OVERALS. The purpose of
OVERALS analysis is to examine the associations between two or more sets of categorical
variables (nominal or ordinal scaling level) (Meulman & Heiser, 2012) to introduce an
integrative analysis of non-linear relations between variables (Frie & Janssen, 2009). The
formulation of OVERALS was conducted using the SPSS statistics software.
The data collected in this analysis were categorised into three sets containing 21
variables as inputs to perform OVERALS. The first data set was the categories of PfMM
he second and the third data sets were OA
characteristics which had been grouped into process and people drivers in relation to the
high agility focus stated by PMI (2017b). These sets of data identified the views of
respondents in the existing OA characteristics in organizations to support PfMM. The three
data sets are demonstrated in Table 1.

Table 1. Variable Coding

No of Variable Category
Set Variable
categories type symbol
1. Portfolio
Management PfMM category 5 Nominal PfMM
Maturity (PfMM)
Flexible and adaptable 3 Ordinal PP1
2. Organisational Agility Characteristics

Open communications 3 Ordinal PP2

Open to change 3 Ordinal PP3
Self-aware and honest 3 Ordinal PP4
(People)

Customer orientated 3 Ordinal PP5

Focused on talent development 3 Ordinal PP6
Committed to agility 3 Ordinal PP7
Empowered team members 3 Ordinal PP8
Catalyst leadership 3 Ordinal PP9

Continuous learning from experience 3 Ordinal PP10

Organ

Transparency in decision making 3 Ordinal PC1

cterist
Chara
Agilit
isatio
nal

ics
y

Rapid decision making 3 Ordinal PC2

260
 Decentralized decision making 3 Ordinal PC3
Action based 3 Ordinal PC4
Agility recognised as a team
3 Ordinal PC5
competence

Effective methods of rapid knowledge

3 Ordinal PC6
transfer

Clear guidelines for tailoring

standardised processes to suit the size 3 Ordinal PC7
and type of project

Effective environmental screening 3 Ordinal PC8

Appetite for risk 3 Ordinal PC9
Active Governance 3 Ordinal PC10

The results obtained from OVERALS included the loss index, eigenvalues, fit index and
component loading index. The component loadings were demonstrated within a two-
dimensional graph for each plotted variable. The plot of centroids was generated to view
categories under each variable.

Research findings
After the research data collection, individual respondents were carefully assessed on their
experience in organisational agility through the use of filtering questions to ensure the
validity of responses. Thirty-six out of 50 who had completed the research questionnaires
were satisfied the screening criteria. Descriptive statistics was employed to demonstrate
percentages of respondents according to their organisational roles. The percentage of each
respondent category is shown in Figure 1 below. The major categories of respondents in this
research were business managers (33%), project managers (17%) and corporate executives
(14%) respectively.

Figure 1. Percentage of Respondents in Category

261
 OVERALS was performed on the collected data to identify and graphically present
relationships between OA characteristics and PfMM as well as the relationship formation
between categorial parameters used within the studied variables. OVERALS as
demonstrated in Table 2 presented loss values, eigenvalues and fit values. The fit and loss
values were used to confirm the degree of NLCCA solution to the optimally quantified data
with respect to the association between sets (Meulman & Heiser 2012). Loss values
indicated the percentage of variation in object scores that were not explained by the current
model (Garson 2012). Whereas the average loss values of the two dimensions are 0.058 and
0.227 respectively, the average loss over sets is 0.285. This indicated the average loss or the
difference between the perfect and the modelled relationship. The maximum fit value
presented equals the number of dimensions and indicates that the relationship is perfect.

Table 2. OVERALS Summary of Analysis

Dimension
Sum
1 2
Set 1 .044 .233 .277
Set 2 .031 .299 .330
Loss

Set 3 .099 .149 .248

Mean .058 .227 .285
Eigenvalue .942 .773
Fit 1.715

The eigenvalue in each dimension was the result of 1 minus the average loss of the
dimension. The result of eigenvalue shows not only how much relationship is presented in
each dimension, but also the importance of the dimension. The value of eigenvalue can
determine the percentage of actual fit of the dimension over the fit
column, i.e. the actual fit among the sets of variables in the first and second dimensions are
0.942/1.715 = 0.549 and 0.773/1.715 = 0.451 respectively which are not necessarily high.
The maximum potential relationship over sets associated to the current model can be
calculated by dividing the fit value with the total dimensions. The analysis shows that the
maximum potential relationship of the current model is 1.715/2 = 0.858. Canonical
were obtained from the given
formula below:
d = ((K x Ed) 1)/(K-1)
Where d is the dimension number, E is the eigenvalue and K is the number of sets.

The correlations of the first and second dimensions were calculated as and 0.91 and 0.66
respectively. The correlation values suggest that the positively strong relationships between
PfMM and OA characteristics were found within the studied groups both in Dimensions 1
and 2. As a result, it can be interpreted that the application of overall OA characteristics to
support PfMM were significant to organisations at PfMM categories.
The examination of the weight load of variables is presented in Table 3. The variables
with the highest contribution to the Dimension 1 were PP3 (0.604) and PC3 (0.282). The

262
highest contribution to the Dimension 2 were PfMM category (0.843), PP9 (0.804), PP10
(0.716), PP5 (0.579), PC8 (0.565) and PC6 (0.400) respectively.

Table 3. The Weight Load of Variables

Dimension
Set 1 2
1 PfMM Category 0.100 0.843
2 PP1: Flexible and adaptable -0.280 -0.134
PP2: Open communications -0.428 -0.047
PP3: Open to change 0.604 -0.181
PP4: Self-aware and honest -0.469 -0.026
PP5: Customer orientated -0.022 0.579
PP6: Focused on talent development -0.093 -0.723
PP7: Committed to agility -0.247 -0.004
PP8: Empowered team members -0.470 -0.002
PP9: Catalyst leadership 0.068 0.804
PP10: Continuous learning from experience 0.053 0.716
3 PC1: Transparency in decision making -0.386 -0.211
PC2: Rapid decision making -0.026 -0.101
PC3: Decentralized decision making 0.282 0.193
PC4: Action based -0.516 0.107
PC5: Agility recognised as a team competence -0.208 0.131
PC6: Effective methods of rapid knowledge transfer -0.290 0.400
Clear guidelines for tailoring standardised processes
PC7: 0.103 -0.034
to suit the size and type of project
PC8: Effective environmental screening 0.019 0.565
PC9: Appetite for risk -0.153 0.086
PC10: Active Governance -0.253 -0.778

The component loading in Figure 3 below shows the plot of component loadings for the
collected data. The component loadings presented are equivalent to the Pearson correlations
between the quantified variables and the object scores. This means the distance from the
origin to each variable point indicates the significance of that variable (Meulman & Heiser
2012). The line joining the origin and the coordinate of component loading is called the
coordinate vector. The strength of association between the two studied variables can be
determined from the angle between the coordinate vectors of the variables. The smaller the
angle, the higher the strength of the association and vice versa.
As demonstrated in Figure 1, the variance of PP4, PP8, PP1, PfMM and PC10 were the
most explained variables respectively as their vector lengths were the greatest among the
studied variables. On the other hand, PP5, PP2, PP3, PC2 and PP7 were the least explained
variables by NLCCA. From the angle between the coordinate vectors, it was found that PP4,
PP8, PP1, PC1, PC9, PP7, PP3, PP2 and PP5 formed a major cluster. On the other hand,
PfMM and PC3, as well as PC8 and PP9, also aligned to form smaller clusters.

263
 Figure 3. Component Loadings

It was observed in the Centroids plot (Figure 4) that most of the High degrees of OA
characteristics, especially PP9, PC8 and PC5, aligned to form a significant cluster with the
PfMM Categories 3 (Started and improving) and 4 (Established). On the other hand, the
PfMM Category 1 (Ad hoc) formed a cluster with PC10.

Figure 4. The Centroids Plot

It was also found that the PfMM Category 5 (Optimized for continuous improvement) as
well as the Medium degree variables of OA characteristics, regardless the significance of
these variables, were plotted at a distance farther away from other PfMM Categories and the
High degrees of OA characteristics variables (see Figure 5). The variables aligned
themselves and formed different clusters indicating different sets of relationships without
any PfMM Categories.

264
 Figure 5. The Centroid Plot of Distant Variables

Conclusion and Recommendations

The organizational agility and portfolio management maturity concepts have been
developed to improve organizational performance and adapt to external pressures. Agility
improves organizations to sustain their competitive advantage by increasing responsiveness
in managing and making business decisions. Whereas, portfolio management maturity
(PfMM) aims to deliver value to organizations with its abilities, at the long-term
organizational level, in selecting the right projects, maximizing resource allocation,
measuring and evaluating portfolio success, strategic alignment and balance, and value
maximization of project/program investment. This research provides a significant
examination of the relationships between the existing organziational agility (OA)
characteristics and its support to PfMM. Three sets of data contacting 21 variables of PfMM
and OA were carefully examined using canonical analysis. The results showed a significant
positively strong correlation between PfMM and OA characteristics within the studied
groups. The research also found various combinations of the OA characteristics constructed
at different levels of PfMM, and there are specific OA characteristics that highly contribute
to the highest level of PfMM. This allows organizations with limited resources to precisely
concentrating the implementation of PfM and on the characteristics that improve
performance and achieve PfMM. This may require further research to be undertaken to
identify these characteristics in different organization size and sectors. Furthermore, it is
recommended to extend the investigation into differing environmental settings of OA and
PfMM to generalise the research findings.

265
References
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portfolio management maturity model. , North America,
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the new organization Team Performance Management: An International Journal,
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Frie, KG. and Janssen, C., 2009. Social inequality, lifestyles and health a non-linear
canonical correlation analysis based on the approach of Pierre Bourdieu. International
Journal of Public Health, 54, 213-221.
Garson, D., 2012. Canonical correlation. Asheboro, NC: Statistical Publishing Associates.
Guo, N. and Yu, S., 2013. The necessity of project portfolio management in the
construction industry of China mainland. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 357-360,
2238-2241.
Hadjinicolaou, N., Dumrak, J., and Mostafa, S. 2018. Improving Project Success with
Project Portfolio Management Practices. In , Proceedings of the 8th
International Conference on Engineering, Project, and Product Management,20-22
September2017, Amman, Jordan: Springer International Publishing, 57-66.
Hamel, G. 20
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Heising, W., 2012. The integration of ideation and project portfolio management-A key
factor for sustainable success. International Journal of Project Management, 30(5), 582-
595.
Killen, C. and Hunt, R., 2013. Robust project portfolio management: capability evolution
and maturity. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 6(1), 131-151.
Madic, B., Trujic, V. and Mihajlovic, I., 2011. African Project portfolio management
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portfolio management efficiency. International Journal of Project Management, 25, 56
65.
Meulman, J. and Heiser, W., 2012. IBM SPSS Categories 21. USA: IBM Corporation.
PMI., 2015a.
Perspective. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
PMI., 2015b. Capturing the value of project management through organizational agility.
Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
PMI., 2017a. The standard for portfolio management (4th ed.). Newtown Square, PA:
Project Management Institute.
PMI., 2017b. The drivers of agility: Engaging people and building processes to accelerate
results. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
PMI. 2017c. -the people and process
drivers that accelerate the results. Newtown Square, PA: PMI.
Young, M., Young, R. and Zapata, JR., 2014. Project, programme and portfolio maturity: a
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Wischnevsky, D.J., 2004. Change as the winds change: the impact of oganizational
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structure. Management Decision, 50(6), 1022-1044.

266
[Paper ID 123]

Achim Kampker1, Johannes Triebs2, Ansgar Hollah3 and Andreas Unruh4

Abstract
Due to the conceptual degrees of freedom in their product structure, electric vehicles offer
high potential for remanufacturing-oriented product design. This potential is, however,
not realized yet. Remanufacturing as one fundamental element of a circular economy
is characterized by specific challenges caused by uncertain information about the condition
and the timing of the returning product. By means of a case study within
the remanufacturing industry, the effects of uncertainties on remanufacturing operations
are examined and different approaches within the field of production management to meet
these specific challenges are pointed out. Based on the result of the case study a production
management framework outlining fields of action to deal with remanufacturing specific
uncertainties is developed. In this context, the requirements for remanufacturing of electric
vehicles are derived by analysing similarities from other industry sectors. As a conclusion,
a solution approach for the implementation for electric vehicles is presented for strategic,
tactical and operational procurement logistics and remanufacturing operations.

Keywords: Remanufacturing, electric vehicles, production management

1
PEM of RWTH Aachen University, a.kampker@pem.rwth-aachen.de
2
Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components - RWTH Aachen University,
j.triebs@pem.rwth-aachen.de
3
PEM of RWTH Aachen University, a.hollah@pem.rwth-aachen.de
4
PEM of RWTH Aachen University, andreas.unruh@rwth-aachen.de

267
Introduction
Motivation
The concept of a circular economy aims to decouple economic growth from the use of finite
resources and the associated negative effects on the environment. [1] Remanufacturing
corresponds to the objective of the circular economy since it enables the recovery of product
components for further use in order to extend the useful life of products or their
components.
The global remanufacturing industry has reached a total size of approximately
110 billion USD per year and creates about 450,000 jobs worldwide. [2] The automotive
industry account for two thirds of the remanufacturing market volume, even though
remanufacturing is currently limited to vehicle components. [3] In other sectors,
remanufacturing is executed on the level of the final product and is a central element of the
business models.
The growing market share of electric vehicles offers new opportunities to implement
remanufacturing at the vehicle level for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
While vehicles with a powertrain based on an internal combustion engine have a predefined
product and functional structure, conceptual degrees of freedom can be used in the design of
electric vehicles to implement remanufacturing-oriented product design. [4] Additionally,
the components of an electric powertrain are characterized by lower complexity and fewer
mechanical interfaces to each other.
Several definitions of remanufacturing exist with slightly different foci. All definitions
have in common that remanufacturing is described as an industrial process in which cores
are brought into a condition that meets at least the quality and functional requirements of a
new product. [2, 5, 6] Cores can also be upgraded to enhance the product functionality.
Remanufacturing includes re-using, processing or replacing of single components of the
returned cores in order to enable a further product life cycle. [7]
The generic remanufacturing process begins with the delivery of the cores and the
storage. [8] After optional cleaning, the product is disassembled. Components, which are
technically or economically unsuitable for remanufacturing due to their condition are sorted
out. All other cores may need detailed defect diagnosis before the actual reprocessing of the
disassembled parts takes place. In reassembly, the processed components are reassembled,
if necessary in combination with new parts.

Problem Statement
Remanufacturing is characterized by additional challenges in comparison to linear value
chain production. As discussed in literature and proven by different studies, the uncertainty
about the condition, quantity and timing of returning cores is elementary for these
challenges. [9] Varying failure patterns caused by different usage behaviors and multiple
external factors lead to unpredictable timing of product failure and different
remanufacturing needs. The more components a product contains, the greater the deviations
in causes and times of core returns are.
The combination of a fluctuating number of available cores and varying core conditions
results in unreliable forecasts about the availability of remanufacturable cores and spare
parts as well as the required production capacity. [10] Moreover, remanufacturers often
have to deal with an asymmetry between core returns and market demand since the
availability of cores increases during the saturation and degeneration phase
market cycle while demand decreases. [11] Furthermore, depending on the condition of the
cores required remanufacturing processes and process times may vary in order to achieve

268
the desired condition. [12] Therefore, it is hardly possible to schedule the process reliably
before disassembly and inspection the cores. Subsequent changes in process and material
requirements planning can also occur if further defects are detected during the
remanufacturing process that were not detected during quality inspection.
These challenges are dealt with in numerous publications and a variety of solutions is
presented. Remanufacturing research to date is characterized by an isolated consideration of
the individual problem areas. [13] Due to the high planning complexity of remanufacturing,
approaches are necessary that deal with the specific challenges in an integrated framework.
Accordingly, only limited theoretical conclusions can be drawn for the implementation of
remanufacturing in electric vehicle production. Rather, it is promising to investigate the
production management of remanufacturing operations in other industries with regard to the
applicability of remanufacturing at the vehicle level. Therefore, the following research
question occurs:
Which configuration options in product management for remanufacturing of electric
vehicles can be derived from practice in order to meet uncertainty-related challenges?

Approach
In order to derive implications for the remanufacturing of electric vehicles, the industry
practice is described and analyzed in five companies. The cases are derived in three step
approach. First, publicly available information was examined in order to select suitable
companies. Based on this, a comprehensive literature analysis was carried out with regard to
the respective remanufacturing operations. Finally, experts from the production
management department were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire.
The products examined in the study show a different level of complexity in order to
consider a wide range of different approaches to solving the uncertainties discussed above.
The products are becoming gradually more complex from brake calipers, starters and
generators, clutches, printers, combustion engines for heavy duty truck and construction
machines to gas turbines. All companies, whose remanufacturing operations are examined
in this study, are original equipment manufacturers (OEM) of the described products. This
is important in order to ensure applicability to the production of electric vehicles, since the
complexity of remanufacturing products such as electric vehicles can only be controlled by
its original manufacturer.
Firstly, as structuring means for the study, a framework is developed, depicting the
fields of action for managing the production-related remanufacturing specific uncertainties.
The fields of action are differentiated according to their strategic, tactical or operational
character, depending on the planning horizon. Strategic tasks have a rough planning level
and are typically carried out by the management for the long term. The tactical management
level implements the planning requirements of the strategic level in the medium term and
the operational level is responsible for detailed order management.
The management challenges described divide the fields of action associated with
remanufacturing into two categories: procurement logistics and remanufacturing
operations. One significant difference compared to conventional systems lies in
procurement logistics, since remanufacturing is characterized by exogenous parts
availability and therefore the coverage of dependent requirements cannot be completely
controlled. [12] Additionally, depending on the core condition, the process steps to be
carried out and the process times can vary considerably, which makes the planning of
production operations complicated and requires an appropriate strategy.

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Case study
Framework
Companies either purchase cores directly from the customer or access third-party service
providers such as used parts dealers, scrap yards or core brokers. The multitude of supply
sources increases the overall coordination effort and the complexity of procurement
logistics. Since there is also a high degree of uncertainty regarding the return time of cores
by the customer, close, cross-company cooperation with third-party service providers is
necessary for supply chains that are directed backwards, as well as the active involvement
of customers in the take-back process. [14] The configuration of the closed loop supply
chain represents the increased demands on cooperation with customers and third-party
service providers and therefore represents the strategic management field of action of
procurement logistics
In a conventional forward supply chain, manufacturers sell their products directly to
their customers or use retailers. Backward material flows typically only occur in connection
with product returns, e.g. when the customer asserts warranty claims. In remanufacturing,
more extensive requirements are placed on product take-back systems, as returned products
are the raw material for production and thus indispensable for the value-adding process.
Remanufacturing companies must create logistics systems that work efficiently despite the
high number of material sources and the uncertainty regarding the availability of cores. The
planning, implementation and control of efficient and cost-effective product flows from the
end user to the original manufacturer, with the purpose of generating added value by
restoring the product, is called reverse logistics and is on the tactical level of procurement
logistics. [15]
The operational management task of procurement logistics is to ensure that a number of
components tailored to the primary requirement is procured and made available for
production. Remanufacturing differs from conventional logistics systems in terms of
warehousing, procurement and distribution. [16] Therefore, a reliable forecast of how many
reusable components will be available for remanufacturing and how many spare parts are
needed cannot be precisely made. For these reasons, the dependent requirements supply
needs to ensure the availability of cores to be remanufactured.
On the strategic management level of remanufacturing operations, the fundamental
decision must be made for the question to what extent remanufacturing is in line with the
corporate strategy. Numerous factors such as revenue potential, the consideration of
marketing, the availability of specialists and legislative requirements can influence this
decision. [17] Furthermore, a decision must be made about which products are technically
and economic feasible for remanufacturing. In addition, a balance must be struck between
the availability of cores and the market demand for reclaimed products. Therefore, at the
strategic level the remanufacturing scope is defined.
The design of efficient production processes is a success determining factor in the
development of remanufacturing systems, since both the costs and quality of the processed
products as well as the performance of the system are influenced by the choice and design
of the production processes. [18] Consequently, the tactical field of action for the
remanufacturing operations is defined as production design.
The operational level of remanufacturing operations is characterized by variable process
times and production sequences due to the high inconsistency of the core condition, which
is particularly challenging for the inhouse-production planning and control. [9] Since not all
cores have to undergo the same processes in order to be restored to a new condition, it is
usually not possible to carry out precise process planning before certainty about the

270
condition of the cores has been achieved. Processing times on the same workstation can also

more complex than with conventional production systems.

Procurement logistics Remanufacturing operations

Strategic Closed loop supply chain Remanufacturing scope

Tactical Reverse logistics Production design

Operational Dependent requirements supply Inhouse-production planning & control

Figure 3: Framework for production management of remanufacturing-related uncertainties

Case Studies
Case 1: Remanufacturing of brake calipers, starters and generators
The company in the first case is a multinational technology group with a strong focus on
mechanical, mechatronic and electric automotive parts with activities in 60 countries. At the
examined production site, remanufacturing of brake calipers, starters and generators is
carried out for aftermarket activities. At the location, 300 employees remanufacture more
than one million products yearly, handling over 3.000 different types of products.
The cores are taken back via three channels. The first channel is the repurchase from
independent workshops. Via agents, the cores are picked up and delivered to one of the
regional sorting centres from a network of twelve such stations in Europe where the cores
are identified, pre-sorted and evaluated. If the cores meet predefined criteria such as
completeness and absence of obvious material eruptions and cracks, the value of the core is
credited to the customer. The second option is the direct repurchase from major customers.
Contracted workshops are advised to store and forward cores of certain product types.
These major customers purchase an agreed quantity of remanufactured products at a
reduced price. Lastly, the option of purchasing cores from independent core brokers is used.
The remanufacturing process begins with sorting and inspecting the quality of the
delivered cores. If testing and sorting has already taken place at one of the sorting centre
before delivery, the cores are stored without checking. The storage time can vary depending
on the product type from a few days up to several years. When an order is placed, a
corresponding number of cores is removed from stock. Since it cannot be assumed that all
components of each product type can be remanufactured due to condition variations,
forecasts approximate how many cores of a certain product type are required to meet the
existing primary requirement for each product type.
The cores are disassembled non-destructively into their individual components and
forwarded to the subsequent processes. Obviously defective components as well as wearing
parts and small parts such as screws are directly sorted out and replaced. Components,
which in any case have a limited life, are also excluded from reuse. Various cleaning
processes like degreasing with a technical alcohol and subsequent irradiation with blasting
media are carried out depending on the type of component and the degree of contamination.
The reusability of the individual components is assessed manually after cleaning.
Depending on the test results, mechanical processing is carried out according to a
predefined process for each component family. The reassembly follows immediately
without intermediate storage. Non-recoverable components are replaced either by
equivalent components of the same batch or by new parts. In the last step, a test of the
finished remanufactured product as well as packaging and handover to shipping takes place.

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 Case 2: Remanufacturing of heavy duty vehicles clutches
The company is a global technology group for automotive systems with activities in 40
countries including a network of fifteen remanufacturing locations in Europe, Asia, North
and South America, and Africa. At the analysed plant, 200 employees remanufacture more
than 200,000 units per year of a broad variety of different clutches.
The cores are procured via three channels. The most important channel is the direct
repurchase from major customers who deliver used parts several times a week and in return,
they purchase a certain quantity of remanufactured products. The second take-back channel
is the purchase of cores from core brokers. Either they receive an order to procure a defined
number of a product type or cores are acquired from the existing stock of the respective core
broker. Furthermore, cores are supplied directly by workshops. Workshops collect the used
parts resulting from the repair of customer vehicles and sell them.
The delivered cores are stored and remanufacturing is only conducted, once a primary
purchase order has been received. In the first process step, the cores are categorized
according to the extent of defects. The categorized cores are disassembled, which requires
controlled destruction of the rivets or welded joints. The separated products are first
disassembled and then cleaned of dirt and corrosion by means of a shot-blasting cleaning
process. Cleaned components are inspected for defects and, if necessary, sorted out and sent
for recycling. Quality control also determines which mechanical treatment processes are
necessary to restore the component in mint condition. During the abrasive cleaning process,
any identification numbers applied to the surface are removed. The subsequent sorting of
the components according to their type requires highly qualified employees who can draw
conclusions about the product type on the basis of the component geometries.
The subsequent mechanical processing implements the processing measures defined
during quality control as well as adjustments that are necessary due to technical product
upgrades. The mechanical processing to be carried out depends on the type of component
and the state of wear and include separating processes such as the removal of burrs and face
turning of end faces as well as joining production processes such as the bonding of wear
plates. In the last step, the reprocessed components are reassembled and a final functional
test is carried out. The cores can go through the entire process several times.
Case 3: Remanufacturing of heavy commercial vehicles combustion engines
One of the world's largest manufacturers of trucks, buses, construction machinery and
industrial engines with production sites in 18 countries including remanufacturing sites in
Europe, USA and China for transmissions, engines, turbochargers and hydraulic pumps
remanufactures 200 different variants of truck engines with a total volume of about 3.000
units per year for the European and Asian markets at the analysed production site.
Cores are supplied by an external core broker, who supplies the plant once every two
weeks. The required number of cores is forecasted from historical data and the order is
placed with the core broker without direct order reference. The delivered cores are stored
and, as soon as free production capacity is available, fed into the remanufacturing process.
The remanufacturing process starts with the disassembly of the engine. No initial testing
of the engine, but a continuous quality test of the engine components during the entire
remanufacturing process is executed. Engine components that prove to be defect during
dismantling or in subsequent remanufacturing steps are disposed of or recycled accordingly.
Among others, surface crack inspections, 3D coordinate measurements and dynamic testing
methods are carried out. During disassembly, the components are sorted according to
quality and the cleaning process required. Afterwards, the component cleaning is carried
out, which is subject to highly varying process times, as the components must be soaked for
a long time before the actual, abrasive cleaning process can take place. Cleaned components

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are then mechanically processed. The processing steps required for processing vary
depending on the component group and condition of the respective component.
One major challenge for production planning and control is that the setup and
processing times can differ by up to fifteen times depending on the type and condition of the
component. Likewise, the recovery rate varies substantially between 10 % and 100 %
depending on the component group. Consequently, a very high stock for some components
is unavoidable, while other components have to be purchased externally to meet demand.
The components of an individual engine are not reassembled to the same engine, but are
at first stored. If all components necessary for the fulfilment of an order are in stock,
reassembly can take place, otherwise missing components must first be purchased
externally. Finally, the end of line test is carried out, during which the remanufactured
engine must meet the same quality standards as a newly manufactured engine.
Case 4: Remanufacturing of printers
The company in case four is a US manufacturer of office equipment including tabletop
printers, multifunction devices, commercial production printing systems and printer
cartridges. The company operates remanufacturing plants in North and South America,
Europe, Australia and Japan.
Used products are mainly taken back via two channels. In particular, commercially used
production printing systems and multifunctional systems are replaced by new equipment
under lease agreements after a contractually agreed timespan. The second channel is to take
back the device directly from the end customer, for example through exchange campaigns,
in which the customer is granted a discount on the new device when returning an old
product.
The returned devices are centrally checked for optical defects as well as for noise and
heat generation and vibrations. According to their condition, the cores are sent to different
plants. Devices without any signs of wear are centrally stored and prepared for direct reuse
while faultlessly working cores with light signs of wear are sent to remanufacturing plants.
Non-reusable devices are recycled. The products are completely disassembled and the
components are sorted by type. The components are then cleaned using a minimal-abrasive
dry ice blasting process, which gently cleans the plastic, glass and precious metal
components. Mechanical processing is not carried out. Only painting of the panel
components is carried out. Component not suitable for reuse as well as wear parts like seals
and bearings are replaced by a new component. Components for which technical upgrades
exist are also replaced by the new components.
The tested and partially newly painted components are assembled in the next process
step. New and remanufacturing products are assembled on the same line. For the assembly
of new devices, no remanufactured components are used. Finally, the latest software is
installed for all products and final function tests are carried out.
Case 5: Remanufacturing of constructions machine enignes & gas turbines
A US manufacturer of mining machinery, diesel engines and industrial gas turbines and
construction machinery remanufactures more than 6,000 of its products including engines,
transmissions, hydraulic components and turbochargers at 17 production sites, employing
over 4,000 people. In addition to processing its own product line, the company acts as a
contract remanufacturer for third-party products and thus offers remanufacturing as a
service. At the analysed remanufacturing plant diesel engines from construction machines,
gas turbines and military equipment is remanufactured.
The company uses a deposit- or rebate-based take-back system in order to acquire cores.
If a customer, or a licensed dealer, buys a remanufactured product, first, the same price as
when buying an equivalent new product is paid. This price consists of the actual product

273
price and a deposit for the return of the product. The deposit can be up to 50 % of the price
paid and will be refunded to the customer or dealer as soon as the customer returns a similar
type of product. If the cores meet all criteria like being complete, having no obvious cracks
or break-outs and no independent repair measures have been carried out, the full deposit
amount is refunded to the customer. Otherwise, the core will be rejected or the deposit will
be repaid partially.
While the engines are returned directly from major customers or via contracted
workshops in specifically provided transport boxes the gas turbines are transported to the
plant by the customer. The single-item remanufacturing process is triggered by the arrival of
a core and begins with an incoming quality check before disassembly. During disassembly
the components are sorted according to type and condition. The process steps are roughly
defined for the respective components. The disassembled components lose their affiliation
to the original product and are thus reused anonymously, so typically, components of many
different products are used in a remanufacturing product. After cleaning and defect
detection, all necessary mechanical processing steps are carried out, with the goal to not
only restore the original condition, but also upgrade the components to the current state of
the art. Damaged components are treated with additive processes, to restore worn surfaces
or repair microcracks. Ultimately defect components are replaced either by an equivalent
remanufacturing part or by a new part. Finally, the engine or the gas turbine is assembled,
the product is painted and a final function test is carried out.

Analysis
Based on the cases described, the following table summarizes the generic options currently
available from the OEM remanufacturer to address specific reprocessing uncertainties. The
management alternatives described within the six management tasks of the regulatory
framework are often found in practice in combination.

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 Table 10: Generic production management options for remanufacturing-related
uncertainties

Procurement logistics Remanufacturing operations

Closed Loop Supply Chain Remanufacturing Scope
Buyback from single customers Complete disassembly of cores
Independent core brokers Processing of defect parts
Strategic

Long term customer relationships Replacement of defect parts

with major customers Replacement limited to waer parts
Remanufacturing as a service Replacement of old parts with
Contractual agreed repayment product upgrades
Leasing
Reverse logistics Production design
Bulk deliveries from major customers Separate remanufacturing facilities
or core brokers Shared production facility for
Core collection via sorting center remanufactured and new product
Tactical

network Flow shop

Returns via network authorised Job Shop
dealers or workshops Fixed-site production
Core pick-up as part of an integral Segmented production
part of the product related services
Single item deliveries
Dependent requirements supply In-house-production planning & control
Make-to-Stock Batch production
Make-to-Order One-piece flow
Operative

Assembling products from cores and Predefined process sequence/times

newly produced parts regardless of
product history
Product assembly only from own
remanufactured or new components
Upgrade of old product versions by
(mechanical) processing
Variable process sequence/times
Conventional production planning
heuristics
Manual definition of remanufacturing
requirements

Conclusion and outlook

Taking into account the technical, regulatory and market-related boundary conditions, the
following management measures result within the six defined fields of action for the
qualification of remanufacturing in electric vehicle production. In order to implement the
proposed measures, however, further detailed investigations are necessary.
Securing the supply of cores in a closed loop supply chain can be achieved through
close customer loyalty by means of circular economy business models. A combination of
different options is an appropriate solution depending on the targeted customer groups such
as private customers or commercial fleet operators. When leasing vehicles, the OEM
remains the owner of the vehicle and can set a defined return date for the vehicle in the
contract. Furthermore, it is possible to establish a deposit system in which the purchase
price is increased with a premium, which is paid back in addition to the buy-back price after
the vehicle is returned. Additionally, an OEM can secure a right of repurchase against

275
reduction of the purchase price in the purchase agreement. Finally, it is possible to offer
buy-back prices above market prices on the free used-car market in order to secure returns.
The automotive industry typically works with a network of authorised dealers, through
whom the reverse logistics of vehicles can be organized. In the case of affiliated contract
workshops, it is possible to carry out the (preliminary) assessment of the condition on site
and to calculate the profitability of the order depending on the condition of the vehicle. The
advantage is that vehicles can be sorted out directly when remanufacturing is economically
or technically unfeasible to avoid the expensive transport to the remanufacturing site.
When remanufacturing electric vehicles, it must be ensured that the dependent
requirements of remanufacturing orders are covered by components of the original vehicle
or by new parts. Therefore, components that are removed and intended for further use are
assembled into the same original vehicle. In order to be able to carry out product recalls and
warranty measures due to technical problems, the traceability of vehicle parts and the
identifiability of their technical design must be ensured in the automotive industry. [19]
Recalls typically relate to vehicle production periods. If components from different
production periods do not match the production date of the vehicle, the definitive
assignment of components to vehicles can only be guaranteed by a very complex data
management system. Due to the number of components in a vehicle and the fact that
vehicles are subject to constant design changes during ongoing production, the effort
required to trace the production and usage history for electric vehicles is disproportionate.
In addition, remanufacturing practice shows that customer acceptance of remanufacturing
increases significantly when the product returns with the same parts. Consequently, spare
parts must be supplied from the series production.
The remanufacturing scope results from the product structure of electric vehicles, which
consists of core elements that are durable under normal conditions of use and components
that wear and age. Consequently, disassembling the entire product and testing all
components is likely to involve process steps that do not add value if no additional
reprocessing needs are identified. In order to implement efficient production, it is important
to design a functioning mechanism for reliable identification of defects and wear.
Electric vehicles have a fixed disassembly sequence, which must be reflected in the
production design in the form of a sequential order of the stations. Consequently, the
stations have a fixed assignment of the disassembly tasks. However, to ensure that only the
order-related remanufacturing scope is actually taken into account during disassembly, it
must be ensured that only the required stations can be approached. In contrast to
disassembly at the vehicle level, removed components such as powertrain, battery pack or
axles are completely disassembled, cleaned, inspected, processed if necessery and
reassembled in accordance with industrial standards. The configuration of the reassembly
corresponds to the disassembly in order to enable the same job-related route flexibility.
Capacities are designed because of defect and wear probabilities based on historic values.
In-house production planning and control is characterized by decisions under
uncertainty. Only complex data processing concepts are suitable to guarantee the required
efficiency within the described production design. First, a reliable identification of defects
must be ensured. Machine learning algorithms that can process a large amount of influence
data and independently identify complex dependencies are suitable for such a classification
task. This information must then be processed within the scheduling process. The aim of
scheduling is to utilize production resources as efficiently as possible and at the same time
to react robustly to deviations due to extended process times or additional process steps.
Simple planning heuristics do not meet these requirements, which is why the use of genetic
algorithms to optimize order processing is expedient for the complexity of this task. To

276
ensure the productivity of the remanufacturing system, the profitability of the single orders
must be reassessed if there is a major deviation from the initial planning.

Reference
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Verkehr, Landwirtschaft, 2008. Kreislaufwirtschaftsland Rheinland-Pfalz, Mainz.
[2] Walsh, B.; Waugh, R.; Symington, H., 2015. Circular Economy Evidence Building
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[3] Barttel, P., 2014. Triple Win: The social, economic and environmental case for
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[4]
Elektromobilproduktion. Berlin: Springer Vieweg, 5 58.
[5] Sundin, E. 2004. Product and process design for successful remanufacturing. Thesis
(PhD), ersity, Sweden.
[6] Kurilova-Palisaitiene, J.; Sundin, E.; Poksinska, B., 2018. Remanufacturing challenges
and possible lean improvements. Journal of Cleaner Production. 172, 3225 3236.
[7]
5th Conference
on Future Automotive Technology Focus Electromobility, 03.-04. May 2016,
, Germany.
[8] Qingdi, K., Hong-chao, Z., Guangfu, L., Bingbing Li, L., 2011. Remanufacturing
Engineering. Literature Overview and Future Research Needs. Glocalize Solutions for
Sustainability in Manufacturing. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 437-442.
[9] Gagnon, R., Morgan, S., 2015. A Literature Review of Remanufacturing Production
Planning and Control. Annual Meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute, 21-24.
November 2015, Seattle, USA.
[10] Brito, M. P., van der Laan, E. A., 2009, Inventory control with product returns. The
impact of imperfect information. European Journal of Operational Research. 194(1),
85 101.
[11] Jia, J., Xu, S. H., Guide, V. D. R., 2016. Addressing Supply-Demand Imbalance.
Designing Efficient Remanufacturing Strategies. Production and Operations
Management, 25(11), 1958 1967.
[12] Lundmark, P., Sundin, E., , 2009. Industrial Challenges within the
Remanufacturing System. Proceedings of Swedish Production Symposium, 30.
November - 3. December 2009, Gothenburg, Sweden, 132 138.
[13] Matsumoto, M., Yang, S., Martinsen, K., Kainuma, Y., 2016. Trends and research
challenges in remanufacturing. International Journal of Precision Engineering and
Manufacturing-Green Technology, 3(1), 129 142.
[14] Frei, R., Bines, A., Lothian, I., Jack, L., 2016. Understanding reverse supply chains.
International Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Resilience, 2(3), 246 266.
[15] Hawks, K., 2016. What is Reverse Logistics? Reverse Logistics Magazin, 1(1), 12-21.
[16] Fleischmann, M., Bloemhof-Ruwaard, J. M., Dekker, R., van der Laan, E., van Nunen,
J. A.E.E., van Wassenhove, L. N., 1997. Quantitative models for reverse logistics. A
review. European Journal of Operational Research, 103(1), 1 17.
[17] Chaowanapong, J., Jongwanich, J., Ijomah, W., 2017.
decision to conduct remanufacturing. Evidence from the Thai automotive parts
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[18] Jiang, Z., Fan, Z., Sutherland, J. W., Zhang, H., Zhang, X., 2014. Development of an
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[19] VDA, 2005, Vor-
. VDA Empfehlungen, 5005

278
[Paper ID 121]

Austin Pederson1, Amelia Saul2 and Syed M. Ahmed3

Abstract
own company is an inherently risky undertaking. Risk is defined as the exposure
to the chance of occurrences of events adversely or favourably affecting project objectives
as a consequence of uncertainty (Al-Bahar & Crandall, 1990). Of course, construction
projects themselves are prone to many risks that influence their desired outcomes.
As a result, contractors engage in risk management as a measure to mitigate the adverse
effects of loss (Marquette University, 2018). The purpose of this research is to investigate
the way in which general contractors utilize risk response strategies and to examine one
strategy in particular that may be able to help construction managers by significantly
reducing their risks and thus improving their effectiveness in their business. Given
the possibility of miscommunication, the original survey may not have accurately captured
the actions of its respondents. However, assuming those responses were representative
of risk attitudes, small general contractors can take many positives away from
the
and safety education requirements of workers is something that a small company can
implement on their own.

Keywords: construction management, risk management, risk response, strategy, safety

1
Graduate Student, Department of Construction Management, East Carolina University,
E 5th St, Greenville, NC, USA, Email: pedersona16@alumni.ecu.edu
2
Graduate Student, Department of Construction Management, East Carolina University ,
E 5th St, Greenville, NC, USA, Email: saula12@students.ecu.edu
3
Professor, Department of Construction Management, East Carolina University ,
E 5th St, Greenville, NC, USA, Email: ahmeds@ecu.edu

279
Introduction
The construction industry has recently suffered from a negative image and high turnover
rates. Much of that has to do with the vast number of risks that take place on every
construction job, from safety concerns to thin profit margins. Fortunately, construction
managers can confront many of these risks by using strategies found within the risk
management process. By understanding the nature of the risks, construction managers will
be better prepared to utilize a plan to confront them.

Background
om an ancient Greek term that is a metaphor for something that is
difficult to avoid, particularly at sea (Skjong, 2005). In the modern business world, risk is
certainly something that must be constantly navigated. Economic conditions, market
volatilities, government regulations, technological trends, and changing consumer
preferences are some of the many risks that companies must face on a regular basis. As
businesses, construction companies are subject to these same uncertainties. However, due to
the complex nature of construction, construction companies experience an even greater
number of risks than many other businesses face.
Construction is said to be a fragmented industry, as it involves many different
businesses coming together to work for several months on a single project before moving on
to another project with different groups of people (Gould, 2005). Another distinguishing
factor of construction is that every project undertaken is unique. Different projects, even if
similar in design and structure, occupy different pieces of land and are thus subject to
dissimilar site conditions. Because projects take place outdoors, each will be exposed to
different weather conditions and, possibly, climates. Despite these changes and the novelty
associated with each construction endeavor, construction managers are still expected to
push projects through with tight timetables and tight budgets (Gould, 2005). Additionally,
construction projects have gotten bigger and increasingly complex, requiring more
advanced equipment and control from management (Gould, 2005). All of these factors
combine to make risk an inherently large part of the construction business.

Types of Construction Risk

We will define construction risk as the possibility of loss due to nonconformity with
expectations on a construction project
negative impact on the well-being or financial position of people in the construction
workforce (employers and employees). Along with loss, there is also nonconformity with
which describes any aspect of a project that deviates from the desired results.
This can refer to schedules, budgets, safety standards, or structural/material performance
standards that end up not being met. Construction risks can be either naturally-caused or
human-caused.

Naturally-Caused Risks
The natural environment is dynamic and in a constant state of change (Feld & Carper,
1997). Temperature change, precipitation, wind, and other elements can arrive at any time
and often occur with relatively short notice. Wind is a common element that is encountered
on a regular basis, but it can be destructive in large amounts. Windstorms cause upwards of
$5 billion in structural damage each year, and that number continues to grow (Feld &
Carper, 1997). While high winds are usually associated with hurricanes and tornados, a
great deal of damage to buildings happens due to relatively normal wind conditions. This is
especially true for structures that are under construction, whose lack of finished walls, roof
bracing, and sturdy connections make them susceptible to failure from various wind forces
280
(Feld & Carper, 1997).
Flooding is another risk that construction managers must sometimes contend with. As
development expands into agricultural and riparian land, the potential for large scale
flooding of buildings continues to increase (Feld & Carper, 1997). Construction projects
located in areas once designated as floodplains are still subject to the possibility of flooding,
even if the designation has been removed. This is because these areas still have low
elevation and minimal drainage (Feld & Carper, 1997).
While floods and winds cause severe damage to construction projects each year, the
costliest natural risk posed to construction is fire. Every 15 seconds, a fire department
responds to one of the 650,000 structural fires each year (Feld & Carper, 1997). Fires in
buildings caused $8.3 billion in damage for the year 1991 (Feld & Carper, 1997). Even as
improvements are made in fire protection methods, the risk remains.

Human-Caused Risks
Many risks faced by construction managers stem from human error. The list of human-
caused risks begins with something that can happen before construction starts called design
errors. Design errors are incorrect markings or instructions printed on the blueprints or

erroneous markings are followed by contractors during construction, the result is faulty
work that will need to be corrected.
Almost all construction drawings will contain some mistakes. This is due to the
complexity of construction design, the large number of people involved, and the exchange
of many pieces of communication (Potts, 2016). Design errors can also come about as a
result of miscalculation, lack of attention to detail, and inexperience on the part of the
designer (Potts, 2016). A research study in the United Kingdom determined that half of all
construction errors in buildings had their origin in the design stage (as opposed to the
construction stage) (Couto, 2012). Still, once construction of a project begins, there are
many more risks that lay ahead.
At the foundation level, problems can occur with concrete slabs and footings. Concrete
is a mixture of aggregates, water, cement, and admixtures. If the mix is not of good quality
or if contaminants get into the mix, the concrete will lack proper strength and durability
once put into place. One way in which a concrete mix could be of bad quality is if improper
aggregates are selected, causing expansion and cracking of the concrete which must then be
repaired (Feld & Carper, 1997). Additionally, inserting the wrong proportions of
admixtures, even if just by a slight amount, will reduce the toughness of the concrete (Feld
& Carper, 1997).

Health and Safety Risks

The most important thing for construction managers to consider is the safety of workers on
the jobsite. Unfortunately, the construction business has one of the poorest safety records of
any occupation. Specifically, it ranks third among all industries in most employee fatalities
(behind only mining and agriculture (Goetsch, 2003). Another way to put it into perspective
is to note that construction jobs account for five percent of the United States workforce, but
account for over 17 percent of yearly workplace deaths (Goetsch, 2003).
Although shocking, these numbers have improved over the years. According to
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), there were 991 worker fatalities in
the construction industry in 2016. This number is significantly down from the over 2,200
construction deaths that occurred in 1984 (Feld & Carper, 1997). The improvement in
workplace safety can be linked to government and nongovernment organizations, such as
OSHA and the National Safety Council, whose goal it is to promote good safety and health
practices in the workforce (Goetsch, 2003).
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 OSHA has determined that falls are currently the leading cause of construction fatalities.
Specifically, falls from scaffolding present the greatest risk, as nine percent of yearly
construction deaths involve scaffolding (Goetsch, 2003). Scaffolds are a type of temporary
platform used to allow workers to work at a distance above the ground (Goetsch, 2003).
Falling accidents on scaffolds occur due to either workers slipping off the scaffold or failure
of the structure itself (Goetsch, 2003). All scaffolds have an intended capacity, which is the
maximum load weight that the structure is intended to support (Goetsch, 2003). Loading
weight in excess of this capacity onto a scaffold may cause it to collapse along with the
workers who are on it. Scaffolds may also collapse due to defects in the structure as well as
high winds. In New York, 2017, wind gusts blew down a 20-ft tall scaffold onto a sidewalk,
resulting in five people being injured (Smith, 2017).
Most accidents in construction are due to unsafe actions resulting from carelessness or
ignorance, and are thus avoidable (Feld & Carper, 1997). When examining the root cause of
accidents, construction managers should note the failures of their organization and not just
those of individual workers. Organizational failures that lead to injuries include poor work
planning, lack of safety systems, bad communication, and a poor health and safety culture
(Cooke & Williams, 2009). The lack of a safety-conscious attitude within construction
companies is an important driver of risk. In the construction industry, there is often a
widespread view that conforming to safety
1997). The acceptance of risk-
source of unsafe behavior on jobsites (Loosemore, Dainty, & Lingard, 2003). Failure of
construction managers to communicate to workers the absolute importance of safety
precautions will facilitate this risk (Loosemore et al., 2003).

Consequences of Construction Risk

There are many costs associated with the occurrence of the aforementioned risks (along
with numerous other risks not discussed here). Risks such as adverse weather, design errors,
supplier holdups, faulty workmanship, and unexpected site conditions can cause delays that
come with numerous problems for construction companies. These include late completion,
lost productivity, increased costs, and contract termination (Divya, 2015). All of these
consequences translate into lost profits. Construction contracts often provide bonuses to
contractors who complete the project ahead of schedule and penalties for those who
complete the project late. A contractor can lose productivity on his other projects due to the
extra time and resources he must allocate to the project that is suffering from delays. Costs
for the project will increase as the contractor must spend additional money to fix whatever
went wrong. Finally, if the contractor remains unable to perform his duties according to the
contract, the owner may terminate the project for breach of contract (Jaffe & Crump, 2004).
In some cases, the owner will take the contractor to court over a dispute regarding a
construction delay. In 2016, the global average value of construction delay disputes was $46
million, with the average dispute taking over 15 months to reconcile (Lepage, 2017).
Another cost associated with construction delays is loss of reputation to the contractor
(Lepage, 2017). If the owners are unhappy with the progress of their project, they will be
unlikely to recommend the contractor to anyone else. Even worse, they might tell others to
not use that contractor. Safety risks present even greater consequences than just delays and
lost profits. Major, costly lawsuits can result from serious injuries or deaths of workers on
the job. Of course, the greatest loss is that of the health or life of the person, on which a
value cannot be placed. In addition to legal costs, contractors will have to pay more for
.
construction occupations increased by 10.5% per year, while wages only increased by 3.2%
per year (Everett, 1995).

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 Serious indirect costs are also associated with safety risks. These include loss of
productivity, training of replacement workers, wages for time not worked, and reduced
morale of employees (Everett, 1995). In fact, these indirect costs are estimated to be worth
up to 20 times the direct costs (Everett, 1995). Providing a safe workplace, which is
essential for ensuring employee motivation and commitment, is something that is necessary
for the benefit of the construction industry as a whole. (Loosemore et al., 2003). The
industry is currently suffering from a generally negative image, and construction continues
to be viewed as an unattractive career choice (Loosemore et al., 2003). This is in large part
due to its poor health and safety record (Loosemore et al., 2003). If construction companies
hope to be able to recruit high-quality individuals, construction managers must improve the
ks (Loosemore et al., 2003).

Addressing Construction Risk

Traditionally, construction managers have responded to risks by buying insurance (Fewings,
2013). Most contracts require the contractor to obtain a certain level of insurance for the
project. At a minimum, contra
ance (Jaffe & Crump, 2004). General liability
. It
protects against claims such as property damage and faulty workmanship.
covers the building materials and equipment of the contractor.
However, not all risks are insurable, and insurance can become prohibitively expensive
if applied to too many areas of the construction process (Fewings, 2013). Also, insurance
does nothing to prevent the risk from occurring in the first place. As a result, construction
managers must find more comprehensive and proactive ways to address risk on the jobsite.
It is within this context that the risk management process is introduced.

The Risk Management Process

Managing risks in construction is about learning and improving over time (Smith, 2014). It
is about taking a methodical approach that will help gain knowledge and understanding
(Smith, 2014). Organizations that engage in risk management take a proactive approach to
outcome (Smith, 2014). Simply
put, the risk management process is a way to identify, assess, and respond to risks in
construction projects, and then monitor the progress that is made. In the first step of the
process, the construction managers identify all the risks that will be encountered in the
particular project that is under way. Next, they will assess the various risks according to
their probability of occurrence and the impact they will have should they occur. Then, they
will determine the appropriate response strategy to each of the assessed risks. Finally, they
will ensure that the process is being monitored and controlled.

Risk Identification
For the first step in the process, risks of all types that affect productivity, performance, and
quality should be included (Al-Bahar & Crandall, 1990). There are several ways in which
specific risks for a project can be identified. Construction managers can bring different
project stakeholders together for a brainstorming session (Smith, 2014). This allows all

them to identify additional risks on their own (Smith, 2014). Team members can ask each
ibilities (Goetsch, 2003). The
more staff members from different parts of the organization who attend the meeting, the
more knowledge that can be had about potential risks. As risks are brainstormed by the
group, they can be recorded on a risk category summary sheet (Al-Bahar & Crandall, 1990).
the project changes.
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The picture below of a sample risk summary sheet contains a space for conditional risk
variables, where relationships among risks can be listed (Al-Bahar & Crandall, 1990).
Another way for construction managers to identify risks is to look back at their
historical data from previous, similar projects (known as a risk register) (Smith, 2014).
Although their company may never have completed a similar project, past records can yield
valuable information if properly kept. Managers may decide to use a checklist of risk
categories to help them brainstorm. This could be a list of various types of risk
(environmental, financial, legal, construction, etc.), under each of which the manager lists
specific risks that could be encountered on that project (Smith, 2014). Or, instead of
grouping risks by risk category, the manager could group them according to which phase of
the project in which they would occur. Another way of identifying risks is to use a fault tree
analysis. A fault tree analysis begins with a possible negative outcome and then uses a logic
diagram to list all the things that could cause that outcome.

Figure 1: A fault tree diagram with possible events causing a car to not start. Credit:
accendoreliability.com

Risk Assessment
Once all the risks have been identified, their severity can then be estimated. This is done by
assessing risks for their probability of occurrence along with the size of the impact they will
have if they do occur. Based on past experiences and knowledge of construction, the
construction manager will determine for each risk whether it has a high, medium or low
chance of occurrence, and whether the impact on the project would be high, medium, or low
(Smith, 2014). Again, input from the rest of the project team is advised.

impact, depending on the nature of the risk. The impact could be related to the number of
days the project is pushed back on the schedule. Or, it could refer to the number of people
who could be harmed by the risk, as well as the level of harm levied against each person
(Cooke & Williams, 2009). This visual representation in Figure 3 allows the construction
manager to see which risks have the least bearing on the project and which ones will require
the greatest attention (Smith, 2014). Another thing for the construction manager to be aware
of when he/she is assessing risks is his/her own risk attitude. He/she may be a risk-loving,
risk-averse, or risk-neutral person, and that will impact the way he/she sees the severity of
each risk (Fewings, 2013). The manager must remember to consider the interests of all
parties involved in the project when assessing risks.

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 Figure 3: Risk assessment grid. Credit: mahakam2012.wordpress.com

Risk Response
Once the construction manager has identified all risks and determined the seriousness of
each one, it is time for him to assign the appropriate responses. Risk response is the process
of developing options and actions to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to the project
(Panthi, Ahmed, & Azhar, n.d.). There are four main types of responses to risks: avoidance,
transfer, acceptance, and mitigation.
Avoidance is a very basic step to combating risk. It simply means that the construction
company avoids committing an action which involves a risk. The benefit of avoidance is
that it guarantees the contractor will not experience the potential loss. However, he/she also
loses out on the potential gains (Al-Bahar & Crandall, 1990).
Risk transfer involves transferring risks from one party to another (Smith, 2014). The
important thing for the construction manager to consider is whether or not the subcontractor
is capable of handling the risk himself (Smith, 2014). Risks should be accepted by the party
that is best able to manage them. Risks can also be transferred, by way of contract
provisions, to the project owner. It should be noted that transferring a risk does not reduce
the probability of the risk occurring (Fewings, 2013).
Sometimes, a construction manager will choose to accept a risk. This means pursuing a
particular action on the jobsite while knowing that a risk can occur but having a back-up or
contingency plan should the risk take place (Smith, 2014). This response is acceptable if the
risk in question is low-impact and low-probability (Panthi et al., n.d.). It is important for
construction managers not to become so used to using this response that they begin
passively accepting risk (Al-Bahar & Crandall, 1990).
Perhaps the most important risk response is mitigation. Mitigation is actively reducing a
This
may include using better construction techniques, applying a different method of
scheduling, training employees, or implementing a safety program. It also results in reduced

potential risks and reduce their severity (Al-Bahar & Crandall, 1990).
The concept of risk management is relatively new to the construction industry (Al-Bahar
& Crandall, 1990). Construction managers should apply the risk management process
alongside basic rules
If the contractor has a full
understanding of construction risks and the motivation to manage them, he should be able to
make good use of the risk management process (Smith, 2014).

Methods
The purpose of this study is to examine how average construction professionals are putting
risk strategies to use on the jobsite. The researcher conducted a survey of North Carolina
285
general contractors regarding their outlook on several construction risks and their responses
to them. After reviewing those results, the researcher conducted an interview with a
construction manager from a large building company to compare and contrast that

Research Question
Although research has been conducted examining different forms of risk in the construction
industry, it is unknown what strategies are most commonly used on the jobsite. The research
question being addressed is
1. How is the average construction professionals putting risk strategies to use on the
jobsite?
2. What are the most common types of risk in construction management?
3. What risks do construction managers deem the most severe?
4. What risk management software is used in construction management?

Study Design
The study included a two-part process where the respondents were first asked to complete a
survey and then one construction manager was asked to complete a semi-structured
interview. The survey was created online using the program SurveyMonkey. It consisted of
three structured questions with multiple choice responses, followed by a brief, open-ended,
fourth question. (See below)
1. Rank 10 risks according to the likelihood of their occurrence.
2. Rate the same risks according to their severity of impact.
3. Select one of the four risk response strategies for each of the 10 risks.
4. What, if any, types of risk management software do you use to evaluate the
impact of risks?
Once the responses were collected, the answers given for question 1 were multiplied by
those given for question 2 (as per the risk assessment procedure) to arrive at the
(Table 1).
Unlike the survey, the interview that was conducted with the construction manager was
semi-structured. It was an over-the-phone interview that featured five open-ended questions
that were facilitated by a dialog between the researcher and the respondent.

Data Collection
Four general contractors in the residential construction industry in Raleigh, NC were
selected to complete the survey. Of the four contractors who received the survey, only three
completed the survey. After reviewing their survey information, the researcher interviewed
the construction manager. The construction manager also works in Raleigh, NC and
oversees the construction of new home neighborhoods. The interview took place over-the-
phone.

Results
Table 1
each of the risks listed. Researchers found that Company 2 regarded most of the risks to be
of relatively equal severity, while the other contractors had more varying responses.
Weather delays was regarded as the overall most serious risk, although Company 1 regarded
it more seriously than the other contractors. Cost under-estimation, the second biggest risk,
was viewed more evenly among all three.
Worker injuries was ranked as the least severe risk. All three respondents stated that
worker injuries rarely occur, as I would have expected. However, the contractors thought
that injuries have a minor or even insignificant impact should they occur. All three
286
contractors also stated that defective floor plan design rarely occurs. Defective materials
were a risk that the contractors all agreed was relatively high.

robability and Impact Designations

Company 1 Company 2 Company 3
Worker Injuries 1 2 2
Equipment Damage 3 4 3
Cost Under-Est. 12 6 12
Weather Delays 9 6 16
Defective Materials 6 6 6
Bad Installation 4 6 8
Labor Delays 15 6 9
Design Changes 15 6 9
Problematic Site Conditions 12 6 8
Defective Floor Plan 2 2 3

The researchers found that the risk response selections (Table 2), contained a large
. There was also a high number of transfer responses
noted for all three companies. Mitigation and avoidance, on the other hand, were only
chosen twice.

Table 2: Respondent risk response selection

Company 1 Company 2 Company 3

Worker Injuries Transfer Transfer Transfer
Equipment Damage Transfer Transfer Transfer
Cost Under- Estimation Acceptance Mitigate Acceptance
Weather Delays Acceptance Acceptance Acceptance
Defective Materials Transfer Transfer Transfer
Bad Installation Transfer Transfer Transfer
Labor Delays Acceptance Acceptance Acceptance
Design Changes Acceptance Acceptance Acceptance
Problematic Site Conditions Mitigate Acceptance Acceptance
Defective Floor Plan Avoid Avoid Transfer

In conducting this research, a one-on-one interview was also conducted with a

construction manager to discuss how their company addresses risk management. The
purpose of the interview was to determine if a large firm would have a more comprehensive
risk management plan and address risks in a different way than that of the smaller
contracting companies.
When asked what risk management means to his organization, the manager first brought
up safety. In addition to making sure that workers are following safety precautions while on
the job, the company takes an interest in safety education outside of the work zone and
requires workers to do the same. The managers company conducts safety audits of each
neighborhood with the assistance of an independent inspector. They score construction
managers on how well they are maintaining the safety of workplace operations.
Not only do these audits identify potential risks, but they also act as insurance should
anyone bring a safety claim against the company. The company will respond to certain
errors in order fix them. Construction managers now take a closer look at each lot before
construction starts to identify potential problems that may exist and then adjust the

287
construction methods in order to mitigate those risks. The effect of this change in operations
has been costs savings on earthwork.
The company also hosts bi-monthly team meetings where the managers get together and
discuss risks occurring in their respective neighborhoods. This allows them to learn from
one another about how to reduce those risks. They also conduct training sessions on how to
manage scheduling risks in order to save the company money.

Discussion
When reviewing the survey data, the researchers found some interesting findings. The
first was that worker injuries were ranked as the least severe risk. All three respondents
stated that worker injuries rarely occur, as I would have expected; however, the contractors
thought that injuries have a minor or even insignificant impact should they occur. This was
surprising, but it is possible that they have had only minor injuries take place on their
jobsites.
The biggest surprise in this data was the fact that all three contractors stated that

blueprint which states that there are always at least some errors contained within them.
Perhaps the contractors thought the research was asking about floor plans that are not
structurally sound, as opposed to just containing some more minor errors. This is where
surveys can fail to capture the precise intent of the questions and responses. Defective
materials were a risk that the contractors all agreed was relatively high.
The researchers found that the risk response selections (Table 2), contained a large
used to
dealing with these risks on a regular basis and have contingency plans in place to deal with
them. However, it could also mean that they are taking on more risk than they should. For
example, they rate design changes as a substantial risk, yet they all accept it (as opposed to
mitigating it).
The mitigation response was only chosen twice. It is understandable that equipment
risks would be transferred to subcontractors and that weather would need to be accepted.
But I would think design changes, problematic site conditions, and bad installations could
be mitigated. These things hold back schedules and the contractors could exercise some
degree of control over them. Do they not engage in more mitigation because they lack the
organizational infrastructure to actively reduce those risks? What could be done about those
risks instead of accepting them?

Conclusion
Risk management is something that is being applied in the construction industry today.
Companies are engaging in the training of employees as well as promoting the education to
improve the skill set of everyone in a way that will reduce risk. While 2/3 of the general
contractors in my survey were accepting the risks associated with difficult site conditions,
the large organization was implementing a new mitigation policy to stop costly risks that
had been previously occurring on building lots. Also, the large organization is not
transferring the risks of labor injures onto the subcontractors, but, instead, they are taking
steps to ensure that those workers are more likely to behave safely regardless. The company
is using software to reduce cost under-estimations while others are accepting that risk.
Although there is a plethora of information on different forms of risk in the construction
industry, there is limited research on the risk strategies that are being utilized, specifically in
Eastern North Carolina. The data collected will help to develop the risk strategies that are

288
being utilized and to help to determine other research that can be conducted.
Given the possibility of miscommunication, the original survey may not have accurately
captured the actions of its respondents. However, assuming those responses were
representative of risk attitudes, small general contractors can take many positives away from
the information learned about some of the larger firms.

something that a small company can implement on their own. They may not have many co-
workers where they can get together for training sessions, but they can replicate these kinds
of events with other local general contractors. Risk management does not have to be
something that is reserved for large companies. Hopefully, construction organizations of all
sizes can apply the process, apply the strategies, and begin operating their businesses with
less risk.

References
Al-Bahar, J.F., & Crandall, K. C. (1990). Systematic Risk Management Approach for
Construction Projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 116 (3),
533-546.
Cooke, B., & Williams, P. (2009). Construction Planning, Programming and Control. West
Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.
Couto, J. P. (2012). Identifying of the Reasons for the Project Design Errors in the
Portuguese Construction Industry. Academic Research International, 3(2), 164.
Divya, R., & Ramya, S. (2015). Causes, Effects and Minimization of Delays in
Construction Projects. National Conference on Research Advances in Communication,
Computation, Electrical Science and Structures.
Everett, J. G. (1995). True Costs of Construction Accidents. Automation and Robotics in
Construction XII.
Feld, J., & Carper, K. (1997). Construction Failure. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Fewings, P. (2013). Construction Project Management. New York, NY: Routledge.
Goetsch, D. L. (2003). Construction Safety and Health. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Education.
Jaffe, D., Crump, D. (2004). Contracts and Liability. Washington, DC: BuilderBooks.
Lepage, M. (2017). Types of Schedule Delays in Construction Projects. Retrieved from
https://www.planacademy.com/types-of-schedule-delays-in-construction/
Loosemore, M., Dainty, A., & Lingard, H. (2003). Human Resource Management in
Construction Projects. New York, NY: Spon Press.
Panthi, K., Ahmed, S. M., & Azhar, S. (n.d.) Risk Matrix as a Guide to Develop Risk
Response Strategies.
Potts, P. (2016). Dealing with Errors and Omissions. Retrieved from
https://www.constructionspecifier.com/dealing-with-errors-and-omissions/
Skjong, R. (2005). Etymology of risk: Classical Greek origin Nautical expression
Retrieved from
research.dnv.com/skj/Papers/etymology-of-risk.pdf
Smith, B. (2017). Five Injured After Scaffolding Collapses, Trapping Pedestrians in SoHo.
NY Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/new-
york/manhattan/multiple-people-trapped-scaffolding-collapse-soho-article-1.3643945
Smith, N., Merna, T., & Jobling, P. (2014). Managing Risk in Construction Projects. West
Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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[Paper ID 67]

Tlangelani Baloyi1 and Aghaegbuna Ozumba2

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to develop knowledge around the practice of risk-management
by small enterprises in the construction sector. The study will discuss the shortfalls
in practice, and possible risk-management strategies suggested. This research is a literature
review based study. An integrative review of a purposive sample of literature was used
to generate articles discussing SMMEs and their business challenges. The search narrowed
down to risk management articles with a specific focus on strategic risk management.
The significant limitation to the study is the theoretical nature at this stage. Findings,
however, suggest that non-systematic risk management in business operations by small
enterprises and lack of innovative strategies that accommodate for market competition,
hinder their transition to medium enterprises. However, small enterprises that practice
strategic risk management stand a better chance of transitioning into medium enterprises
because of their better understanding of risks and resource organization.

Keywords: business, enterprise, risk, SMME, strategic risk management

1
University of the Witwatersrand, 556926@students.wits.ac.za
2
University of the Witwatersrand, Obinna.Ozumba@wits.ac.za

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1. Introduction
Small, Medium and Microenterprises (SMMEs), are important in the economic progression
of countries through job creation, and entrepreneurial innovation (Mazzarol et al., 2014).
Such entities have an employment level of fewer than 250 employees. Small enterprises, in
particular, have employees ranging from 5 -100 depending on their country and industry.
efficiently manage its risks
(Falkner and Hiebl, 2015). Risks will punitively affect an enterprise if adequate mitigation
measures are not effectively structured (Racher, 2015). A common method of managing an

essential element in the running of businesses as it helps to yield the highest returns for an
enterprise by minimizing unforeseen costs accruable from risks (Ekwere, 2016). Strategic
risk management, in particular, allows an enterprise to align its management practices to its
long-term planning based on its organizational goals and objectives (Lechner and
Gudmundsson, 2014). Risk management is therefore broad and interpreted differently
according to the individual knowledge backgrounds. Nevertheless, the strategy chosen to
deal with risks should fulfill the generic aim of risk management (Mainardes et al., 2014).
However, Venturini and Verbano (2013) assert that risk management strategies practiced by
small enterprises are likely to be less effective due to their reduced risk management
abilities.

The business for small enterprises in construction occurs in the form of projects secured
through bidding processes. The enterprise will bid as a contractor, subcontractor, consultant
or special skills experts. The stated nature of business occasions occurs with varying risks
(Taroun, 2014). The enterprise needs to develop strategies that enable it to best factor for
such risks (Johnson, 2015). However, a manager, owner, or employee will recognize risks
according to their cognition of threats (Mazzarol et al., 2014). The training and knowledge a
manager has about risks, inform their risk management decisions (Falkner and Hiebl, 2015).
Unfortunately, for most small enterprises, there is evidence of deficiency in strategic risk
management, resulting in the slow business development and transition to medium scale
enterprises (Johnson, 2015). Consequently, the pertinent research question is: What hinders
small enterprises in construction from effective practice of strategic risk management in
their business planning and operations?

(Ekwere, 2016), states that small enterprises have more challenges in practicing
conventional risk management when compared to medium and large enterprises. They tend
to emulate large enterprise practices instead of developing approaches that will match their
risk appetite and risk handling capabilities. Thus only a few enterprises practice strategic
risk management with proof that it develops the business of small enterprises (Mainardes et
al., 2014). Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of information about the general inadequacy of
strategic risk management practice by small enterprises. In an emerging economy context
such as South Africa, small enterprises are vulnerable to internal structural problems when
compared to their counterparts in other developing countries (Tshikhudo et al., 2015). They
lack specialized services and products that they can introduce in the market, and as a result,
have to compete with large enterprises to offer the same products and services (Yolande
Smit, 2012). The critical emphasis on small business survival and transition in South Africa
is highlighted in the relevant literature such as Ondendaal (2017) who assert that due to the
26.7% unemployment rate in the country, SMMEs need to create the majority of the needed
jobs. This makes small-enterprise development highly critical in such contexts. In the
absence of adequate information, there is a need to identify risk management practices gaps
by small enterprises in the construction industry. There is also a need to articulate such

291
findings towards suggesting feasible solutions that will assist in developing well adapted
long-term strategies to mitigate their business risks. The current study aims to investigate
existing risk management practices within the construction industry and assess the barriers
hindering small enterprises from the conventional practice, with particular reference to the
South African context as a possible setting for empirical data in subsequent stages. The
methodology presented hereunder was used in an attempt to achieve the study aim.

2. Methodology
The study is at the preliminary stage of a broader research project. An integrative literature
review approach of purposively sampled literature on SMMEs and their business challenges
was used. The purposive sampling strategy was used to find articles discussing small
enterprises and their development limitations. Articles and papers for literature review were
retrieved from the following databases: Emerald, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and
Taylor & Francis. The following keywords were used for searching through databases:
Challenges affecting SMMEs, business enterprise, business strategy, risks, risk
management, risk management adoption, risk management in SMMEs, risk management in
construction, strategic risk management, strategic risk management in small enterprises in
construction, market niche, and market niches in construction.

The staged approach to the integrative literature review is as follows:

A quick perusal of abstracts was conducted to assess the relevance and currency of
the papers. The findings in the studied articles demonstrated poor risk management
as a barrier to business development and effective running of small enterprises.
Following the first step, a search for articles discussing how enterprises can
effectively practice risk management was conducted.
In order to relate findings to the construction industry, literature on strategic risk
management in construction was also reviewed.
The stated approach assured alignment to the broader focus of risk management and
strategy. The two main knowledge areas were combined to get a more unobstructed view of
the challenges around strategic risk management implementation in construction. An
annotated literature review table with the following headings was used to summarize
essential information from the reviewed papers: Full reference, research problem,
consequences of problem, methods, findings, theory, and relevance of the study. Following
an analysis of the information extracted from the review template, available information
was grouped under the given headings and resulting sub-headings. Results are presented
hereunder.

3. Knowledge from Previous Studies

3.1 Risk
As much as there are various definitions of risk, the common defining attributes are
uncertainty and the consequences the risk brings, either positive or negative, to any
(Dabari and Saidin, 2014). Risk and uncertainty are often used
interchangeably. However, they differ on the basis that an enterprise knows risk because its
probability can be calculated; whereas, uncertainties cannot be predicted (Vargas-
.
Essentially the concept of risk lies in
making risk perception a strong factor for risk behavior. (van Winsen et al., 2016). Common

292
types of risk include credit risk, market risk, project risk, business risk, strategic risks,
operational risks, reputational risks, liquidity risks, political risk, employee risk, enterprise
risk and financial risk (Griffin, 2018). The current study focuses on business risks.

3.1.1 Business Risk

Business risk entails internal and external events of which their uncertainties need to be
understood by an enterprise to effectively implement strategies that direct the business to
achieve its goals and objectives while maximizing the value for shareholders (Yolande
Smit, 2012). Types of business risks include: strategic risk, reputational risk, compliance
risk, reputational risk, financial risk and others (Griffin, 2018). Arguably with business risks
come the need for risk management.

3.2 Risk Management

According to Verbano and Venturini (2013), risk management (RM) assists enterprises with
reducing uncertainty and ensuring continuity in production and market trading whilst
maximizing profits through costs reduction. There are various definitions of risk
management, for which definitions, the authors have articulated the following origins:

Bernouli (1984) Risk management involves measuring risks through the use of a
geometric mean, and distributing it across a set of events that are dependent, to
minimize it.
Chapman and cooper (1983) economic, monetary losses, damage to property, as a
resulting from an inherent uncertainty related to the action taken.
BBA et al., (1999) - Progressive and unfavorable outcomes of an incident, which
might hinder the success of operating, strategic and monetary goals of an enterprise.
Venturini and Verbano (2013) also assert that RM should create value, consist of strategic
planning, be systemic and structured, be transparent and inclusive, and be responsive to
change, and account for human factors.

Conventional RM procedure explains that all risks need to be identified and known to
determine their severity and management style (Serpella et al., 2014). The risks will then be
analyzed and prioritized, to plan for mitigation strategies. An RM professional will need to
monitor and evaluate the usefulness of the selected management strategies (Williams,
2004). The RM process arguably needs to be systematic for efficiency. Mills (2001) explain
that the greater advantages of a systematic risk management approach include the ability to
rank risks, identifying opportunities to improve project performance, and making informed
decisions on mitigation plans. It also includes defining the roles of the enterprise and other
stakeholders in risk sharing and transfer. Types of risk management include: Enterprise RM,
Operational RM, Currency RM, Financial RM, Market RM, Software RM, RM,
Quantitative RM, Commodity RM, Bank RM, Project RM, Integrated RM, Technology
RM, IT RM and Strategic RM (Yolande Smit, 2012). The current study is focused on
strategic risk management.

3.2.2 Strategic Risk Management

Enterprises need adequate RM principles to survive. The requirement can be achieved
through long-term planning and strategic thinking (Yoon et al., 2015). An enterprise needs
to identify its risk appetite to develop a hierarchy of strategies (Adendorff et al., 2011).
Mainardes et al. (2014) highlight that the notion of strategy has been extensively used in the

293
management field and describes anything formulated in a particular environment, to be the
course of action in improving a specific aspect of a company based on its goals and
objectives.
depends on its entrepreneurial behavior and the application of competitive strategies in its
business planning. Mainardes et al. (2014) emphasize however that it is futile to have
strategies that will not work for the enterprise, thus it is crucial for new/young enterprises
owners to have the capacity to develop and manage strategies that will enable the enterprise
to factor out market challenges, reaching their objectives in the short, medium and long
terms. The greater advantage brought by strategic risk management to an enterprise is its

fluctuations (Rawls and Smithson, 1990).

3.4 Risks and Risk Management in Construction

Construction businesses face many risks due to the in-built uncertainties related to
construction projects (Yoon et al., 2015). Risk management is, therefore, an essential aspect
of decision-making processes in construction enterprises (Mills, 2001). As mostly observed
in the industry, risk is likely to be shifted to small contractors. Their poor long-term
planning leaves them financially stranded in such cases (Hardie, 2010). Risk identification
is a crucial step in decision making when an enterprise is uncertain about the probability of
unforeseen risks (Hassanein and Afify, 2007). Small contractors will thus need a reliable
tool that measures the extent of the potential risk because a precise estimate of risk can be
time-consuming (Jannadi and Almishari, 2003). Ranking of the importance of risks differs
among developed and developing countries. For example, UK construction enterprises
prioritize changes in initial design, while their counterparts in Ghana prioritize delay in
payment from the client (Chileshe and Kikwasi, 2014). The list of risks in construction
includes: natural disasters, subcontractor and supplier issues, equipment damage and theft of
tools, building material availability, poorly administered contracts, undefined scopes,
drawings that are not complete, management of changes in orders, and poor risk
management (Jones, 2018). The different lines of business for contractors and consultants in
construction dictate the prioritization of risks. Contractors will factor in weather,
groundworks, contaminants, and construction methods. The hierarchy will differ for
consultants. They consider poor communication among team members in a project and
inflation when treating their risks (Chileshe and Kikwasi, 2014).

3.4.1 Risk Management Challenges for Enterprises around the World

Chileshe and Kikwasi (2014) regarding the adaptation of risk assessment and management
by SMMEs in Tanzania, present a discussion of the challenges to risk management as
identified by other researchers around the globe. Interestingly, developed countries are not
exempt from the barriers to systematic practice of risk management. The table below
depicts the findings:

Table 1 Risk Management Adoption for Construction Enterprises around the Globe

Country Barriers

Hong Kong Challenges in getting input estimates and their

probability assessment; Time constraints;
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 challenges in understanding risk management
techniques; IT resources and managerial
support.

Korea The absence of awareness and expertise in risk

management practices; Tangible risk-
probability calculations.

US Personal prejudices; traditional norms.

Ghana Lack of experience; lack of facts and figures,

coordination among stakeholders; accessibility
of risk-management specialists; time
limitations; lack of knowledge and expertise.

UK Late start to projects; inexperienced

employees; attitude towards risk; not robust
enough and risk identification incompetency.

Singapore Competition among SMME contractors; the

complexity of analytical tools; lack of
prospective benefits; budget deficiency; lack
of government legislation; lack of knowledge;
lack of trained professionals; lack of time;
low-profit margin; and not economical.

Tanzania Risk management awareness; coordination

among project team members; risk
management styles; effective use of tools and
methods; enterprise strategic objectives;
internal and external environment; less
qualified risk professionals; client
requirements and cooperative culture.
Source: Chileshe and Kikwasi (2014)

As seen in the table, the critical challenges to adopting a conventional risk management

lack of risk management, time constraints, inadequately trained risk personnel, and poor
budget allocation for risk training and practice. If an enterprise fails to practice conventional
risk management, there is little chance of integrating other risk management techniques. In
summary, poor adoption RM still poses a great threat to the development of small
enterprises.

4. Additional Findings in Literature

Small and medium enterprises have challenges embracing risk analysis strategies
that are qualitative-based due to their reduced knowledge and practice of risk
management and lack of trained specialists to perform risk identification. (Yoon et
al., 2015)

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 Construction small enterprises fail to practice systematic risk management because
of limited qualitative and quantitative data from previous projects that could enable
them to establish a proper risk response strategy for their enterprise. (Serpella et al.,
2014)
Identified the top three critical success factors for company success by Turkish
construction company managers/owners include: business management, financial
conditions, and owner-manager characteristics (Arslan and Kivrak, 2008).
Developing an effective business strategy is critical for business stability when an
enterprise is small and undeveloped (Lechner and Gudmundsson, 2014).
Small enterprises practicing strategic risk management stand a better chance at
survival if the principles are applied at an organizational level (Adendorff et al.,
2011).

According to Hastak et al., (2015) there are options available to construction enterprises to
best factor for risks while maximizing profits and business growth. The following
suggestions were made for contractors when designing their risk handling methods:

Table 2 Risk Mitigation Strategies for Construction Enterprises

Risk Response Strategy Risk Handling Method

Risk avoidance Increase unit cost or overhead

Develop substitutes for risk events
Remove risk events by avoiding them

Risk transfer Use insurance

Subcontract work
Train and educate staff

Risk mitigation Develop a strategic staffing plan

Use proven construction materials and
methods
Safeguard both workers and property
Provide best supplies (e.g., computers,
equipment, etc.)

Risk retention Prepare contingency planning

Accept profit losses

Source: Hastak et al. (2015)

5. Discussions
The success of enterprises relies essentially on the implementation of effective risk
management. This assertion holds for small enterprises also. However, risk management
practices by small enterprises do not seem to be in line with known/conventional
approaches, despite given benefits. Essentially there is the case of non-systematic risk
management in business operations by small enterprises. They also seem to lack innovative
strategies and adequate sensitivity to market competition. Evidence from the literature
296
suggests that small enterprises are currently in need of a holistic risk management approach.
A possible solution for their competitiveness and growth is strategic risk management.
Enterprises need to develop their risk integrity, and an efficient RM, to maximize
organizational goals. In Falkner and Hiebl (2014) , a holistic risk management
approach is suggested for small enterprises as a measure to bridge the gap between
theoretical and practical risk management competencies. In an earlier study, owners and
managers of small enterprises, are advised to be sensitive to business and managerial risks
when planning and executing business strategies as part of RM (Berkeley et al., 1991).
However, there is currently limited research on how small construction enterprises practice
risk management in their daily business activities and how this informs decision-making
(Racher, 2015). A notable recommendation to small enterprises as highlighted by
Tshikhudo et al. (2015) is the need to invest in risk management training programs.
Mainardes et al. (2014) support this recommendation and state that small enterprises
receiving risk management education and training, better inform their business objectives
and competitive strategies. It is also advised that small enterprises engage in business
collaborations and ventures to maximize their performance, particularly in countries with
unstable economies (Kossyva et al., 2014).

6. Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to understand risk-management practices by small businesses
within the construction sector and the implications. This stage of the study is a literature
review. There is, therefore, an opportunity to explore other relevant theories and bodies of
knowledge, beyond the current study. Findings from this stage of the research can be
summarized thus: Small enterprises that have adopted strategic risk management stand a
better chance of survival due to their improved capacity for managing business risks.
Furthermore, the emerging relationships of concepts explored in the study also highlight the
need for emphasis on niche and aligned business risk strategies, as presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - The proposed relationship of concepts identified from the literature review.
Source: Researcher

Figure 1 shows the emerging relationship of concepts explored in the current study. From
Figure 1, small construction enterprises need to develop a specific market product to
specialize in. They also need to establish business strategies that will optimize their profits.
Since the construction industry is very competitive, it is important for the strategy

297
developed to align with the principles of strategic risk management for an effective business
transition.

The stated summation at this stage remains to be given specific cause and effect description.
It is necessary to understand how business failure/non-transition to higher levels for small
businesses, is inferred by the identified gaps. It is essential to provide the empirical basis for
the identified gap and the nature of the impact, for further discussion. The dearth of relevant
information in this regard is supported by Racher (2015), and the various suggestions by
authors such as Tshikhudo et al. (2015) and Kossyva et al. (2014). Future research should
focus on empirical studies of challenges to effective practice of risk management for small
enterprises in construction. Such studies should emphasize strategic risk management.
Furthermore, the possible link between business synergies and improvement of strategic
risk management practice among small enterprises should be explored. Figure 1 is proposed
as the basis for developing a conceptual framework, in the next stages of this research.
Regardless of the theoretical nature of the current study, it is very relevant to construction
industry development because risk management is a major factor in business growth and
competence. The current study has attempted to articulate knowledge on the practice of
strategic risk management by small enterprises in construction, which constitutes a
knowledge gap area. The current study has also proposed a conceptual relationship which
can be utilized as a basis for developing a conceptual framework for empirical studies in the
identified knowledge gap.

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[Paper ID 87]

Marian Taimu1, Bankole Awuzie2 and Alfred Beit Ngowi3

Abstract
Stakeholder relationship management (SRM) remains critical to the attainment of successful
project outcomes. This is particularly the case in the construction industry: an industry often
described as considerably fragmented and project-based with a multiplicity of stakeholders
with vested interests. Burgeoning incidences of project failure has been attributed to poor
SRM. A lot of studies investigating stakeholder management exist, yet a paucity of studies
looking into SRM has been noticed. Most of these studies have sought to investigate
the phenomenon from a client pers
in SRM. Also, the tendency of these studies to overlook stakeholder dynamics as it concerns
power, uncertainty etc. during various stages of the project lifecycle is observed. These
are the gaps which this study will seek to fill relying on the customer relationship model
(CRM) theoretical lens. A multi-case study research design is proposed. Different contractor
organizations were selected based on a set of predetermined criteria. A plethora of within-
case interviews and document reviews will be utilized in eliciting data concerning
the approach adopted by construction contractors for managing extant relationships with
critical stakeholders. The data was analysed thematically. It is expected that success factors
will result from the elicited narratives. The following success factors for effective
management of stakeholder relationship management emerged from the interviews
and documents: Communication, understanding of stakeholders, the different types
of stakeholders and type of project, management and interpersonal skills, collaboration,
engagement, and conflict management. This artefact will be compared to different CRM
models to identify probable success factors for engendering effective stakeholder

the development of a contractor-centric stakeholder relationship management framework

for the Botswana construction industry.
Keywords: Botswana, Case studies, Construction, Customer Relationship Management,
Stakeholder

1
Lecturer, Botswana Accountancy College, School of Business, Plot 50661, Fairgrounds,
Gaborone Botswana, Tel +267 395 3062, Fax + 267 3904103, mariant@bac.ac.bw
2
Senior Lecturer, Central University of Technology, Built Environment Private Bag X20539,
Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa +2751507 3532, bawuzie@cut.ac.za
3
Professor & Deputy Vice Chancellor, Central University of Technology, Private Bag X20539,
Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa +2751507 3532, ngowi@cut.ac.za

301
Introduction
Globally, construction industry clients have continued to grapple with increasing rates of
dissatisfaction with project delivery outputs. The burgeoning rates of dissatisfaction has
continued despite several interventions of industry stakeholders at different intervals and
across geographical contexts. The largely fragmented and task-oriented nature of the
industry, the fixation of inherent management techniques on the project delivery process
instead of the functionality and utility of the project to client as well as the opportunistic
behavior exhibited by project stakeholders have served, singularly or as a combination, to
undermine the aspirations of industry clients, hence the dissatisfaction experienced. The
scenario painted above is not peculiar to the developed world context but its predominance
in the developing world context is troubling. This is particularly the case as countries in the
latter require and are constantly commissioning new projects to meet their commitments to
their citizenry in terms of improved welfare, productivity levels as well as national
competitiveness. This aspiration has led to increased national borrowing and indebtedness,
hence the need to ensure that projects deliver on their outline/original business cases. The
debate on project management success and project success is yet inconclusive as both
aspects are critical to engendering client satisfaction. Botswana happens to be one of such
countries, classified as developing and in dire need for significant investments in
infrastructure. As such, the onus falls on the local construction industry to provide the
formwork for achieving this objective through efficient delivery of infrastructure and other
ancillary services. The criticality of the industry to this venture cannot be overemphasized.

However, available evidence indicates that the Botswana construction industry has been
unable to provide this support in a manner that is congruent with increasing levels of client
satisfaction. Also, this shortcoming has negated the growth of the construction industry as
clients are increasingly wary of inaugurating new projects, culminating in low receipts for
the industry and indirectly impeding economic growth. In as much as certain studies have
aligned themselves with previous studies which blame the nature of the construction
industry and attitude of the stakeholders, particularly the client and the contractor, as
constituting a hindrance to effective project delivery in Botswana, others have blamed the
lack of skills and finance as failure factors bedeviling the industry. Furthermore, other
studies have identified poor stakeholder management models or approaches applied by
project teams as a salient failure factor Freeman (1984) Bourne (2005) Donaldson And
Preston (1995), Mitchell, Agle, And Wood (1997), Friedman Miles (2002), And Phillips
(2003). Cleland (1986) Thomas; Preston, Lee E. (1995). Yang Et Al., (2010), Frooman
.

Also, contracting organizations have been at the receiving end for the heightening levels of
client dissatisfaction observed in the industry. This much is buttressed in a study by Bidpa
(2015,1) wherein it was stated that:
Botswana and contractors have often been unfairly singled out as the main culprits even
when the delay was of a much more complex problem involving a number of stakeholders
This implies that contractors and contracting organizations in construction have a salient
role to play in engendering improved project delivery via effective management of
relationships with stakeholders. It must be acknowledged that whilst all the points raised in
the literature remain valid, the extant literature on the management of stakeholders appears
to be fixated on a static and dogmatic approach to stakeholder relationship management. A
cursory look at the industry and the plethora of contractual arrangements governing the
relationships reveals the sub-optimal nature of such static and dogmatic approaches for

302
obvious reasons. However, a paucity of studies seeking, both to challenge the inadequacy of
extant models and explore nascent ways of managing stakeholder relationships by
contracting organizations in the Botswana construction industry and elsewhere has been
noticed. This observation makes this study imperative.

The construction industry is renowned for adopting processes for continuous improvement
from other industrial sectors. Such innovative steps have culminated in new taxonomies
like: lean construction, servitization, etc. Taking a cue from such precursors, this study
attempts to explore the utility of extant customer relationship model (CRM) in bridging the
gaps observed in the extant stakeholder management models. To do this effectively, this
study will seek to explore the difference between stakeholder relationships and customer
relationship and the management thereof. In furtherance to this, it is expected that an
elicitation of the success factors for optimal stakeholder relationship management by
contractors will ensue following from a review of both approaches and the nature of
construction project stakeholders. The problem statement of the study is to find the success

construction industry. The research question is what are the success factors for the effective
management of stakeholder relationships for contractor firms in the Botswana construction
industry? Based on the foregoing and seeming inability of the extant SRM models to cater
effectively for the dynamics experienced by the contractors in the management of
stakeholder relationships in construction projects, this study seeks to explore the utility of
CRM models in catering to this gap.

Literature Review
Concept of Customer Relationship management
Oluseye (2014) refers to the term relationship management as the process of managing the
relationships between a firm and its internal and external publics. Since the inception of
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the early 1990s, many attempts have been
made to succinctly define the concept. One of the most comprehensive definitions citied by

retaining customers. Further to that Buttle (2009) also defines CRM as the core business
strategy that incorporates internal processes and functions, and external networks, to create
Berndt &Tait (2014) argue that the
customer is jointly involved in adding value, thus more creative ideas are produced, and
deeper relationships are built with them. Working with the customer and building relation
through the project life cycle is an important aspect of project success.
CRM in the Construction Industry
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the all-inclusive process of building and
maintaining profitable customer relationship in delivering superior value and satisfaction,
dealing with acquiring, keeping and increasing consumers. Berndt &Tait (2014) argue that
the customer is jointly involved in adding value, thus more creative ideas are produced, and
deeper relationships are built with them. CRM is a powerful concept to align the interests of
a company and its customers. (Bouling et al, 2005). CRM in the construction is mostly
applied in the western world in comparison to Africa, Botswana. Stakeholder Relationship
management in the construction industry is a relatively new phenomenon.
Construction Industry and Customer Relationship management in Botswana
The construction industry in Botswana has had phenomenal growth, particularly in the last
two decades. However, it has also experienced some problems and still faces numerous
challenges, among them, human resource development, capacity development, and lack of
competitiveness for citizen firms (Africa for Africa, 2015). According to Keaketswe (2015)

303
the construction industry has provided infrastructural support for the economy. Ssegawa-
Kaggwa et al, (2013) grouped the players in the construction industry into four categories
mainly suppliers, regulators, clients and facilitators.
CRM Models
There are numerous CRM
Performance Scorecard (IDM, 2002); Forrester CRM Model (from Forrester Research,
2008); Conceptual Model (from Desai et al, 2007); The Strategic Model for CRM (Payne,
2006); The CRM Value Chain (Buttle, 2000): The QCI Customer Management Model
(Hewson et all, 2002). For purposes of this study only three models will be discussed
below.
The table below summaries a number of models that are found in customer relationship
management. This IDIC model offers a simple way of relating with customers and it may be
useful in construction, this is so because in construction there is always customisation of the
e
have a good relationship with the customer which are to identify the customer,
differentiating the customer first by value and then secondly by need, interaction with the
customer according to their needs and values and lastly to customise the final product to the
Strategy, Process, Technology and People are
the four types of groups by the Forrester CRM Model. The model is useful for kick starting
CRM programs for an organization that want to launch a CRM program Forrester Research
(2008) This model will be able to help firms that find challenges in implementing the
CRM. w where they are at the
present and where they want to be over a period of time, what the requirement they will
need to achieve that status of where they want to be (IDM, 2002).
Customer Relationship Models
CRM Models Scholars Relationship Contractors use of
Management model (Analysis)
CRM Value Chain Buttle,2000 Analysis of customer Contractor to provide
supporting conditions
The QCI CRM Hewson Variety of activities to Contractors need of
etal,2002 acquire and retain technology to manage
customers relations
IDM,2002 Consideration of Help contractors that
Performance strategy, processes, find it challenging to
Scoreboard technology and people implement CRM
IDIC Model Pepper and Identify, Differentiate Contractors to
Rodgers 2004 Interaction and customize product to
Customize customer the customers
requirements specifications.
The Strategic Payne,2006 5 stages used to manage Contractors may tally
Model for Crm relations,Strategy the five stages with
process, Value creation, the project life cycle
Multichannel integration, from inception to end
Performance assessment user in order to
and information manage relations
management
Conceptual Model Desai et al 2007 Linking the relationship Contractors may be
between dynamic able to try the direct
capability for CRM and competences of the IT
competitive CRM variables see if they

304
 performance make a change to
CRM
Forrester Crm Forrester ,2008 4 classes to manage Helps contractors that
Model relations, Strategy, find challenges in
Process, Technology and implementing the
People CRM
Table 1: Summary of CRM models (author s compilation)

Understanding the Dichotomy between Stakeholder and Customers

Construction project stakeholders would normally comprise of owners and users of
facilities, project managers, employees, suppliers, visitors, suppliers, shareholder,
subcontractors, banks, insurance companies, competitors, process and service providers,
media, pressure groups, civic institutions, regional development agencies, the press, the
natural environment, general public, community representatives etc (Newcombe,2003;
Smith and Love, 2004). Magliolo, (2008) eliminates the confusion between stakeholders
and customers for projects as the customers have also been referred to as stakeholders. A
customer can be described as any party that would be affected by a new product, including
the main customers in the execution of the projects. Also, they may have both positive and
negative implications on the project (Magliolo,2008). For this study the customers include
the above-mentioned stakeholders. The study will seek to view stakeholders as customers
and the shareholders in the contracting firms. Relationships with the customer/s is a key
aspect in the business world and more so for the construction industry where there are
projects with life cycles and different stakeholders at each stage. Future developments of the
stakeholder theory should acknowledge that there is a lack of models to manage stakeholder
relationships more efficiently (Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, Parmar & De Colle 2010:117).
Thus, the basis of this study will be underpinned by Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) theoretical lenses as there are various models in CRM that may be able to provide
probable success. Baran (2008) provides a range of definitions for CRM however for

customers company relationships such that customers elect to continue mutually beneficial
commercial exchange and are dissuade from participating in exchange that is not

Significance of Stakeholders
Weiss (2006) defines a stake from stakeholder as a share or interest and the stakeholder
being the individual with the stake. A contracting firm has many stakeholders who affect its
operations and these contractors are in turn affected by the project. These consist of those
which provide inputs (such as suppliers, society, financiers); regulatory bodies such the
government; the community; owners (concerned with profits and survival of the firm or
project); facilitators (e.g. employees, lawyers and financial advisers) and the customer who
is the receiver of the final project. All these stakeholders need to have their concerns taken
into consideration to avoid conflict that may hinder progression and success of the project.
Stakeholder Relationship Management
Considering stakeholder management in the

advance (Yang 2009). Stakeholders being people the project manager will work with, must
have their strategic and management processes to achieve success in the project. This may
be achieved by managing relations with the stakeholders aiming for progression and success
within the project. A construction project comprises of a series of complex activities.
Bourne (2005) observed that
the expectations and perceptions of its stakeholders, and the capability and willingness of

305
project managers to manage organizational politics. From previous studies, it can be found
that stakeholder management is important in managing construction projects, and the
reasons of managing stakeholders in construction projects include: Firstly, that the
construction projects are complicated with many process and parties involved and secondly
the relationships among stakeholders in construction projects are temporary (Yang 2009).
Considering that construction project is temporary and unique, relations with stakeholders
need to be managed effectively to avoid conflicts that will lead to failure or abandonment of
the project. Stakeholders are
importance to monitor them as they change positions during the life cycle of the projects
progression (Chinyio and Olomolaiye ,2010).
Bourne (2010) admits the importance of the processes supporting effective communication
to the mission of building and maintaining healthy relationships with organizational
stakeholders, through analysis of a case study that of the construction and opening of
Heathrow Terminal 5. The Heathrow T5 project was deemed to be one of the most
successful projects because of innovative project management practices that focused on

Components of successful Stakeholder Relationship Management

Bourne (2009) argues that for effective stakeholder relationship management the
organization must be ready to absorb the new processes and practices further to that it must
be fully developed, sensible and reliable and this defines maturity.
Six attributes have been identified as critical to the development of that a stakeholder
relationship management model. They include: Standard Process, Centralized support
Improvements in stakeholder relationship management a part of Key Performance
Indicators, Organization-wide implementation, Developing Baseline and Proactive reporting
on stakeholder relationship (Bourne,2009).
These attributes are used to determine the SRRM level form 1 to 5 with level 5 being the
highest level. Level 5 shows that the organization can achieve all the five attributes within
their projects.

Research Method
The study adopted a qualitative approach to investigates the phenomenon outlined
previously. The case study strategy was deployed to develop an in-depth understanding of
the phenomenon (Yin 2009). Three case studies where conveniently sampled from the
building and construction works contractors. A total of 7 within case- interviews were
conducted. Relevant documents used by the contractors were availed for purposes of the
report.

Background of Case Studies

Three privately owned contracting companies in the building category in Gaborone,
Botswana were purposively selected. The cases were chosen based on their willingness to
participate in the study. Convenience sampling was used. The cases were predetermined and
selected on the basis of small, medium and large contracting firms based on grade. Case 1
being a small contracting firm, Case 2 a medium contracting firm and Case 3 a large
contracting firm by grade. Recruitment calls were made to different contracting firms whose
numbers were available on the integrated procurement management system-IPMS online
Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB)
is to register contractors intending to bid for Central Government's procurement and asset
disposal in respect of these three disciplines, works, supplies and services (PPADB,2016).
With the participants consent interviews were scheduled. Table 1: below summaries the

306
characteristics of the three cases. Case numbers are used to protect the identity of the
participating contracting firms and interviewees due to confidentiality reasons

Interviewee Demographics

Table 2. Summary of the case study characteristics

There are 10 types of ownership in contracting firms in Botswana ranging from 100%
citizenship to 100% foreign, joint ventures and other types of ownership fall in between the
two. Emphases is on empowering citizens in the construction industry. The contractor
grades start from OC being the lowest grade A, B, C, D and E with E being the highest
grade in accordance to their financial capability to fulfil the demands of the project.
Although the cases had contracts with different disciplines, the study focused on the
Building and maintenance code under works. Thou filed documents from previous projects
were used, Case 1 2 and 3 had 1,2, and 6 projects respectively taking place at the time of the
research.

Data Collection
Seven interviews of the Project Managers or similar position which had a role in managing
the different stakeholders in their relevant projects within the contracting firm. A variety of
semi structured questions and in some cases unstructured were asked. Being a study that
may be relatively new in the Botswana context a convenience sampling was used. These
respondents were all permanent employees in the sampled constructing firms. Interviews
were done in a period of three months at the convenience of the participant.
During the interviews notes were taken by the researcher and also recoding of the
interviews was done through a voice recorder. Documents that were availed were those that
were not confidential such as tender documents of past tenders and files for previous
projects completed.
Data Analysis
Data was analyzed thematically relying on guidelines from Braun and Clarke (2006). The

researcher listened to the recordings on the voice recorder. The notes from the interviews
and the documents from the contractors were read and re read to obtain an appropriate level
of detail for the study. The data that was generated from the transcription phase led to the
coding phase which was comprehensive and thorough. The codes showed data that was
relevant to the research question. There were repeated patterns of checking with the
original data and the themes that were emerging. Thematic maps helped the research to
draw themes from the codes, the maps helped to see links and visualize relationships

307
between the themes (Braun and Clarke 2006). The next stage of analysis of the data which
was interpreted and provided an organized story about the data and topic.

Discussion of Findings
The following success factors for effective management of stakeholder relationship
management emerged from the interviews and documents: Communication, Understanding
of changing dynamics of stakeholders, the stakeholders and type of project, management
skills, collaboration, engagement, and conflict management.
Presentation of findings
Theme Case Quotes Interviewee
Source
Communication 1 Communication is very important, customer PM1A
wants to save time and costs
Understanding 2 The general public, clients , general PM2B
of the changing stakeholders, and we have a generally positive
dynamics of relationship with them but at times things do get
stakeholders out of shape during the project.
Identification of 1 The government projects are currently the best PM1B
stakeholder/type type the private clients usually present
of project problems when it comes to payment.
Collaboration 3 Sometimes we take a long time asking for PM3B
drawings from government departments
Management 2 We do not have any theoretical model that we PM2A
support follow
Interpersonal 3 We have a special position who takes care of PM3A
Skills all documentation, we always have meetings with
our customers and final decisions are done by

Engagement 3 We always hold meeting for us to maintain PM3C

good practices when it comes to stakeholder
management, they become committed and work
with us
Conflict 1 When we are building for private clients, it is PM1A
Management always best we avoid building for family and

Supporting 3 PM3B
environment potential. There is need for more support from
.
Table 3. Narration of respondents

The table above gives a narration of the respondents from the interviews conducted. Bourne
(2009) defines communication as the primary tool for stakeholder relationships. Factors that
can influence the effectiveness of communication and can include the relationship between
the sender and the receiver, personal preferences and cultural differences. Communication
came out as one of the themes that is key when building or maintaining relationships with
stakeholders. This theme emerged in all the data provided by the participants. There was
emphasis to be on the same understanding of the various issues that come up in the project.
Communication is important both internally and externally in the contracting firm.
Internally for the processes and progression of the project with the contracting firm and
externally to monitor the environment. The above quotes on the table supports that it is

308
important to have effective communication plans with the various stakeholders during the
life cycle of the project.
Understanding of the changing dynamics of stakeholders during the different stages of the
project.
Chinyio (2010) states that for each project to avoid any negative effects, there is need to
monitor the stakeholders and their stakes and respond to their dynamism. Being able to
identify all the possible stake holders that are within the confinements of the project was
found to be important. All the cases were supportive that it is at the beginning of the project
that stakeholders should be prioritized for the project to succeed. Another highlight was the
fact that stakeholder priority and responsibility changes at different stages of the project life
cycle as their power, interest and urgency differed across the progression of the projects
(Mitchell,etal 1997).
Identification of stakeholders and the type of project
The type of project that the contractor will be working on, will involve a different
community of stakeholders and will also call for a different strategy to manage the relations.
Also, the procurement method has an effect on the project whether it is design and build or
traditional there are different stakeholders involved and these should be identified as per
project. In comparison to the IDIC model, this finding aligns with the steps of the model.
Management Support and Interpersonal skills
Involvement by management from strategic level and all other employees in the firm.

succeed. With the guidance of management relations within the progress of the project can
be checked consistently and monitored throughout the project. Thacker (2009:3) within the

and often Project Managers do not spend the time to effectively manage the stakeholder
relationship to the pro
learn how to leverage the stakeholder relationship and how to balance their competing
. Even thou interviewees had no knowledge of CRM and SRM from a theoretical
perspective, certain practices and showed that they had ways of managing relations from a
practical point of view. When inquired they had any documented CRM or SRM strategies.
We do not have any theoretical model that we follow
also keep a database of all the relations they had with different projects as reference to
improve bad relations or maintain good relations in the coming projects.
Engagement
Including all or representatives of the stakeholders that would have been identified as those
that would possibly have an influence that may affect relations within the project. Engaging
the stakeholders hearing their viewpoints and making them see their contribution to the
success of the project.
Conflict management
Conflicts are unavoidable in situations where there are different stakeholders with different
interest or stakes that need to be met. If left unmanaged conflicts can harm the relations with
various stakeholder and this consequently may have an effect on the value of the firm.
Gibson (2000) supports this aspect by concluding that stakeholders have the power to be
either a benefit or a threat to the organization.
Collaboration
Karlsen (2008) asserts that collaboration is the best alternative for the stakeholders who
have a high potential to affect the project, these stakeholders need to be closely worked with
and always kept satisfied. Working together in the industry with all stakeholders with a
common goal of progression and project success in the industry. In some instances, the
contractors have a difficult time with certain government departments, policies and legal

309
frameworks that delay the progression of their projects thus damaging relations with
affected stakeholders.
Supporting environment for the industry
There was different perception of the industry in Botswana from the three cases, mainly
possibly due to the fact that they are all in different grades and see the industry from the
lenses of the grade they are in. Having a baseline that supports the industry for the country
as a whole was found to be key. With a supporting business environment and probably a
construction body such as Construction Industry Development Board (CIBD), the
contractors may be able to effectively manage their stakeholders. Ssegawa-Kaggwa-

inadequate capacity is the ineffective structure and organization of the construction industry
characterized by constraints such as unavailability, insufficient or inappropriate use of
resources, functions and institutions.

Conclusion and Recommendations

This paper had success factors that emerged from the themes of the three case studies in the
construction industry of Botswana. These highlight that the industry is currently fragmented
and there is need for all affected stakeholders to participate in creating good relations for the
success of the projects. Some of the factors are well-known in literature as having relevance
to the management of stakeholder relationships such as communication. The firms all
agreed that managing relations with stakeholders is important Case 1 and 2 did not have any
framework that provides guidelines for effective management of stakeholders they just take
each case as it comes. Usually the front office is the one that is first to meet or communicate
with the different stakeholders. Case 3 had a more formal structure that deals with
has an assigned person. Awareness of any formal models for
SRM and CRM models was limited to none in all cases. It is recommended that the
Industry is made aware of such models and adopt those that are applicable for their specific
projects. Further studies in different regions in Botswana on SRM in the construction
industry is encouraged, it is expected that future research would show more knowledge and
insight about this study.

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[Paper ID 70]

Aghaegbuna Ozumba1, Tasmiyah Chothia2, Zanoxolo Booi3 and Nikiwe Madonsela4

Abstract
The study focused on the application of sustainability in project management, with
particular reference to attendant difficulties experienced, which affect the goal of achieving
sustainability outcomes in project management. As such the study explored the nature
and occurrence of challenges to the integration of sustainability principles with PM practice.
A review of purposively sampled literature was complimented with field work, which
involved an online questionnaire with eighty-nine participants, to collect qualitative data,
using South Africa as context. The major limitation was the purposive use of professional
project managers as sample population. The findings reveal that project managers
experience significant challenges when implementing sustainability in their practice. While
confirming deductions from literature review, findings suggest that the most significant
challenge may be the lack of information among participants and other stakeholders.
One major implication is that other identified difficulties may be traceable to the same lack
of knowledge in the subject area. Identified consequences include delayed projects
and complete abandonment of the sustainability principles in projects. The integration
of sustainability principles with project management practice is a growing niche area
of project management knowledge. The study contributes a unique exploration of the nature
and occurrence, and dynamics of attendant challenges, through a comparison of experience
and perception. The comparison has highlighted the differences between the experience
and perception of project managers, with reference to the application of sustainability
principles.
Keywords: knowledge, project management, sustainability

1
University of the Witwatersrand, Obinna.Ozumba@wits.ac.za
2
University of the Witwatersrand, 712941@students.wits.ac.za
3
University of the Witwatersrand, 674776@students.wits.ac.za
4
University of the Witwatersrand, 569333@students.wits.ac.za

313
Introduction
The research interest here is the apparent challenge faced by project managers in practicing
sustainable construction. Essentially the challenges faced when incorporating the relevant
sustainability principles in project management (PM) practice. Sustainability is the general
principle of balanced approach to development which considers the three-fold perspective
of the environment, people, and the economy (World Commission on Environment and
Development, 1987). The increasing global sensitivity towards sustainability has resulted in
the effort by industries to research and establish effective methods to incorporate the
relevant principles in their processes (Marcelino-
environment is a major contributor to economy and employment, which also has profound
negative impact on the people, and the biophysical environment. In view of the
implications, the construction industry has made efforts to incorporate sustainability into
design, procurement, and construction processes (Tessema et al., 2009). The growing
interest in applying sustainability in construction projects has been reported in literature
such as et al. (2017). There is also evidence in literature, of the growing discourse
and efforts in the application of sustainability to construction project management such as
Yu et al. (2018), and Lacko (2018) and Zavadskas et al. (2018). Since construction
runs by projects, it follows that relevant sustainability principles would have to be
integrated with project management practice, to achieve the aim. According to Bocchini et
al. (2014) this is a means to positively introduce sustainability in construction projects.
Marcelino- (2015) had proposed PM as a largely unexploited vehicle for the
achievement of sustainability.

Sustainability and Project Management

By nature, sustainability is focused on the long-term view of any situation, seeking to
integrate the social, environmental and economic aspects of a project. Conversely, PM is
focused on the project duration, seeking to achieve the desired time, cost and quality
specifications of the project. However, according to Silvius et al. (2010) the application of
sustainability in PM considers the whole life-cycle of the project. It is also suspected that
the integration of economic, environmental and social aspects in the management of
projects may occasion changes in the project management profession. Project managers
(PMs) are said to be concerned that such integration will affect project management
practices and project managers competencies (Silvius and Schipper, 2014). In addition,
Silvius, et al. (2010) notes that failure of PM standards to address sustainability in terms of
competency, makes it difficult to apply sustainability in projects. Misopoulos et al. (2018)
with a focus on the manufacturing industry highlights the lack of holistic approaches which
do not factor in the systemic and institutional issues.
need for a holistic approach to achieve sustainable project goals. It has also been reported
that while there is more focus on the sustainability in projects by PMs, there is a gap
between what they perceive as important and the practical application (Martens and
Carvalho, 2015).
From the multi-dimensional systemic view of sustainability, the need should be to
achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability from project outcomes. As such
there is a need to integrate sustainability in all its ramifications, into the functions, roles, and
responsibilities of project managers. However, attempts at achieving such integration in
many countries have been known to face challenges (Tessema et al., 2009). It has been said
that sustainability dimensions/principles are difficult to incorporate into construction
programmes and projects (Sanchez, 2015). However there is insufficient information in the
area of challenges, especially empirical studies. Marcelino- et al. (2015) highlight

314
the scarcity of relevant information. Silvius et al. (2017) acknowledge the growing
momentum in research around sustainability in project management. However the authors
also highlight the need for more empirical research. Yu et al. (2018) also highlight the lack
of project-level focus in the design of evaluation systems for sustainability in projects.
Marcelino- et al. (2015) further asserts that more progress has been made in the
environmental focus of relevant research, than the social aspect, which would be the domain
for PM. Generally extant literature for the most part is focused on issues such as analysing
key aspects of sustainability projects ( , 2018); introduction of
management systems ( -Perales et al., 2018); PM commitment to sustainability
(Clinning and Marnewick, 2017); sustainability assessment (Zavadskas); Project
sustainability performance (Shen et al., 2018); technology, Materials, risk, and cost
(Zavadskas et al., 2018); Design (Zavadskas et al., 2018; Ali et al., 2016; Marly et al.,
2014); Critical success factors (Banihashemi et al., 2017); stakeholders, organisational goals
( , 2015); and innovation diffusion (Larsson and Larsson, 2018; Portillo-Tarragona
et al., 2018; Banihashemi et al., 2017). Most existing studies do not present a concise
picture of the nature and occurrence of challenges, for better classifications and articulation
of the dynamics, with regards to PM practice, and from the experiences and perceptions of
PMs. Thus the pertinent research question is:
What is the nature and occurrence of challenges to the integration of sustainability
principles with PM practice?
Based on the foregoing, it would be necessary to understand the factors which
threaten the integration of sustainability principles with PM practice, especially from the
views of PMs. The research aim can then be stated as: To determine the nature and
occurrence of challenges to the integration of sustainability principles with PM practice, the
dynamics if any, in relation to PM practice, from the views of PMs. The current study
attempts to explore this gap area, starting with a review of extant literature, which is
complimented with analysis of field data.

A review of relevant literature on the topic was conducted. The following categories were
derived from literature review findings: Planning-related challenges, project-related
challenges, client-related challenges, project team-related challenges, labour-related
challenges, and external challenges. For the purpose of this paper, this section summarises
findings on challenges faced by project managers when applying sustainability principles in
project management, citing key references. They are described in more detail, hereunder,
using key literature sources for the above mentioned challenges.
Planning-related challenges
Individual Challenges identified under this heading from extant literature are: Adoption
of different contract forms of project delivery; the design, orientation and structure of
the building; planning of different construction sequence; planning of different
construction technique; lengthy approval process for new green technologies within the
organization; longer time required during the pre-construction process; and difficulty in
comprehending the green specifications in the contract details. It is noteworthy that
challenges identified under this heading relate more to the organisational environment.
Project-related challenges
Challenges identified under this heading from extant literature are: Difficulty in
approving payment disbursement to suppliers and subcontractors; difficulty in assessing
the progress of completion in green construction; difficulty in the selection of
subcontractors in providing green construction service; more time is required to
315
 implement green construction practices onsite; and more alteration and variation with
the design during the construction process.
Client-related challenges
Challenges identified under this heading from extant literature are: Specific budget
specification of the green project; objective of the building project; required date of
completion; level of risk the client is willing to take on green technologies; client uses a
lot of time in making decision; and special request from client pertaining to specified
green technologies to be used.
Project team-related challenges
Challenges identified under this heading from extant literature are: Conflict with the
architect over the type of material to be used; lack of communication and interest among
project team members; frequent meetings with green specialists; green consultant delay
in providing information; conflict of interest between consultant and project manager;
specific performance required for green building projects; material and equipment -
related challenges; high cost in green material and equipment; uncertainty with green
material and equipment; availability of green material and equipment; decision on
different green material and equipment; imported green material or equipment.
Labour -related challenges
Challenges identified under this heading from extant literature are: Resistance to change
from their traditional practices; lack of the technical skill regarding green technologies
ct methods and procedures.
External challenges
Challenges identified under this heading from extant literature are: Government policy;

circumstances in green project.

(Silvius, Van der Brink and Kohler 2010; Silvius & Schipper, 2014; Kaatz et al., 2005;
Hwang & Ng, 2012, 2013 & 2014; Akadiri, 2015).

Considering the categories and individual challenges, it is noteworthy that while some
challenges are grouped under external and labour-related, the PM and client role players,
seem to have the most influence. Essentially, most of the threats to application of
sustainability in PM are related to planning, the project, the project team, and the client.
There is appreciable effort in existing literature to explore project managers and client on
the topic of integrating sustainability with PM. Most authors have focused general on the
diffusion of sustainability principles in PM practice. Other authors have looked at the
compatibility of principles from sustainability and PM, and standards and competency
issues. Thus, while some explorations
experiences have begun, there is still an appreciable gap in this area. In addition, there
seems to be a dearth of information regarding such issues, in writings that are specifically
focused on emerging economies/developing countries of the world. Few authors have
looked at the specific perspective of project managers experiences, within developing
country contexts. This perspective is pertinent as developing countries are known to be
facing strains from the demands for development and construction, and constrained
economies, with the emergent need for higher sustainability in projects.
Martens and Carvello (2015), note that PM is already inherent in construction projects.
As such the incorporation of sustainability will generate difficulties due to conflicts of

316
objectives, and knowledge gaps. It is therefore arguable that the achievement of
sustainability in projects constitutes additional responsibility for PMs generally. It is further
argued that the situation would be even more so for PMs in developing countries such as
South Africa.
In the context of South Africa there are some landmark events which highlight efforts to
improve sustainability in construction. There are legislations such as the SANS 204 (The
South African Bureau of Standards (n.d.), which provides guidelines for energy efficiency
in buildings. There is the green building council of South Africa which currently advocates
sustainable construction through their green building rating system. There is also increase in
research such as Windapo & Cattell (2013) and Tomlison (2010). However, there is still a
knowledge gap in the s
their practice.
Hence the current study attempts to establish additional understanding of the dynamics,
by specifically comparing experiences with perceptions, and exploring other constructs such
as the consequences. The comparison of experiences and perceptions of PMs, provide
insight to the influence of identified challenges in terms of their impact, and the response of
PMs to their occurrence and perceived existence. The research design presented hereunder
was purposed to collect primary data for the current study.

Research Design for the study

This research starts from a positivist view, based on available information on the topic.
However, the specific focus required an exploratory/inductive reasoning approach to finally
collect and analyse qualitative data. Filed work questions were formulated based on
literature review findings. A cross-sectional survey strategy was used through an online
questionnaire, sent to a sample of construction and project managers. The participants were
registered with the South African Council for Project and Construction Management
Professions (SACPCMP).
system, while completed responses were only accessible to the authors. A semi-structured
questionnaire with a combination of closed and open-ended questions was designed through
the Qualtrics online survey system. Responses were retrieved in September 2016. Issues of
validity and reliability were addressed by analysing and testing the instruments, and
assessing the response magnitude (130), and completeness of responses. Ethical issues
adhered to include anonymity, confidentiality, informed consent, and voluntary
participation.

Findings
A total of (130) Reponses were received. About (32%), 41 responses were incomplete and
therefore discarded, leaving (89) usable responses. Project managers with experience in
sustainable construction projects numbered 55 (62%) of the 89 responses, while those
without experience in sustainable construction made up the remaining (38%) 34 responses.
This diversity provided rich data as participants were asked to provide answers according to
what they have experienced (for those who had experience with sustainable construction)
and what they perceive to be experienced (for those who have only experienced
conventional projects). Other constructs were explored in the study. However, for the
reliminary qualitative
analysis, aimed at achieving a description.
General Ranking of Challenges Experienced and Perceived
Respondents indicated and ranked challenges according to their experience and perception
respectively. Table 1 summarizes and ranks the results according to the challenges

317
(perceived and experienced) by project and construction managers.

Table 1. Challenges Experience and Perceived

Ranks Experienced Challenges Perceived Challenges

1 Meeting the objectives within the defined budget. Increased costs of materials and equipment.
2 Increased costs of materials and equipment. Meeting the objectives within the defined budget.
3 Meeting the objectives within the defined time. Increased level of risk involved.
4 Incorporation of new technologies. More alterations and variations with the design.
5 Communication between stakeholders. Meeting the objectives within the defined time.
Selection of subcontractors in providing green
6 Communication between stakeholders.
construction service.
7 Increased level of risk involved. Planning of different construction technique.
Specific performance required for green building
8 Comprehending specifications with the contract.
projects.
Selection of subcontractors in providing green
9 Planning of different construction technique.
construction service.
Specific performance required for green building
10 More alterations and variations with the design.
projects
Availability and uncertainty of the materials and the
11 Incorporation of new technologies.
equipment.
12 Conflicts with project team members. Meeting the objectives within the defined quality.
Availability and uncertainty of the materials and the
13 Increased involvement of project team members.
equipment.
14 Incorporation of standards, regulations and legislation. Conflicts with project team members.
15 Meeting the objectives within the defined quality. Increased involvement of project team members.
16 Comprehending specifications with the contract. Incorporation of standards, regulations and legislation.
Adoption of different contract forms for project
17 Green consultant delay in providing information.
delivery.
Adoption of different contract forms for project
18 Green consultant delay in providing information.
delivery.

All challenges identified from literature were indicated by the two respondent groups. The
ncreased costs of materials and equipment as the
top ranking challenge by, followed by meeting the objectives within the defined budget
and the increased level of risk involved . Experienced respondents viewed the
objectives within defined budget as top ranking, followed by increased
costs of materials and equipment, meeting the objectives within the defined time, and the
incorporation of new technologies.
Challenges according to Project Stages
Considering project lifecycle phases, respondents indications (perceived/experienced) sit
generally between the design development (stage 3) and construction and contract
administration (stage 5). Stage 5 also seems to have most number of challenges.
Experienced participants indicated a ranking order of stages 5, 3, 4, etc. In contrast,
inexperienced participants perceive the order of stages 5, 4, 3, etc. This ranking is according
to the prevalence of challenges at respective project stages. See Table 2.

Table 2. Challenges Experience and Perceived

Stages Ranks Challenges Experienced in projects Challenges Perceived as occurring in projects

318
 Stage 1 -
Project 1 Communication between stakeholders. Communication between stakeholders.
initiation and
briefing
2 Increased involvement of project team members. Increased involvement of project team members.

3 Meeting the objectives within the defined quality. Green consultant delay in providing information.

Stage 2 - 1 Communication between stakeholders. Communication between stakeholders.

Concept and
viability
2 Green consultant delay in providing information. Conflicts with project team members.

3 Increased involvement of project team members. Incorporation of standards, regulations and legislation.

Stage 3 - 1 Green consultant delay in providing information. Incorporation of standards, regulations and legislation.
Design
development
2 Communication between stakeholders. Green consultant delay in providing information.

Incorporation of standards, regulations and

3 Increased involvement of project team members.
legislation.

Selection of subcontractors in providing green

Stage 4 - 1 Comprehending specifications with the contract.
construction service.
Tender
documentatio
n and 2 Comprehending specifications with the contract. Adoption of different contract forms for project delivery.
procurement
Adoption of different contract forms for project Selection of subcontractors in providing green construction
3
delivery. service.

Stage 5 - 1 Meeting the objectives within the defined time. Meeting the objectives within the defined time.
Construction
and contract
administratio 2 More alterations and variations with the design. Meeting the objectives within the defined quality.
n
3 Increased costs of materials and equipment. Increased costs of materials and equipment.

Stage 6 - 1 Increased involvement of project team members. Communication between stakeholders.

Project close
out Incorporation of standards, regulations and
2 Meeting the objectives within the defined quality.
legislation.

3 Communication between stakeholders. Meeting the objectives within the defined time.

Prevalence of Identified Challenges

With regards to prevalence according to the rate of occurrence, the following key was used
(seldom, moderate and often). Experienced respondents indicated most of the challenges as
often occurring, while inexperienced respondents perceived a moderate rate of occurrence
for most challenges. Both groups indicated differently in terms of ranking of prevalence,
Meeting the objectives within the defined budget
See Table 3.

Table 3. Frequency of Challenges Experience and Perceived

Rankin
Experienced Challenges Perceived Challenges
g

1 Meeting the objectives within the defined budget. Meeting the objectives within the defined time.

319
 2 More alterations and variations with the design.
3 Communication between stakeholders.
4 Increased costs of materials and equipment.
5 Increased level of risk involved.
6 Meeting the objectives within the defined time.
7 Comprehending specifications with the contract.
Selection of subcontractors in providing green construction
8 Communication between stakeholders.
service.
9 Increased involvement of project team members.
10 Incorporation of standards, regulations and legislation.
11 Conflicts with project team members.
12 Meeting the objectives within the defined quality.
13 Incorporation of new technologies.
14 Specific performance required for green building projects.
15 Planning of different construction technique.
16 Adoption of different contract forms for project delivery.
Availability and uncertainty of the materials and the
17
equipment.
18 Green consultant delay in providing information.
Green consultant delay in providing information.
Incorporation of standards, regulations and legislation.
Increased costs of materials and equipment.
Comprehending specifications with the contract.
Meeting the objectives within the defined budget.
More alterations and variations with the design.
Specific performance required for green building projects.
Selection of subcontractors in providing green construction
service.
Increased involvement of project team members.
Availability and uncertainty of the materials and the
equipment.
Meeting the objectives within the defined quality.
Increased level of risk involved.
Planning of different construction technique.
Incorporation of new technologies.
Conflicts with project team members.
Adoption of different contract forms for project delivery.

Significance of Identified Challenges

Following the five categories derived from analysis of literature review findings,
participants were asked to rate their relative significance. The questionnaires were given in
a five-point Likert type scale (from [5] - extremely challenging, to [1] - not challenging at
all). According to experienced participants, the challenges range from moderately
challenging to extremely challenging. See Figure 1.

320
 Figure 1. Comparison of the significance of identified Challenges
Labour-related challenges were ranked as the most significant factors. Client related
challenges were very challenging. The rest were moderately challenging. Inexperienced
respondents perceived a shorter spectrum, which ranged between moderately challenging
and very challenging. They also highlighted client and labour related challenges as being
very challenging. Project team challenges, material and equipment related challenges, and
external challenges were perceived as being moderately challenging.

Discussions
Firstly, from the results presented thus far, there is a suggestion of strong
correspondence with literature review findings. Secondly results of analysis highlight
labour issues as top ranking amongst the extremely challenging factors. However,
among researchers, the economic factors remain the most critical and the main challenge
when integrating sustainability into construction project management. The survey result
however suggests that major costs result mostly from lack of knowledge about
sustainability principles and their application. Thirdly there seems to be a lack of
knowledge and experience among stakeholders within sustainable projects. This
knowledge gap seems to manifest as incompetence by project managers which
contributes to difficulties encountered. Another major source of difficulties is poor
implementation of processes and financial feasibility of sustainable projects, which
could be indirectly linked to knowledge-related issues. Consequently, there are project
delays, cost increases, quality compromises and poor working relationships. The same
issues were identified by Sanchez (2015), Hwang and Ng (2013), and Daneshpour
(2015), as major consequences. Poor implementation of the process is arguably
traceable to lack of knowledge among project managers and other stakeholders.
In addition, Windapo and Cattell (2013) on major challenges to South African
construction industry growth highlighted the high cost of construction materials. However,
with regard to sustainable construction, Akadiri (2015) asserts the existence of
misperceptions about the costs of sustainable materials. The same notions were noted from
the current study. From other evidence gathered during the study, it was deduced that poor
perceptions of sustainable project management, and inadequate understanding of the full
spectrum of associated costs, constitute a major part of the knowledge-related issues. Gaps
in the demonstrated understanding of important issues around the application of
sustainability by project managers were also suggested in Martens and Carvalho (2015).
Without clear evaluation systems for sustainability at the project level, as noted by Yu et al.
(2018), there is very little check and balances that highlight the knowledge-related gaps.
Also Marly et al. (2014) emphasised the knowledge gap between ecological/sustainable
design and project management, in the area of product development. The need for Project
management guidelines was also highlighted. These assertions point more at knowledge-
related factors.
About (83%) of respondents agreed that project and construction managers need
specified skills and knowledge beyond the PMBoK to effectively deliver sustainability
goals in projects. Most respondents also see the integration of sustainability and PM as
the comparison of the incomparable which speaks to the conflicts of principles
highlighted in . Such conflicts would also emanate from
organisational factors, which manifest as institutional and systemic challenges, as suggested
by Misopoulos et al. (2018). Some respondents specifically highlight these conflicts and
demonstrate discomfort in relation to the question. They also hint at the natural reaction of
generating a coping mechanism when there is perceived lack of capacity or difficulty:

321
 goals with sustainability. You have to mix the negatives with the positives and be

There is a moderate level of alignment between experienced and perceived difficulties,

from the survey result. However, there are some less subtle misalignments, of which the
seven most significant relate to quality, risks involved in projects, contracts, materials and
equipment, and incorporation of new technologies and design variations. There are also
clear misalignments with then two groups of responses, in timing the occurrence of some
challenges. Such clear misalignments suggest knowledge gaps ultimately. This will
occasion inadequacy in current approaches because the full spectrum of relevant issues may
not be factored into PM planning and execution. The need for holistic approach to
et al.
(2017).
In the context of South Africa, Windapo & Cattell (2013) deduced that the existing
preferential procurement environment acts as a challenge to industry growth because it
forces stakeholder selection based on factors other than quality and competence. In the
context of sustainable construction, this situation would increase the risk of failure and
therefore act as a major deterrent towards the integration of sustainability principles. Some
respondents in the current study identified certain factors as external and beyond the
immediate environment of PMs and stakeholders. In response to the question on
consequences of applying sustainability to PM, some respondents answered:

The said BEE policies refer to preferential procurement policies aimed at empowering local
companies that are owned by people of African descent. From the responses it is evident
that in the case of failure; people who had no contribution and sometimes even knowledge
of such projects happen to be the ones held responsible. The use of an exclamation indicates
an emotion that is related to the question. It could also hint at a point of frustration. The
second response highlights the inevitable negative consequences, which become long term
negative influence on the environment. Preferential procurement has been strongly linked to
the failure of such projects, which again suggests issues of knowledge and competence.
Conclusion
The current study explored the difficulties experienced by project managers when
sustainability principles are applied in PM. The effect of this integration on the dual goals of
achieving sustainability and project success within the South African construction industry
was explored. Purposively selected literature was used for secondary data while an online
survey strategy was used for primary data. While various constructs were explored in the
survey, the focus of the current paper is challenges. Although analysis was conducted at
various levels, only results of descriptive analysis were presented in the current paper.
Limitations in the study relate to purposive sampling, nature of survey response, and
completeness of responses. Though over (30%) of the (130) retrieved responses were
discarded, the remaining (89) complete responses amounted to an appreciable numerical
strength, which allowed for rich comparison between two groups of data. In addition the
agreement of the results with extant literature sampled globally lends a measure of strength

322
to the results in terms of generalisability beyond South Africa, at least to similar developing
country contexts. Following the findings from data analysis and the subsequent discussion
of the findings with extant literature, the guiding research question stated earlier can be
addressed hereunder.
With regards to the nature and occurrence of challenges, there is strong similarity with
extant literature. The overarching deduction at this stage is a strong suggestion that the
challenges may be largely traceable to gaps in knowledge among project managers and
other project stakeholders. It is however in the indicated patterns of occurrence that various
dynamics are highlighted. Such differences relate more to the unique nature of the analysis
in the current paper. The uniqueness refers to the comparison of experience with perception,
of the respondents. While the respondents generally agree on the existence of all challenges
explored, there are clear areas of disagreement for seven of the identified challenges.
Further on the dynamics, the occurrence of challenges differed by views of respondent
groups, project stages, and prevalence. Similarly the extent of consequences from the
challenges, ranged from delayed projects to complete abandonment of the sustainability
principles. Furthermore there is an appreciable level of discomfort/concern with the notion
of integrating sustainability with PM, among respondents generally. Moreover the
differences between the views of experienced and inexperienced PMs with regard to
sustainable construction ranged between subtle and strong. The function of knowledge in
the outcomes derived from the current paper is highly suggested.
Arguably the current study brings a unique perspective to the growing area of research,
which is sustainability in project management. While there is limited information on the
challenges to integrating sustainability in PM practice, there is even more scarcity of
literature exploring dynamics related to experiences and perceptions of PMs. The
uniqueness refers to the comparison of experience-based assessment with views based on
on of the probable nature and occurrence of the relevant challenges. Thus a
stronger basis has been achieved, for future extrapolations, analysis and articulation of
findings from future studies. Essentially the current study contributes new material, with
focus on threats to integration of sustainability in project management practice, as opposed
to most studies which focus more on diffusion generally. The current study also brings new
insights to the study area by highlighting the emerging dynamics in actual
experiences/observations vs. perceptions of the nature and occurrence thereof.
Appreciable conjectures have been drawn at this stage of the study. There is however a
need to further explore the highlights and the seeming patterns. Such future studies will
provide further insight into the dynamics of the factors that influenced the experiences and
perceptions of participants. It would also be beneficial to attempt at drawing a stronger
demarcation between the assessment of observed/actual occurrence of challenges, and the
perceptions, even for respondents with experience in sustainable construction projects.
While some of the challenges are most probably linked to contextual factors in South
Africa, the appreciable agreement with extant literature sampled globally expands the
generalisability beyond South Africa. It also demands continuance of the study to higher
levels of generalisability.
In furtherance of the current study, the following are suggested: A widening of the
sample to a regional level, more detailed qualitative analysis with the use of relevant
software packages, and the derivation of propositions, or hypotheses in future studies.

323
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326
[Paper ID 97]

Olusegun Aanuoluwapo Oguntona1 and Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa2

Abstract
Several sustainability trends have evolved and proliferated for greening the processes
and activities of the construction industry (CI). Striking among the trends is biomimicry,
a novel and nature-inspired approach that seeks a sustainable solution to human challenges
by emulating time-tested patterns and strategies in nature. This study sets out to evaluate
biomimicry potentials for sustainable outputs in the construction industry. An extant review
of the literature was conducted on nature-inspired approaches for sustainable and innovative
solutions. Findings revealed technology readiness, awareness, leadership competence,
and knowledge (TALK) as critical areas where biomimicry will offer a unique step-by-step
path to disruptive outcomes and potentially aid the greening agenda of the construction
industry.

Keywords: biomimicry, built environment, innovations, nature, sustainability

1
Doctoral Student, Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, Faculty
of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa,
Tel. +27742076075, Email: architectoguntona12@gmail.com
2
Professor, Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, Faculty
of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa,
Tel. +27-11-5593284, Email: caigbavboa@uj.ac.za

327
Introduction
Globally, the construction industry (CI) is a major sector that aid economic stability and
growth, especially in developing nations. Critical infrastructures such as roads, energy
production, transmission and distribution plants, rails, bridges, and educational, commercial,
residential and industrial buildings among many others are direct beneficial impacts of the
CI (Pearce et al., 2012). Humanity has significantly benefitted from the provision of these
infrastructures which has, in turn, contributed significantly to urbanisation and the economic
growth of nations, especially the developing ones (Azis et al., 2012; Shi et al., 2014).
Generally, it is of the belief that there is a causal link between the CI and economic growth
in developing and developed countries with a focus on infrastructural developments and
industrialisation. In New Zealand, the industry is recognised as one of the most significant
sectors economy, accounting for 8 percent of the total employment
(Noktehdan et al., 2015), while accounting for another 8 percent of the total workforce in
Malaysia (Rostami et al., 2013). In developed countries of the world, the CI contribute
significantly to the gross domestic product (GDP) and employs a notable portion of the
population. Therefore, the CI is not only an indispensable fraction of the modernisation
process; its adoption in developing countries as a strategy for employment creation due to
its labour-intensive nature (Ramsaran & Hosein, 2006), attest to its global importance.
Virtually all the products of the CI, have a prolonged impact on the human environment
and the ecosystem due to their continuous emission of a significant amount of pollution
(Wang, 2014). The use of plants and equipment to achieve project objectives is also on the
increase (Idoro, 2012), as their exhausts and emissions during operation is another
contributor to the pollution of the environment. A report by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) revealed that the indoor air levels of many
pollutants may be 2.5 times and occasionally more than 100 times higher than outdoor
levels (Pearce et al., 2012). These pollutant concentrations are those within buildings and
emanate from backing materials, finishes, paints, and other components. Also, literature has
identified that the atmospheric release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other emissions
caused by construction activities, remains a significant contributor to ozone layers
depletion, global warming and climate change. For instance, 50 percent of the carbon
emissions in the UK is traceable to the CI (Akadiri & Fadiya, 2013), while in China, 1260
million tons of carbon emissions associated with energy use in buildings was reached in
2008 (Diamond et al., 2013). In addition to air, water and land pollution, the CI generates a
significant amount of waste from the manufacturing process and use of construction
materials. As reported by Azis et al. (2012), an assessment of material waste generated was
carried out on a construction project in Netherlands. The findings revealed that the quantity
of materials wasted on the site is relatively high and equals to 9 percent by weight of the
purchased materials originally (Azis et al., 2012). Sustainability issue is therefore
imperative to curtail the adverse environmental impact of the CI.
Numerous interpretations of sustainability have emanated since the Brundtland
definition. However, it is common knowledge and globally accepted that sustainability must
encompass at least, three dimensions which are the social, economic, and environmental
pillars (Cotgrave & Riley, 2012). Sustainability entails the balanced utilisation of the natural
resources in a way that they do not reach the state of deterioration, attenuation and a non-
renewable state and can be passed on to the coming generation (Yilmaz & Bakis, 2015).
According to Kibert (2013), three forces propel the shift towards sustainability. Firstly, the
pressures experienced by increased demand placed on natural resources, resulting in the
paucity and high materials cost. Secondly, the massive and escalated destruction of the
natural ecosystems and biodiversity, modification of biogeochemical cycles, a significant

328
increase in consumption rate and population size, all resulting in the threat of global
warming, depletion of marine life, deforestation, and desertification, amongst others.
Thirdly, the transformation movement coupled with the various approaches adopted in
agriculture, tourism, medicine, manufacturing, and other sectors, towards greening their
activities and processes. These have, however, led to the growing recognition and
importance of embracing and implementing the tenets of sustainability in the CI (Plank,
2005).
Throughout literature, terms such as (SC),
l- -performance are interchangeably utilised (Azis et al.,
2012; Zabihi et al., 2012; Kibert, 2013), to describe the creation and responsible
management of a healthy built environment based on efficient resource use and ecological
principles (Tan et al., 2011; Marhani et al., 2013). Sustainable construction (SC) aims to
maximise the potential benefits accrued to the economy and society at large by the
reduction or elimination of environmental challenges associated with construction processes
and activities, and the built environment (Pearce et al., 2012). Other aims can be inferred
from the principles of SC as presented by different authors. An international construction
research organisation, the Conseil International du proffered seven
principles as guidelines for the integration of SC to aid the decision-making process during
the entire lifecycle of a building. According to Kibert (2013), the principles are: a reduction
in resource consumption (reduce); reuse of resources (reuse); use of resources with
recyclable attributes (recycle); protection of the natural environment (nature); toxics
elimination (toxics); application of life-cycle costing methodology (economics); and focus
on quality (quality). These principles are applied when carrying out a sustainability
assessment of the elements and other resources required for construction (Al Sanad, 2015).
Not only do these principles apply across the lifecycle of construction (planning to
deconstruction), they are also applicable to the resources (materials, land, ecosystem, water,
and energy) required for creating and operating the built environment throughout its
lifecycle.
Terms such as the Natural Step, ecological rucksack, ecological footprint, biophilia,
ecological economics, Factor 4 and Factor 10, eco-efficiency, and biomimicry among many
others have emerged and are utilised in describing the all-embracing philosophy and
scientific concepts that apply to a conscious transference towards the sustainability
paradigm (Kibert, 2013). Outstanding among these sustainability trends is biomimicry. As a
relatively new field of study, biomimicry encourages the teaming up of biologists with
designers and professionals from various fields (industrial design, medical science, material
science, architecture, and interior design) to study and emulate the procedures and strategies
operational in nature for sustainable solutions to the challenges facing the human or built
environment. This paper, therefore, evaluates and presents the potentials of biomimicry for
sustainable and innovative solutions in the CI. A literature review of related studies on
biomimicry and novel sustainable solutions borne out of its adoption and implementation
was done and presented. Presented in the final section of the paper is an overview of the
issues discussed in the paper alongside the conclusions drawn and recommendations
proffered.

Overview of Biomimicry
Historically, humanity has been dependent on the natural world to meet their shelter,
and food needs and generally for survival. Due to human observation of nature and natural
phenomenon, there are native innovations and developments in the areas of weapons and
defence mechanisms; processes related to manufacturing; shelter architectures; agriculture

329
and food production; and medical and pharmaceutical sciences (Murr, 2015). As a result of
its more than 3.8 billion years of existence, nature has become an exceptional blueprint for
innovative solutions that encompasses efficiency, resource utilisation, collaboration, and
longevity (Benyus, 1997). The application of nature-inspired knowledge to meet human
needs is therefore not a contemporary practice, whereas, the term describing it is relatively
new.
The concept of was widely circulated and popularised through the book
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. The book was published in 1997 and authored
by Janine M. Benyus (referred to as biomimicry founder), a biologist and co-founder of the
Biomimicry Guild (Goss, 2009). However, throughout literature, multiple terms are used to
describe this practice of emulating and learning from the natural world to solve human

eaning, noting that other terminologies like

bioinspiration, bionics, nature-inspired design, bioanalogous design, biomimesis, biognosis,
and bio-inspired design are often used interchangeably with biomimicry and biomimetics
(Vincent et al., 2006; Shu et al., 2011; Gamade & Hyde, 2012).
Also, the term biomimicry came from the amalgamation of the Greek words bios (life)
and m (imitation), which literally means the imitation of life or life imitation
(Arnarson, 2015; Murr, 2015). It is described as the study and emulation of natural forms,
systems, strategies, processes, operations and elements with the potential to resolve human
complexities and issues in a sustainable manner (El Din et al., 2016). Biomimicry entails
proffering design solutions with sustainable attributes through the study and conscious
emulation of forms, processes, and ecosystems in nature (Singh & Nayyar, 2015).

Biomimicry Potentials for Sustainable Solutions

Biomimicry keeps attaining immense importance as a global and popular sustainability
trend in planning for eco-friendly developments typified by its capability to trigger
unconventional innovations and breakthroughs (Zari, 2007; Gamade & Hyde, 2012). It is
also understood by many as a branch of biological science going by the term. However, the
scientific knowledge encapsulated by biomimicry only aid the ingenuity of learning about

extracting from nature to mastering the attributes that support its evolution and survival over
the years (Benyus, 2011). While biomimicry can be employed specifically as a method of
improving the eco-friendliness of what is existing (Zari, 2007), it can also be used in
developing sustainable innovations and technologies as well (Okuyucu, 2015). Biomimicry
potentials for sustainable innovations and outputs in the CI are, therefore, presented in the
areas of technology readiness, awareness, leadership competence, and knowledge (TALK).

Technology Readiness
Biomimicry proponents believe that the CI needs to examine the exceptionally
successful 3.8 billion years of research and development (R+D) lab that the earth operates.
Here, about 10-30 million organisms have mastered and perfected doing everything human
intend to accomplish, without causing environmental pollution, or mortgaging the fortune of
future generations (Strategic Direction, 2008). Owing to these strategies employed by nature
to evolve and sustain itself over the years, innovations, ideas, and solutions inspired by
nature are now believed to be the panacea to the challenges facing humanity.
Biomimicry has now taken the frontline of technological and scientific research because
of its potential to propel new ideas for the invention of sustainable solutions and
technologies (Zhang et al., 2015). Also, the study and application of biomimicry have been

330
observed in a broad range of fields such as material research, aerodynamics,
communications, architecture, transportation, human safety, products design, and mechanics
(De Pauw et al., 2010; Al Amin & Taleb, 2016). Many researchers have investigated bio-
inspired (biomimetic) materials and technologies in the construction and built environment
(C&BE). Based on their application, the materials and technologies are found to have
advantageous attributes such as low weight and reduced manufacturing costs compared to
traditional ones (Yadzi et al., 2014). Other researchers seek new pathways to achieve novel
construction materials and technologies with sustainable properties in line with the
biomimicry paradigm, thus leading to the revelation of more remarkable characteristics such
as self-repairing, self-organising, self-cleaning, self-healing amongst others (Mirkhalaf et
al., 2013). Bio-inspired adhesives and coatings, self-cleaning finishes, biotechconcrete, and
energy conversion and conservation technologies are few of the numerous successes
recorded with the application of biomimicry. Table 1 shows few of the existing biomimetic
technologies and materials that can be applied and utilised in the CI.

Table 1. Biomimetic materials and technologies applicable in the construction industry

Product Source of Inspiration Function

Eco-Cement Sea Snail Neutral and strength-enhancing
carbon sequestering cement
Self-repairing Pipevine, human skin, Self-repairing concrete that increases
Concrete cells, vertebrates bone the durability of structures and
reduces life-cycle cost
Lotusan Paint Morpho butterfly, sacred Automatic self-cleaning coat after the
lotus mere rinse of a rain shower
Lotus Clay Roofing Morpho butterfly, sacred Self-cleaning clay roof
Tiles lotus tiles/coverings
Dye-Sensitised Solar Low-cost and efficiently produced
Cells and Panels (photosynthesis) electricity by artificial photosynthesis
ORNILUX Insulated Orb-web spider The insulated architectural glass that
Glass prevents bird collisions
Biolytix System Soil ecosystem Waste treatment and water filtering
system
Eco-Machine Forests Wastewater treatment system that
purifies water without chemicals
Purebond Blue mussels Formaldehyde-free wood glue
I2TM Modular Carpet Forest floor Individually replaceable and
recyclable carpet tiles
Source: AskNature (2016)

Awareness
It is imperative to be aware of the principles underlying the application of biomimicry,
to maximise the potential benefits accrued to its adoption and implementation of in the CI.
For biomimicry to attain its overall target of sustainable and innovative solutions, Goss
(2009) advocated that asking the following questions is pertinent: Does the design integrate

331
cycles? Does it heal after a disturbance? Is the design locally attuned and responsive? Is it
informed by local inhabitants of all species? Is it resourceful and connected to local
feedback loops? Does the design integrate cycles? Does it adapt to seasons, reuse materials,
and maintain itself through turnover? Does the design leverage its interdependence in the
system? Is the design resilient? Can it withstand disturbance while maintaining function?
Does it fit form to function? Does the design optimise rather than maximise? Does it reuse
materials or use recycled materials? Does the design use benign manufacturing? Is the

to support life long-term? Is its success based on whether it contributes to the continuity of
life?
These questions are deductions from the basic principles underpinning the concept of
biomimicry, also referred to as nature principles. According to Benyus (1997), these are the

abstracted biological systems and strategies, some of which are self-explanatory and
obvious, and can be found in most of the organisms, enabling life to successfully
regenerates itself (Polit, 2014). They are also the creative common tools and checklists
which aids the sustainability evaluation of biomimetic designs, materials, technologies and
application (Kennedy et al., 2015). Resonating in the book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired
by Nature authored by Benyus (1997), nature principles are:
Nature taps the power of limits.
Nature curbs excesses from within.
Nature demands local expertise.
Nature banks on diversity.
Nature rewards cooperation.
Nature recycles everything.
Nature fits form to function.
Nature uses only the energy it needs.
Nature runs on sunlight.

Leadership Competence
With nature as the underlying concept of biomimicry of biomimicry, the proponents
lead the advocacy that human should relate to nature as a model, measure, and mentor.
Based on this ideology, designers, professionals, and other stakeholders will be equipped
with the requisite capacity to apply biomimicry to increase the sustainability of existing
creations and to produce novel designs, materials, technologies and inventions with
sustainable attributes. With nature as a model, inspiration is drawn forms,
strategies and systems to tackle challenges in a sustainable manner (El Din et al., 2016).
Seeing nature as a measure, human innovations, designs and solutions will be evaluated for
sustainability against standards exhibited in nature through their over 3.8 billion years of
evolution (Pronk et al., 2008). With nature as a mentor, a purposive and deliberate human
intent to learn from and develop a joint correlation with the natural world is employed,
backed by the responsiveness that nature is an integral part of the human environment.
These three herald a contemporary way of perceiving and evaluating the natural world
thereby introducing an era based on what we can study, learn and emulate from it (Benyus,
2011).

332
Knowledge
Two primary approaches exist in the application of biomimicry for sustainable
interventions and innovative solutions to human challenges. They are the problem-based
approach and the solution-based approach. These approaches are the dimensions through
which knowledge is transferred in biomimicry application for sustainable and innovative
outputs that are genuinely biomimetic (Pandremenos et al., 2012). Biomimicry proponents
believed that these approaches would aid the steps towards transiting the built environment
to a sustainable and resilient state (McDonough & Braungart, 2010; El-Zeiny, 2012), as it
helps proffer solutions to identified challenges and the creation of novel materials and
technologies. Also, the approaches offer unique step-by-step paths under the larger umbrella
of biomimicry (Niewiarowski, & Paige, 2011). The sole aim of these approaches is to
proffer methodologies through which biomimicry can be integrated into different
professions to arrive at a sustainable, efficient and effective solution.
The problem-based approach entails drawing inspiration from nature for solutions by
first defining the problems and then pairing such problems with organisms in nature that
have resolved similar problems. This approach endeavour to find a sustainable solution to
an identified problem. Aquaporin membrane technology and Watreco Vortex Generator are
examples of breakthroughs recorded with the application of this approach as a result of
water treatment and purification issues. On the other hand, the solution-based approach
involves identifying an attribute, behaviour and function in an organism or ecosystem and
then translating it into design solutions or innovation (Zari, 2007). This approach is at the
forefront of providing amazing and sustainable inventions and innovations. An example
under this approach is the Mercedes-Benz bionic car which was inspired by the shape of the
boxfish which controls water movement around its body to influence stability and
manoeuvrability (AskNature, 2018).
Conclusion and Recommendations
The natural world has been existing for around 3.8 billion years with models that
manufacture without heat, beat, and treat; ecosystems powered by sunlight and create
design solutions rather than waste. As observed and discovered, the activities, processes,
strategies, and systems displayed in nature are found to be sustainable, effective, efficient
and aesthetically pleasing too. These, among other attributes, has made biomimicry to be
outstanding among the sustainability trends applied in the CI and other sectors.
Biomimicry has already instituted the realisation of some appropriate and exceptional
innovations in different sectors and specific areas of global interest such energy engineering
and waste re-use, where multiple-scale efficiency improvements are much needed.
Examples include the noiseless Shinkansen Bullet Train (inspired by the splashless water
entry of kingfishers and silent flight of owls), the smart-windows and walls called
RavenBrick (inspired by passive pigmentation in cephalopods and many species of lizards),
wind energy harvesting Vibro-Wind without turbine (inspired by the movement of leaves in
windy condition), and Green infrastructure storm water control (inspired by the filtering
mechanism provided by the vegetation in an ecosystem) amongst others.
Also, the Biomimicry Guild, now named Biomimicry 3.8, which is the world leading
bio-inspired consultancy organisation co-founded by Janine M. Benyus, has collaborated
with major multinational companies and corporations to apply the knowledge of biomimicry
(nature-inspired strategies) in creating sustainable and innovative solutions. Few of these
corporations include Nike, Procter and Gamble (P&G), Interface (carpet company), Boeing,
Colgate-Palmolive, Coca-Cola Company, Hewlett-Packard, HOK architects, Kohler, and
Shell. It is therefore pertinent to ensure the holistic application of biomimicry to arrive at a
sustainable outcome which is the sole target of this new field. Also, a multidisciplinary

333
collaboration among designers, engineers, architects and other stakeholders should be
encouraged if numerous sustainable and disruptive innovations are to be birthed to militate
the adverse environmental impacts of the CI.

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[Paper ID 9]

Fidelis Emuze1 and Lesiba Mollo2

Abstract
The performance of public sector projects in developing countries such as South Africa
is an on-going concern in a region where injuries and fatalities are almost a daily occurrence
in the industry. This reported study assessed the human errors and violations consistently
encountered on public sector projects. The feedback from the survey research reinforced
the notion that technical matters such as poor planning or the lack of it significantly erode
safety system capacities on construction sites. The technical problems are aided by latent
conditions such as design errors and negligence. The issues highlighted imply that public
sector projects tend to fail to achieve the required conditions of satisfaction by clients.
In other words, the reduction of human errors and violations as safety concerns should look
beyond the set-up of construction site operations and people in the front line of construction.

Keywords: Accident, Construction, Human error, Human violations

1
Professor, Department of Built Environment, Central University of Technology, Free State,
20 President Brand Street, Bloemfontein, Email: femuze@cut.ac.za
2
Lecturer, Department of Built Environment, Central University of Technology, Free State,
20 President Brand Street, Bloemfontein, Email: lmollo@cut.ac.za

337
Introduction
There are numerous challenges that construction organisations are struggling to eliminate.
One of such problems is the high rate of accidents and incidents related to human errors and
violations (Hollnagel, 200
the cause of human errors and violations in construction' using the construction site context.
According to Reason (2011), human error may include a deviation of some path, either from
an intended course of action, from a planned of effort towards the desired goal, and from the
appropriate behaviour at work. Violations are a type of mistakes, which happens when
individuals fail to follow instruction or decide to make their own rules when undertaking an
activity (Lopez et al., 2014). In essence, violations are a deliberate act that often happens
due to conscious decisions and actions of individuals in the workplace.
The outcomes of human errors are evident in social contexts, and their prevention could
be addressed with a motivational process, and organisational remedies (Lopez et al., 2014).
The notion by Lopez et al. (2014) that errors manifest and evolve within a social context
explains why Reason (2011) contends that regardless of a skill level, experience or training
of people, mistakes and violations often find expressions in workplaces. In addition,
deprived organisational deficiency in a workplace is a major source of human errors that
contribute to accident causality (Hollnagel, 2004).
To address the dilemma of this study, one needs to understand the causes of human error
in construction. According to Dekker (2014), there are two views of human errors: the old
view and the new view. In the former,

sound similar, but they are common in that when investigating human errors, you must
understand why individuals did what they did (i.e. examining accident or system failure)
and not to judge decision-making of the individuals (Dekker, 2014).

Literature Review
Human failure is in two ways, the person approach and system approach (Reason, 2000).
The person approach focuses on either the mistake, error, slips or lapse of individuals by
blaming them for forgetfulness, inattention, and moral weakness. The system approach
focuses on the condition under which individuals work and tries to build defences to avert
the error and mitigate their effects (Reason, 2000). Human error is described as a
systematically connected frame of individual tools, for example, tasks and operating
environment (Salmon et al., 2012). Progress on the safety of individuals at the job site
comes from understanding and influencing system connections (Holden, 2009). One
significant consequence of human errors is the manifestation of accidents.

Accidents and latent failures

An accident is an unforeseen event that results in a disagreeable consequence, which is
linked to human activities instead of natural phenomena (Hollnagel, 2004). They are the
central issue of safety management in any manual and mechanical industry, and the
construction industry is no exception (Promsorn et al., 2015). The reason is that the

338
construction industry accounts for a high number of occupational fatal and nonfatal injuries
because of accidents (Albert et al., 2014). According to Albert et al. (2014), collisions may
be influenced by the underlying conditions from errors and violations. To address human
mistakes and abuses, Reason (2008) used a model for illustrating the interventional
ith the
purpose to prevent accidents by defences that disallow risks and hazards that can cause loss

group that are automatic alarming system and the soft defence group which are depended
upon the personnel and procedures of required performance (Hosseinian and Torghabeth,
2012).
As indicated in Figure 1, each slice of cheese has holes in it, and the gaps between the
cheeses are in continues motion, moving from culture and leadership (staff shortage) to
clinical support (poor team communication). The holes in the cheese slices represent
individual weaknesses in individual parts of the system and are continually varying in size
and position in all slices. The gaps arise from unsafe acts and latent failure, permitting "a
trajectory of accident opportunity", so that a hazard passes through holes in all of the
defences, leading to an accident (Reason, 2008). Therefore, the latent failure shown in the
holes in the cheese slices refer to events, activities, or conditions that deviate from
expectations, and cause adverse consequences of organisational significance (Ramanujam
and Goodman, 2003).

Therefore, latent failures could be deduced from an accident caused by the decisions and
actions of construction professionals not directly involved in the frontline of physical site
work. The failures are typically found in the safety system of a project (Reason, 2008).
Mostly, latent failings happen when there is a lack of supervision or inadequate
understanding of the standard work procedure. Practitioners and researchers have argued
that the causes of project failure could be traced to latent failure (Promsorn et al., 2015).
Latent failures are found in the work system as they merge with natural human tendencies
and results in human error and violation of the event (Ellison, 2014).
According to Salmon et al. (2012), latent failures are inevitable human errors and are
always present on construction sites. Most of the time, the latent failures are unforeseen, and

339
they tend to be hidden and trigger at a later stage of the project causing accidents which
either results in injuries or fatalities (Kum and Sahin, 2015). According to Ellison (2014
citing Reason, 2011), latent failure could be caused by limited resources supplied by
management. There are numbers of factors causing latent failure in the industry include
ineffective training, poor design of plant and equipment, inadequate supervision, ineffective
communication, insufficient resources, and uncertainties in roles and responsibility (Reason,
2011). These factors are technical enablers of latent failures in safety defence systems.

Research Methodology
This study aims to identify the causes of human errors and violations in construction. The
focus of the reported research is poor safety practice on construction sites. To achieve this
goal, an inductive research approach explained by Maxwell (2013) was conducted. The
reason for using an inductive research approach was to understand the problem through
lived experiences of practitioners. The primary data were synthesised with the reviewed
literature in the subject areas. Notable sources include Reason (2008), Reason (2011) and
Dekker (2014). The data of this study was collected using in-depth interview technique with
a semi-structured protocol as the instrument. The interviews were conducted on
construction site with several contractors. Some interviewees were provided with the
protocol before the sessions through emails to ensure comprehension of the issues.
The interviewees were the member of the contractors working from different
construction organisations specialising in the building and civil engineering projects. The
primary data were collected from three major municipalities in the Eastern Cape Province of
South Africa. In effect, contractors in three towns, which include Buffalo City Metropolitan
Municipality, Ndlambe Local Municipality, and Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan
Municipality, took part in the study. The selection of the contractors was purposive as
explained by Maxwell (2013) and the database of each municipality was used to identify
contractors who have been appointed by the city to deliver their projects.
The interview sessions were between 15 to 30 minutes in duration. The interviewees
who preferred questionnaire to be emailed to them took two to five days to respond to the
emails sent to them. In total six (6) construction professionals were interviewed personally,
and twenty (20) construction professionals responded to the questionnaire through email
communication. In total 45 construction professionals were approached, and only six agreed
to be interviewed, and thirty-nine (39) professionals were sent emails, and only twenty (20)
responded to the email (see Table 1). The data were analysed using the human error and
violations themes.
Table 1: The interview Sample

Participants Male Female Percentage (%)

Construction managers 4 2 23.1
Site engineers 3 1 15.4
Foreman 4 1 19.2
Quantity surveyors 2 3 19.0
Artisans (skilled workers) 6 23.1
Total 19 7 100.0

340
Research Findings and Discussion
The impact of an organisational system that produces the human error
Majority of the interviewees responded that they are using a different method to prevent
human mistakes on sites and that the order they are using is determined by the scope and
nature of the project. It is reported that safety system is supposed to be designed according
to the risk assessment plan, risk management plan, and quality control plan of projects.
They further explained that project specifications are very significant as it often helps them
to understand the details of the project design concerning hazardous activities. The
responses of the interviewees appear to resonate with the importance of a safety system
explained by Albert et al. (2014) who opined that the fundamental goal of an effective
safety system is to help organisations to eliminate or reduce safety risk before work begins
on a construction site.
Majority of the respondents explained that they use toolbox talk to analyse the risks in
an activity that they were about to undertake on a daily basis. For example, a foreman
explained that they had designed a risk assessment checklist to highlight and identify
actions that are dangerous and to help them to provide the right safety protective clothes for
the task they are undertaking. An interviewee explained that he fails to understand why the
construction industry is still experiencing a high rate of accidents despite the introduction of
safety regulations to eliminate accidents and promote safety culture on sites.
It is reported that safety guidelines and safety warning boards are very significant to
warn and remind the workers about hazardous and dangerous activity on sites. A
construction manager and site engineer had a similar response about a safety signboard,
which they argued should be designed using the home language of the area they are working
on, instead of using the English language because local workers may not be fluent the
English language. According to McAleenan and McAleenan (2017), a site safety warning
. Furthermore, several
authors regarding the famous saying that a language is a universal medium of
communication corroborate a statement of a construction manager and a site engineer about
the importance of language.

Accidents on construction sites

There are various factors causing accidents on construction sites, and such elements are
linked to workers' decisions, actions and behaviours. Some interviewees argued that
productivity is the leading cause of accidents. They explained that management always
prioritises productivity more than the safety and well-being of workers. They contend that
workers work under extreme working conditions and when they are tired, they tend to lose
concentration to the extent that they would succumb to the temptation to take shortcuts,
which end up causing accidents. This explanation is linked to system approach as described
by Reason (2008).
Most of the interviewees responded that accidents had become a standard practice in
their line of work. A health and safety manager states that to start and finish a project
without experiencing a minor or major injury is a significant achievement, which deserves a
celebration. Accidents in the construction industry is a substantial concern as explained by

341
Albert et al. (2014) who presented statistics that argued that in the United State of America
(USA), construction workers are more likely to be killed or injured more than workers in
other industries.
Furthermore, it is reported that failure by the employers and employees to follow and
respect the organisational safety regulations, designed risk assessment tool and failure to set
safety prevention measure will always contribute towards accidents on sites. A construction
manager explained that most of the accidents they had experienced on their projects are the
results of an error made either by the supervisor or foreman while workers are busy on an
activity. This statement of a construction manager is surprising because often a member of
the management always blames the workers for accidents, but in this case, both
management and the workers are accused of error, which leads to accidents. The reason
why human error is blamed on the employers and employees is explained by Dekker (2014)
with the so- ekker (2014) suggests that disastrous
outcome are preventable if somebody had paid a bit more attention at the job site.

The impact of the human violation on construction sites

Majority of the interviewees responded that the leading causes of violation on a project site
are workers. Furthermore, they explained that often workers fail to concentrate while
undertaking an activity, especially if a supervisor is not present. It is clear from the start that
violation on site is blamed on the workers as Holden (2009) states that the blame on people
continues because it is both a fundamental psychological tendency as well as an industry
standard that remain strong in the human activity industry. In addition, it represents the
person approach as explained by Reason (2008) in the literature.
Furthermore, the interviewees expressed that workers are careless, and this is a
significant problem, which organisation are struggling to handle. A foreman gave an
example to support this statement that they had an incident where a worker had stepped on a
nail while not wearing safety boots. Instead, the worker was wearing sneaker shoes because
he complained that the safety boots make his feet to have a grump. This statement raises
questions about the organisational safety regulations. A foreman as a leader is not supposed
to allow a worker to disrespect the organisational safety rule, and when an incident
happened, he cannot blame the worker while he is the one who allowed this situation to
occur under his watch. Furthermore, Reason (2008) explained that often individuals may
forget to be afraid at the workplace or that a nail might hurt his feet while wearing sneaker
shoes, but the culture of a high reliability organisation provides them with both the
reminders and the tools to help them remember.
One of the interviewee, working on a road construction project responded that fatigue of
the workers causes a human violation. He explained that majority of their workers are the
relatively young adults who do not rest because during the week they come to work, and on
weekends, they go to parties. This explains why they often experience fatigue in a
construction work that is difficult and complex. Fatigue should therefore not pervade a
worksite, which requires high energy and strength of the workers. He further explained that
they have breathalyser test to check the worker if they are trunk or not especially on the first
Monday of the month. Some interviewees further explained that lack of payment causes a
violation. They suggest that often the Government Department fail to pay them on time and

342
because of this result, they fail to pay their skilled workers on time, and often they resign,
and the organisations end up promoting unskilled workers to carry out activities that require
skilled workers to do.

Conclusions
Worldwide, construction work is recognised as hazardous and accident-prone. While other
sources exist, accidents in construction are linked to human errors and violations (Reason,
2011; Lopez et al., 2014). Furthermore, it is reported in the literature that infringements are
a type of errors or mistake, which happens when workers fail to follow instructions. In
effect, contractors should pay closer attention to site operations to identify and eliminate
factors causing human errors. It was discovered that most of the interviewees are aware of
the impact of human errors and violations. The interviewees cited ways in which human
errors and violations could be reduced. The use of a safety signboard to warn the workers
and visitors about hazardous activities serves as an intervention in this context. In
conclusion, this study is recommending that training workshop should be introduced to
individuals to teach them how to identify and eliminate human errors and violations in the
construction
6. Acknowledgement
The first author has drawn on treatises produced by his students in 2017. The authors
gratefully recognise the following students; Luyolo Sigudla, Lubabalo Mabentsela, Bonisile
Xashe, Genevieve Coetzee, Amava Ndinisa, and Keletso Letosu.

Reference
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Safety & Health Hazard Recognition. Journal of Safety, Health & Environmental
Research, 10(2), 152-161.
Dekker, S., (2014) Field Guide to
Ellison, M. (2014). Construction law made easy. CmCKomodo
Holden, R.J., (2009). People or systems? To blame is human. The fix is to engineer.
National Primary Care (PMC). 54(12). Pp.34 41
Hollnagel, E., (2004). Barriers and Accident Prevention. Ashgate Publishing Limited,
Aldershot.
Hosseinian, S.S. & Torghabeh, Z.J. (2012). Major theories of construction accident
causation models. International journal of advanced in engineering. 4(2), pp. 53-66.
Kum, S. & Sahin, B. (2015). A root analysis for Arctic Marine Accidents from 1993 to
2013. Safety Science. 74. pp. 206-220.
Lopez, R., Peter, E., Love, D. & Edwards, D.J., (2014). Design error classification,
causation in construction engineering. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities.
24(2), pp. 399-408
Maxwell, J.A. (2013). Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach. (3rd ed.).
California, USA. Sage Publications.
McAleenan, C & McAleenan, P. (2017). Critical Theory: Understanding the Impact
Languages has on Workers Safety and Health. (C. a. McAleenan, Ed.) Proceedings of
the Institution of Civil Engineers: Management, Procurement and Law, 170(MP2), 52-
58.
Promsorn, P., Soponsaulrat, P., Adulyamukosol, C.A., Kaiyarit, P. & Chinda, T. (2015).
Identifying root causes of construction accidents: non-human error factors. Journal of
communication and instrument. 2(1), pp. 4.

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Ramanujam, R. & Goodman, P.S. (2003). Latent errors and adverse organizational
consequences: a conceptualization. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 24, 815-836.
Reason, J. (2000). Human error: models and management. BMJ, 320, 768-770.
Reason, J. (2008). The Human Contribution: Unsafe Acts, Accidents and Heroic
Recoveries. New York, USA: Routledge.
Reason, J. (2011). Human Errors and Models Management. Cambridge: TECNATOM.
Salmon, P.M., Cornelissen, M. & Trotter, M.J. (2012). Systems-based accident analysis
methods: a comparison of AcciMap, HFACS and STAMP. Safety Science. 50(4), pp.
206-220.

344
[Paper ID 85]

Jantanee Dumrak1, Sherif Mostafa 2 and Nick Hadjinicolaou3

Abstract
Projects are undertaken to serve the particular purposes of organizations. Many projects
focus on having monetary benefits, but some projects are non-profit oriented and funded
by international or national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or donors to serve
the development of communities. These funded projects are usually established in many
disciplines including health, environment, economics, education, social and human rights
in countries where the welfare of the population is deficient. From perspectives of project
teams and sponsors, having a project-oriented approach allows more project control over
their available resources and expected outcomes, especially long-term or sustainable
outcomes o project activities and their
outcomes that survive after the termination of external funding. Sustainable outcomes
are derived from the maintenance of benefits generated from an initial project,
the continuation of project activities within a new organization, and the maintenance
of benefits realization. The sustainable outcomes are impacted by abilities to carry out both
on-going and long-term implementation. Therefore, it is important to ensure that personal
competence in development projects contribute to sustainable outcomes. This study
employs a correlation coefficient analyses to identify personal competence of project team
members that contribute to achieving sustainable outcomes. Seventy-five respondents from
development projects participated in the questionnaire survey. The research findings show
that each of the sustainable outcome domain required different combinations of personal
competence attributes.

Keywords: development projects, project management, personal competence, sustainable

outcomes

1
Senior Lecturer and Program Coordinator, Global Project Management, Torrens University
Australia, 88 Wakefield Street, Adelaide 5000 South Australia, Tel. +61 8 8253 5903,
Email: jdumrak@laureate.net.au
2
Program Director and Lecturer, Construction and Engineering Project Management, School
of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, South Port
4222 Queensland, Tel. +61 7 5552 7357, Email: Sherif.mostafa@griffith.edu.au
3
Assistant Professor, Global Project Management, Torrens University Australia, 88 Wakefield
Street, Adelaide 5000 South Australia, Tel. +61 8 8113 7811,
Email: nhadjinicolaou@laureate.net.au

345
Introduction
According to Bossert (1990), sustainable outcomes within health development projects can
be defined as any project that has expanded its funding yet the flow of benefits can be
maintained for at least three years after the life of the project. According to Glasier et al.
(2006), it is undeniable that many factors such as sociocultural, political, economic and
educational factors have direct impacts on the longevity of projects. These factors could
make any health development projects and programs difficult to accomplish and maintain.
The implementation of health improvement requires significant amounts of time, as well as
other resources. Most development aspects are highly associated
behavioural change and life cycle which are generally influenced by at least one of the
factors mentioned above. Moreover, in some developing countries cultures such as those in
Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, health issues are considered to be extremely personal,
gender-related, and culturally sensitive issues.
In order to attain sustainable outcomes in health development projects, the barriers to
desired outcomes must be mitigated. Many aspects related to sustainable outcomes have
been discussed. One of the concerning aspects is to improve skills and personal competence
of project officers (Government of the Republic of Guinea, 1998). To investigate personal
competence in relation to sustainable outcomes of health development projects, this paper is
structured into four sections. The next section is literature review.

Literature Review
Personal Competence
(Morris, P. W. G. et al.
2006, p.713). Crawford (1997, 1998) spots a significant relationship between project
management competence and organisational performance as well as the core elements of
competences including knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that lead to superior
if people who manage and work
on projects are competent, they will perform effectively and that this will lead to successful
projects and successful organisations (Crawford, 1998, p. 12).
According to PMI (2017), Project Manager Competency Development (PMCD)
Framework is applied to direct individuals and organisations towards professional
development in project management. The framework is designed incompatibility with the
Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). Project management
competence according to the PMCD Framework consists of three dimensions including
knowledge, performance and personal competences. While knowledge competence focuses
on project management credentials, performance and personal capability place their
significance on technical and human performance skills as well as competent actions and
behaviours in delivering and managing projects.
From the dimensions of competency, it can be said that an individual can be fully
competent when he/she is able to integrate all three dimensions and deliver project
performance that meets organisational expectations. The framework explains further that an
individual competency assessment can be conducted by examining the level of knowledge
and understanding of project management, ability to manage a project successfully, and the
core personality characteristics that one is expected to possess in order to lead a project. The
knowledge and performance competence exist in people-oriented professions, i.e. the
selected project practitioners in this research, which can be explicitly presented within task
descriptions and performance dashboards. Therefore, this paper only focuses on the
personal competence, an implicit dimension which is not commonly documented within
projects.
346
Sustainable Outcomes and Significance in Development Projects

development programs and projects. In development studies, terminologies including

have been used interchangeably to express sustainable outcomes. Benefits of sustainable

outcomes can be seen from the study of Swidler and Watkins (2009) that having sustainable
outcomes, not only benefits from optimization of project investment into t
population but also gains in knowledge and skills transfer in long-term perspectives. The
concept of sustainable outcomes also includes the continuation of program activities within
a new organization, the maintenance of initiatives by building community capacity, the
maintenance of benefits generated from an initial program and the maintenance of program
services for ongoing operations after termination of funding and assistance from a donor
(LaPelle et al., 2006; Sarriot et al., 2004). Funding termination profoundly impacts on
development projects especially when problems remain unsolved and require long-term
implementation. With the concepts and application of sustainable outcomes, this could be
one of the best solutions to ensure that the benefits and the health interventions can be
maintained (Tango International, 2009; Scheirer et al., 2008; Edwards & Roelofs, 2006).
Many research works have attempted to identify the impact of lacking sustainable outcomes
to benefits and activities in development projects and programs when the major sponsoring
agencies stop their funding (Bossert, 1990; LaPelle et al., 2006; Argaw, 2007; Swidler &
Watkins, 2009). Most of these studies found that benefits are generally discontinued after
funding termination.

Research Method
This research was to investigate the contribution of personal competence and attributes of
project management practitioners in the studied health development projects to dimensions
of sustainable outcomes using a list of 19 attributes in six areas of personal competence
obtained from the PMCD Framework developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI,
2017). Does personal competence contribute to sustainable
outcomes in health development projects? where the three studied dimensions of
sustainable outcomes were sustainable outcome orientation, capability building, and
delivery to construct a questionnaire survey. The list of personal competence and attributes
is presented in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Personal Competence and Attributes

Personal competence Attribute
1. Communication Interpersonal understanding
Information seeking
Stakeholder orientation
2. Leading Team leading
Relationship building
Developing others
Impact and influence
3. Managing Teamwork and coordination
Task organization
4. Cognitive ability Analytical thinking
Critical thinking
Self-motivation
Self-confidence
5. Effectiveness Initiative

347
 Flexibility
Assertive
6. Professionalism Commitment
Organizational awareness
Achievement orientation

The survey questionnaire was developed with the 5-point rating scale and distributed to
75 project management practitioners working in health development projects funded by
international development agencies. The analysis of collected data was conducted using the
SPSS software application to examine associations between the studied variables. The
research analysis included descriptive and correlation statistics. Demographic information
was presented using the descriptive statistics while used to investigate
the directional relationship between the studied variables. According to Jackson (2015),
when correlation coefficient (r) values are between +/- 0.00 to 0.29, +/- 0.3 to 0.69 and +/-
0.7 to 1.00, they indicate no relationship to a weak relationship, a moderate level of
relationship and strong relationship respectively. This research also employed Kruskal-
Wallis Test to compare the results where the studied respondents were divided into more than
two groups on the ordinal scale.

Data Analysis and Findings

Descriptive statistics employed in this data analysis presented project management
background of 75 project practitioners who participated in the questionnaire survey (see
Figure 1). The majority of the respondents had project experience of three years (51.61%)
and worked between 1-3 projects (79.03%) at the time the survey was conducted. The
respondents who experienced project works for more than three years but less than five
years were reported to be 27.42%. Only 9.68% of this respondent group in this survey that
delivered 4-5 projects during these years of experience. The respondents who had more
seven years of project experience were counted to be 19.36% with different numbers of
projects undertaken. Only 6.45% of these practitioners delivered 8 projects and over.

1.61%
51.61%
1.61%
9.68%

1.61%
1.61%
1.61%
14.52% 1.61%
1.61%
8.06% 4.84%
Less than 3 years More than 3 years but More than 5 years but More than 7 years but More than 10 years
not over 5 years not over 7 years not over 10 years
1-3 projects 4-5 projects 6-7 projects 8-10 projects More than 10 projects

Figure 1. Project Experience and Numbers of Projects Involved

348
 2 below show the
directional relationships between attributes of personal competence and studied domains of
sustainable outcomes. It was found that each of the sustainable outcome domain required
different combinations of personal competence attributes.
At the sustainable outcome orientation where benefits realisation and knowledge are
focused, all attributes, except Teamwork and Coordination, were chosen by the respondents
as required attributes in this domain. According to the result, Task Organization (r = .390, p
< 0.001) contains the strongest relationship to sustainable outcome orientation, followed by
Self-confidence and Flexibility (r = .385, p < 0.001 and r = .380, p < 0.001), respectively. In
the domain of sustainable outcome capability building, not all attributes were related to this
domain. The personal competence areas mostly associated to the sustainable outcome
capacity building were Cognitive Ability and Effectiveness. Teamwork and Coordination
has the strongest relationship (r = .438, p < 0.001), followed by Assertiveness (r = .352, p <
0.001). The last domain of sustainable outcome examination was sustainable outcome
delivery. In this domain, it was found that the personal competence attributes associated
with this domain were lesser than others, especially Leading which has none of the
attributes significantly associated with sustainable outcome delivery. Amongst the
associated attributes to this domain, Information Seeking forms the strongest relationship (r
= .391, p < 0.001), followed by Flexibility (r = .334, p < 0.001) and Self-motivation (r =
.333, p < 0.001).

Table 2. (r) Correlations between Personal Competence Attributes and

Sustainable Outcome Domains

Sustainable
Sustainable Sustainable
Personal outcome
Attribute outcome outcome
competence capability
orientation delivery
building
Interpersonal
.359** - -
Understanding
Information
Communication Seeking
.326** - .391**
Stakeholder
.276* .357** .267*
Oriented
Team Leading .302* - -
Relationship
.296* - -
Building
Leading Developing
.263* .318* -
Others
Impact and
.254* - -
Influencing
Teamwork and
- .438** -
Coordination
Managing
Task
.390** - .285*
Organization
Analytical
.253* .310* -
Thinking
Cognitive
Critical Thinking .259* .345** -
Ability
Self-motivation .340** .312* .333**
Self-confidence .385** .349** .269*
Effectiveness Initiative .254* .329** -

349
 Flexibility .380** .290* .334**
Assertive .282* .352** -
Commitment - - -
Organizational
.296* .344** .291*
Professionalism Awareness
Achievement
.257* - -
Orientation
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Kruskal-Wallis Test was conducted across the studied sustainable outcome dimensions.
The statistical significance (Asymp. Sig.) presented in Table 3. Any tested data where p >
0.05 indicates that all respondents from different grouping agreed to the same level of the
studied variables.

Table 3. Kruskal Wallis Test

Sustainable Sustainable Sustainable

outcome outcome capability outcome
Personal competence Attribute orientation building delivery
Asymp. Sig. Asymp. Sig. Asymp. Sig.
Interpersonal
0.012 0.358 0.078
understanding
Information
Communication 0.043 0.315 0.020
seeking
Stakeholder
0.025 0.748 0.129
orientation
Team leading 0.092 0.413 0.426
Relationship
0.120 0.374 0.387
building
Leading Developing
0.198 0.115 0.368
others
Impact and
0.109 0.308 0.082
influence
Teamwork
and 0.494 0.391 0.641
Managing coordination
Task
0.019 0.288 0.131
organization
Analytical
0.124 0.291 0.269
thinking
Critical
0.229 0.620 0.306
thinking
Cognitive ability
Self-
0.040 0.083 0.053
motivation
Self-
0.019 0.055 0.126
confidence
Initiative 0.085 0.335 0.117
Effectiveness Flexibility 0.029 0.186 0.063
Assertive 0.150 0.741 0.228

350
 Commitment 0.509 0.050 0.194
Organizational
Professionalism 0.087 0.282 0.114
awareness
Achievement
0.139 0.845 0.199
orientation

According to the results shown in Table 3, most attributes across sustainable outcome
dimensions demonstrate that the respondents agreed with the correlation results presented in
Table 2. A main personal competence category with the sustainable outcome orientation
respondents had different agreement on the attributes was Communication. It is evident
from Table 3 that the personal communications attributes had strong significance with the
sustainable outcome orientation and delivery of projects. The cognitive ability and
effectiveness characteristics showed the only significant positive relationship with the
suitable outcomes dimension. Whereas two of the professionalism attributes (org.
awareness and commitment) demonstrated a significant association with the sustainable
orientation and capability building dimensions.

Conclusions
This study examined the correlation between the project managers personal competencies
with the suitable outcomes in health development projects. The study utilised a list of 19
attributes within the six main areas of personal competence that has been defined in the
Project Manager Competency Development (PMCD) framework. According to the data
analysis and research findings, the study found that each of the sustainable outcome domain
required different combinations of personal competence attributes. The sustainable outcome
orientation is positively correlated with the communication, managing and cognitive ability
competencies. The correlation analyses discovered that the personal competence areas
essentially associated with the sustainable outcome orientation. The attributes of task
organisation, self-motivation and confidence, flexibility and information seeking have the
most robust relationship. Moreover, the domain of sustainable outcome delivery
demonstrated strong associated with few attributes including information seeking, and
flexibility. To validate this research results, more dimensions of project sustainable
outcomes are recommended for further investigation with the PMCD framework.

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Scheirer, MA., Hartling, G. and Hagerman, D., 2008. Defining sustainability outcomes of
health programs: illustrations from an on-line survey, Evaluation and Program
Planning. 31, 335-346.
Swidler, A. and Watkins, SC., 2009. Teach a man to fish: the sustainability doctrine and its
social consequences. World Development, 37, 1182-1196.
Tango International., 2009. Sustainability of rural development projects: best practices and
lessons learned by IFAD in Asia, Rome: Tango International, Rome.

352
3. THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS
OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

353
[Paper ID 150]

Virginia Shahida Ngonda1 and Larry E. Jowah2

Abstract

of an organisation to successfully execute projects. This capability of an organisation

is reflected in its project management maturity. The study reported in this conference paper
sought to investigate whether there is a correlation between South African project
turity. This
was done to determine if project managers have sufficient power to influence their

The paper reports on a nation-wide survey that collected data from self-identified
project managers. It received three hundred and six valid responses which were edited,
coded, and analysed descriptively and inferentially.

nagement maturity. Thus,

organisation project management maturity also increases. However, causation could

not be established as it was not possible to establish the temporal order amongst
the variables. The established correlations were too weak to be used for prediction.
Keywords: organisation, power, project management maturity, project management
maturity model, project manager.

1
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Cape Peninsula University of Technology,
P.O. Box 1906, Bellville, South Africa, Tel. +27-21-9596600, Email ngondas@cput.ac.za
2
Department of Management and Project Management, Cape Peninsula University
of Technology, P.O. Box 1906, Bellville, South Africa, Tel. +27-21-4604293,
Email jowahl@cput.ac.za

354
Introduction
Formalised project management posts are a recent addition to South African organisations.
In a 2013 study, Labuschagne et al. (2013) claim that only 35% were senior enough to
influence change in their organisations. This presents a challenge as by and large a project is
a specialised undertaking which requires unique competencies from the project leader to
meet the requirements of the iron triangle the triple constraints of time, budget and scope
(Kerzner, 2014). In addition, a project requires an enabling environment. The larger the
project, the more likely it is to be complex and interdisciplinary. Thus, involving the
formation of interdisciplinary teams to participate in the creation of this unique structure.
Projects are characterised by high failure rates, high risks, team conflicts, and many other
unique problems.
The project execution process involves the ability to apply the requisite knowledge,
appropriate skills, relevant tools and ideal techniques in the process of creating the project
product (Project Management Institute, 2008). The success of the project execution process
is generally mandated to the project leader. Hence, the existence of is a common belief by
ccess of
the project execution (Crawford, 2005: 7). However, this is one side of the equation as other
functionaries (the project team and the project organisation) has a bearing on the
effectiveness of project execution (Nicholas & Steyn, 2012).
The parent organisation structures and practices may provide the framework that can aid or
hinder project success (Project Management Institute, 2013). The maturity of an
organisation can be evaluated based on its ability to provide adequate support, manage the
resources, and nurture the project management talent (Cooke-Davies and Arzymanow,
2003). The ability of an organisation is to practice project management principles that
permeate through the entire organisation demonstrates project management maturity
(Farrokh & Mansur, 2013: 68). Such an organisation provides structural support for the
implementation of projects within itself at all levels.
The concept of project management maturity is used to provide an indication of an
rojects (Ibbs, Reginato, and Kwak 2004). The more
project management mature organisation is more likely to achieve higher overall project
success, has less scope creep and less cost and schedule variation. Cooke-Davies and
Arzymanow (2003) concur with the above that higher maturity reduces variations in an

various project management maturity models have been developed. The project
management community uses many more project management maturity models. Grant and
Pennypacker (2006) report that there were more than 30 maturity models that were used
with none receiving worldwide acceptance. Archibald and Archibald (2016) report that by
the end of the decade, 2006-2016, the number of project management maturity models had
grown to hundreds, covering all types of industries.
The link between the project manager and the project organisation is often ignored in
literature on project management maturity. The study reported in this paper seeks to

management maturity. To achieve this, the study evaluated the existence of statistical
association, correlation or causation between the project m

exits, then project managers cannot be ignored in initiatives which organisations embark on
to improve their project management maturity.

355
Project management maturity models
The majority of (most) project management models measure project management maturity
of a five-level ordinal scale following the structure of the first project management maturity
-CMM). SEI-CMM

process (Kumta & Shah, 2002). SEI-CMM describes the key elements of an effective
software development process. SEI-

maturity to one of its five levels of maturity.

T
effectiveness in managing non-software projects (Paulk, 1994). The maturity levels for a
generalised capability maturity model that was termed Capability Maturity Model
Integration (SEI-CMMI) are described in Table 1.

Table 1: Maturity levels in the SEI-CMMI

Maturity Description
Levels
Level 5 Continuous improvement using both quantitative and qualitative data generated
(Optimising) from previous and current projects is practised. Innovation in both processes
and project management tools is routine.
Level 4 Metrics are collected for both products and processes. All projects are carefully
(Managed) monitored and controlled.
Level 3 Standardisation and documenting of project process becomes the norm. The
(Defined) organisation develops its own way of managing projects. Each
section/department manages projects in the same way.
Level 2 Project management processes are in place and track the triple constraints of
(Repeatable) each project: time, cost, and requirements. Lessons learned is used in the
execution of similar projects. Project success can be repeated for similar
projects.
Level 1 Project management process is ad hoc or even chaotic. The organisation does
(Initial) not provide support for the project manager. Success in projects depends on the
competency and the effort of individual project managers. While organisations
in this level can succeed in a project, success is not often repeatable.

Over the years, other project management models have been developed. Project
management maturity models are divided into three broad categories: technical delivery
process models, project management process models and organisational maturity models.
SEI-CMM and other technical delivery process models focus on documenting project
management processes and increasing the level of application on standardised project
management processes within an organisation. Project management process models are an
evolution of the technical delivery process models where they can apply the same concept
of increased capability within the context of an organisation which practises project
management based on a standard such as PMBOK or PRINCE2. PMS-PMMM is an
example of such a model that integrates the capability structure of SEI-CMM.
Organisational maturity models go beyond project management and review the entire
organisation. They can be applied to organisations that are not project-orientated. Table 2
provides examples of the models and highlight their evolution.

356
 Table 2: Key developments in the evolution of project management maturity models

Year Model Developer and application

1986 Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Developed by Carnegie Mellon

2000 Kerzner Project Management Maturity
Model (Kerzner-PMMM)
2002 Berkeley Project Management Process
Maturity Model, (PM)2
2002 Project Management Maturity Model
(PMS-PMMM)
2003 Organizational Project Management
Maturity Model (OPM3)
2009 PRINCE2 Maturity Model (P2MM)
University Software Engineering Institute
to access software development
capability
Developed by Harold Kerzner as a
generic model that was meant to extend
CMM into general project management
Developed by Young Kwak and William
Ibbs as a generic model that the
encompassed key project management
knowledge areas and key processes that
occur within the knowledge areas
Developed by PM Solutions as a generic
model that is aligned with the PMBOK
knowledge areas
Released by the PMI-USA as a generic
organisation-wide model for project,
programme, and portfolio management
maturity assessment
of Government Commerce to support
maturity assessments in organisations
that are using PRINCE2

Project management maturity models are not the silver bullets that solve project
management capability challenges. Cooke-Davies (2007) warns that project maturity
models do not confer a competitive advantage to an organisation, but they are rather a
valuable tool that can assist an organisation in its quest for project management excellence.
Perhaps the value of the models can be appreciated when one considers anecdotal evidence
of project success rates of organisations that have low maturity levels. In a Brazilian study,
Prado, Oliveira and Romano (2015) found that there is a direct positive relationship
between project management maturity and project success. They found that as project
maturity increased from 1 to 5, project success also increased from 38.7% to 81%.
Conversely, as maturity decreased from 5 to 1, project failure rate increased from 5% to
18.6%. Other researchers reported similar findings as well.

Relationship between project management maturity and

the project manager

mobilise, integrate and transfer knowledge, skills and resources to reach or surpass

(Takey & Carvalho, 2015). Although the competency of a project manager cannot be
directly measured it can be inferred from personal attributes such as qualifications,
experience, attitudes, and behaviours (Crawford, 2005). Project management associations
have recognised the impact of project managers on project management success such that
they have introduced frameworks for assessing and certifying PM competencies (Takey &
357
Carvalho, 2015).
Chipulu, Neoh, Ojiako and Williams (2013) investigated and mapped key project manager
competencies from a study of project manager recruitment adverts from all over the world.
They found that employers sought project management knowledge and expertise as
evidence of project management qualifications, certifications, and years of project
management experience. They also found that employers sought senior managerial
experience that can provide strategic leadership as well as manage change. High emotional
intelligence and understanding of professional ethics were also sought. Lastly, highly sought
project managers are expected to be experts in risk management.
A project manager is defined as an individual who is responsible for managing a project
(Gray & Larson, 2011). It is not a title that makes one a project manager. Gray and Larson,
(2011) correctly note that most people who manage projects do not carry a project manager
title, suggesting that the function is unique given the unique nature of the projects
themselves. Crawford (2005) concurs and posits that their function goes beyond mere
coordination of activities to implement a plan, since they are liable for the success or failure
of the project execution process.
Effective project managers are essentially leaders in that they too often do not have formal
authority (Roeder (2013). However, Mersino (2013) notes that like other managers, project
managers are expected to be able to get work done. Mazibuko, Tait and Jowah (2015)
concur and assert that project leaders have a serious problem because they have an authority
gap (no formal authority) and thus find themselves having to develop other competencies to
enable them to overcome the authority gap and deliver on expectations. The issues of power
and influence are very crucial as, according to Mersino (2013), project managers achieve
their objectives through the work done by other people whom the project manager has no
functional authority over.

Research design
The study reported in this conference paper adopted a correlational survey methodology.

-Davies and
Arzymanow (2003) to collect data from self-identified South African project managers by
their membership of a project management association. An invitation to participate in the

newsletter that was sent to all their members. The invitation was sent out in January 2017
and by February 2017, three hundred and six completed responses were received
The data was cleaned and edited for any errors and omissions that were identified, the
questions were coded, and the information was captured onto a spreadsheet. After the
preparation, analysis of the response data was conducted using a commercial statistical
analysis package. The data was analysed in two ways. First, data was analysed to provide
means, percentage, and standard deviations of the variables. This data was then converted to
illustrations in the form of tables, pie charts, histograms, and bar charts. Secondly,
hypotheses testing was conducted using the Pearson Chi-Squire test of independence
(Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009). This analysis provided information on the basis on
which generalisations may be made to the research findings.

Findings and discussion

The study found that in South Africa, project management profession is relatively STEM
orientated and comprise relatively older, more qualified, and more experienced
practitioners. The respondents had media age 37.58 years, most worked in IT (59.1%)

358
followed by construction and engineering (23.5%). Both are in STEM. In addition, most
respondents had a postgraduate degree (73.5%), followed by those with a degree (18.6%)
and lastly those with a diploma (7.8%). Lastly, it seems that project management in South
Africa is a relatively male-dominated profession. This might reflect on the fact that STEM
in South Africa is male-dominated.
The study showed that South African project management industry has slightly matured
since the 2013 PMSA commissioned study by Labuschagne et al. (2013). When compared
with global trends, the perceived maturity of South African organisations is still very low,

achieved a perceived maturity of five. 42.2% of the organisations had a project management
maturity of three. Most of the organisations were practising aspects of project management
and had structures that would support a higher maturity than what they were currently at.

are not independent of each other. The association is significant. A correlation test revealed
a weak positive relationship between the two. Thus, as project manager
is likely that their organisation project management maturity also increases. The study did

study would not establish the temporal order between the two. Similar tests for project

management maturity also increases. Like before, temporal order could not be established.

management maturity

Project Project Project Project

managers' managers' managers' managers'
influence power technical project
expertise management
experience
Project Correlation
managers' Coefficient
influence
Sig. (2-
tailed)
Project Correlation .730 **
managers' Coefficient
power
Sig. (2- 0.000
tailed)
Project Correlation .055 .126*
managers' Coefficient
technical
expertise Sig. (2- 0.335 0.028
tailed)
Project Correlation .108 .083 .131*
managers' Coefficient
project
management Sig. (2- 0.059 0.150 0.022
experience tailed)

359
Project Correlation .191 ** .292** -.137* .113*
management Coefficient
maturity of
organisation Sig. (2- 0.001 0.000 0.016 0.049
tailed)

The study found that although project management maturity and project
management experience as indicated these are not independent of each other, their

value of 0.000, which is below the 0.01 value that indicates significance. Thus, only project

and project management is only significant at 0.05 level

Table 4 influence, technical expertise and

project management experience, and
power as the mediating variable

Project Project managers' Project managers'

managers' technical expertise project management
influence experience

Project Correlation
managers'
influence Significance
(2-tailed)
Project Correlation -.054
managers'
technical Significance 0.349
expertise (2-tailed)
Project Correlation .087 .161
managers'
project Significance .128 .005
management (2-tailed)
experience
Project Correlation .027 .282** .044
management
maturity of Significance 0.636 0.000 0.449
organisation (2-tailed)

The study indicates that project managers, particularly the power that they have in their
organisations, cannot be ignored in initiatives that organisations embark on to improve their

technical expertise have an influence on its project management maturity. Thus, to

guarantee project management maturity, organisations should assist their project managers
develop their technical expertise. For example, organisations could assist their project

and knowledge for the team to complete the task (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2002).
They could facilitate their project managers to achieve certification such as PMI-

360
PMP certification, a certification from the South African Council for Project and
Construction Management Professions, or any other reputable body whose members are
perceived to be project management experts. In addition, project managers can be granted

rather tied to the connection to power players that an individual might have (Elearn Limited,
2007). Having a visible executive sponsor might provide the required connection power.
Facilitating access to power would assist in narrowing the authority gap of project managers
by giving their sufficient authority. Their organisations would benefit from this as project
managers would be able to implement the changes that are required for project management
maturity improvement.

Conclusion
The study found that that there are non-

maturity. The findings of this study indicate that organisation s would benefit if they

of expert and connection power.

Reference
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What Every Executive Team Must Know about Project, Program, and Portfolio
Management. 2nd ed. Boca Raton: CRC.
Chipulu, Maxwell, Jun Guan Neoh, Udechukwu Ojiako, and Terry Williams. 2013. A
Multidimensional Analysis of Project Manager Competences. IEEE Transactions on
Engineering Management, 60(3): 506 17.
Cooke-Davies, Terence J., and Andrew Arzymanow. 2003. The Maturity of Project
Management in Different Industries: An Investigation into Variations between Project
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Cooke-Davies, Terry. 2007. Project Management Maturity Models. In The Wiley Guide to
Managing Projects, eds. Jeffrey K Pinto and Peter W G Morris. New Jersey: Wiley,
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Crawford, Lynn. 2005. Senior Management Perceptions of Project Management
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Elearn Limited. 2007. Leadership and Management in Organisations. 1st ed. Oxford:
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Farrokh, J, and Azhar K Mansur. 2013. Project Management Maturity Models and
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Evaluation. Project Management, 2(7): 23 33.
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Project Management Capabilities among and between Selected Industries. IEEE
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Gray, Clifford. F., and Erik. W. Larson. 2011. Project Management: The Managerial
Process. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Ibbs, C William, Justin M Reginato, and Young Hoon Kwak. 2004. Developing Project
Management Capability: Benchmarking, Maturity, Modeling, Gap Analyses, and ROI
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Morris. New Jersey: Wiley, 1214 33.
Kerzner, Harold. 2014. Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence.
3rd ed. New Jersey: Wiley.
Kumta, Gita A., and Mitul D. Shah. 2002. Capability Maturity Model. Delhi Business
Review, 3(1).
Labuschagne, Les et al. 2013. Project Management Maturity vs Project Outcomes in Africa.
ed. Carl Marnewick. Pretoria: Project Management South Africa.
Mazibuko, Noxolo Eileen, M Tait, and L. E. Jowah. 2015. Critical Core Competencies
Required for Effective Project Leadership in the Presence of the Authority Gap. Journal
of Contemporary Management, 12: 313 35.
Mersino, Anthony. 2013. Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers. 2nd ed. New York:
American Management Association.
Nicholas, John M, and Herman Steyn. 2012. Project Management for Engineering,
Business and Technology. 4th ed. London: Routledge.
Paulk, Marck. 1994. A Comparison of ISO 9001 and the Capability Maturity Model for
Software. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University.
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Roeder, Tres. 2013. Managing Project Stakeholders: Building a Foundation to Achieve
Project Goals. New Jersey: Wiley.
Saunders, Mark, Philip Lewis, and Adrian Thornhill. 2009. Research Methods for Business
Students. 5th ed. Edinburgh: Pearson.
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Project Management: An Action Research Study in an Engineering Company.
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362
[Paper ID 122]

-
Achim Kampker1, Johannes Triebs2 and Jan Ole Hansen3

Abstract
Due to shorter product life-cycles, increasing product customization and the co-existence
of electric and combustion engine vehicles, variant flexibility is gaining importance
in the automobile production. The automobile body shop is characterized by inflexible, rigid
fixture systems dedicated to meet the geometrical requirements of specific body parts.
Changes in part geometry or dimension require the development of new fixture systems,
thus increasing product variety results in higher fixture costs. This paper presents
an approach for a fixtureless body shop based on component-integrated fixture-functions,
increasing variant flexibility and reducing fixture costs. The approach is implemented using
a body part assembly of an electric vehicle.

Keywords: automobile body shop, electric vehicles, fixtureless body shop, variant
flexibility

1
Professor, Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components, RWTH Aachen,
Campus Boulevard 30, Aachen, Germany, Tel. +49 2418027406,
Email: A.Kampker@pem.rwth-aachen.de
2
Chief Engineer, Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components, RWTH Aachen,
Campus Boulevard 30, Aachen, Germany, Tel. +49 2418027406,
Email: J.Triebs@pem.rwth-aachen.de
3
Research Assistant, Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components, RWTH
Aachen, Campus Boulevard 30, Aachen, Germany, Tel. +49 2418027406,
Email: J.Hansen@pem.rwth-aachen.de

363
Introduction
Automobile body shops are often rigid production systems with a high degree of automation
for high production volumes. Due to its low flexibility and high investment costs in mid-
digit million ranges6, the body shop is particularly affected by increasing number of variants
and shorter product life cycles. A significant part of the investment costs is caused by
development and production of fixtures. According to Meichsner, variant-specific fixture
costs can rise up to 40% of the total system costs in certain body shop stations.7 Since
fixtures are generally dedicated to meet the geometrical requirements of specific body parts,
changes in part geometry or dimension, due to design changes between model years or due
to integration of a new model to an existing production line, require the development and
production of new fixtures. Consequently, the increasing product variety results in higher
fixture costs.
Existing approaches in the body shop to flexibilize fixture are based mainly on the
kinematisation of the fixture system whereby investment costs for kinematized fixture
systems can surpass those of conventional fixtures by 50%. Further, flexibility gain of
kinematized fixture systems is low due to limitations in adaptability and change time
restrictions.8 Therefore, research has increased efforts to replace fixture systems by an
economic and flexibility increasing alternative technology. Feature-based fixturing
approaches, enabling fixtureless body shop concepts by integrating fixture-functions within
the body part through geometrical features, are expected to be advantageous in terms of
investment costs savings and flexibility gain.9
This paper describes a methodology to select and evaluate application-specific
combinations of geometrical features and joining technologies suitable to replace
conventional fixture systems. The approach is based on component-integrated fixture-
functions, which have been implemented in a fixtureless body shop station for an electric
vehicle body part assembly using the described methodology.

Practical approaches on fixture flexibilization

In order to be able to produce cost-efficiently despite high initial investments and declining
variant-specific quantities, body shops must be able to produce several vehicle variants
flexibly on a single body shop line. By making body shops more flexible, investments in
high-grade automation can be allocated to a larger number of products to be manufactured
and justified economically. While the potential for flexibility in industrial robots can be
exploited, for example, by changing tools and programs, fixtures that are specially adapted
to specific part geometries considerably limit flexibility in automobile body shops. In recent
years, increased efforts have been made to make the fixtures in body shops more flexible.
The approaches implemented nowadays are mainly based on the kinematization of the
fixture system, whereby the motion may concern the complete fixture (fixture changing
systems) or be present within the fixture (e.g. adaptive clamping techniques).
Depending on the size of the fixture, the required kinematics are performed by industrial
robots, rotary tables and drums or gantry systems and linear units (see figure 1).10 Small,

6
Spieckermann S., et al., 2000. Simulation-Based Optimization in the Automotive Industry
7
Meichsner, T., 2007. Migrationskon - und variantenflexiblen
Automobilkarosseriebau
8
Haunstetter, T.,
automobilen Karosseriebaus zur strategischen Investitionsplanung
9
Hansen, J., et al., 2018. Methodology for flexibility in the future automobile body shop: results of a
comprehensive cross-industry study
10
3D-CAD-Modellen

364
lightweight fixtures are often stored in a fixture magazine and are replaced by industrial
robots. Medium and large fixtures are mounted on rotary tables or drums, which are rotated
to the body construction line depending on the vehicle variant to be manufactured. Despite
the high total weight of up to 17,000 kg for table/drum and payload, the fixture change takes
place within the cycle times. Due to the high space requirement, rotary tables and drums are
suitable for accommodating two to four fixture variants. Rotary drum systems are used, for
example, in the side frame production of the Audi Q5.11 The largest and heaviest fixtures
weighing up to 2,500 kg are used in the framing stations of body shops, in which the base
assembly, side frame and roof of the body are brought together. The vertical fixtures are
mounted on gantry systems and linear units for transport to the body shop line.
The use of fixture change systems is suitable for a limited number of part variants and
allows only limited flexibility in body shops. If the part geometry is changed, the complete
fixture must still be replaced or an additional changing system must be integrated.
Disadvantages are not only the costs for design and production, but also the space required,
the associated storage and logistics costs as well as the capital commitment.
Compared to fixture changing systems, flexible fixtures use adaptable function carriers,
whereby the clamping and determining elements adapt to different part geometries. On the
one hand, the function carriers can be mounted on movable elements, which adapt to shape
and size variations of the parts within given dimensions. The moving elements are often
operated automatically via a pneumatic drive. In addition to movable function carriers, the
clamping elements can be made more flexible by means of shape-variable adjustments. The
clamping elements adapt to the part geometry by means of force or form-fit control,
whereby pin cushions are often used in body shops. 12 The application flexibility of flexible
fixtures is limited to just a few centimeters due to the adjustment ranges of the elements,
consequently limiting the number of part variants. Further, investment costs in flexible
fixtures often surpass those for conventional fixture systems and quality issues are common
due to frequent adjustments and the elasticity of the systems. Thus, neither fixture changing
systems nor flexible fixtures are economic viable solutions to increase flexibility in future
automobile body shops.

Fixture magazine Rotary table/drum Gantry system

Fixture variant 1 Fixture variant 2 Fixture variant 3

Figure 4. Concepts for fixture changing systems in automobile body shops

Literature review
As mentioned above, a concept to reduce fixture costs and increase flexibility in a
fixtureless body shop consists of relocating fixture-functions into the parts to be joined. In
this concept, the fixture functions are taken over by geometrical features integrated into the

11
Schol, O., 2009. Der neue Audi Q5: Entwicklung und Technik
12
Franzkowiak, M., 2013. Methodik zur Strukturierung von Vorrichtungssystemen in der Lohnfertigung

365
parts. Therefore, approaches discussed following are related to the research area of feature-
based fixturing (FBF). Adams and Whitney define these so-called "assembly features" as
objects that restrict one or more degrees of freedom between two parts to be joined and fix
this restriction.13 Naing supplements this description with the note that features used must
always be considered as pairs, since the degrees of freedom constraint by a feature always
depend on the mate.14
When considering FBF approaches for body shop applications, several evaluation
criteria should be taken into account according to Schlather. 15 Firstly, since geometrical
feature are being integrated into the body parts, approaches should be applicable in early
phases of the product development to ensure appropriate part design. Further, geometrical
features should be considered to replace fixture and their functionalities, specifically
positioning, clamping and fixing of body parts. A logic relating fixture-functions to
geometrical features taking body shop tolerances and part accuracies into consideration
should be presented. Considering the processes in automobile body shops, commonly used
joining technologies such as spot welding or gluing should be considered when selecting
features for specific use applications. In the following main approaches applicable to
automotive body shops are discussed and evaluated regarding the described criteria listed in
table 1.

Table 11. Criteria to evaluate FPF approaches for use in body shops

Evaluation Criteria
Considers early phases of product development
Considers geometrical features to replace fixtures
Presents logic to relate geometrical features to fixtures-functions
Contemplates accuracy and tolerances in body shops
Considers joining technologies used in body shops
Describes feature selection process according to use-case

Koonmen developed a methodology called "precision assembly technique" in 1994,

which enables the assembly of components according to requirements from aircraft floor
assemblies without fixtures. The technical concept is based on a combination of plug-in and
mounting features. Together they can restrict a certain number of degrees of freedom before
the joining operation. Further the author describes to what extent the entire assembly
organization within a company would have to be adapted to the new concept and which
extensive changes would be necessary for this. 16 The approach misses to describe the
relation between fixture-functions and geometrical features. Further, neither accuracies and
tolerances nor joining technologies utilized in body shops are considered.
In their approach to model assembly processes by pair characteristics, Chang and Perng
focus on the development of capable feature-based part positioning mechanisms. To this
end, characteristics and their characterizing properties (volumes, reference systems and
interfaces) are described. Three types of combinations of features are outlined by the
authors: fit-based, contact-based and orientation-based. Chang and Perng also examine the

13
Adams, J. and Whitney, D., 2001. Application of Screw Theory to Constraint Analysis of Mechnical
Assemblies Joined by Features
14
Naing, S., 2004. Feature Based Design for Jigless Assembly
15
Schlather, F., et al., 2016. Feature-based approach for fixtureless build-up of sheet metal structures
16
Koonmen, P., 1994. Implementing precision assembly techniques in the commercial aircraft industry

366
fastening of several superimposed parts and subdivide the assemblies into individual
subassemblies.17 Summarizing, the investigations focus less on descriptive or selection
processes for geometrical features, but rather on the simplifications that can be achieved in
the design phases for part positioning processes through the use of features.
Walczyk et al. developed a methodology for the fixture-free assembly of simple sheet
metal parts for the aviation industry. The technical basis is tolerated alignment holes, which
are drilled into the parts via CNC machines. At these alignment holes, the parts are
connected to each other by temporary closures. On the basis of this part alignment and
fixation, the parts are then finally joined at the points where the rivets or bolts are already
positioned in the conventional case. Depending on the application, it may also make sense
to use rivet or bolt holes already provided as alignment holes in order to avoid additional
holes. To determine the optimum position and suitable tolerances of alignment holes,
Walczyk et al. provide several indications, which refer in particular to the desired restriction
of all degrees of freedom by the closures in interaction with the part geometry. The authors
name so-called "cleo clamps" as an exemplary temporary clamp lock, which expand after
insertion into the holes and thus allow the parts to be centered and fixed. The clamps are
removed after the joining process. 18 Nevertheless, no logic relating geometrical features to
fixture-functions is given by the authors. Further, neither accuracies and tolerances nor
joining technologies utilized in body shops are considered.
Naing applies the FBF principle in the developed "integrated methodology for jigless
assembly" to the assembly of parts from the aviation industry. Naing explicitly includes the
design phase in the methodology in order to integrate fixture functions into parts. The
approach is divided into two main parts. Firstly, the author represents a mapping of all
influences affecting the feature selection process. The influences are reflected time, cost and
quality dimensions. However, it is pointed out that the cost dimension is a priority aspect
and is related to all other influences. In a second part the author describes in detail the
feature selection process as part of the methodology. He differentiates between location,
support, clamping and fastening features for use in assembly processes. Based on this
distinction, the author describes the selection process for positioning features in detail using
examples from the aviation industry. For the selection of other characteristic types, general
notes are given as to which influences should be taken into account in the selection. A
feature library with characteristics for all four features types is created within the work. The
characteristics library should be comprehensive, but no claim to completeness is made. 19
For the utilization in body shop applications, the approach misses considering joining
technologies as well as the accuracies and tolerances arising in these processes.
With their principle of "integral attachment", Messler et al. developed an approach for
the mechanical fastening and joining of components by means of integrated attachment
features. A firm connection is made by means of elastic, plastic or combined elastic-plastic
deformation of the fastening features. The aim of integrated fastening is to implement
fastening processes without additional tools, such as closures or fixtures. The main
fastening features examined are snap-fits, in which an elastic plug feature is inserted into a
fixed recording feature. On this basis, Messler et al. differentiate between positioning
features ("locating features") and fixing features ("locking features"). "Extended features" or
"Attributes" can also perform other supporting functions, such as improving user-
friendliness. The authors also developed a classification scheme for various representative
geometries of features and used this as a basis for investigating the combinability of
different feature forms. The identified characteristics are divided into "latches" and

17
Chang, C.F., and Perng, D.B., 1997. Assembly-part automatic positioning using high-level entities
18
Walczyk, D.F., et al., 2000. Fixtureless assembly of sheet metal parts for the aircraft industry
19
Naing, S., 2004. Feature Based Design for Jigless Assembly

367
"catches". A combination matrix ("matrix of locking pairs") makes it possible to determine
whether the respective plug-in and recording features can be combined with each other. A
methodology consisting of six steps has been developed to facilitate the selection of
appropriate fastening features. In doing so, all influences with regard to functions,
arrangement, manufacture and robustness of features are taken into account. The selection
of different fastening concepts is based mainly on a cost-based performance assessment.20
Since the approach was developed for utilization in assembly processes, joining
technologies in body shops are not taken into account. Further, the authors miss presenting a
description of the feature selection process which considers accuracies and part tolerances.
Schlather developed a four-step methodology for the feature-based, fixtureless assembly
of sheet metal structures, which was to address and improve various weak points of these
based on an analysis of existing approaches. At first, the authors investigated and structured
those factors that influence the dimensional accuracy and absorption potential of clamping
and joining forces of feature-based fixture approaches. Based on this study, an approach for
integrating the fixture functions into the parts was then developed in which the influencing
factors are taken into account when selecting features. In a first step, suitable characteristic
pairs for this approach are identified. Then characteristic pairs and parts are modeled and
simulated to determine their influence on dependent variables. The core of the methodology
follows with a detailed analysis of the interactions between features, parts and variables
dependent on assembly and joining technologies. Concrete design guidelines for further
implementation are derived from this analysis.21 Nevertheless, neither a logic relating
geometrical features to feature-functions nor a use-case specific feature selection process
are presented.
By using FBF approaches, the use of conventional fixtures can be almost completely
dispensed, resulting in corresponding investment reduction and flexibility gain.
Nevertheless, the application of FBF approaches to automotive body shops presents further
challenges which can be summarized in following points:
Further research is needed to determine to what extent feature-based approaches are
suitable for meeting the requirements specified in body shops, in particular with
regard to tolerances and accuracies.
The influence of joining technologies relevant for automotive production on feature-
based approaches has not yet been taken into account.
There are no guidelines for designers in early development phases on how to select
geometrical features for specific use cases taking the above points into account.
The points are to be supplemented by the lack of inclusion of methodological
considerations in the design of the respective features. Thus, the identified research demand
forms the central motivation of the approach presented following.

Approach to select geometrical features for fixtureless

body shops
Since the approach is to be understood as part of an early stage development process, its
procedure must be based on a theoretically founded design methodology. In this case, the
Pahl/Beitz design methodology is used as a basis.22 The proposed approach comprises a

20
Messler, R., 2006. Integral Mechanical Attachment
21
Schlather, F., et al., 2016. Feature-based approach for fixtureless build-up of sheet metal structures
22
Feldhusen, J. and Grote, K.H., 2013. Der Produktentstehungsprozess (PEP)

368
total of four steps (methods), each of which is used to develop an overall methodology
using suitable tools. Each method of the overall methodology generates output variables at
product and data level, taking into account the input variables at product and data level and
the associated methods at method level (see figure 2). Basis for the methodology is a model
of the considered system, in this case a product, and the associated framework (replacing
fixture in body shop), which is used as an input variable and then further developed in the
course of the methodology.
Therefore, the methodology is initially provided with a "model of the framework" as a
mapping of the application case with all data relevant to the methodology. By applying
method I, these data is systematically mapped for further use in the methodology. In the
following steps, internal data generated in the previous methods is used in addition to
relevant external data supplied. All data systematized and generated in the methodology is
systematically presented in the form of a "product development sheet" and made available
for further use in the development process.
The first step of the methodology takes up the model of the framework and prepares it
for further analysis. An essential component of method I is to depict the considered

The effector system for fixtures was introduced by Trummer and Wiebach 23 and is used
to systematically record and categorize the multitude of influences within fixture-related
processes. The basic idea is that the considered joining points with integrated
geometrical features take up the place of fixture within conventional body shop and
must accordingly take into account all influences acting there. Therefore, the metal
sheets to be joined in the body shop station are abstracted to their joining points. Joining
points are described by means of the type of joint between the parts, in general parallel-
joint or line-joint. Thus, the output of the method are the considered joining points in a
transformed effort system for fixtures in the body shop.

Input data Utilization of data within the methodology Output data

Illustration of Product
Step I Step II Step III Step IV
the application development
case by means Model level I II III IV V sheet for
of a model of mapping the
Method level Method I Method II Method III Method IV
the framework generated data
with all Data level I II III IV V for further use
relevant in the
associated data Output variables of the predecessor method as input variables of the following method development
process

Figure 2. Input-Output relations between methods and levels of the methodology

The requirements for the joining point can be derived from this transformed effort
system for step 2 of the methodology. These requirements are divided into requirements
derived from fixture-functions and further original requirements that have to be
considered for joining points. The derived requirements with their characteristics are
presented in a morphological box. Since the features to be selected are to take over the
functions of a fixture in conventional body shops, it must first be derived how the
fixture functions can be recorded and which associated characteristics can occur. The
identified requirements thus reflect the role of the fixtures in the original effort system
or the role of the joining points in the transformed effort system.

23
Trummer, A. and Wiebach, H., 1994. Vorrichtungen in der Produktionstechnik

369
 The fixture-function positioning is represented in the methodology from the perspective
of relative assembly time and centering. The relative assembly time takes into account
the cycle times specified in production planning. On this basis, the portion of the cycle
time available for the positioning of the metal sheets within the overall process is
determined. Centering describes the location of the parts relative to each other. By
centering the assembly through geometrical features integrated into the parts, tolerances
and accuracies inherent by the features are considered. Production-related tolerances and
accuracies of the features can be described by knowledge of their manufacturing
processes. The fixture-functions clamping and fixing are represented by the number of
degrees of freedom to be restricted per direction of movement before the joining
process. Accordingly, three translatory and three rotational degrees of freedom must be
taken into account, each of which must be restricted in none, only in positive, only in
negative or in both coordinate directions. In most applications it is generally desirable to
restrict all degrees of freedom. However, there are cases in which a fixing in one
coordinate direction is explicitly not desired. This may be the case, for example, if
thermal expansion due to joining processes follow and the degrees of freedom must
remain unrestricted. The size and exact geometry as well as the number of features to be
selected determine whether the parts remain safely in the determining position under the
influence of the joining process. The three elements of fixing forces, magnitude,
direction and point of application, are considered in this work.
The feature assignment and selection processes in steps 3 and 4 of the methodology
require describing all possible eligible geometrical features, taking into consideration
the constraints and degrees of freedom resulting from joining technologies. As shown in
figure 3, the relation between part integrated geometrical features, joining processes as
well as the joining point requirements derived in the second step of the methodology are
therefore considered within multi-domain matrices (MDM). According to Maurer 24, an
indefinite number of domains can be analyzed within MDM matrices, as matrix entries
are themselves matrices.

Domains Requirements Geometrical features Joining technologies

MDM: requirements geometrical MDM: requirements joining
Requirements -
features (step 3) technologies (step 4)
Geometrical MDM: requirements geometrical MDM: geometrical features
-
features features (step 3) joining technologies (step 4)
Joining MDM: requirements joining MDM: geometrical features
-
technologies technologies (step 4) joining technologies (step 4)

Figure 3. Requirements, features and joining technologies are related in multi-domain-

matrices (MDM)

Feature assignment, as the third step in the methodology, describes the relation between
the requirements derived in step 2 with all eligible geometrical features, depending on
their degree of requirement fulfillment. For this purpose, an abstracted description of
geometrical features is required in order to structure and classify the large amount of
possible features. Feature characteristics differ, among others, in regard to their
geometry, material and assembly process. The authors therefore propose to describe
features by geometrical (e.g. ball), functional (e.g. undercut) and process related (e.g.
fixing force) factors. Geometrical characteristics of the features are outlined by

24
Maurer, M., 2007. Structural Awareness in Complex Product Design

370
formulas, as e.g. volume or surface of a ball can easily be calculated. From the geometry
of the feature, a functional characteristic is derived. The functional characteristic then
defines a requirement fulfillment within the process of geometry setting between the
parts to be joined. A feature with an undercut structure would, for example, constraint
more degrees of freedom than an overlaying feature due to the fixing force it applies to
the mate sheet (see figure 4). Therefore, it can occur that degrees of freedom are over-
determined, which leads to constraints regarding certain feature-feature combinations.
For the final selection of geometrical features, the constraints and degrees of freedom
resulting from the influence of joining technologies need to be considered. Certain
combinations of geometrical feature and joining technology can meet requirements the
feature alone would not meet. For example: if waterproofness is a joining point
requirement and the pre-selected feature a hole or slot, which initially would not meet
the requirement, the feature could be sealed by the joining technology in case of laser
welding or gluing. Therefore, new degrees of freedom can be generated through the
utilization of certain joining technologies. On the other hand, there are geometrical (e.g.
unilateral accessibility), functional (e.g. heat input) or company related (e.g. joining
guidelines) limitations towards the utilization of specific joining technology and feature
combinations. All possible feature-joining technology combinations and their
requirement fulfillment are outlined within the multi-domain-matrices used to describe
the relations between these domains. Positive relations (additional degrees of freedom)
are assigned accordingly, while negative relations (additional constraints) are
disqualified within the matrix.
The eligible combinations result in a reduced selection of suitable features and joining
technologies. From this selection, the feature amount and type is determined. Criteria for
the final feature-joining technology combination selection comprise economic factors.
Thus, the investment costs for conventional fixture systems have to be compared with
the costs of feature integration, as well as costs for the respectively utilized joining
technologies. Criteria regarding body quality and process stability are included in the
requirements derived in the second step of the methodology and therefore being taken
into account in steps 3 and 4.

Joining point and requirements description Feature assignment and selection

1 2 3 4
Description of effort Description of joining Description of Description of joining
system & type of joint point requirements geometrical features technologies
B ody part Production tools F1 F2 F3 F4 Joining tech. Are described
e.g.: component, e.g.: welding gun, glue
assembly group nozzle Laser welding
Dimensions Available production Spot welding Joint p roperties
Shape and position technologies
tolerance Tool guidance Geometry
Material Joining-/ Separating-/
P roduction process Form ing forces
Function
Process Consist
Ball Access
Fixture
Men Production facility Undercut
e.g.: operating & e.g.: robot, handling
Bond typ e M aterials
m aintenance personnel equipment Fixing force
Tolerances Design Handling capacity Motion sequences
Takt time Operator freedom Level of automation Degree of fulfillment of requirements by Degrees of freedom and constraints from
Industrial safety Cy cle and cy cle times
Sup plier Joining Point geometrical features joining technologies
...
M aterial
M DM : features - requirements M DM : joining tec./ features require.
Assembly Joining tec. Assume fixture-functions Line-joint Parallel-joint Line-joint Parallel-joint

Joint requirements
Transformed effort sy stem F1 F2 F3 F4 F1 F2 F3 F3
Production tool Body part
1) Fixing in Z direction 1. 1.
Joining
Tolerances, Material, 2) Centering in X direction 2. 2.
Joining tec., ...
point ...
3) Positioning time 3. 3.
Production facility Men
Operator, 4) Waterproofness 4. 4.
Automation,
Takt times, ... ...
5 Pre-selection Waterproofness by laser welding

Figure 4. Methodology to select geometrical features for a fixtureless body shop

371
Implementation
The methodology to select geometrical features and joining technologies has been applied
for a fixtureless body shop station of an electric vehicle body part. In the reference body
station three body parts are joined, whereby the station contains several fixtures for part
positioning and clamping as well as spot welding and transport robots for fixing and
transportation of the assembly.25 For this work the original body parts were redesigned incl.
geometrical features for positioning and fixing based on the reference requirements
regarding parts and processes. Further, joining technologies for the pre-selected features
were analyzed and selected. Finally, two combinations of geometrical features and joining
technologies fulfilled all requirements and were considered besides the use of conventional
fixture systems. Both features show an undercut structure and therefore consider fixing of
the parts. While one feature is joined using conventional spot welding, the other feature is
combined with laser welding due to accessibility constraints.
All three scenarios (conventional fixtures, undercut feature-spot welding as well as
undercut feature-laser welding) were afterwards analyzed in regard to their economic
potential, taking into account investment costs for the fixture, costs for the production and
part integration of the features, costs for joining as well as the cycle time. Overall cost
reductions amounted to 18% and 31% respectively for feature-spot welding and feature-
laser welding combinations in comparison to the conventional fixture system. Cycle time
savings of up to 30% were also realized. Further, the fixtureless options increase flexibility,
as otherwise the integration of an additional variant would have cost a mid-6-digit
investment amount due to new fixtures and other adaptions necessary.

Conclusions and future work

In this paper, a methodology to select geometrical features and related joining technologies
to realize a fixtureless body shop concept is outlined. The methodology is based on a four
step approach to describe requirements and joining points as well as assign and select
features and joining technologies. Ongoing research on the methodology comprises further
detailing of the process steps and further practical realization on body shop station in larger
scale. Generating more data in practical implementations will allow detailing the assessment
tion and flexibility gain.

Reference
Abulawi, J., 2012. -CAD-Modellen. Thesis (PhD),

Adams, J. and Whitney, D., 2001. Application of Screw Theory to Constraint Analysis of
Mechnical Assemblies Joined by Features. Journal of Mechnical Design, 123(1), 26-32.
Chang, C.F., and Perng, D.B., 1997. Assembly-part automatic positioning using high-level
entities of mating features. Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems, 10(3), 205-
215.
Feldhusen, J. and Grote, K.H., 2013. Der Produktentstehungsprozess (PEP). In Pahl/ Beitz
Konstruktionslehre, Heidelberg, Springer Vieweg.
Franzkowiak, M., 2013. Methodik zur Strukturierung von Vorrichtungssystemen in der
Lohnfertigung.

25
All values and numbers have been adjusted or are being omitted as not to allow any conclusions to be drawn
about the company regarded.

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Hansen, J., Kampker, A. and Triebs, J., 2018. Methodology for flexibility in the future
automobile body shop: results of a comprehensive cross-industry study. Stockholm:
Presentation CIRP-CMS.
Haunstetter, T., 2010. Methoden des Data Mining in Anwendung an die
sseriebaus zur strategischen
Investitionsplanung
Koonmen, P., 1994. Implementing precision assembly techniques in the commercial aircraft
industry. Thesis (M.S.), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
Maurer, M., 2007. Structural Awareness in Complex Product Design. Thesis (PhD),

Meichsner, T., 2007. - und variantenflexiblen

Automobilkarosseriebau. Thesis (PhD), Univer
Messler, R., 2006. Integral Mechanical Attachment. Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint
of Elsevier.
Naing, S., 2004. Feature Based Design for Jigless Assembly. Thesis (PhD), Cranfield
University.
Schlather, F., Oefele, F. and Zeah, M., 2016. Toward a feature-based approach for
fixtureless build-up of sheet metal structures. Journal of Engineering and Technical
Research, 5(4), 97-102.
Schol, O., 2009. Der neue Audi Q5: Entwicklung und Technik. ATZ/MTZ-Typenbuch,
Vieweg+Teubner Verlag.
Simulation-Based
Optimization in the Automotive Industry. Simulation, 75:5, 276-286.
Trummer, A. and Wiebach, H., 1994. Vorrichtungen in der Produktionstechnik. Viewegs

Walczyk, D.F., Raju, V. and Miller, R., 2000. Fixtureless assembly of sheet metal parts for
the aircraft industry. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part B
Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 214(3), 173-182.

373
[Paper ID 16]

Rahul Basu1

Abstract
Small scale industries are unique in that the paradigms applicable to large corporate
organizations often do not apply well. Frequently this occurs due to several non-quantifiable
factors like information withholding, executives holding on to power, and bypassing
of formal chains of command and communication channels. Such organizations are often
linked with larger industrial groups as suppliers, and hence need to establish systems
to conform with supply chain constraints. In order to meet requirements and to protect
themselves from variable demand and seasonal fluctuations, small industries often resort
to overproduction, building up of inventory and retrenchments. The trade-off between MRP
and Just In Time (JIT) is a dilemma that often has to be resolved. Parameters relating
to SCM can be extracted from the financial data of the organization and used to assess
the Productivity of the Firm. A study done on a typical small industry (termed ABC Co),
is used to illustrate the concepts.
Keywords: supply chain, PP&C, QC, MRP, JIT, lean manufacturing

1
VTU, ra4499@gmail.com

374
Introduction
Since the introduction of Scientific Management , it has been realized that the output,
productivity and ultimately the profitability of the firm and organization, are determined by
the human resources underlying and fueling it. To this end, increasing the productivity of
the organization is ultimately of interest to the management, shareholders, and ultimately
the Industry sector and Government in the context of global trade and the National
Economy.

Efficiency were studied by Gilbreth (1912) and others. Subsequent to the end of WWII,
these developed from quality control work in Japan by Deming and Juran. Japan was found
to be very receptive to the Quality Control (QC) ideas taught by Deming and Juran,
possibly due to the social structure of Japan which pervades their industry, Kolesar (2008).
Japanese consumer products were earlier known for bad quality whereas, on the other
hand, their industry could also produce high-quality products for scientific and defense use.
After conscientiously following the recommendations of the Juran and Deming teams,
Japanese Industry was able to rise to a pre-eminent position. It is not out of place to state
that India is also following in the same path with the emphasis on Six Sigma and ISO
standards. Indian consumer industry is also flooded with low-quality consumer goods
cations and
satellite industry is capable of achieving very high standards.
The automated factory now needs to understand and incorporate many other facets of
manufacturing besides QC, such as Inventory contlanning rol, scheduling, Production
Planning &Control (PP&C) , Materials scheduling, ERP and MRP, Operations
scheduling and Human Resource Planning. Some are discussed in Buffa (1987), Mahadevan
(2015), and Eilon (1989). Choosing supply chain parameters is often difficult because of the
complexities inherent in any industrial system. A number of studies have been performed to
identify and quantify supply chain parameters so that objective estimates can be drawn from
such measures. SCM came to be found of importance after the implementation of Lean
Manufacturing and Japanese JIT concepts. JIT is also known as the Toyota system,
apparently having first been implemented at Toyota.
A study by Hoffmann (2004), mentioned three metrics of importance:
Demand, Forecast accuracy, Perfect order fulfillment, and Supply Chain cost.
A paper by Anvari et al (2011) performed in the Iranian Auto industry compared different

total cash flow time and Cycle time to be important in the Auto industry. The key paper by
Beamon illustrates this and identifies three types of performance measures. Choosing
appropriate Supply chain metrics is difficult due to the complexity of most systems. The
indicators suggested are resources, output, and flexibility. Gunasekharan et al (2004),
pointed out that the role of measures and metrics is important because they influence the
tactical, planning, control and operational functions of the organization. Using the results
from British companies, certain Framework metrics were emphasized such as order lead
time, customer order path and evaluation of supply links.
In the case of capacity utilization, the effectiveness of scheduling techniques was found
important. Also for Order Planning metrics, customer query time, product development
cycle time and accuracy of forecasting played important roles [Gunashekaharan 20004].
Better forecasting was emphasized to remove uncertainties in the supply chain.
Supplier metrics were also mentioned with emphasis on supply delivery performance and
supplier lead time. Important Production Metrics were stated to be the percentage of defects
and Cost per Operation hour along with Capacity Utilization. An earlier work by
375
Guasekharan (2001), discusses Performance Metrics in a supply chain Environment. A

Indicators) in the Swedish scenario. A number of KPI's were outlined and it was discovered
that as many as 27 new measures could be identified. Hammesfahn et al (1993), state that a
fully utilized capacity is the most efficient way to operate a facility, however, the system is
then vulnerable to unforeseen uncertainty and change in demand.
In fact, the choice between whether to use JIT or MRP and EOQ is discussed by Abuhilal et
al (2006). The comparison between JIT and MRP indicates that with a JIT system having
continuous ordering these costs increase, compared with the MRP and EOQ system with a
Push methodology. Alternative viewpoints are stated in Kabir etal (2013) and Davies
(2015). The formula for number of monthly orders is then given by
No. of Monthly orders = [Retailer Forecast (Retailer Inventory Position ROP)]/EOQ
Where ROP = reorder point= d *Lt + Z (1- ) x * ( Lt)0.5
Where d = daily demand,
Lt = lead time,
Z (1- ) = Factor from Normal distribution for (1- ) service level
And where
EOQ = [ 2*S /h]0.5
With S= ordering cost, average annual demand, h = annual holding cost/unit
Mahadevan (2015) derives and mentions several formulae for estimating Supply Chain
Performance which are used later in this report.
1.1 JIT and Lean Manufacture.
JIT (Just in Time) derives from the Japanese system originally ascribed to Toyota, where a
network of suppliers on call is established and required components can be sourced in
minimal time. It requires tuning and once optimized reduces the need for in-house storage
of inventory. Implementation is usually not easy due to organizational resistance. In the
Japanese setup, it relies on KANBAN cards showing the P (production) and C
(Conveyance) status.
1.1.1 Inventory Control
A number of formulae are given in Eilon (1989) for different scenarios where the optimal
order quantity is estimated:
The Inventory formula for short production periods and small storage changes
Q= (2as/I) .5
For optimal batch sizes
Q = ( 2as/(I+2B)) 0.5
Several other formulae appear in the literature.
An article by Dooley (2005), mentions that the carrying cost for a company is related to the
Opportunity cost of holding the inventory item. The appropriate Opportunity cost would
then be the Rate of Return or market rate of interest that could be earned if the same money
tied up in inventory were invested elsewhere.

Method
2.1 Determination of the Production Range
A non dimensional ratio P is calculated, where
P= (Y-c)/ (Ym-c) = variable costs/minimum variable costs

Giving Q1=Qm( p- (p2-1)0.5)

Q2= Qm( p + (p2-1)0.5)
This gives the limits of the production range over and below the minimum cost batch size.
The maximum profit batch size is calculable either by algebra or a graphical method.
376
According to Mahadevan (2015) using traditional EOQ based inventory control often results
in having inventory when not required. MRP should ensure availability of materials at the
right place and time, rather than building inventory and cause loss of space and income. The
impact of MRP is the reduction of Inventory. Traditional EOQ control maintains a buffer
regardless of demand. The other advantage of MRP is to increase transparency and reduce
dependence on the Bill of Material (BOM) representation of the products being
manufactured.
On the other hand, drawbacks of MRP are:
a) Dependence on data integrity
b) Necessity to update the required databases while changes take place
c) Effect of uncertainties that lie outside the control of personnel (e.g. Bad Supply
Management).
Consequently, the predictions of MRP can be inaccurate, resulting in a reset of the systems
on a frequent basis. As a result, several production scheduling changes and effects

refers to distortions caused by changes in demand and ordering patterns at different levels of
the supply chain. This has been discussed by Constantino et al (2014) where they describe
the tradeoff between inventory stability and the Bull whip effect, alternatively called
"Demand Variability Amplification". According to Burbridge's law, if "demand is
transmitted along a series of inventories using stock control ordering, then each
transfer will increase the amplitude of demand variation" (Woodward 1965). They
suggest the use of control charts to regulate the replenishment system.
2.2 SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE
One way to get some idea of the inherent delay from system parameters is to compute the
Cash to Cycle time (CCD) in days. This is a measure of supply chain performance
The formula used is CCD= TID +DSO- DPO
Where TID= Total inventory days= Total investment in Inventory/Annual sales x 365
and DPO = days of payables outstanding = Accounts payable/ value of raw material
consumes x 365
With DSO = days of sales outstanding = Accounts receivable/Annual sales x 365. Further
parameters to be seen are the Inventory turnover percentage ( TO) and number of inventory
turns = 1/TO ( Mahadevan (2015))

2.3 PROJECT PLANNING TOOLS:

In addition to Gantt and PERT/CM, the additional tools that can be used are PDM
(Procedure Diagram Method), GERT (Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique), PERT
with LOB (Line of Balance).
Traditional control and monitoring mechanisms have included GANTT (bar charts),
PERT/CPM (an extension of GANTT charts), Milestone charts and Resource Allocation
Methods.
Parallel production lines lead to scheduling problems with loss of production due to slack
downtime. A number of studies have been performed, notable being one by Mansoor (1973)
and Gunther (1983) and have come to what conclusion
A recent paper by Sharma et al (2014) describes the salient functions of PP&C (Production
Planning and Control). It provides different information to the concerned departments and
requires different factors as inputs.

377
Organizational Structure And Parameters
A work by Paterson (1972), illustrates the relations between the organizational structure and
salary structures. It has been used to establish salary structures at various organizations
including the civil services of Rhodesia, Ghana and some private and public firms.
Essentially it postulates that remuneration is dependent on the quality of the decisions made
by the incumbent at that position or at that level in the organization. Using a recurrence
formula, it can be shown that since the decision is dependent on the levels above it that an
exponential formula results. Hence, the log of the salary should vary linearly with the
hierarchical level. Equitable salaries follow this rule, also found to hold in ABC Co.
The health of the company concerned (termed ABC Co), may be also ascertained using
certain parameters extracted from the Balance Sheet and other reports. From the Balance
sheet the following ratios can be estimated:
Current Ratio= Current total ASSETS/Current total Liabilities
Cash Ratio = Cash Balance/Current Liability
Quick Ratio = (Cash +Marketable securities+ Accounts receivable)/Current Liabilities
3.1 Span of Control.
According to Graciunas (1937), the span of control is dependent on the number of
relationships existing between a manager and his/her subordinates, in various combinations
(individual and amongst themselves). Accordingly, the number of relationships for a
manager with n subordinates is expressed as n*[2(n-1) + n-1]
In the particular industry surveyed, the maximum span of control was 5.

TABLE 3.1
Span of Control variables

Kind of Relationship Variable Formula

Direct single relationships a n

Cross relationships b n (n 1)

Direct group relationships c n (2n/2 1)

Total direct single and cross relationships (a + b) d n2

Total direct single and group (a + c) e n (2n/2)

Total direct and cross relationships (a + b + c) f n (2n/2 + n 1)

3.2 DUPONT IDENTITY

This is an algebraic formula which may be used to check the consistency of the various
ratios stated and derived from the financial and production figures, (Eagle 2012)..
ROE = (Net Profit/Net sales)* (Net Sales/ Avg Total Assets)* (Average
T.A/Shareholder Equity) = Net Profit/ SHE.
We now apply this to a small industry in S. India (identity not disclosed for proprietary
reasons, termed ABC Industries)
1) For 2016
Net Profit/ SHE= 5626600/62363900=.09, (from P&L, Balance Sheet 2016)

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Whereas, by Dupont Identity, ROE = (Net Profit/Net sales)* (Net Sales/ Avg Total Assets)*
(Average T.A/Shareholder Equity)
NP/NS=0.00151
NS/ATA= 1.2216
ATA/SHE= 56.171
2) From Balance Sheet 31 March 2015 of ABC Co.
Net Profit= 2014319
Net Sales = 330789887
Average Total Assets = 305362404
Share Holder Equity = 54363900
ROE= NP/SHE = 2014319/54363900= 0.037

TABLE 3.2
Some ratios affecting productivity and turnover
Year NP/NS NS/ATA ATA/SHE NP/SHE

2016 .00151 1.2216 56.171 .104

2015 .0061 1.0833 5.617 .037

Results
Since the ABC company is competing internationally, it is necessary to consider the
purchasing power of the rupee versus various international currencies, viz. Purchase Power
compete effectively in a particular international
market, we must be at least as productive in the field relative to our own economy as
our international competitor is relative to its economy
improvement takes on an even more important role in corporate strategy.
The health of the ABC Company may be ascertained by taking the financial

given as below:
4.1 Important ratios for ABC Company
Gross Profit/Turnover= 24.38
Net Profit/Turnover=.75
Stock in trade to turnover= 1.94
Market consumed to finished goods= 82.15
From the Balance sheet the following ratios can be estimated:
Current Ratio= Current total ASSETS/Current total Liabilities= .812
Cash Ratio = Cash Balance/Current Liability = 2277024/155193840= 0.147
Quick Ratio = (Cash +Marketable securities+ Accounts receivable)/Current Liabilities
=0.622
Dividend yield 4% (2015), 10% (2016 )
The Ratios for a well-established firm in the same business (HAVELLS) are:
Current Ratio 1.89, Quick Ratio 1.58, dividend yield 0.68% ( source moneycontrol.com,
accessed Feb 2018)
For MURATA in Japan, the ratios are: Current Ratio = 2.79
Quick Ratio = 1.94

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Dividend Yield 1.57% (source Investing.com accessed Feb 2018).
The current and quick ratios for ABC Co are far below these standards.

Discussion
The tradeoff between JIT and MRP is not easy to balance. Ideally the lean organization
should be able to match supply to demand with no accrual of inventory or depletion. This
is, however, a hypothetical situation. Most usually a buffer stock of inventory has to be
maintained to even out fluctuations in demand. An organization that can exactly match the
two would need to have established systems for prediction, communicating along the chain
and flexibility in manufacturing and balancing production lines. As such a buildup of
inventory is often resorted to avoid unforeseen fluctuations and thus avoiding overheads
relating to the establishment of such systems but leading to inventory carrying cost, using
up of space that could be used for manufacture and other tasks.
The role inventory buildup plays in the profitability of the firm is reflected in the inventory
turnover ratio. Alternatively, one may calculate the CCD, where the parameter relates the
time to realize cash from the initial outlays. It has been found to be 156 days.
For Cash to Cycle time (days), the formula used is CCD= TID +DSO- DPO
Where TID= Total inventory days= Total investment in Inventory/Annual sales x 365
And DPO = days of payables outstanding = Accounts payable/ value of raw material
consumes x 365
With DSO = days of sales outstanding = Accounts receivable/Annual sales x 365
Further parameters to be seen are the Inventory turnover percentage (TO) and number of
inventory turns = 1/TO
From the Balance sheet for 2015, the parameters may be estimated as follows:
Material consumed to finished goods = Total Inventory/Annual sales= 19/24x 365= .8215
TID=, 8215x 365= 300
DPO= Accounts payable/value of Ram materials consumed = 7.16/11.45x365= 228
DSO = A/C receivable/Annual sales= 7.45/32.55 x 365 = 83.5
Hence CCD= TID + DS-DPO= 300 +83.5-228 = 156 (approximately twice a year).
The inventory ratio and the number of inventory turns are TO and TN, given by 82.15% and
1.21 which are the traditional measures of supply chain performance.
Taking the takt time of 0.6 seconds ( i.e. 0.6 seconds to produce one item), in 156 days,
assuming 24X7 operations, a total of 156*24*3600/0.6 pcs are produced. This calculates to
22,344,000 pcs. On the average, a daily output of 144,000 pcs is produced. Since the stated
production is a maximum of 38000 pcs per day this implies over-production of
144000/38000 times or about 3.8 times. In actual fact, production was stopped daily on
reaching 20,000 pieces, so the over production capacity was actually more than this. This
implies that machines were idled after the cutoff was reached.
The system parameters indicate a return twice a year approximately from a CCD (cash to
cycle time) of 156 days. This implies an investment of about 6 months in inventory giving a
lead time of 6 months for the various activities relating to procurement, manufacture, and
distribution during the 6 months. This clearly shows that reducing the inventory could result
in a reduction in lead time in proportion. Additionally, the DSO, DPO, and CCD reflect the
credit terms pertaining to the company, offered to customers and effect on total capital
requirements. This calculation illustrates that the factory was in fact overproducing,
probably in anticipation of seasonal orders and orders from preferred customers where
ready shipment could be made from stock.

Conclusion
The parametric analysis performed with the aid of supply chain concepts used financial
380
ratios and production metrics to arrive at numbers yielding both the cash turnover time and
inventory buildup. The result show that in this particular small industry, inventory builds up
and is then depleted to tide over fluctuating demand, since essentially no JIT system was in
place. Rather an inventory model which may have been used relied on overproduction and
overstocking, enhanced by a cutoff of 20,000 pcs per day limit. This limit was imposed due
to the frequent breakdown of certain key machinery which had not been replaced in over ten
years. As such it illustrates a typical scenario for small manufacturing industries struggling
to survive in Indian markets facing global competition.

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Production Management, 5(2), 98-106.
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Production Management, 3(1), 22-34
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[Paper ID 166]

Maha D. Ayoush1, Majed S. Al-Alwan2 and Hesham S. Ahmad3

Abstract
Construction cost and schedule are considered the most essential factors for achieving
success in construction projects as well as the quality of work. Delay and cost overrun
in construction projects are critical problems that need to be addressed and mitigated.
Previous studies have described various factors that may cause delay and cost overrun
in construction projects. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that cause delay
and cost overrun to the construction projects in the public sector in Jordan. To achieve this
goal, a questionnaire survey was conducted with the engineering staff working with
as client, contractors, or consultants in the public construction projects of the Ministry
of Public Work and Housing (MPWH). The results were collected and analysed to provide
results that may help engineers to understand the major causes of delay and cost overrun
to adopt plans and strategies that minimize potential problems. Similar study
can be performed on the projects of other sectors and/or other countries to investigate
the different conditions that may cause differences in the causes of delay and cost overrun.

Keywords: construction projects, cost overrun, public sector, questionnaire survey

1
Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman,
Jordan, E-mail: Maha.Ayoush@zuj.edu.jo
2
Assistant Professor, Jordanian Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Amman, Jordan,
Email: Dr.majidalwan@yahoo.com
3
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Al-Zaytoonah
University of Jordan, E-mail: h.ahmad@zuj.edu.jo

383
Introduction
Construction industry is considered as one of the most vital resource for the economic
growth in Jordan. The construction sector in Jordan has been rapidly developing during the
last few years. However, the implementation of construction projects have suffered the
problem of delay and cost overrun.
Delay and cost overrun include any additional cost or extension of duration specified in
the project original tender and contract, whether they are agreed upon or outside the control
of the project parties. Delay and cost overrun in construction projects leads to different
effects for the different parties of the construction contract such as subject to financial
penalties, additional labor, material and equipment cost, and delay in product operation.
According to engineers who supervise many projects of MPWH, most of these projects
suffer from delay and/or cost overrun in its execution. In order to avoid or minimize this
problem, causes of delay and cost overrun should be investigated. Hence, this study aims at
studying the factors that may cause delay and cost overrun during the execution of MPWH
projects.

Literature Review
Previous studies have investigated the causes for delay and cost overrun in construction, and
some of these studies have discussed the cost and time overrun in construction projects in
Jordan.
A study by Kazzaz, Ulubeyli, and Tuncbilekli (2012) investigated the causes of delay in
construction projects in Turkey. The study used 34 causes of delay assessed by using a
questionnaire survey applied to 71 construction companies. The questionnaire responses

Another study by Le-Hoai, Lee, Y. and Lee, J. (2011) identified and evaluated causes
and effects of delay and cost overrun in Vietnam large construction projects. The study used
21 causes. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 87 Vietnamese construction experts.
The results showed no differences in viewpoints among the three principal parties in the
construction projects. It is also found that, the 4 most important causes of delay and cost
overrun in Vietnamese construction projects are: delay of progress payments, inappropriate
implementation methods, unpredictable site conditions, and poor site management.
A study conducted in Jordan by Sweis et al. (2018), aimed at identifying and assessing
the major causes of delay in the Jordanian residential construction projects from the point of
view of owners, contractors and consultants. A questionnaire survey with 40 causes of delay
was completed by 91 respondents. The results showed that the most critical causes of delay
according to the respondents are: the financial difficulties faced by contractors, the large
number of change orders required by owners, and the poor planning and scheduling of
projects. In this study, a questionnaire survey is applied in projects of the MPWH in Jordan,
using 56 causes of delay and cost overrun.

Study Objectives
This study aims at investigating the essential causes for delay and cost overrun in the
construction projects owned by MPWH. The causes are collected from previous related
literature and through consultation with experts from MPWH. Following this step, a
questionnaire survey is conducted to evaluate the importance of different causes. The study
results are very important for the decision-makers in the construction industry to adopt

384
procedures that may help to avoid or mitigate the occurrence and effects of delay and cost
overrun in their projects.

Causes of Delay and Cost Overrun

In this study, 56 essential causes classified into eight major groups of delay and cost
overrun will be used. The causes were collected from previous studies (Fallahnejad, 2013;
Kazaz et al., 2012; Mahdavinejad and Molaee, 2011; Kaliba et al., 2009; Sweis et al., 2008;
Sambasivan and Soon, 2007; Assaf and Al-Hejji, 2006; Long et al., 2004; Odeh and
Battaineh, 2002), and enhanced through consultation with expert engineers from MPWH.
Most of the reviewed previous research of the causes of delay and cost overrun in
construction project have concentrated on causes related to the project three groups of
owners, contractors and consultants. Questionnaires of these previous studies were
distributed randomly to a sample of the three groups. In these studies, several methods used
to assess the causes of delay and cost overruns such as, the Relative Importance Index (RII)
and the Mean Score.
In this research, causes of delay and cost overrun includes 56 essential factors which are
related to eight major groups of causes. These groups consist of owner related factors,
contractor related factors, consultant related factors, designer related factors, material
related factors, labor related factors, equipment related factors, and external related factors.
After discussions with expert engineers from MPWH, some new causes of delay and cost
overrun were added to the causes imported from previous literature. Examples of new
causes used in this study are: weakness of studying the drawing documents by owner, the
time gap between drawing and execution phases, fail in delivering project site clearance by
owner, by owner, fails to instruct within a
reasonable time by owner, lack of cooperation between the contractor and the owner when
removing the barriers and utilities, slowness in the decision making process by consultant,
inaccurate estimates by consultant, poor cooperation from the owners of utilities with
project parties, the refusal of land acquisition or compensation for a citize
home demolition, and mismatch of the location of infrastructure services with what was
approved in the tender and provided in drawings by the owner of the services. The major
groups and causes of delay and cost overrun used in this study are shown in Table 1.

385
 Table 1. Causes of Delay and Cost Overrun

Classification Causes of Delay and Cost Overrun

Groups
I. Owner Related 1. Delay in progress payment
Factors 2. Variation orders
3. Slowness in decision making process
4. Fails to instruct within reasonable time
5. Fails to give right of access to site within time
stated in the contract
II. Contractor 11. Problems in financing project by contractor
Related Factors 12. Conflicts of sub-contractors schedules in
execution of project
13. Rework due to errors during construction
14. Poor site management and supervision by
contractor
15. Poor communication and coordination by
contractor with other parties
16. Ineffective planning and scheduling of
project execution by contractor
III. Consultant 23. Delays in performing inspections and tests
Related Factors 24. Lack of communication and cooperation by
consultants
25. Poor
IV. Designer Related 30. Mistakes and discrepancies in design documents
Factors 31. Unclear details in drawings
32. Complexity of project design
V. Material Related 36. Shortage in material
Factors 37. Quality of material
VI. Labor Related 40. Shortage of labor
Factors 41. Unqualified labors
VII. Equipment 44. Equipment breakdowns
Related Factors 45. Shortage of Equipment
VIII. External 48. Weather situation
Related Factors 49. Effect of social and cultural factors
50. Traffic control and restrictions at
construction site
51. Accidents during construction
52. Different and unforeseen ground conditions
53. Poor cooperation from owners of utilities
(services and infrastructure) with project parties
6. Delay in approving sample materials
7. Weakness of studying the drawing documents
8. Time gap between drawing and execution phases
9. Fail or delay in delivering project site clearance
17. Improper or Ineffective construction methods
implemented by contractor
18. Delays in sub-
19. Inadequate
21. Delay in site mobilization
22. Lack of cooperation with the owner when
removing barriers and utilities
26. Inaccurate estimates by consultant
27. Slowness in decision making process
28. Delay in reviewing and approving design documents
29. Delay in approving changes in the scope of work
33. Poor data collection and survey before design
34. Inadequate design-team experience
38. Delay of material delivery to site
39. Damage of stored material in site
42. Poor productivity level of labors
43. Conflicts among labors
46. Low level of equipment-
47. Low productivity and efficiency of equipment
54. Change of government regulation and law
including rise in material price and instructions in
payloads
55. Land acquisitions: citizens refuse value of
compensation of their land use or home demolition
56. Mismatch of the location of infrastructure
services with what was approved in the tender and
provided in drawings by the owner of the services

Study Methodology
In this study, quantitative approach (questionnaire survey) is used to assess and rank the
importance of the causes expected to cause delay and cost overrun in the construction
projects of MPWH. The five Likert scale method was adopted, where 1 stands for very low
importance, 2 for low importance, 3 for medium importance, 4 for high importance and 5
for very high importance. In general, questionnaire surveys proved to be an objective and
effective approach that obtain data from a representative sample, which then can be
generalized to represent the population of study (Harris and Brown, 2010). The proportional
stratified random sampling method was adopted, which is compatible with the population of
this research to divide it into three homogeneous groups of owners, contractors and
consultants with giving equal opportunity for all members to be selected (Teddlie and Yu,
2007).
The relative importance index method will be used to evaluate the relative importance of
the various essential causes of delay and cost overrun. The relative importance index (RII)
for each cause can be calculated through the following equation:

386
 Where (W) refers to the weight given to each cause by respondents ranging from 1 to 5,
(A) is the highest weight (5 in this case), and (N) is the total number of responses.

Sample Characteristics
For the purpose of this study, the questionnaire was sent toward the engineering staff
belongs to the three parties in the construction projects of MPWH. The questionnaire was
distributed to a sample that approaches about 10% of the population estimated size for each
of the three studied groups. This percentage exceeds 5%, the percentage recommended by
previous research (Al-Hmadani et al., 2006). The population of the three groups was
estimated by using data collected from the Human Resource Department in MPWH, and the
annual report of the Government Tenders Department, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Questionnaire Response Analysis

Study Estimated Distributed Distributed Number of Response Response
Groups Population Questionnaires Questionnaires to Responses Rate Proportion
(No.) (No.) the Population (%) (%) (%)
Owners 720 72 10.0 61 84.7 54.0
Contractors 353 35 9.9 22 62.9 19.5
Consultants 466 47 10.1 30 63.8 26.5
Total 1539 154 10.0 113 73.4 100.0

According to expert engineers involved in the tendering of MPWH projects, all MPWH
projects are applied by using the design-bid-build delivery method. Also, only rare projects
are applied using no-bidding contract (also called sole source contract) method.

Results
RII evaluation makes it possible to rank the causes of delay and cost overrun in terms of
their importance as perceived by the three groups of respondents (owner, consultants and
contractors). The causes ranked in the top ten of the relative importance index value for any
of the different point of views of the different groups are listed in Table 3.

387
 Table 3. Ranking the Causes of Delay and Cost Overrun
Group of Respondents
Classification Overall Owner Contractor Consultant
Cause of Delay and Cost Overrun Group Rank RII Rank RII Rank RII Rank RII
(Related to)
1. Delay in progress payment by owner Owner 1 91.42 1 85.71 2 94.55 4 94
56. Mismatch of the location of infrastructure External 2 91.26 5 81.43 1 96.36 3 96
services with what was approved in the
tender and provided in drawings by the
owner of the services
3. Slowness in decision making process by Owner 3 90.94 2 84.29 3 94.55 5 94
owner
11. Problems in financing project by contractor Contractor 4 89.99 4 81.43 4 94.55 6 94
2. Variation orders Owner 5 89.19 3 82.86 5 92.73 8 92
23. Delays in performing inspections and tests Consultant 6 88.97 6 80.00 8 90.91 2 96
29. Delay in approving changes in the scope of Consultant 7 88.42 7 80.00 12 87.27 1 98
work
9. Fail or delay in delivering project site Owner 8 86.15 11 75.71 6 92.73 17 90
clearance
55. Land acquisitions: citizens refuse value of External 9 85.79 13 74.29 11 89.09 7 94
compensation of their land use or home
demolition
28. Delay in reviewing and approving design Consultant 10 85.26 16 72.86 9 90.91 14 92
documents
27. Slowness in decision making process Consultant 11 84.65 15 72.86 10 89.09 13 92
6. Delay in approving sample materials Owner 12 84.30 18 70 7 90.91 9 92
30. Mistakes and discrepancies in design Designer 13 84.26 10 77.14 14 83.64 15 92
documents
22. Lack of cooperation with the owner when Contractor 14 84.13 9 78.57 15 81.82 12 92
removing barriers and utilities
17. Improper or Ineffective construction methods Contractor 21 77.2 31 61.43 18 78.18 10 92
implemented
7. Weakness of studying the drawing Owner 23 75.71 8 78.57 26 74.55 29 74
documents

Discussion
Based on Table 3, the owner (MPWH engineering staff) sees that the five most important
causes for delay and cost overrun are: delay in progress payment by owner, slowness in
decision making process by owner, variations orders by owner, problems in financing
project by contractor, mismatch of the location of infrastructure services by service owner,
delays in performing inspections and tests by consultant, delay in approving changes in the
scope of work by consultant. The owner response indicates that the most important causes
belongs to him, and this can be an indication to the credibility of the respondents.
From a different point of view, the contractors see that the five most important cause for
delay and cost overrun include: mismatch of the location of infrastructure services by
services owner, delay in progress payment by owner, slowness in the decision making
process by owner, problems in financing project by contractor, variation orders by owner,
and fail or delay in delivering project site clearance by owner. This result shows a strong
agreement between the contractors and the owner with 5 mutual causes from the most
important causes.
Finally, the consultants see that the five most important causes of delay and cost overrun
are: delay in approving changes in the scope of work by consultant, delays in performing
inspections and tests by consultant, mismatch of the location of infrastructure services by
service owner, delay in progress payment by owner, slowness in decision making process
by owner, problems in financing project by contractor, and citizens refusal of the value of
compensation for their land use or home demolition. This result shows a consensus of 4

388
causes between the owner, the contractor and the consultant from their point of view for the
top five most important causes of delay and cost overrun in construction projects.
The overall assessment of the owner, the contractors and the consultants shows that the
most important causes of delay and cost overrun contains: delay in progress payment by
owner, mismatch of the location of infrastructure services with what was approved in the
tender and provided in drawings by the owner of the services, slowness in decision making
process by owner, problems in financing project by contractor, and variation orders by
owner. In general, the respondents see these causes as the most important causes that may
lead to delay and cost overrun during the implementation of projects supervised by MPWH.
This result is compatible with results of previous studies (Odeh and Battaineh, 2002; Swies
et al., 2008).

Conclusion
This study investigates and evaluates the important causes that may lead to delay and cost
overrun during the execution of construction projects. The study is focusing on the public
construction projects of MPWH. A total of 56 causes of delay and cost overrun were
identified through literature review and according to recommendations from expert
engineers from MPWH.
A questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the importance of the different causes
of delay and cost overrun. The overall results from 113 respondents showed that the five
most important causes of delay and cost overrun are as follows:
Delay in progress payment by owner.
Mismatch of the location of infrastructure services with what was approved in the tender
and provided in drawings by the owner of the services.
Slowness in decision making process by owner.
Problems in financing project by contractor.
Variation orders during construction by owner.
These results can benefit decision-makers in MPWH and in other organizations to adopt
strategies that may help to minimize the delay and cost overrun and their causes in future
projects.
Future development for this study can be implemented by applying comparative studies
to compare the causes of delay and cost overrun between the projects implemented in
different construction sectors, projects executed using different project delivery models,
projects owned by public and private sectors, and projects implemented in Jordan and in the
neighboring countries.

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Swies, G., Sweis, R., Abu Hammad, A. and Shboul, A., 2008. Delay in construction
projects: the case of Jordan. International journal of project management, 26(2), 665-
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390
[Paper ID 117]

John Smallwood1 and Claire Deacon2

Abstract
Health hazards in construction include: ergonomic stresses such as bending, lifting
and repetitive movement and vibration; environmental stresses such as heat, sun, noise, poor
illumination, and wet or damp work; skin and respiratory exposure to chemicals and dust,
as well as mental stress among managers, supervisors, and workers. In South Africa, these
may add to the health problems experienced by construction workers because of poor
community health, substance abuse, and inadequate health services.
A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among the professional
category of construction health and safety (H&S) practitioners to determine OH issues
in construction.
Findings include: the extent to which OH aspects were identified by respondents
on projects in 2017 indicates that construction entails exposure to a range of OH hazards
and risk; the degree of OH knowledge and awareness is limited as opposed to extensive;
the source of OH knowledge is informal; there is a need for OH to be embedded in tertiary
built environment programmes, OH continuing professional development (CPD),
and a construction industry OH standard, and OH practice notes.

Keywords: Construction, Health and Safety, Occupational Diseases, OH, Worker

health and wellbeing

1
Professor, Department of Construction Management, Nelson Mandela University,
PO Box77000, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 6031, Tel. +27-41-504 2790 Fax. +27-41-504
2345, Email: john.smallwood@mandela.ac.za
2
Research Associate, Department of Construction Management, Nelson Mandela University,
PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 6031, Tel. +27-41-504 2790 Fax. +27-41-504
2345, Email: claire@occumed.co.za

391
Introduction
Ill health kills and ruins lives in the construction industry. A construction worker is at least
100 times more likely to die from a disease that has been caused or exacerbated from their
work, than from a fatal accident (Snashall, 2012; Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (IOSH), 2015; Deacon, 2016; National Institute of OH (NIOH), 2018). Construction
work itself is known as dirty, tough and hazardous, highly manual, and transient in nature.
Further to the conditions, approximately 30% of workers are transient in nature (Smallwood
and Deacon, 2015).
NIOH (2018) state that occupational or work-related diseases are caused by exposure to
occupational hazards during a contract of employment. NIOH (2018) further cites the
construction industry as one of three industries with the highest rate of work-related injury
risks. Hazards that workers are exposed to include chemical, biological, poor ergonomics,
and psychosocial hazards. Extended exposure to such risks result in occupational and work-
related diseases (NIOH, 2018).
The South African Constitution, as the over-arching legislation, enshrines several rights
that could be linked to the rights of workers in the context of this paper. Section 24 states:

and Deacon, 2015)

The OH and Safety Act (OHSA) No. 85 of 1993 requires employers to comply with the
rights of citizens as stated in the Constitution, as they relate to employees. Employers have a
further responsibility as it relates to those directly affected by activities, and are expected to
ensure that all equipment, and substances designed for use are safe and without risk to
health (RSA, 1993). While these duties apply to the working environment, in many cases,
accommodation could be adjacent, within or close to the construction works Smallwood and
Deacon, 2015; Deacon, 2016).
Given the aforementioned, a study was conducted to determine:
The perceptions of CHSAs with respect to project OH;

The potential of interventions to contribute to an improvement in project OH, and

Review of the Literature

Construction Health and Safety

While the focus is generally on the safety end of H&S, the management of OH risks is no
different from that of safety. OH risks should be identified and managed using risk
assessments, to take sensible and proportionate measures to control such risks. A range of
OH and H&S specialists are generally involved in identifying and managing health risks
(IOSH, 2015).
According to Obiozo and Smallwood (2012), the well-being and performance of
construction workers is an issue at several structural levels. The physical state of the site
directly affects health, and at organisational level, overall performance, through the
environment, H&S, and the traditional parameters of construction, namely cost, quality, and
time. Construction activities could occur in isolated locations, or in the middle of heavy

392
traffic. There could, furthermore, be up to 20 contractors on a single project, increasing the
complexity of project management.

Practices and Responsibilities among Construction Health and Safety Professionals

Enabling legislation from the South African Council for the Project and Construction
Management Professions (SACPCMP) has outlined the need for anyone practicing in H&S
in the construction industry to be registered in one of three categories. Such categories
include the construction H&S Officer (CHSO), Manager (CHSM), and the professional
category as agent (Pr CHSA). Each of the roles have different deliverables, with a clear
scope of work. The Pr CHSA practices across all six stages of construction, and the CHSO
and CHSM during stages four to six. The six stages of construction are:
1. Project initiation and briefing;
2. Concept and feasibility;
3. Design development;
4. Tender Documentation and procurement;
5. Construction documentation and management, and
6. Project Close out (Smallwood and Deacon, 2017).
Smallwood and Deacon (2017) indicate that the role of the Pr CHSA decreases in
efficacy the later their appointment. Most are only appointed during stages four or five,
which limits the ability to ensure that H&S risks relative to design are identified and
mitigated as far as possible.

Designing for Construction Health & Safety

Generally, in managing risks to workers the hierarchy of control is widely practiced in

industry. The hierarchy essentially attempts to find the earliest point of action to reduce risk.
Elimination of the activity or process would be the highest level of action, however, if
elimination is not an option, then to substitute is the next option. Engineering options such
as encasing or exhaust systems, administration through safe working practices and finally
allowing personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used (McCaig, 2012; IOSH, 2016;
Deacon, 2016).
In construction, the actions during stage 3 or design is the earliest opportunity to apply
the hierarchy of control. There are several methods and processes that could be considered
that do not only determine the risks to construction workers during construction (stage 5),
but also the life cycle of the structure that could affect those working there. The Pr CHSA, if
appointed at the earliest point (stage 1), can reduce risk at the earliest opportunity (Deacon,
2016).
Occupational Health

maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in
all occupations by preventing departures from health, controlling risks and the adaptation of

The lack of understanding of what OH is, the role and the benefits thereof are mostly
misunderstood. During the construction of the Olympic Park in London, Park Health, who

393
illustrated the effects of exposure are slow moving, but just as dramatic as an accident
(IOSH, 2016).
The benefits of OH related interventions at work are numerous: workers feel valued,
motivated to keep fit to carry out their work, and their own health; an increase in life
expectancy and quality of health; have a positive impact on attitudes and behaviour towards
health risks and further provides an opportunity to coach workers regarding H&S risks at
work (IOSH, 2016).

Occupational Exposures

In most cases occupational disease and illness can be prevented, provided risks are
identified, managed, and controlled. Managing the ill health effects of occupational
exposure is not an instant fix, like placing a dressing on a cut to a finger. Occupational
diseases manifest years following exposure, asbestos, for example could take up to 40 years
to present with an asbestos related disease (IOSH, 2016).
Construction workers are exposed to many forms of hazards that cause target organ
damage that is considered as an occupational disease (OD). For example, crystalline silica,
as a dust, affects the respiratory system, mainly the lungs (the target organ), causing
silicosis (an occupational disease). Exposure to asbestos also affects mainly the lungs, and
causes severe damage and fibrosis of the lung tissue, and is diagnosed as asbestosis (Center
to Protect Workers Rights (CPWR), 2018).
Exposure to different forms of work expose workers to risks. Fumes from welding and
soldering; a range of dusts from cutting, drilling stone and various materials, gasses, and
waste products. Several natural hazards are a further risk to which workers are exposed,
such as biological hazards (legionella, zoonoses), temperatures and weather, spores, and
sunlight (IOSH, 2016).

Ergonomic Factors

Construction work is physically demanding, with workers required to adopt awkward body
postures, while frequently required to manually handle materials and products during a
workday. While it is important to train workers in ergonomic factors, training alone is not
deemed effective without determining interventions to limit the effects of such work.
Ergonomic interventions are better addressed during the design stages, but should consider
the life cycle of the project (Smallwood, 2018; Visser, van der Molen, Sluiter, and Frings-
Dresen, 2018).

Occupational Hygiene Monitoring

The monitoring of measuring the extent of exposure is the responsibility of the

Occupational Hygienist. The Occupational Hygienist collects data to measure the extent of
physical and chemical risks, which in turn is used to determine how risks are to be mitigated
and managed, or measured for effectiveness following mitigation. An example includes
conducting of noise, dust and chemical surveys against a set of strictly defined criteria that
are set internationally (IOSH, 2016).

Medical Surveillance

Medical surveillance is also termed health surveillance. However, the purpose is the same.

394
systematic and ongoing analysis, collection and evaluation of employee health data to
identify specific instances of illness or health trends suggesting an adverse effect of illness

conducting medical surveillance therefore considers a variety of appropriate times to

conduct surveillance. Most commonly, surveillance is done at pre-employment or pre-
placement, periodically according to legislative requirements (such as when exposed to
noise above 85dB(a)), and when exiting employment (IOSH, 2016). Botha et al. (2012), and
IOSH (2016), state that surveillance is done to assess the workers ability or fitness to work,
relative to the risks they are likely to be exposed to, or to determine previous exposure that
could place them at risk. Generally, the greater the risk, the more frequent the surveillance.

Research
Research Method and Sample Stratum

A survey involving a questionnaire was sent to all SACPCMP registered Pr CHSAs

throughout South Africa, per e-mail. Out of the 72 invited to participate, only 20 responses
were returned, despite following up with the sample stratum, which equates to a response
rate of 27.8%. Due to the low response rate the findings are deemed to be indicative, but
likely to be from the more committed practitioners. Respondents indicated that their
experience since 2017 included the infrastructure sector (44.7%), industrial sector (25.1%),
commercial sector (13.7%), and the residential sector (9.6%).

Research Results

Table 1 indicates the importance of addressing OH during the six stages of projects in terms
of percentage responses to a scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (very important), and a mean
score (MS) ranging between 1.00 and 5.00. It is notable that all the MSs are above the
midpoint of 3.00, which indicates that in general, the respondents perceive the addressing of
OH during the six project stages to be important. The MSs of design development (stage 3),
construction documentation and management (stage 5), and concept and feasibility (stage 2)
between more than important to very important / very important.
Tender documentation and procurement (stage 4), project initiation and briefing (stage 1),
between
important to more than important / more than important.

395
 Table 1. The importance of addressing OH during the six stages of projects

Response (%)
Stage MS Rank
Un-sure
1 2 3 4 5
Design development 0.0 0.0 5.0 10.0 25.0 60.0 4.40 1
Construction
documentation and 0.0 5.0 0.0 5.0 30.0 60.0 4.40 2
management
Concept and feasibility 0.0 0.0 10.5 10.5 26.3 52.6 4.21 3
Tender documentation
0.0 0.0 10.0 10.0 40.0 40.0 4.10 4
and procurement
Project initiation and
0.0 5.3 5.3 21.1 26.3 42.1 3.95 5
briefing
Project close out 0.0 5.3 10.5 10.5 36.8 36.8 3.89 6

Table 2 indicates the extent to which OH aspects were identified by respondents on projects
in 2017. All thirty aspects were identified by more than 50% of respondents, twenty-four
d was
followed jointly (94.7%) by oils / petrol (hydrocarbons), paints, cement dust, concrete dust,
labour intensive work, noise, and vibration. These aspects were followed closely by heat
(90%), jointly (89.5%) by solvents, mechanised methods (potential), and work pressure. In
terms of the percentage of projects on which OH aspects were specified, the highest mean
was relative to cement dust (75.8%), followed by concrete dust (72.8%), labour intensive
work (71.9%), manual tasks (70.5%), oils / petrol (hydrocarbons) (66.7%), and block / brick
dust (61.9%).

Table 2. Extent to which aspects were identified on projects in 2017

Response (%) Percentage of projects

Aspect
Unsure Did not Yes Lowest Highest Mean
Manual tasks 0.0 0.0 100.0 10.0 100.0 70.5
Oils / Petrol (hydrocarbons) 0.0 5.3 94.7 2.0 100.0 66.7
Paints 0.0 5.3 94.7 15.0 100.0 58.7
Cement dust 0.0 5.3 94.7 10.0 100.0 75.8
Concrete dust 0.0 5.3 94.7 10.0 100.0 72.8
Labour intensive work 0.0 5.3 94.7 25.0 100.0 71.9
Noise 0.0 5.3 94.7 5.0 100.0 53.2
Vibration 0.0 5.3 94.7 5.0 100.0 46.5
Heat 0.0 10.0 90.0 5.0 100.0 52.9
Solvents 0.0 10.5 89.5 5.0 100.0 57.2
Mechanised methods (potential) 0.0 10.5 89.5 10.0 100.0 52.5
Work pressure 5.3 5.3 89.5 5.0 100.0 53.2
Bitumen 0.0 15.0 85.0 5.0 100.0 43.5
Fumes 0.0 15.8 84.2 5.0 100.0 48.8
Adhesives 0.0 15.8 84.2 5.0 100.0 44.3
Vapours 5.3 10.5 84.2 5.0 100.0 55.1
Epoxy-resins 0.0 16.7 83.3 10.0 100.0 30.0
Cold 0.0 16.7 83.3 5.0 100.0 41.9
Quartz / Silica dust 0.0 16.7 83.3 4.0 100.0 45.3
Asbestos dust 0.0 21.1 78.9 5.0 70.0 25.0
Block / Brick dust 0.0 21.1 78.9 10.0 100.0 61.9
Shift work 0.0 21.1 78.9 5.0 100.0 45.4

396
Illumination (Poor) 5.3 15.8 78.9 5.0 100.0 42.5
Insects 0.0 25.0 75.0 5.0 100.0 46.4
Waterproofing 0.0 26.3 73.7 10.0 100.0 34.6
Monotony 10.5 15.8 73.7 5.0 100.0 51.8
Stress 10.5 15.8 73.7 15.0 100.0 55.7
Unsociable hours 10.5 15.8 73.7 5.0 100.0 42.5
Viruses 0.0 42.1 57.9 5.0 100.0 35.1
Mineral wools 11.1 33.3 55.6 5.0 100.0 35.0

Table 3 indicates the extent to which environmental measurement was specified by

respondents on projects in 2017. All environmental measurements were identified by more
than 50% of respondents. Noise (85%) predominates, followed by air quality (ventilation),
illumination, and dust (silica).
In terms of the percentage of projects on which environmental measurement was
specified, the highest mean was relative to noise (55%), followed closely by dust (silica)
(49%). The lowest was relative to air quality (ventilation) (0%), and the highest (100%)
relative to all measurements.

Table 3. Extent to which environmental measurement was specified by respondents on

projects in 2017

Response (%) Percentage of projects

Measurement
Unsure No Yes Lowest Highest Mean
Noise 0.0 15.0 85.0 5.0 100.0 55.0
Air quality (ventilation) 0.0 31.6 68.4 0.0 100.0 33.4
Illumination 0.0 31.6 68.4 10.0 100.0 33.1
Dust (silica) 0.0 36.8 63.2 5.0 100.0 49.0

Table 5 indicates the extent to which OH related interventions were specified by

respondents on projects in 2017. All OH related interventions were identified by more than
50% of respondents. Pre-employment medicals (85%) predominate, followed jointly (84%)
by annual in-employment (periodic) medicals, and plant operator medicals.

Table 5. Extent to which OH related interventions were specified by respondents on projects

in 2017

Response (%) Percentage of projects

Intervention
Unsure No Yes Lowest Highest Mean
Pre-employment medicals 0.0 15.0 85.0 50.0 100.0 97.1
Annual in-employment
0.0 15.8 84.2 5.0 100.0 92.5
(periodic) medicals
Plant operator medicals 0.0 15.8 84.2 25.0 100.0 92.2
Pre-employment audiometric
5.3 15.8 78.9 5.0 100.0 83.0
tests
Contract specific (client
0.0 21.1 78.9 15.0 100.0 89.0
required) medicals
Exit medicals medicals 0.0 36.8 63.2 60.0 100.0 96.7
Exit audiometric tests 0.0 38.9 61.1 5.0 100.0 91.4
Contract specific (self-
0.0 47.4 52.6 10.0 100.0 63.0
initiated) medicals

-rating of their knowledge of various OH related

aspects in terms of percentage responses to a scale of 1 (limited) to 5 (extensive), and a MS
397
ranging between 1.00 and 5.00. It is notable that all the MSs are above the midpoint of
3.00, which indicates that in general, the respondents rate their knowledge of various OH
related aspects as above average. It is notable that they rate their knowledge relative to all
the OH related aspects as between average to more than average / more than average (MSs

design development was ranked first in terms of the importance of addressing OH during
the six stages of projects, and design development was ranked first in terms of the extent to
which OH can be influenced during the six stages of projects.

-rating of their knowledge of various OH related aspects

Aspect Unsure MS Rank

1 2 3 4 5
Construction OH 0.0 0.0 5.3 15.8 52.6 26.3 4.00 1
Knowledge of appropriate
protection equipment for
0.0 0.0 5.0 20.0 60.0 15.0 3.85 2
categories of workers
linked to risk
Identification of adequacy
0.0 0.0 5.0 25.0 50.0 20.0 3.85 3
of certificate of fitness
Linking exposure to
determining adequate
0.0 0.0 10.0 20.0 55.0 15.0 3.75 4
identification of risks for
the Annexure 3
Limitation or management
of workers deemed limited 0.0 0.0 5.0 30.0 55.0 10.0 3.70 5
or unfit for work
OH 0.0 0.0 15.8 21.1 52.6 10.5 3.58 6
Designing for construction
0.0 0.0 15.0 25.0 55.0 5.0 3.50 7
OH

Respondents indicated that experience (20.2%) predominates in terms of the source of their
knowledge of OH, followed by workshops (15.5%), tertiary education (14.9%), magazine
articles (11.9%), and journal papers (10.7%). The remaining five sources were identified by
less than 10% of respondents. Clearly, the source of knowledge of OH is informal as
opposed to formal.
A total of 8.3% respondents indicated they had post graduate qualifications, and 14.9%
had tertiary education.

Conclusions
Although the number of respondents was limited, and therefore the findings can be deemed
indicative, the respondents are above average in terms of their OH knowledge, which

is more informal than formal, which leads to the conclusion that OH is not addressed to the
extent that it should be in their formal education programmes.
The respondents perceive the addressing of OH during the six project stages as
important, and therefore understand and appreciate the role of upstream interventions. The
respondents further understand and appreciate that OH can be influenced during the six
stages of the construction process.
The extent to which OH aspects were identified by respondents on projects in 2017
leads to the conclusion that construction entails exposure to a range of OH hazards and risk.
398
It was noted that the respondents undertake a range of OH related interventions, including
environmental measurement, medicals and tests, and OH related training.
Finally, it is concluded that OH is a multi-stakeholder issue.

Recommendations
Recommendations include, among other, that tertiary built environment education should
address OH. Designing for construction OH should be introduced and more importantly,
embedded in tertiary built environment education programmes, especially designer related,
and a construction industry OH standard, OH practice notes, and CPD should be evolved to
guide the sector.
Construction Project Managers, and CHSAs must ensure that all stakeholders address
OH, and that project H&S plans focus thereon. Employer associations must afford OH the
requisite recognition in their industry H&S programmes, star grading process, and regional
and national H&S competitions.

References
Adisesh, A., 2012, Practising OH. In: ABC of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
3rd Edition. E. Snashall, D. Patel. Eds. John Wiley and Sons, United Kingdom.
Botha, L., Ross, M., and Michell, K., 2012, Health Surveillance in OH. In: A practical
approach to OH Nursing, Michelle, K. ed. South African Society of OH Nursing
Practitioners. Wilpro Printers, Johannesburg.
Deacon, C.H., 2016, The Effect of the Integration of Design, Procurement, and
Construction relative to Health and Safety. PhD (Construction Management), Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa.
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), 2016, OH risk management in
construction. A guide to the key issues of OH provision. IOSH. United Kingdom.
Jansen van Rensburg, L., and Michell, K., 2011, Models of OH Service Delivery. In: A
practical approach to OH Nursing, Michelle, K. ed. South African Society of OH
Nursing Practitioners. Wilpro Printers, Johannesburg.
McCaig, R., 2012, Physical Agents. In: ABC of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
3rd Edition. E. Snashall, D. Patel. Eds. John Wiley and Sons, United Kingdom.
National Institute of OH (NIOH)., 2018. OEHS in the Construction Industry. [online].
Available from: http://www.nioh.ac.za/?page=construction_industry&id=190 [Accessed
27 May 2018].
Obiozo, R.N., and Smallwood, J.J., 2012, Rethinking Construction: The Transformational
Change Strategy of a Biophilic Construction Site Experience In: Fidelis, E. ed.
Conference Proceedings Second NMMU Construction Management Conference, 25-27
November, 2012, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 121-130.
Republic of South Africa, 1996, The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Pretoria,
Government Printer.

perceptions and practices. In: Proceedings of International Commission of OH (ICOH):

OH and Wellbeing: linking research to practice. Poster presentation. 29 April to 4 May
2018, ICOH, Dublin, Ireland.
Smallwood, J.J. and Deacon, C.H., 2015, Construction Camps in Building and Civil
Engineering Construction. I. Musondo, J. Agumba, C. Okoro. Eds. In: Proceedings of
the 2nd International Conference on Development and Investment in Infrastructure

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 Strategies for Africa. 16-18 September, 2015, Livingstone, Zambia. University of
Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. 201-223.
Smallwood, J.J. and Deacon, C.H., 2017, Construc
contribution to health and safety in South Africa. In: Laryea, S. and Ibem, E. eds.
Proceedings 7th West Africa Built Environment Research (WABER) Conference, 16-18
August 2017, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana, 502-513.
Snashall, D., 2012, Hazards of Work. In: ABC of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine. 3rd Edition. E. Snashall, D. Patel. Eds. John Wiley and Sons, United
Kingdom.
Visser, S., van der Molen, Henk, F., Sluiter, Judith, K., and Frings-Dresen, M.H.W., 2018.
The process evaluation of two alternative participatory ergonomics intervention
strategies for construction companies [Online].
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00140139.2018.1454514 [accessed 24
May 2018].

400
[Paper ID 115]

Winn-Yam Ayessaki1 and John Smallwood2

Abstract
Construction project managers (CPMs) are in a unique position as project leaders
to integrate H&S into the six stages of projects. Furthermore, the CPM identity of work
records a range of H&S actions required throughout the six stages of projects.
A descriptive survey method was adopted for gathering and processing data obtained
through online delivered self-administered questionnaires. The sample strata included
registered CPMs.
The salient findings include that: CPMs promote partnering; H&S is addressed during

project stages, but more frequently in the latter stages; CPMs do appreciate the relevance
of constructability to H&S; CPMs advocate design revision due to H&S issues; CPMs
are -qualify contractors relative
to a range of criteria, and CPMs review H&S plans, and contribute to their revision.
Conclusions include: CPMs can be deemed to consider / refer to H&S; there is more
focus on H&S during procurement and construction, than design, and CPMs do understand
and appreciate the need to integrate H&S into construction project management.
Recommendations include that CPMs need to make better use of their influence
to convince clients with respect to adequate financial provision for H&S, pre-qualifying
contractors in terms of H&S, ensuring H&S is duly implemented during projects,
and promoting partnering.

Keywords: construction, health and safety, project managers

1
Professor, Department of Construction Management, Nelson Mandela University,
PO Box77000, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 6031, Tel. +27-41-504 2790 Fax. +27-41-504
2345, Email: john.smallwood@mandela.ac.za
2
Graduate, Department of Construction Management, Nelson Mandela University, PO Box
77000, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 6031, Tel. +27-41-504 2790 Fax. +27-41-504 2345,
Email: winnyam@gmail.com

401
Introduction
considerable number of accidents, fatalities, and other injuries that occur in the South
African construction industry (Construction Industry Development Board (cidb), 2009). The
report cited the high-level of non-compliance with H&S legislative requirements, which is
indicative of a deficiency of effective management and supervision of H&S on construction
sites as well as planning from the inception / conception of projects within the context of
project management. The report also cited a lack of sufficiently skilled, experienced, and
knowledgeable persons to manage H&S on construction sites.
Lingard and Rowlinson (2005) state that all parties to a project, including clients,
designers, specialist consultants, specialist subcontractors, and suppliers have a role to play

________________________
1
Graduate, Department of Construction Management, Nelson Mandela University, PO Box 77000, Port
Elizabeth, South Africa, 6031, Tel. +27-41-504 2790 Fax. +27-41-504 2345, Email: winnyam@gmail.com
2
Professor, Department of Construction Management, Nelson Mandela University, PO Box77000, Port
Elizabeth, South Africa, 6031, Tel. +27-41-504 2790 Fax. +27-41-504 2345, Email:
john.smallwood@mandela.ac.za
best practice client H&S principles emphasise, inter alia, the inclusion of H&S as an
integral aspect of project management, and affording H&S status equal to that afforded cost,
quality, and time (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2008).
According to the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management
Professions (SACPCMP) (2006), construction project management is the management of
projects within the built environment from conception to completion, including
management of related professional services, and the CPM is the one point of responsibility
in this regard.
Given the definition and the requirements arising from the Construction Regulations,
CPMs must ensure that H&S is integrated into the six stages of projects. Integration implies

Given the status of H&S in South African construction, the requirements of H&S
legislation, and the CPM identity of work (IoW), a study was conducted, the aim of which
was to evaluate the influence of CPMs on H&S. The objectives of the study were to
determine:
the frequency and nature of accidents;
the frequency of H&S related interventions on projects, and
the extent of financial provision for H&S.

Review of the literature

Health and Safety statistics

disabling injuries per 100 workers, the all industry average being 0.78, and a fatality rate of
25.5 per 100 000 workers, which does not compare favourably with international rates
(cidb, 2009). The Australian construction industry fatality rate per 100 000 for the period
2009 2013 is 3.29 for all construction, and 1.76 for building construction (Department of
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2008). [5]. The severity rate (SR) in turn
indicates the number of days lost due to accidents for every 1 000 hours worked. The South

402
African construction industry SR 1.14 is the fourth highest, after fishing, mining, and
transport, the all industry average being 0.59. Given that the average worker works 2 000
hours per year, if the SR is multiplied by 2, the average number of days lost per worker per
year can be computed the construction industry lost 2.28 working days per worker. This is
equivalent to 1.0% of working time.
The statistics provide the humanitarian motivation for the need for H&S related
legislation, and for multi-stakeholder contributions to construction H&S, CPMs included.

Cost of accidents

The cidb (2009)

between 4.3% and 5.4%, based upon the value of construction work completed in South
Africa in the year 2002. The key issue relative to the COA is that ultimately, clients incur
the COA

compensation insurance constitutes a labour overhead, and if contractors experience a poor

claims ratio, their insurance premiums are increased, which increase is borne by clients. The

to contribute to construction H&S, and for CPMs to ensure that H&S is integrated into all
stages of projects.

Synergy

Research conducted among project managers (PMs) in South Africa (Smallwood, 1996)
determined, inter alia, that productivity (87.2%) and quality (80.8%) predominated in terms
of aspects negatively affected by inadequate H&S, followed by cost (72.3%), client
perception (68.1%), environment (66%), and schedule (57.4%). 95.8% of PMs also stated
that inadequate or the lack of H&S increases overall project risk - risk increases because of
increased variability of resources. Furthermore, project risk management is 1 / 10 project
management knowledge areas.
The key issue relative to synergy is that CPMs can indirectly engender optimum overall
project performance through focusing on H&S, the catalyst for the synergy between the
project parameters, throughout all stages of projects.

Health and Safety legislation and standards

The South African Construction Regulations constitute the primary regulations in terms
of managing H&S in the construction industry (Republic of South Africa, 2014).
Clients are required to, inter alia, prepare an H&S specification based on their baseline
risk assessment (BRA), which is then provided to designers. They must then ensure that the
designer takes the H&S specification into account during design, and that the designers
after, clients must
include the H&S specification in the tender documentation, which in theory should have
been revised to include any relevant H&S information included in the designer report as
discussed below. Thereafter, inter alia, they must: ensure that potential PCs have made
provision for the cost of H&S in their tenders; ensure that the PC to be appointed has the

compensation insurance cover and in good standing; discuss and negotiate with the PC the

audits and documentation verification are conducted at agreed intervals, but at least once

403
every 30 days; ensure that the H&S file is kept and maintained by the PC, and appoint a
competent person in writing as an agent when a construction work permit is required.
Where notification of construction work is required the client may appoint a competent
person in writing as an agent.
Designers in turn are required to, inter alia: consider the H&S specification; submit a
report to the client before tender stage that includes all the relevant H&S information about
the design that may affect the pricing of the work, the geotechnical-science aspects, and the
loading that the structure is designed to withstand; inform the client of any known or
anticipated dangers or hazards relating to the construction work, and make available all
relevant information required for the safe execution of the work upon being designed or
when the design is changed; modify the design or make use of substitute materials where
the design necessitates the use of dangerous procedures or materials hazardous to H&S, and
consider hazards relating to subsequent maintenance of the structure and make provision in
the design for that work to be performed to minimize the risk. To mitigate design originated
hazards, requires hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA) and appropriate
responses, which process should be structured and documented. Furthermore, the designer
report submitted to the client should schedule the residual hazards on projects, which in turn
should be included in t

CPM Identity of Work (IoW)

s follows. Stage 2

Facilitate any input from the design consultants

required by CM regarding constructability. Stage 4 r documentation and
Facilitate and monitor the preparation by the H&S consultant of the H&S
Specification for the project. Stage 5
ltant, and monitor the
project close

Constructability

constructability design principles listed by Adams and Ferguson (McGeorge and Zou,
2012). However, most of the other 15 principles are indirectly related to, and consequently
influence H&S. Method of fixing, size, mass and area of materials, position of components,
inter alia, amplify the relevance of constructability to H&S.

that cannot be constructed, used, maintained, replaced

Partnering
Partnering is a process that brings the various stakeholders involved in a project together,
i.e. client, designers, general contractor, subcontractors, and suppliers. The process includes
the developing of mutual goals and mechanisms for solving problems. There are two
reasons for expecting partnering to reduce accidents: first, the improvement in all-round
relations on the project, which in turn, according to research, results in reduced accidents;
second, the performance objectives, which form part of the partnering charter, usually
include a specific mention of H&S (Levitt and Samelson, 1993).

404
Research
CPMs professionally registered with the SACPCMP across South Africa were surveyed
using an online self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of fifteen
questions. The first question addressed a range of demographic data, the ninth question
statistics, and the last question was open-ended. The other questions were five-
scale type questions to simplify and quantify the responses in terms of perceptions,
phenomena, and practices, and enable ranking. The questionnaire was developed based
upon the requirements of the Construction Regulations, the CPM IoW, and the literature,
which addressed issues such as constructability, and partnering. Due to space constraints,
the responses to the open-ended question have not been included. 24 Responses were
included in the analysis of the data, which resulted from a net sample of 555 i.e. delivered e-
mail messages.

62.5% of respondents had been involve

In terms of the frequency of occurrence of accidents during projects, the resultant MS of

ntage responses to a scale of never to daily, indicates
a frequency of never to rarely / rarely.
In terms of the percentage of accidents that result in serious injuries, 33.3% of

and 16.7% were unsure.

Table 1 indicates the frequency at which HIRAs are conducted at various project stages
in terms of percentage responses to a range of 1 (never) to 5 (constantly), and a MS between
1.00 and 5.00. Given that all the MSs are > 3.00, HIRAs can be deemed to be conducted
frequently as opposed to infrequently. Construction documentation and management (stage
5) recorded the highest MS, namely 4.46 (> 4.20 5.00) - often to constantly / constantly.
The remaining stages recorded MSs > 3.40 4.20 sometimes to often / often.

Table 1. Frequency of HIRAs at various project stages

Stage Response (%)

Un- MS Rank
sure 1 2 3 4 5
Construction
documentation and 0.0 0.0 0.0 12.5 29.2 58.3 4.46 1
management
Design development 4.2 0.0 4.2 25.0 29.2 37.5 4.04 2
Tender
documentation and 4.2 4.2 4.2 16.7 33.3 37.5 4.00 3
procurement
Project initiation and
4.2 12.5 16.7 8.3 16.7 41.7 3.61 4
briefing

405
Concept and
4.2 4.2 20.8 20.8 16.7 33.3 3.57 5
feasibility
Project close-out 4.2 4.2 20.8 20.8 20.8 29.2 3.52 6

In terms of the relevance of constructability to H&S, the resultant MS of 4.33 indicates that
the concurrence is between agree to strongly agree / strongly agree.
Table 2 indicates the frequency at which CPMs advocate revisions relative to thirteen
design related aspects within the context of H&S in terms of percentage responses to a
range of 1 (never) to 5 (constantly), and a MS between 1.00 and 5.00. Only two aspects
have MSs > 3.00, namely client changes, and hazardous excavation work, which indicates

4.20 sometimes to often / often. 10 / 13 (76.9%) Aspects ranked second to eleventh have
rarely to sometimes / sometimes. The aspects ranked twelfth and

Aspect Response (%)

Un- MS Rank
sure 1 2 3 4 5
Client changes 0.0 4.2 20.8 12.5 45.8 16.7 3.50 1
Hazardous excavation
0.0 4.2 20.8 29.2 25.0 20.8 3.38 2
work
Hazardous lifting
0.0 12.5 20.8 33.3 25.0 8.3 2.96 3
operations
Constructability H&S
0.0 16.7 16.7 25.0 37.5 4.2 2.96 4
related issues
Hazards relative to
general operative 4.2 12.5 20.8 37.5 8.3 16.7 2.96 5
movement
Miscommunication 0.0 16.7 16.7 37.5 25.0 4.2 2.83 6
Hazardous manual
0.0 16.7 33.3 20.8 12.5 16.7 2.79 7
handling
Hazards relative to
the use of portable
0.0 20.8 25.0 25.0 16.7 12.5 2.75 8
tools, static plant
and/or equipment
Hazardous processes 0.0 20.8 29.2 25.0 4.2 20.8 2.75 9
Unnecessary work at
0.0 16.7 41.7 12.5 16.7 12.5 2.67 10
elevated heights
Conflict between
0.0 25.0 20.8 25.0 25.0 4.2 2.63 11
trades
High volume of
0.0 25.0 25.0 20.8 25.0 4.2 2.58 12
works
Materials containing
0.0 29.2 25.0 20.8 8.3 16.7 2.58 13
HCSs

Table 3 presents the percentage of contract sums allocated towards H&S in the form of
provisional sum, detailed H&S preliminaries, preliminaries in terms of percentage ranges.

406
are all relative to the > 4% range - detailed H&S preliminaries (34.8%); provisional sum
(31.8%), and preliminaries items (22.7%).

Table 3. Percentage of contract sums allocated towards H&S

Response (%)
Form > 0% > 1% > 2% > 3%
Unsure 0% > 4%
4%
Provisional sum 45.5 9.1 13.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 31.8
Detailed H&S
30.4 0.0 17.4 13.0 4.3 0.0 34.8
preliminaries
Preliminaries items 59.1 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 0.0 22.7

Table 4 indicates the importance of contractor pre-qualification criteria to CPMs in terms of

percentage responses to a range of 1 (not) to 5 (very), and a MS between 1.00 and 5.00.
Given that all the MSs are > 3.00, the criteria can be deemed to be more than important as
opposed to less than important. However, 5 / 7 (71.4%) criteria have
including H&S, which indicates the criteria are between more than important to important /
important to more than
important / more than important.

Table 4. Importance of contractor pre-qualification criteria

Criterion Response (%)

Un- MS Rank
sure 1 2 3 4 5
Technical capacity 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.8 79.2 4.79 1
Experience 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 29.2 70.8 4.71 2
Management ability 0.0 0.0 4.2 4.2 29.2 62.5 4.50 3
Financial stability 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.2 41.7 54.2 4.50 4
Health and Safety 0.0 0.0 0.0 16.7 37.5 45.8 4.29 5
Reputation 0.0 0.0 12.5 8.3 45.8 33.3 4.00 6
Past relationships 0.0 0.0 20.8 25.0 29.2 25.0 3.58 7

In terms of the extent H&S

near major extent.

79.2% of CPMs responded that they review H&S plans, however 20.8% responded in
the negative.

resultant MS of 3.04 indicates that CPMs are between less than satisfied to satisfied /
satisfied with H&S plans when they are initially presented.
In terms of the extent CPMs contributions result in revisions to H&S plans, the resultant

between some extent to a near major / near major extent.

address H&S during design coordination meetings.

407
 In terms of the frequency of reference to H&S during project progress meetings, the MS
of 4.71, which falls within the > 4.
to constantly / constantly addressed during project progress meetings.
In terms of the frequency H&S performance is addressed in project progress reports, the
MS of 4.50, which falls within the > 4.2
often to constantly / constantly addressed in project progress reports.

H&S performance is addressed in closeout reports between sometimes to often / often.

62.5% of respondents have been involved in partnering, whereas 66.7% are currently
involved in partnering. In terms of the extent partnering results in healthier and safer
practices and sites, the 3.21 MS, which is > 2.60 3.40, indicates that respondents agree as
opposed to disagree that partnering results in healthier and safer working practices and sites.

Conclusions
experienced, which increases the reliability of the findings.

deemed incidents.

The frequency at which HIRAs are conducted at various project stages leads to the
conclusion that the focus of HIRAs is construction documentation and management (stage
5). However, the frequency at which HIRAs are conducted relative to design development
(stage 3), and tender documentation and procurement (stage 4), it can be concluded that
there is understanding and appreciation regarding the ability of design, and procurement to
influence H&S. However, the frequency at which HIRAs are conducted at project initiation
and briefing (stage 1), and concept and feasibility (stage 2) leads to the conclusion that there
is less understanding and appreciation regarding the ability of HIRAs during the early
project stages to influence H&S.
Based upon the degree of concurrence, CPMs do appreciate the relevance of
constructability to H&S.

design related HIRAs are effective, which is probably the case due to the cited frequency
thereof, or CPMs do not identify the need to revise designs due to resultant hazards.

allocated towards H&S, it can be concluded that CPMs are not managing this important
requirement of clients, namely to ensure that principal contractors have made adequate
financial allowance for H&S.
Given the importance of contractor pre-qualification criteria, H&S included, it can be
concluded that CPMs understand and appreciate the role of pre-qualification in quality
assurance and the realisation of project success.
ercentage of contract sums
allocated towards H&S sub-questions, it can be concluded that CPMs are not managing this
aspect to an optimum extent.
Given the frequency of interventions relative to H&S plans, it can be concluded that
CPMs review H&S plans, and contribute to their revision.
The frequency at which H&S is addressed during design coordination meetings, project
progress meetings, project progress reports, and project closeout reports leads to the

The frequency at which respondents have been involved in partnering, and the degree of
concurrence with the statement that partnering results in healthier and safer working

408
practices and sites, leads to the conclusion that partnering contributes to enhancing H&S
performance.
Recommendations
CPMs need to make better use of their influence to: promote partnering; convince clients
with respect to adequate financial provision for H&S; promote consideration of H&S during
the early project stages, and design development; promote constructability reviews that
consider, inter alia, H&S; pre-qualify contractors in terms of H&S, and ensure that H&S is
duly implemented during projects.
References
Construction Industry Development Board (cidb), 2009. Construction Health & Safety in
South Africa Status & Recommendations. Pretoria: cidb.
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2008. The Model Client
Framework The Model Client: Promoting Safe Construction. Canberra: Commonwealth
of Australia.
Levitt, R.E. and Samelson, N.M., 1993. Construction Safety Management. 2nd Edition.
New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Lingard, H. and Rowlinson, S., 2005. occupational health and safety in construction project
management. New York: Spon Press.
McGeorge, D. and Zou, P.X.W., 2012. Construction Management: New Directions. 3rd
Edition. Oxford: Blackwell Science.
Republic of South Africa, 2014. No. R. 84 Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993
Construction Regulations 2014. Government Gazette No. 37305. Pretoria.
SACPCMP, 2006. Construction Project Manager: Identification of Work and Scope of
Services for Construction Project Managers Registered in Terms of the Project and
Construction Management Professions, Act No. 48 of 2000. Johannesburg: SACPCMP.
Smallwood, J.J., 1996. The role of project managers in occupational health and safety. In:
L.M. Alves Dias, and R.J. Coble, eds. Proceedings First International Conference of
CIB Working Commission W99 Implementation of Safety and Health on Construction
Sites, 4-7 September 1996, Lisbon, Portugal. Rotterdam: AA Balkema Publishers, 227-
236.
Summerhayes, S.D., 2010. Design Risk management Contribution to Health and Safety.
Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

409
 4. INTEGRATION OF ENGINEERING
MANAGEMENT AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

410
[Paper ID 27]

Matthew Kwaw Somiah1, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa2

and Wellington Didibhuku Thwala3

Abstract

industry and, to determine the relative impact of each of the attributes in the Ghanaian
construction industry. The study adopted a qualitative approach to research employing
the Delphi technique. Structured questionnaire aided the data collection. Data were analysed
using standard deviation, median, interquartile deviation, percentile and mean. The study
had its theoretical basis in the five forces theory; it revealed that, 10 attributes
of
Out of the 10 attributes, (2) had a very high impact (VHI: 9.00-10.00), namely: intelligence

(8) recorded high impact (HI: 7.00-

concludes that the attribute

fragmentation rate of the industry, existing technologies in the industry, and existing
opportunities in the industry with a varied degree of impact. Therefore, the study

bargaining power, existing technologies in the industry and existing opportunities.

The findings of this study will inform indigenous construction firms of the attributes
of
the basis for fu

Keywords: competitive advantage, construction industry, Ghana, indigenous firm

1
Ph.D. student, Civil Engineering, University of Johannesburg, APK Auckland-Kingsway,
South Africa, +233277054286, brokwaw@yahoo.com
1
Lecturer, Building Technology Department, Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi, Ghana,
+233277054286, matthew.somiah@tpoly.edu
2
Professor, Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, University
of Johannesburg, APK Auckland-Kingsway, South Africa, +27787958231, (083) 383-5537,
caigbavboa@uj.ac.za
3
Professor, Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, University
of Johannesburg, APK Auckland-Kingsway, South Africa, +27787958231, (083) 383-5537,
caigbavboa@uj.ac.za

411
Introduction

than benchmarked firms in terms of profitability, market share, or sales in a given industry.

conditions and attributes that aid the firms to outperform their competitors. In view of this,
, market share

benchmarked against best performing firms in the Ghanaian construction industry (see
Porter, 1980; 1985; Porter,2000; Lall,2001; Flanagan et al.,2005; Wang, 2014).Whereas,
is the process of defining, gathering, analysing, and
distributing information about products ,competitors, customers, including changes in the
business environment or industry (McGonagle & Vella, 2002; Ahmed et al., 2014).It is
very essential tool in gaining competitive advantage in a competitive market (Ahmed, et al.
2014).It is a process that begins with
decision making; through to gathering information; analysing the information and then
distributing the information to be used by the management of a firm (Ahmed, et al. 2014).
Hence, in this study competitive intelligence encapsulates market intelligence, business
intelligence, and all activities undertaken by firms that impact on their competitive
advantage. This contextual definition of competitive intelligence is consistent with the
definitions found in earlier studies such as McGonagle & Carolyn (2003); Gilad (2008);
Ahmed et al. (2014);and Gainor (2014).

depending on the firm, industry and the prevailing factors in a particular nation, different
types of information may be relevant in competitive intelligence gathering. As a result,

advantage in some national context or industries to be the same in the Ghanaian

construction industry will be inaccurate; though some industries or countries across the
globe may share some resemblances with what is prevailing in Ghana. Hence, empirically

competitive advantage in the Ghanaian construction industry is very crucial. Hence, this

tion industry
and, to determine the relative impact of each of the attributes in the Ghanaian construction
industry. Specifically, this study seeks to achieve the following specific objectives:
e that impact on

industry and,
to determine the relative impact of each of the attributes in the Ghanaian
construction industry.
Further in this study, indigenous construction firms are building and road contractors
who undertake civil engineering works in Ghanaian construction industry; and either
such firms are 100% owned by indigenes or indigenes are majority shareholders. This
definition is consistent with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act,663 of the
republic of Ghana (Parliament of Ghana,2003). The remaining section of this study have
been largely organized under literature review, methodology, results and discussions,
and conclusions.

412
Literature Review
attributes: a survey of relevant existing literature

Competitive intelligence is a tool through which a firm could gain

competitive advantage and compete against its competitors in a competitive industry
(Ahmed, et al. 2014).It involves the use of legal and ethical means to collect and develop
data on competition, competitors, and the industry at large and, the use of the information to
(McGonagle and Vella,2002).However, as to the
specific variables that constitute competitive intelligence, researchers have expressed varied
views depending on, according to McGonagle and Vella (2002), the nature of competition,
the characteristics of the market as well as competitors in the market(industry).
Accordingly, Table 1
previous studies have advanced.

Table 1. Attributes of competitive intelligence

Attributes Author (s)
The threat of substitute products or services (Porter, 1979; Porter,1980; Porter,1985;
Mekic & Mekic, 2014).
The threat of substitute services (Porter, 1979; Porter,1980; Porter,1985;
Mekic & Mekic, 2014).
The threat of new entrants (Porter, 1979; Porter,1980; Porter,1985;
Mekic & Mekic, 2014).
The bargaining power of suppliers (Porter, 1979; Porter,1980; Porter,1985;
Mekic & Mekic, 2014).
Bargaining power of buyers (Porter, 1979; Porter,1980; Porter,1985;
Mekic & Mekic, 2014).
The rivalry among existing entities (Porter, 1979; Porter,1980; Porter,1985;
Mekic & Mekic, 2014).
Collaboration between trade unions (Flanagan et al.,2005)
(Flanagan et al.,2005)
federations
Trust between project actors (Flanagan et al.,2005)
Self-employment rate of industry (Flanagan et al.,2005)
Unionization rate of the workforce (Flanagan et al.,2005)
Fragmentation rate of industry (Flanagan et al.,2005)
Technological intelligence (Ahmed et al.,2014)
Competitor risks (Ahmed et al.,2014)
Technical intelligence (Ahmed et al.,2014)
(Ahmed et al.,2014)
Market opportunities (Ahmed et al.,2014)
Government regulations (Flanagan et al.,2005; Lall,2001)

It could be deduced from the relevant literature reviewed that there is consensus
among researchers that competitive intelligence impacts on
(see McGonagle & Carolyn ,2003; Gilad, 2008; Ahmed et al.,2014; Meihami & Meihami,
2014); however, there is variat
competitive intelligence. This could be attributed to the varying nature of competition
prevailing in the various markets(industries) previous studies focused on, as well as the

413
characteristics of firms in the industry (Ahmed et al.,2014; Meihami & Meihami, 2014).
Hence, all the relevant factors that have been considered in previous competitive
intelligence studies to have impacted on some national
context were also considered for this study. A comprehensive summary of the specific
variables for measuring competitive intelligence in some industries is presented in Table 1.
Theoretical background: The Five Competitive Forces theory

In explaining the attributes of competitive intelligence, the five forces competitive theory

result of its strategic position against five generic competitive forces; namely: the threat of
new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, the threat of substitute products or services,
the bargaining power of buyers, and the rivalry among existing entities. A fair intelligence
on the five forces will inform the strategic positions a firm may assume in a competitive
industry, so as to gain competitive advantage (Porter, 1979; Mekic & Mekic, 2014).
Furthermore, the strength of the five competitive forces varies from one industry to the
other. Likewise, the combined strength of the five competitive forces defines the ultimate
profit prospects and the competitive nature of the business environment (Lu
2006).However, Johnson et al. (2008) cautioned that, in an industry where the five
competitive forces are high, the market suffers being attractive and firms are not willing to
compete in it. There will be too much rivalry in the market, too much pressure and the
competition is extremely intense and, it is difficult for firms to make reasonable profits and
remain operational in business (Johnson et al.,2008).
Methodology

This study adopted a two stage approach to research to research. The first stage was a

competitive intelligence that hav

some national contexts. The second stage was the use of the Delphi method to solicit

indigenous construc
industry. A total of 17 experts completed three rounds of the Delphi process. The Delphi
method was employed because, according to Hanson et al.(2000), the Delphi method is a
qualitative method
rounds of survey (Miller, 1993;Hasson et al., 2000).It uses structured questionnaires in
soliciting data from experts(Miller,1993,Aigbavboa,2014;Ameyaw et al., 2016).The experts
were drawn from both industry and academia.The common criteria for selecting the experts

competitive intelligence and competitive advanatge. More so, the panel of experts, were
carefully selected, to represent a broad spectrum of opinion on the issue being investigated
(see Loo,2002; Aigbavboa,2014; Tilakasiri, 2015). After each round of the Delphi survey, a
views was calculated and analyzed using the standard
deviation, median, mean, and interquartile deviation. The adopted scale for measuring
consensus was:
1. Strong consensus - median 9-10, mean 8-
-10);
2. Good consensus - median 7-8.99, mean 6- -
7.99); and
3. Weak consensus -
The adopted scale was based on a 10-point impact scale where 1 and 2 represent no
impact;3 and 4 represent low impact;5 and 6 represent medium impact;7 and 8 represent

414
high impact; 9 and 10 represent very high impact (see Aigbavboa,2014). In this study, the
identity of the experts was kept confidential in line with ethical considerations.
Further, informed by the aim, the research paradigm as well as the major
philosophical considerations or positions of this research, this study adopted qualitative
methodology, subjectivity epistemology stance (see Jean, 1992). Particular about
subjectivity epistemology is that, meanings to reality are constructed (constructivism) and
interpreted (Interpretivism) by the researcher, thus align to the concept of constructivism
and Interpretivism (Creswell 1994). Additionally, since reliability and generalization of
qualitative findings are undermined as data generated in such studies are heavily impacted
by the views and values of the researcher (Bryman, 2001; Sarantakos, 2005);nevertheless,
some advocates of qualitative research accentuates that, the weakness of non-generalization
of qualitative research is overcome when a qualitative research is based on sound theoretical
reasoning (Mitchell 1983).Thus, this study has its theoretical basis in the five forces theory
(Porter,1979;Porter ,1980;Porter,1985).
Results and Discussions

Sub-attributes M IQD Mean

score
ranking
8 8.4 0.63 1 3rd
intelligence on substitute services in the 8 8 0 0 8th
industry
8 8.27 0.8 1 5th
8 8.33 0.49 1 4th
industry
8 8.07 0.59 0 7th
industry
9 8.47 0.74 1 2nd
industry
8 8 0.85 0.5 8th
8 8.27 0.88 1 5th
industry
9 8.6 0.63 1 1st
8 7.93 0.7 0.5 9th
regulations industry
M = Median; = Mean; x = standard deviation; IQD = Interquartile deviation
competitive intelligence that impact on

industry;

In relation to objective one, this study found

intelligence impact on indigeno
Ghanaian construction industry. However, the relative impact value for each of the attribute
varied from that of previously existing studies
intelligences were
substitute services in the industry, intelligence on entry barriers, intelligence on barriers to
exit in the industry, intelligence on existing technologies in the industry, intelligence on

415
existing government regulations industry.

Objective two: to determine the relative impact of each of the attributes in the Ghanaian
construction industry.
In relation to objective two, ou t of the 10 attributes that constituted
intelligence in the Ghanaian construction industry, (2) attributes recorded very high impact
values (VHI: 9.00-10.00). These attributes were, with
mean value of (8.6), and intelligence on existing opportunities in the industry with mean
value of (8.47). Further, they recorded a median value of (9) suggesting that, relatively, they

industry. This is consistent with the findings of the study by Ahmed et al. (2014) that
intelligence on existing market opportunities, and
competitive advantage.
Furthermore, (8) of the attributes recorded high impact values (HI: 7.00-8.99) as
their respective median values were within the boundaries of 7.00-8.99. More so, by the
respective mean score

existing opportunities in the industry with mean value of (8.47) emerged 2nd ; intelligence
rd
on whereas intelligence
th
on barriers to exit in the industry was ranked 4 ; thus, supporting the findings by (Porter,
1979; Porter,1980; Porter,1985; Mekic & Mekic, 2014) that intelligence on bargaining

advantage. Moreover, intelligence on fragmentation rate of the industry and intelligence on

entry barriers were jointly ranked 5th; hence supporting the assertion that intelligence on
entry barriers (Porter, 1979; Porter,1980; Porter,1985; Mekic & Mekic, 2014) and
intelligence on fragmentation rate of industry
competitive advantage. The 7th ranked attr etitive intelligence was
intelligence on existing technologies in the industry which had a mean value of
(8.07);whiles and intelligence on substitute services in
th
the industry jointly emerged 8 .Thus, supporting the findings by Flanagan et al. (2005) and
Mekic & Mekic, (2014) that as well as intelligence on
substitute services . Similar view was
also shared by (Porter, 1979; Porter,1980; Porter,1985). Lastly, intelligence on existing
government regulations industry was ranked 9th with a mean value of (7.93). This support
the argument by Lall (2001) that government play very essential role in the construction
industry and that, among other things, intelligence on government and its regulations could
inform management in decision making and taking that will significantly
competitive advantage. None of the attributes was
competitive advantage in the Ghanaian construction industry. More so, the respective
standard deviation values as well as the IQD values indicated strong levels of consistence
and consensus in the views expressed by the expert panelists.

Conclusions

intelligence impact on indigenous construction firms competitive advantage in the

Ghanaian construction industry. These attributes are consistent with
intelligence attributes that earlier studies have identified in some national contexts. Thus,

416
the study recommends that in competitive intelligence gathering by indigenous firms in the
Ghanaian construction industry, intelligence on cli
services in the industry, entry barriers, barriers to exit in the industry, existing technologies

rate of the industry, competi should

More so, in relation to objective two, this current study concludes that, intelligence
and intelligence on existing opportunities in the industry have very

construction industry. Whiles intelligence on

in the industry, entry barriers, barriers to exit in the industry, existing technologies in the

regulations industry
advantage in the Ghanaian construction industry. None of the attributes was found not to

construction industry. Further, this study recommends that among the 10 attributes of fi
competitive intelligence, intelligence on existing opportunities in the industry and,
intelligence should be highly prioritize in intelligence gathering as
construction
industry.
Finally, the findings of this study will inform indigenous construction firms of the

Ghanaian construction industry; it also forms the basis

competitive intelli . It empirically unravels current

advantage. More so, a further validation of the qualitative findings of this study
quantitatively will be a novelty.

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418
[Paper ID 118]

Abhinesh Prabhakaran1, Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu2, Lamine Mahdjoubi3 and Patrick

Manu4

Abstract
Building Information Modelling (BIM) and its associated technologies have proved
to be one of the most promising developments in Architectural, Engineering
and Construction (AEC) industry. Over the past few decades, the AEC sector has been
restricted in its communication of design as a result of single interface methods based on 2D
and 3D visualization of information. Thus, most issues with respect to construction
are identified fairly late, resulting in costly changes. With the introduction of BIM, many
other approaches to data visualization can be leveraged including Mixed Reality (MR)
applications for virtual representation of spaces and objects beyond 3D. MR offers
a revolution in the virtual representation of objects and space through context awareness
as well as the incorporation of information beyond 3D offering countless opportunities
for more effective design visualization and coordination. Despite the capability of MR,
however, few examples exist of its application to design coordination in the AEC.
In addressing this gap this study proposes a novel methodology for the application of MR
in design coordination as well as investigates the impact of introducing MR into BIM
workflow with a focus on the identification and avoidance of clashes. A prototypical model
of the MR design coordination is presented and discussed. Findings indicate that MR
improves design productivity and quality but also highlights potential infrastructure issues
inhibiting the mainstreaming of MR for design practice.

Keywords: virtual reality, design, productivity, quality, coordination

1
University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom
2
University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom,
E-mail: abdul.mahamadu@uwe.ac.uk
3
University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom
4
University of Manchester, The School of Mechanical, Aerospace & Civil Engineering,
Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom

419
Introduction
Construction industries productivity index has always struggled to catch up with other
industries. There is therefore an attendant need for the improvement of construction.
According to Teicholz, (2014) and Gerbert et al., (2016), construction industry productivity
has stagnated for decades across the globe due to among other reseaons, poor innovation
and adaptation
released in February 2017 reiterates the argument by suggesting that the productivity issues
in the construction industry are due to lack of research development and innovation
(Barbosa et al., 2017). Kymmell (2008) argues that increase in the complexity of the
construction as the main reason for this productivity lag. With such increases in complexity
design has also become increasingly complex with multidisciplinary input that requires
coordination. According to Maing and Vargas (2013), despite the increasing complexity of
design, productivity gains can be made through the adoption and application of digital
innovations such as Building Information Modelling (BIM).
BIM has proved to be one of the most promising developments in the AEC industry
(Eastman et al.,2011). NBS, (2016) process for creating and managing
information on a construction project across the project life cycle where the key output of
this process is the digital description of every aspect of the built asset Bernstein et al.,
(2013) has reiterated that the diffusion of BIM in the AEC industry has substantially
increased in recent years, especially among contractors who are increasingly becoming
responsible for coordinating design due to evolving procurement. BIM has the capability to
leverage intelligent 3D models to design, construction, delivery, operations and facility
management (Hardin and McCool, 2015).
Indeed, having an accurate 3D modelling solution, upheld by well-defined data
requirements are capable of delivering benefits at every stage of the design and construction
process. The transition from a 2D documentation to 3D BIM modelling was a natural
evolution which aided in improving team communication and coordination. Viewing the 3D
BIM model through a 2D screen is very common, however interacting with volumes of data
behind the 2D is extremely beneficial (Constructible, 2017). Mixed Reality (MR) offers a
revolution in the virtual representation of objects and space through context awareness as
well as the incorporation of information beyond 3D offering countless opportunities for
more effective design visualization and coordination. Despite the capability of MR,
however, few examples exist of its application to design coordination in the AEC. In
addressing this gap this study explores the following research questions: (1) How can MR
be leveraged to support design coordination? (2) How effective is MR use in design
coordination? The research thereof proposes novel methodology for the application of MR
in design coordination as well as investigates the impact of introducing MR into BIM
workflow with a focus on the identification and avoidance of clashes. A prototypical model
of the MR design coordination is presented and discussed.

Information Delivery and Design Coordination

A linear flow of information exists in the design communication between the designers,
specialist consultants and on the other hand constructors. Shannon, (2001) explains this
mode of communication through the theory of linear standard communication where a
message is generated, encoded into a single transmittable in a desired medium and further
s end. Barnes, (1988) points out that traditional means
of communication in the construction was solely based on 2D paper plans which potentially
created a risk of noises ineffective transmission of the information. In construction, the
design is embraced as a collaborative activity by necessity due to the division of labour and

420
expertise between organizations (UK Research and Innovation, 2018). A consequence of the
structure of the sector is that design activity involves the coordination of complex
information exchanges in multi-disciplinary design teams. Coordination and communication
challenges underlie difficulties in the integration of work activities of design teams.
Communication is central to design collaboration and the coordination of design inputs (UK
Research and Innovation, 2018).
Decision made during the design coordination could potentially affect many
stakeholders including architects, engineering consultants, construction managers and
facility maintenance organization. Coordination among stakeholders is critical to ensure that
facility design meets the intended functionality, aesthetic and economic requirements of the
owner (Tory and Staub-French, 2008). Riley and Horman, (2001) point out that an efficient
Design coordination is a key to reduce uncertainty in the production process in the
construction project by decreasing disruption and reducing waste in the construction
process. Relationship found on a case study project between the effort spent on design
coordination and the resulting elimination in field conflicts is illustrated in figure.1 which
revealed that projects A and B which carried out design coordination with 100% diligence
and treated as a prerequisite for construction has zero or negligible field generated change
orders whereas projects C and D has considerable number of change orders (Riley and
Horman, 2001).
The early stage of a design process is of particular importance for the quality of the final
results as most of the building lifecycle characteristics and costs are already committed at
this stage and the opportunity to influence the final design decreases rapidly as the cost of
making the changes or correcting the design errors increases dramatically (Woksepp, 2007).
Mehrbod et al., (2017) identified in their study that despite several advantages of BIM
in design coordination, utilization of the 3D BIM models on a 2D screen during design
coordination were ineffective as the navigation with the digital artefacts were often
inefficient. The major challenge Mehrbod et al., (2017) identified in information delivery
3D BIM models during design coordination was navigation in BIM environment on 2D
screens which forced the participants to often revert to the 2D paper-based drawings for
better understanding. CAD and virtual visualization could be regarded as complementary
technologies in design visualization where such Interactive visualization tools are capable of
playing a critical role in the effective information delivery during the design coordination
phase of a project (Tory and Staub-French, 2008).
Woksepp, (2007) argues that a 3D system has the inherent limitation when it comes to
conveying an understanding of the complex virtual environment. 3D CAD system is
developed for a design specialist to create precise three-dimensional representations of the
real object, while virtual immersive technology allows the user to display and interact with
objects in the virtual world thereby enhancing the design coordination (Woksepp, 2007).
Recently, studies executed to identify the impact of 3D physical and virtual mock-ups in
supporting the design coordination which revealed that physical mock-ups potentially can
offer values for design coordination but they can be impractical to communicate design at
every stage of the project and physical mock-up could incur cost, time and physical space
requirements to set up (Taylor et al., 2014) .On the other hand, virtual mockups are capable
of delivering in-depth high -level detail of any system and their interfaces without the high-
cost burden (Maing, 2017).
Immersive Technology Applications for Visualisation
Immersive technology is an integration of virtual content with the physical environment in
such a way that enables the user to interact naturally with the amalgamated reality (Rouse,
2018). Virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality is the most commonly available
immersive technology. Virtual reality is the utilization of computer technology to create a

421
simulated environment where the user is completely immersed in the virtual world by
simulating as many senses as possible (Jackson, 2015). Thus, the user becomes a part of the
virtual or immersed world within its environment and whilst they are able to manipulate or
interact with the object. On the other hand, augmented reality is capable of superimposing
world providing an
additional data while still permitting interaction with the real environment (Campbell,
2015). The inherent limitation of augmented reality as per Foundary, (2017) is that while
augmented reality is capable of overlaying virtual object in a physical environment, the
virtual content cannot be anchored to the real world. Thus the physical environment and the
overlayed virtual object fail to interact which limits its application in the AEC sector
especially where coordination relating to different trades are impossible. Mixed reality is
hybrid of augmented reality which is capable of overlaying synthetic content on the real
world which can be anchored to and interacts with the physical world (Foundary, 2017).

The Role of Mixed Reality

Mixed reality is capable of bridging the gap between virtual and physical world thus
eliminating the inefficiency in the current workflow. As discussed earlier, interacting with
the information-rich 3D model behind 2D screens are extremely limited where mixed reality
tools are capable of bringing those 3D models out of the screen even on to real construction
site, allowing the user to engage and interact with the design data more intuitively
(Constructible, 2017). Mixed reality tools can potentially play a great role in the design
coordination by allowing the stakeholders to visualise and explore the design in virtual 3D
without the need for an expert to guide them and dictate the point of view (Constructible,
2017). Feiner et al., (1997) investigated the possibility of using 3D Head-mounted displays
(HMDs) in conjunction with mobile computing technology, creating a digital prototype
which overlaid campus information on top of an unobstructed view of a university campus
which was a first of its kind innovation in the construction industry. During the design
phase, MR was used for information delivery by presenting relevant data points to the user
without interpreting the normal workflow et al., 2014).
visualisation tool has also been well tested and studied
where 3D building models were visualised on physical location (Honkamaa et al., 2007,
Kopsida and Brilakis, 2016). Further exploration of possibilities of using MR has been
carried to augment BIM content enabling on-site viewing (Woodward et al., 2010)
documentation and monitoring of construction process (Waugh et al., 2012, Zollmann et al.,
2014) and to detect onsite miscoordination issues (Park et al., 2013). The possibilities of
deploying MR for training purposes in construction are also well studied. Wang, Dunston
and Skiniewski MR training system is a great example for the utilisation of MR for training
construction workforce where they utilized it for training heavy construction equipment
operation including cranes (Wang et al., 2004).
While the use of MR for onsite model visualisation and construction workforces training
are well documented any efforts to utilize the enormous possibilities of MR in early design
coordination has not been studied specifically. This paper examines the feasibility of
integrating MR into early design coordination workflow for the purpose of better design
communication between various stakeholders, thus reducing reworks, cost overruns,
material wastage, thereby promoting lean construction.

Mixed Reality Application for Design Coordination

Mixed reality uses head-mounted devices to project virtual 3D objects into the user
occupied physical environment (Stocking, 2018). For the purpose of this study, Microsoft
HoloLens is used as the hardware to identify the possibilities of using Mixed reality in for

422
design coordination. Microsoft HoloLens is a wearable, self-contained a holographic
computer with advanced sensors that are capable of mapping the physical environment
which allows the device to detect physical objects which is very important for coordination
in any industry (Constructible, 2017). Emerging devices such as the Microsoft HoloLens is
capable of encouraging two key approaches when it comes to collaborative design planning.
Firstly, it allows multiple users to examine and coordinate same projected 3D design
simultaneously from remote locations (Stocking, 2018). Secondly, the accurate convenience
of the visibility of the physical space is an important factor that makes HoloLens projected
mixed reality far better than virtual reality for collaboration and coordination of designs
(Stocking, 2018). Various software such as Visualive3D, Trimble Connect, BIM Holoview,
enables the interoperability between BIM modelling tool and the Hololens. For this study,
Trimble Connect was used as the software platform for integrating a digital model of design
(Autodesk Revit) into the MR environment (HoloLens).

Methodology
This work uses a mechanical plant room as a prototypical model to develop an
understanding of the performance impacts observed using MR for design coordination.
Plant room as chosen to implement the proposed system given its complexity in the design
coordination process thus often leading to clashes and redesign in typical project scenarios.
A qualitative approach was used for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed system
with six participants given the opportunity to visualize the model assembly using two
different visualization approaches viz MR and traditional paper-based method. Out of the
six participants, three had more that eight years of MEP design experience; two were
facility managers with 11 years experience, responsible for mega facilities and one of the
participants was a client representative who is responsible for ensuring client requirements
are met as required. The following section presents a detailed discussion on the procedure
adopted to in developing, pushing the model for MR experience and evaluation of the
system based on the participant's experience.

Description of Approach and System Architecture

To develop an approach for integrating MR into the early design phase, the 3D model
developed using Autodesk Revit needed to be imported into an MR environment. Even
though a number of devices could theoretically be used for this purpose, the researcher
chooses to use a Microsoft Hololens, which is head-mounted display (HMD) device with
see-through a screen which is capable of augmenting 3D virtual object on a physical
environment. The MR capabilities of a Microsoft HoloLens include the ability to augment
virtual objects by relying on spatial mapping to identify the physical surface which enables
the consistent visualization of the model. The chosen HMD has an inbuilt Windows
operating system which provides the virtue of hands-free operation without plugging into an
external computer, which further enabled the participants to manoeuvre freely in space
safety. Below, Figure 2 demonstrates the process flow from
model preparation to visualization using various softwares and hardware.

423
 Figure 2 MR Experience Development Workflow

Development of MR Visualization Environment

To develop the chosen MR environment, the prototypical plant room model is developed
using parametric software (Autodesk Revit). Due to the interoperability issues between the
Revit native file format (.rvt) and the MR environment cloud-based software, Trimble
Connect (requires .skp file format) is used to enhance data transfer of the plant room model
developed using Revit and sunsequently imported to Trimble Sketchup. Texture property
loss during importing is restored using Trimble Sketchup. Further, the model is then
uploaded to Trimble Connect cloud-based platform to generate MR environment on
Microsoft HoloLens. Once the model is successfully imported into Trimble Connect, the
model is opened by executing Trimble Connect on Microsoft HoloLens as shown in Figure
3. The true scale (1:1) MR model is anchored to a physical space for the participants to
visualize and walk freely to explore the model further in detail.

Figure 3 Trimble Connect Interface

Evaluation of System
All the participants were initially given the opportunity to visualize the paper-based drawing
Figure 5, followed by model visualization through MR environment. Participants were
provided with an opportunity to walk through the model to visualize every placement and
installation details of the MEP equipment. Figure.4 illustrates the full scale (1:1) first-
person view of the plant room and equipment viewed through the Microsoft Hololens.
Participants explored different options such as scaling down to view as a tabletop model,

424
teleporting enabling walkthrough at smaller physical space, anchoring model at different
orientation etc. through Trimble connect MR environment. All the participants were able to
use the device with ease even without having previous experience using such devices.

Figure 4. First Person View of Prototypical Plant Room in MR Environment

Figure5. Paper-Based Drawing of Plant Room

Few of the participants reported lack of model brightness as a limiting factor when used
at well lite physical space. All the participants (100%), however strongly agreed that the use
of immersive technology improved their appreciation of design information much better
than traditional approaches. According to partcipants, the use of the proposed system in the
early design coordination workflow can enhance the coordination process reducing the
amount of time by up to 50- we will
take required actions to bring this kind of visualisation tools for all our projects at the
earliest and this will be added as one of our requirement in our EIR (i.e. Employers
Client Representative].

Discussion
The prototypical MR model anchored to physical space revealed that the placements and
installation details of the equipment and piping were very easy to visualize and understand
rather did on a paper-based drawing. The participants had no previous experience using MR
devices and they could adapt and explore the model in the MR environment quickly.
Walkthrough using MR model revealed all the maintenance accessibilities issues that may
425
have arisen only during installation or mostly during the operation phase of the facility, that
would have led to rework, cost overrun and time. Further visualization of the model in the
MR environment enabled the designers to understand the requirements of different
stakeholders involved in the project, without putting many efforts. Also, it provided an
opportunity for designers to try different installation methods and pipe routing which could
reduce the cost at the same time keeping the health and safety of the installation and
maintenance team in mind. However, few of the participants were concerned about the
capability of using the device on well lite physical space due to the inherent brightness
control limitations.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In this paper, the authors propose a novel methodology for the application of MR in design
coordination as well as investigates the impact of introducing MR into BIM workflow with
a focus on the identification and avoidance of clashes. A prototypical model of the MR
design coordination was presented and discussed. Findings indicate that MR improves
design productivity and quality but also highlights potential infrastructure issues inhibiting
the mainstreaming of MR for design practice. It is clear that integration of MR at the early
design stage and active participation of all stakeholders in design coordination with the aid
of MR devices can considerably reduce reworks, cost and time overruns at the same time
enhancing the safety of the personals handling the task.

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[Paper ID 114]

Lungie Maseko1 and David Root2

Abstract
Construction projects are becoming ever more ambitious in terms of the complexity
of structures, the number of design requirements, information flows, influence
of stakeholders and the extent to which new technologies are being integrated into
buildings, particularly in green buildings. As a consequence, the management of these
projects is becoming increasingly integrated; however, risk management has historically
taken little account of these emergent interdisciplinary and iterative trends in the building
design process. This leads to increasingly poor risk management outcomes, where
traditional risk management practices that rely on allocating risks to specific individual
entities are not able to accommodate the collaborative facets of practice in areas such
as design risk. As part of a comprehensive research into Collaborative Risk Management
(CRM) implementation to green building projects, a case study strategy was adopted where
a mixed-method approach was used to seek practical solutions to this phenomenon from
the
used for managing interdependent design tasks that resulted in inseparable risks. A design
phase ideally requires a design risk management solution that can provide a proactive,
continuous, value-based, focused and process-driven risk management practice that
accommodates design risks in a collaborative design environment.

Keywords: collaboration, design tasks, green buildings, risk sharing

1
Student, School of Construction Economics and Management, University of Witwatersrand,
1 Jan Smut Ave, Johannesburg, Email: lungie.maseko@wits.ac.za
2
Professor, School of Construction Economics and Management, University of Witwatersrand,
1 Jan Smut Ave, Johannesburg, Tel: +27 11 7177664, Email: david.root@wits.ac.za

429
Introduction
Building design involves complex and comprehensive work that requires the
cooperation of variegated specialties as collaborated stakeholders (Liu et al., 2014). With
the multifariousness of projects, building design is becoming increasingly difficult and
complex (Senthilkumar and Varghese, 2010). Thus there has been a major shift in focus
towards collaborative design approaches (El-Diraby et al., 2017). This study intends to
distinguish how project stakeholders in collaborative teams deal with inseparable risks
within their different design tasks.
Collaborative design concentrates on the process of coordination and cooperation of
different stakeholders sharing their knowledge about both the design process and the design
content (Kleinsmann, 2006) as a means of attaining the design goals in the most efficient
and effective way (Liu et al., 2014). But risk management has taken little account of this
emergent collaboration with its interdisciplinary and iterative trends in the design process
when dealing with design risk. Risk management practice continues to rely on allocating
risks to specific individual entities, which is increasing problematic and non-coherence in
the growing Green building sector, where the design philosophy is holistic and treats the
building as a complex integrated system (El-Diraby et al., 2017), that is best designed,
efficiently executed and achieved expected outcome through collaborative practices.
Collaboration has necessitated different stakeholders to have shared understanding of
goals and objectives of a project, whilst helping with knowledge integration (Nonaka and
Takeutchi, 1995) in the process of shared creation (Zhao et al., 2016). Chiu (2002) defines:

provide each other with new insights that will enable each participant to fulfill his own task
without compromising/ affecting the others design while meeting the common green
building objectives. In collaborative designs, tasks are interdependent and iterative (Al
Hattab and Hamzeh, 2015). Iteration assists progressive generation of knowledge, enabling
concurrency and integrating necessary changes, but it also increases the duration and cost of
a project (Wynn and Eckert, 2017). Managing iteration is thus an important issue in practice
to mitigate these excess costs due to non-value adding iterations or rework, but can be a
challenging issue since it relates to risk. Consequently, the need for stakeholder
collaboration and risk management to provide an effective way of managing risks is, present
and unavoidable. Risks are inherent in all complex projects (Peckiene et al., 2013) and they
are faced by all project stakeholders involved. Thus the need for effective risk management
in the design stage of projects (Lam et al., 2007).
Effective design risk management focuses on integrating risk management with existing
design management processes that are consistent with futuristic practices that involve all
project stakeholders (Yang and Zou, 2014). Determining where design risks lie should not
be an intuitive process as it commonly is currently, but a disciplined structured approach.
However, with increased complexity comes increased difficulty in predicting specific risk
situations, their timing and root-causes (El-Sayegh, 2008). How, stakeholders deal with
these risks could be mitigated or managed through the appropriate design management with
properly allocated risks in a collaborative framework.
A shift towards a collaborative approach aligns the incentives and goals of the project
team through shared risk and reward, early involvement of all parties, and a multiparty
agreement (Kent and Becerik-Gerber, 2010). How risks are shared among stakeholders in
the design phase is to a large extent governed by the dynamic evolution of management.
Even risks that have been identified and allocated change in scope, this then becomes an on-
going process that keeps growing with the project dynamics and require different types of

430
responses. In order to manage such risks successfully, collaborative efforts among project
stakeholders are emphasized (Gomes et al. 2016).
Every Collaborative Risk Management (CRM) solution is impacted by people,
technology and the nature of multidisciplinary tasks in the early design stages (Sharma et al.
2013). This fundamentally, has become an important opportunity for improvement to the
collaborative design process of green buildings because stakeholders and tasks in this
design process can be hampered by different views on fundamental topics (Froese et al.
d understanding causing
unnecessary iterative loops (Valkenburg and Dorst 1998) that can be correlated to wasted
design effort. But, whilst there is a continuous need to support better collaboration, the shift
in practice remains uncertain.
CRM is about the dynamic management of risk (Rahman and Kumaraswamy, 2005)
which plays a major role in achieving value-for-money and cost-efficiency in designing
complex projects. How then are risks allocated in these complex projects? Despite the fact
that CRM is arguably an effective tool, the use of CRM still seems to be uncommon
because of the blurred risk allocation lines (Osipova and Eriksson, 2011b).

Green Buildings Management with Collaborative Risk Management

Principles
Green Building (GB) designs are complex undertakings that have given rise to
reciprocal interdependencies between multiple and diverse stakeholders, hence the high
dependence on information, followed by the connectedness of tasks (Austin et al., 2002;
Ahn al. et 2016).Yet, they are the most effective solutions to increase the efficiency of
buildings through resource utilization and recycling, mitigating the negative impact of the
construction industry on the environment (Zuo and Zhao 2014). This has been made
possible by mutual collaboration, adjustments towards working collectively and responding
to emergent, unforeseen problems in real-time. However project realities are such that
current risk practices promote competitive attitudes between the project stakeholders
involved because they tend to work for their self-interests and thus safe-guard their
existence in the project life (Alsalman 2012). So, it is vital to change not only risk
management (RM) practices but, mindsets to shift towards mutual adjustments and rapid
adaptation, where stakeholders will be in a give-and-take interdependence (Morris 2013).
Green-specific risks are unique with each project as they do not have enumerable set of
potential solutions (Rittel and Webber, 1973) because they are unknown and cannot be
determined at the outset of the project. Meaning, all stakeholders have their own knowledge
on RM but CRM would require integration of all unique solutions to deal with
consequential, unknown risks. The change from traditional RM to CRM is loaded with
uncertainties which include risk sharing among all project stakeholders and their response to
this cultural shift.
This shift towards risk sharing requires all stakeholders within complex projects to take
a closer look at their risk universe. Risk sharing is a useful method for handling complex
designs (Melese et al., 2016). It is a collaborative way of managing risks which have an
ability to take advantage of the different views from different stakeholders (Olander, 2007)
and it also identifies risks that cannot just be shifted to one stakeholder but have to be
collaboratively managed (Lam et al., 2007). Collaborative risk management appears to be a
relevant problem as it emphasizes equitable and balanced risk sharing among contracting
stakeholders and wants to eliminate improper or unfavorable risk sharing outcomes which
result in cost and time overrun and, undoubtedly, in legal disputes (Losemore and
McCarthy, 2008).

431
 In this vein, the traditional Critical Path Method, which is based on the descriptions of
task flows using graphic symbols, will not be suitable for modeling information flow which
controls the design phase (Yassine et al., 1999). A Dependency Structure Matrix, or Design
Structure Matrix (DSM), can be employed as a useful tool for coping with design issues of
complex systems (Steward, 1981). The relationships between people assigned to tasks will
be mapped to indicate the presence or absence of the direct relationship. This will show the
strength, degree or type of relationships; risks, tasks and stakeholders have (Eppinger and
Browning, 2012), but these complexities and interdependencies of tasks have resulted in
inseparable risks. These kind of risks cannot be transferred or allocated to an individual, but
would have to be shared collaboratively. How then do project stakeholders in collaborative
teams deal with inseparable risks within their different design tasks?

Identifying Inseparable Risks within a Design Phase

The emphasis of effective RM in dealing with the broad spectrum of risks is moving
beyond the traditional RM mechanics to examine the sources of unknown risks (Jarkas and
Haupt 2015). Though the construction industry has managed to identify and analyze known
risks, it has recognized that dealing with the hidden, less obvious aspects of uncertainty is
complicated and resulting in inseparable risks, and this needs practitioners to be proactive
(Smith and Merritt 2002). Inseparable risks are from uncertainties, ambiguities and arrays of
risk factors that are intricately connected (Thamhain, 2013; Planning, 2017).
In practice, a typical approach to risks is trying to identify them as early as possible and
respond to them as quickly as possible once identified (Kim, 2017). However, green
projects anticipate unidentified risks, also known as unknown unknowns that have
traditionally been underemphasized by risk management (Hillson, 2010; Thamhain, 2013).
It is difficult to trace the causes and culprits of these unknown unknowns as they require
inventive risk handling decisions on risk allocation (Jin et al., 2017). Predicting and
controlling such unknown risks has also developed unpractical risk preferences for some
project stakeholders because they sometimes actively ignore them (Alles 2009). These risk
attitudes have made the risk sharing process challenging (Walker, 2015).
The goal of identifying inseparable risks is to make the process of risk sharing more
efficient through planning and coordination by mutual adjustment, so as to get a better
information flow in design (Fundli and Drevland 2014). Design risks have been classified
in a number of ways. Arguing that risks arise as a result of interactions between
stakeholders, obsolete technology and organizational factors, Smith et al. (2009) suggested
that they may be grouped as either involuntary or voluntary, depending on whether the
incidents that create the risk are uncertain or beyond the control of the people in charge.
The increasing complexity of projects and knowledge processes, makes it imperative for
stakeholders to be keenly aware of the intricate connections of risk variables among
complex systems and processes (Thamain 2013), this limits the effectiveness of traditional
RM methods. Stakeholders argue that no single person has all the smarts and insight for
assessing multi-variable risks and their cascading effects (Hartono et al., 2014). Project
stakeholders realize that, while there may be good RM methods which provide a critically
important toolset for risk management, it takes the collective thinking and collaboration of
all the stakeholders to identify and deal with the complexity of inseparable risks in green
building projects.

Research method and data analysis

For research choices, there are no ideal solutions, only a series of compromises
(Amaratunga et al., 2002) on how one collects and analyze data. A case study strategy was

432
adopted as case studies typically use a variety of data collection methods such as interviews,
questionnaires, and observations (Eisenhardt, 1989). CRM is a relatively innovative concept
in South Africa and, therefore, it is important to obtain a detailed and comprehensive view
of it by investigating it in past and ongoing projects. In particular, how CRM is managed in
design processes and how various stakeholders manage inseparable risks, were areas of
interest. A mixed-method approach in order to seek practical solutions for creating a more
complete picture of real-world problems (Creswell, 2013) was used.
Mixed methods are based on the idea that all methods have bias and weakness, and that
by deliberately combining different methodological approaches and through triangulation of
data, these weaknesses can be neutralized (Creswell, 2013). The rationale for this pragmatic
view of fully adopting the integrated mixed methods (Saunders et al., 2016) is to reveal
complementarity, convergence and dissonance among the findings (Erzerberger & Prein,
1997).
The case study data to this investigation was collected through semi-structured
interviews; with a mixture of open and close-ended questions (Brink, 2014), where
participants were asked - stakeholder techniques on carrying out inseparable tasks, as well
as their options and suggestions on CRM processes of green projects. The logic underlying
the selection of such a data collection method was fourfold:
(1) The interview is comprehensive, in-depth and can deduce validity of each response
(2) Accurate screening. The individual being interviewed is unable to provide false
information during screening questions such as experience, title, etc.
(3) Keep focus. The interviewer is the one that has control over the interview and can
keep the interviewee focused and on track to completion.
(4) The interviewer can probe for explanations of response; body language and facial
expressions are more clearly identified and understood
The sessions followed a pyramid model (Runeson et al., 2012; Stickler and Hampel,
2015) which began with specific questions, and then the open questions during the course of
the interview (Kvale and Brinkmann 2009). The main aspect considered at all times was the
confidentiality of the interviewees.
The case studies selected differ as one is a completed -star green rating project and the
other one is a green project in its design phase. The completed project is the residential
apartments in which upon completion the building had to achieve a 4-star green rating,

this case study reflects on the problems they faced. The other case study is an academic
Forensic Pathology Facility; this project is in its green design phase and the project team is
still engaging with their risks and experiences. In both these projects, many stakeholders
with various backgrounds were involved and it thus was interesting to see how CRM could
be applied. The objective for the interviews was to explore the possible challenges that had
not been identified in the literature review of managing green construction projects; and
identifying areas where inseparable risks were and could be managed. However
interviewees were not limited to stakeholders in these case studies. Other referrals were
utilized, using a non-probability; snowballing sampling technique based on that, only green
building stakeholders are interviewed (Saunders et al., 2016).

Findings and Discussion

This research is still on going, more interviews will be conducted. For now, 16 semi-
structured interviews with different experts were conducted to understand the current risk
allocation practices and the way inseparable risks can be managed in collaborative
circumstances.

433
 Figure1. Profile of Respondents

The research was approved by the University of Witwatersrand Ethics Committee from
the School of Construction Economics and Management and the interviews were conducted
during January 2018 June 2018. Based on the interviews Figure 1 represents the research
demographics; where the respondents were also asked about their risk attitudes and
determinants affecting their risky decisions. It was found that 70% responded to their risk
attitude of a bold characteristic as a decision maker is they
Areas of the projects
done were 65% in Gauteng, 15% in the Western Cape and the other 15% was in different
South African provinces, with only 5% projects done internationally.
Data analysis was done in two steps. First, the case analysis was done to investigate the
unique patterns of each case (Eisenhardt, 1989). The analysis focused on how each project
managed CRM practices. An analysis on sources of design risk, project risk management
process, collaborative activities and the design process results was achieved. Second, cross-
case analysis was performed in order to examine similarities and differences in the projects.
Based on the categories presented by Burns and Stalker (1961) and Geraldi (2008),
comparisons on how different risk management systems were used in the two projects
affected CRM.
on
how they deal with inseparable risks within their different tasks, as shown on Figure 2
below.

Figure2. Interdependent tasks and risks can lead to unfair risk sharing situations

Green building projects involve application of new technology and require new sets
of skills that will allow for unfair risk sharing practices. To manage inseparable design

434
risks, stakeholders suggested co-location where early involvement of the contractor and
client will be beneficial, and the use of design management techniques. These techniques
will improve co-ordination between disciplines and exert managerial control over the design
process. Proper and timeous information sharing with proportional risk sharing approaches
will inspire collaborative work for better technical solutions and help in avoiding many
design risks.
To overcome the traditional attitudes to design which is discipline oriented, all
stakeholders should get GB accreditation training where attendees have the opportunity to
discuss and become familiar with suitable practices of design and risk. Benchmarking
performance on task completion ensures that stakeholders demonstrate significant
commitment, which is fundamental to a successful change system.
Restrictive contractual clauses that impede optimal risk sharing dealings need to be
edited where necessary to suit the interests of all parties in the contract and have a clear
unambiguous language. In order to judge the collaborative climate and satisfaction of each
stakeholder in the design team, stakeholders suggested contracts negotiation and
communication as key to ensuring that all parties are able to perform their respective task
adequately. CRM and Value Engineering workshops had to be on-going for residential
project and for the Forensic Lab, arrangements are being implemented.
The notion of shared insurance for specific design risks was mentioned, so to
balance the risks fairly between stakeholders; in absence of bad faith; leading to a
reasonable price; qualitative performance and the minimization of disputes. This will
dedicate specific contingency budgets and reserve margins to each risk area. Also, there is
an emergence of new roles: the use a project risk manager, a BIM manager and a partnering
or alliance facilitator to evaluate risk, identify potential cost impacts and develop
contingency plans.
Effective CRM will lead to fewer disputes, lower construction costs and a better quality
product, thus the importance of stakeholders to uphold high professionalism and have very
good knowledge of the project. Views on risk sharing by different stakeholders would be
through, the parties' efficient behaviour (efficiency), and the fair attitudes to share the
consequences depending on the capability of the parties (fairness) as shown in Figure 3.

Figure3. Interdependent tasks and risks can have an equitable risk sharing solution

Risk sharing allows the project to utilize the best in-class expertise and knowledge;
it reduces the upfront non-recurring investment of time and cost for each partner; and, it
motivates all partners to expand the market so everyone can benefit. So, decisions on
sharing risks rely on stakeholders having to assign risks prudently by means of flexible
contractual formats.
A fair and equitable risk sharing is essential to ensuring a successful delivery of a
project design. Stakeholders must work collaboratively to seek an equitable sharing of risk
based on an appropriate methodology that seeks to allocate design risks in an efficient

435
manner and with specific considerations. In doing so, the intention will be to reduce project
disputes and benefit of all parties.

Conclusion
Due to the dynamic, complex nature of green designs and the interplay of multi-
stakeholders, RM processes used require collaboration between the stakeholders. The
collaboration needed has been amplified by the interdependencies of stakeholders and their
tasks, and this require integrated database to ensure the consistency and integrity of project
data, enabling efficient data sharing and exchange throughout the design life cycle, and
enable timely access to up-to-date project information. These information dependencies
have resulted in dependable tasks which in turn result to inseparable risks, which are highly
intertwined and difficult to uncouple.
Collaborative risk management is presented an approach that will aid the construction
industry to improve its risk management practices; a solution that emphasizes equitable and
balanced risk sharing among contracting stakeholders; and would help to eliminate
improper or unfavorable risk sharing outcomes which result in cost and time overrun and,
undoubtedly, in legal disputes. It can potentially improve the overall quality of designing
complex projects and be used as a tool by both researchers and practitioners to introduce a
better decision support mechanism for collaborated risk management.

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[Paper ID 157]

Thanwadee Chinda1, K. Sittimak2, N. Thalaengkij3, P. Chaiyapong3, P. Sornpasit4

and W. Ketnak5

Abstract
Many quality performance tools are implemented in the construction industry to enhance
quality performance standard. This paper utilizes an ISO 9001 standard implementation
to develop a dynamic model of construction quality performance in Thai construction
industry. The model consists of five sub-models, namely the Leadership, Plan, Do, Check,
and Act sub-models. Five levels of performance maturity are also developed in this study
to plan for long-term improvement. The simulation results reveal that a company takes
seven years to proceed from level 1 to level 2 of maturity as it lacks experience
and knowledge. With more experience, the company progresses through to higher maturity
levels in shorter period of time. The model achieves the perfect implementation score
of 1,000 points at the end of year 23. This study results can be used to aid the construction
industry in effectively plan for a long-term quality improvement.

Keywords: construction industry, ISO 9001, Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle, quality

performance, system dynamics modelling

1
Associate Professor, School of Management Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, 131 Tiwanont Rd. Bangkadi Muang Pathumthani 12000
Thailand, Email: thanwadee@siit.tu.ac.th
2
Undergraduate Student, School of Management Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, 131 Tiwanont Rd. Bangkadi Muang Pathumthani 12000
Thailand
3
Undergraduate Student, School of Management Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, 131 Tiwanont Rd. Bangkadi Muang Pathumthani 12000
Thailand
4
Undergraduate Student, School of Management Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, 131 Tiwanont Rd. Bangkadi Muang Pathumthani 12000
Thailand
5
Undergraduate Student, School of Management Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, 131 Tiwanont Rd. Bangkadi Muang Pathumthani 12000
Thailand

439
Introduction
Construction industry is dynamic in nature, and the concept of good performance in the
construction industry is hard to define. Aspects of project quality are often overlooked in
order to conform to the schedule and cost constraints. Many international quality standards,
such as the ISO 9001 standard, Deming Cycle, and the balanced scorecard, are therefore
developed as a foundation for quality management system (Zeng et al., 2005). The ISO
9001 is an international standard that indicates requirements for a quality management
system. It is used to demonstrate the ability of a company to consistently provide products
and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements. It places strong emphasis on
product quality and continuous improvement (Nolan, 2016). In the South East Asia region,
the perception of ISO 9001 quality standard is good; however, there are several issues, such
as poor culture of continual improvement and lack of process approach utilization
throughout the organization that are yet studied. Bubshait and Al-Atiq (1999), for example,
evaluated a contractor's quality assurance system in Saudi Arabia against the ISO 9000
standard. Pheng and Pong (2003) examined the compatibility of the recently released ISO
9001: 2000 with OHSAS 18001: 1999 for the purpose of integration, and concluded that the
newly introduced ISO 9001: 2000 standard serves as an opportune platform for construction
firms to consider certification to OHSAS 18001: 1999 through an integration exercise.
Despite the above researches, there is a need to examine interactions among key factors
affecting quality enhancement to effectively plan for construction quality improvement.
Different maturity levels should also be developed, so that the company can plan for
construction improvement, and progress through to higher maturity levels in the long term.
This paper, therefore, aims at developing a dynamic model of quality performance in the
construction industry using an ISO 9001 standard. It is expected that a company can better
understand causal relationships among key factors affecting construction quality, and plan
for quality improvement in the long-term.

Key Factors affecting Quality Performance

Five Key Factors Affecting quality Performance
According to Chaudron (2016), the ISO 9001: 2015 can be generally classified into ten
factors. Gonzalez (2016), however, stated that the ISO 9001:2015 management system
standard clauses can be overlaid with the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle to work in
conjunction with each other. Paulova and Mlkva (2011), on the other hand, mentioned that
leadership is the key element in improving quality management. In this study, therefore,
five key factors, including 1) Leadership, 2) Plan, 3) Do, 4) Check, and 5) Act factors are
used for the dynamic model of quality performance development. They are associated with
a total of 22 items extracted from a number of construction-related literature, such as
Senaratne and Mayuran (2015), Neyestani (2016a), and Shah and Pitroda (2018). They form
a number of causal relationships, as shown in Figure 3. For instance, good management review
leads to better and realistic quality policy and quality plan (ISO 9001, 2008). It could include the
provision of proper training rework tends to reduce,
and workers tend to assist each other to improve quality (Cachadinha, 2009). This, in turn, brings a
better management review.
Leadership factor: This factor consists of five associated items, namely management
review, top-down communication, management commitment, resource allocation,
and accountability Bubshait, and Al-Atiq, 2011; Shah and Pitroda, 2018).

440
 Plan factor: This factor is associated with four items, namely quality policy, quality
plan, reliable plan, and employee empowerment (Hammar, 2018).
Do factor: Five items are associated with this factor. They are documentation,
quality awareness, rework, customer focus, and training Cachadinha, 2009;
Senaratne and Mayuran, 2015).
Check factor: This factor consists of four items, including customer satisfaction,
auditing, peer review, and competitiveness (Neyestani, 2016b, Shaari et al., 2017).
Act factor: this factor is associated with four items: continuous improvement,
preventive action, innovative action, and prompt response (Neyestani, 2016a;
Neyestani, 2016b).

Importance Weights
Importance weight of key factors affecting quality performance
The more relationships an item has on the other items, the more importance it is. To be able
to assess a construction quality performance, and progress through to higher levels of
maturity, each of the five key factors is assigned with its importance weight. In this study, a
total weight of 1,000 points is assigned based on the relationships a factor has on the other
factors (see Figure 1). Leadership, Plan, Do, Check, and Act factors have the importance
weights of 230, 256, 179, 230, and 105 points, respectively.

Figure 1: Causal relationships of items affecting quality performance.

Importance weight of items affecting quality performance

The 22 items associated with five key factors also have different weight. This is based on the

namely the
-

the
Leadership factor have a total of nine influences on the other items; this is converted to the

441
importance weight of 3/9 or 0.33 of a maximum of 230 points (i.e. 75.9 points) of the
Leadership factor. The importance weight of each item is summarized in Table 1.

Influence Values among Key Factors Affecting Quality Performance

Influences among key factors affecting quality performance are achieved from the amount of
influences, representing by a number of flows a factor has on another factor. Each influence
value is calculated and normalized based on the total influences a factor has on the other
factors, as shown in Table 2. The importance weights and influence values among the five
key factors are later used for the dynamic model development.

Table 1. Importance Weight of the 22 Items Associated with Five Key Factors
Factor Item Importance Weight Maximum Score
Leadership Management commitment 0.33 75.9
Management review 0.22 50.6
Top-down communication 0.22 50.6
Accountability 0.12 27.6
Resources allocation 0.11 25.3
Plan Quality plan 0.50 128.0
Employee empowerment 0.30 76.8
Quality policy 0.10 25.6
Unreliable plan 0.10 25.6
Do Customer focus 0.44 79.0
Document information 0.14 25.0
Quality awareness 0.14 25.0
Rework 0.14 25.0
Training 0.14 25.0
Check Peer review 0.44 101.2
Customer satisfaction 0.23 52.9
Auditing 0.22 50.6
Competitiveness 0.11 25.3
Act Continuous improvement 0.25 26.3
Preventive action 0.25 26.3
Innovative action 0.25 26.2
Prompt response 0.25 26.2
Total score 1000

Quality Performance Maturity Level

The quality performance maturity level is developed in this study to assess the maturity level
of a construction quality performance. Each maturity level needs a score-range. EFQM
(1998), for example, divided a total score of 1,000 points into five levels. Chinda (2012), on
the other hand, divided the 1,000 points into six safety maturity levels with the score-ranges.
In this study, a total of 1000 points of quality performance are divided into five maturity
levels based on the ISO 9001 and Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle. Level 1 of maturity has the
score-range from 0 230 points, following the implementation of the Leadership factor.
Level 2 of maturity then has the score-range from 231 486 points, implying the
implementation of the Leadership and Plan factors. Levels 3, 4 and 5 have score-ranges of
487 665, 666 895, and 896 1000 points, respectively.

442
 Table 2. Influence Values among Five Key Factors
From To
Leadership Plan Do Check Act
Leadership - 0.51 0.33 - 0.16
Plan - - 0.50 0.25 0.25
Do - 0.33 - 0.67 -
Check 0.25 0.13 0.37 - 0.25
Act - - 0.67 0.33 -

The Dynamic Model of Quality Performance

Leadership Factor Sub-model
Leadership factor sub-model is illustrated in Figure 2. It consists of five associated items.
The score of each item increases based on its increasing rate and influences from the other
factors (see Equation 1). The total score of the Leadership factor is then the summation of

shown in Equation 2.

Management_review = IF (Ite
(LDS_item1-Item1_L) ELSE Item1_L*Increasing_R_LDS (1)

Leadership score = Min (IF (HISTORY (Item1_L,count_y)+HISTORY (item2_L,count_y)+

HISTORY (item3_L,count_y)+HISTORY (item4_L,count_y)+HISTORY
(item5_L,count_y))=(Item1_L+item2_L+item3_L+item4_L+item5_L+
(Check_to_others*Cor_C_to_LDS)) THEN (ROUND (Item1_L+item2_L+
item3_L+item4_L+item5_L)) ELSE ((Item1_L+item2_L+item3_L+
item4_L+item5_L), Max_LDS) (2)

Plan Factor Sub-model

scores from the Leadership, Do, and Check factors (see Figure 3 and Table 2), as shown in
Equation 3.

Plan score = Min (IF (HISTORY (Item1_P,count_y)+HISTORY (item2_P,count_y)+HISTORY

(item3_P,count_y)+HISTORY (item4_P,count_y))=(Item1_P+item2_P+item3_P+
item4_P+(LDS_to_others*Cor_LDS_to_P)+(Do_to_others*Cor_D_to_P)+(Check_to
_others*Cor_C_to_P)) THEN (ROUND (Item1_P+item2_P+item3_P+item4_P))
ELSE ((Item1_P+item2_P+item3_P+item4_P), Max_Plan) (3)

Do Factor Sub-model

scores from the other four factors (see Figure 4 and Table 2), as shown in Equation 4.

Do score = Min (IF (HISTORY (Item1_D,count_y)+HISTORY (item2_D,count_y)+HISTORY

(item3_D,count_y)+HISTORY (item4_D,count_y)+HISTORY (item5_D,count_y))=

443
 (Item1_D+item2_D+item3_D+item4_D+item5_D+(LDS_to_others*Cor_LDS_to_D)
+(Plan_to_others*Cor_Plan_to_D)+(Check_to_others*Cor_C_to_D)+(Act_to_others*
Cor_A_to_D)) THEN (ROUND (Item1_D+item2_D+item3_D+ item4_D+item5_D))
ELSE ((Item1_D+item2_D+item3_D+item4_D+item5_D), Max_Do) (4)

Check Factor Sub-model

scores from the Plan, Do, and Act factors (see Figure 5 and Table 2), see Equation 5.

Check score = Min (IF (HISTORY (Item1_C,count_y)+HISTORY (item2_C,count_y)+HISTORY

(item3_C,count_y)+HISTORY (item4_C,count_y))=(Item1_C+item2_C+item3_C+
item4_C+ (Plan_to_others*Cor_Plan_to_C)+(Do_to_others*Cor_D_to_C)+
(Act_to_others*Cor_A_to_C)) THEN (ROUND (Item1_C+item2_C+item3_C+
item4_C)) ELSE ((Item1_C+item2_C+item3_C+item4_C), Max_Check) (5)

Figure 2. Leadership Factor Sub-model

444
Figure 3. Plan Factor Sub-model

Figure 4. Do Factor Sub-model

445
 Figure
5. Check Factor Sub-model

Act Factor Sub-model

Act factor sub-model is illustrated in Figure 6. The total score of this factor is the summation

factors (see Table 2), as shown in Equation 6. Based on the five sub-models, the total score
of quality performance and the quality performance maturity level are calculated, see
Equations 7 and 8.
Act score = Min (IF (HISTORY (Item1_A,count_y)+HISTORY (item2_A,count_y)+HISTORY
(item3_A,count_y)+HISTORY (item4_A,count_y))=(Item1_A+item2_A+item3_A+
item4_A+(LDS_to_others*Cor_LDS_to_A)+(Plan_to_others*Cor_P_to_A)+(Check_t
o_others*Cor_C_to_A)) THEN (ROUND (Item1_A+item2_A+item3_A+item4_A))
ELSE ((Item1_A+item2_A+item3_A+item4_A), Max_Act) (6)

Total score = Leadership score+Plan score+ Do score+Check score+Act score (7)

((230<Total_Score) AND
((486<Total_Score) AND
((665<Total_Score) AND (Total_
((895<Total_Score) AND (5) ELSE (0))))) (8)

446
 Figure 6. Act Factor Sub-model

Simulation Results
The dynamic model of construction quality performance is simulated, and the simulation
results are as shown in Figure 7. The results show that it takes six years for the company to
implement the quality improvement program, and progress from level 1 to level 2 of
maturity. With more experiences, the company spends four years each to achieve levels 2
and 3 of quality maturity. With cooperation from management and workers, the company
reaches level 5 of quality performance maturity at the end of year 20. The results also show
that the company achieves a perfect score of 1,000 points in 23 years.

Figure 9. Graphical Results of Total Score and Maturity Level

447
Conclusions
nomic, there is a need for Thai construction companies to
achieve high quality performance to gain competitive and conform to customer
requirement. This study utilizes the ISO 9001 and Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle to develop a
dynamic model of quality performance to examine the quality performance of Thai
construction industry in the long-term. The model consists of five sub-models, namely the
Leadership, Plan, Do, Act, and Act sub-models. The simulation results reveal that the
construction company struggles to progress to higher level of maturity at the beginning
years of quality improvement program implementation. This might be because of lack of
cooperation from management and working levels. With more management support and
reliable quality policy, the company can achieve levels 3 and 4 in shorter period of time. To
progress through to level 5 of maturity, the continuous improvement plan must be executed.
The results show that the company can achieve level 5 of quality performance maturity in
23 years. The dynamic model of quality performance developed in this study is based on the
data gathered from construction-related literatures. Primary data can be used to increase the
accuracy of the model results. Moreover, each causal relationship is assumed to have equal
importance. Further clarification could be performed using, for example, cross impact
analysis.

Reference
Bubshait, A.A.and Al-Atiq, T.H., 1999. ISO 9000 quality standards in construction. Journal
of management in engineering, 15(6), 41-46.
Cachadinha, N.M., 2009. Implementing quality management systems in small and medium
construction companies: a contribution to a road map for success. Leadership and
management in engineering, 9(1), 32-39.
Chaudron, M., 2016. ISO 9001:2015
standard [online]. Available from: https://www.asqhouston.org/media/files/files/
0194d17c/QMS-1_ISO_9001-2015_STANDARD_TRANSITIONING_FROM_THE_
REGISTRAR_CERTIFICATION_POINT_OF_VIEW_-_MIKE_CHAUDRON.pdf
[Accessed 7 June 2018].
Chinda, T., 2012. A safety assessment approach using safety enablers and results.
International journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, 3, 343-361.
EFQM, 1998. Self-assessment: guidelines for Companies. European Foundation for Quality
Management, Brussels, Belgium.
Gonzalez, M., 2016. The ISO 9001:2015sStandard and the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle
[online]. Available from: https://www.qualitywbt.com/wp-content/uploads/The-ISO-
9001-2015-Standard-and-the-PDCA-Cycle.pdf [Accessed 7 June 2018].
Hammar, M., 2018. Plan-Do-Check-Act in the ISO 9001 standard [online]. Available from:
https://advisera.com/9001academy/knowledgebase/plan-do-check-act-in-the-iso-9001-
standard/ [Accessed 7 June 2018].
ISO 9001, 2008. Management review [online]. Available from: https://www.iso-9001-
checklist.co.uk/tutorial/5.6-management-review.htm. [Accessed 13 June 2017].

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Neyestani, B., 2016a. Effectiveness of quality management system (QMS) on construction
projects. Munich Personal RePEc Archive, Department of Civil Engineering, De La
Salle University, Manila, Philippines.
Neyestani, B., 2016b. Impact of ISO 9001 certification on the projects' success of large-
scale (AAA) construction firms in the Philippines. International research journal of
management, IT and social sciences (IRJMIS), 3(11), 35-45.
Nolan, J., 2016. Would construction companies benefit fromISO9001? [online]. Available
from: https://advisera.com/9001academy/blog/2016/06/07/would-construction-
companies-benefit-from-iso-9001/ [Accessed 15 May 2017].
Paulova, I. and Mlkva, M., 2011. Leadership the key element in improving quality
management. Kvalita inovacia prosperita/Quality innovation prosperity, 15(1), 27-36.
Pheng, L.S. and Teo, J.A., 2003. Implementing total quality management in construction
through ISO 9001: 2000. Architectural science review, 46(2), 159-165.
Senaratne, S. and Mayuran, J., 2015. Documentation management based on ISO for
construction industries in developing countries. Journal of construction in developing
countries, 20(2), 81 95.
Shaari, N., Abdullah, M.N., Sheng, S.Z., and Lokman, M.A.A., 2017. Quality management
system in contractor organizations: an empirical study on costs and benefits of ISO
9001: 2008 implementation. International journal of real estate studies, 11(5), 1-10.
Shah, H. and Pitroda, J.R., 2018. A critical literature review on quality management for
infrastructure projects. International journal of engineering research and development,
14(3), 18-21.
UNIDO, 2012. ISO 9001 its relevance and impact in Asian developing economies
[online]. Based on Project TE/RAS/09/003 a survey covering quality management
system development, certification, accreditation and economic benefits. United Nations
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Development Cooperation. Available from: https://www.unido.org/sites/default/files/
2012-05/ISO%209001%20Impact%20Survey-eBook_ver2_0.pdf [Accessed 5 June
2018].
Zeng, S.X., Tian, P., and Shi, J.J., 2005. Implementing integration of ISO 9001 and ISO
14001 for construction. Managerial auditing journal, 20(4), 394-407.

449
[Paper ID 26]

Olalekan Oshodi1, Oyewale Oyedeji2 and Clinton Aigbovboa3

Abstract
The property market plays a vital role in the economy of any nation. The industry provides
jobs, investment opportunities and constructed space for productive activities, among
others. Several authors have developed predictive models for the rental value of residential
properties. However, little is known about the impact of tourist site on the rental value
of residential properties. This study seeks to examine the effect of tourist sites on the rental
value of residential properties using an artificial intelligence technique. The predictive
modelling approach was utilised in this study. It was found that proximity to tourist site
and security are the most important factors influencing rental prices of residential
properties. In addition, the developed Neural Network (NN) model could adequately predict
the rental value of residential properties (93.75% were correctly predicted). The results
of this study demonstrates that the NN model is a useful tool for forecasting of the rental
value of properties. The findings of this study provide valuable information for policy
makers, professionals in the built environment and property investors.

Keywords: Forecasting, modelling, neural network, rental value, residential property

1
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research
Centre, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South
Africa, Email: os.oshodi@gmail.com
2
Lecturer, Department of Estate Management, Bells University of Technology, Ogun State,
Nigeria, Email: diranjosh@gmail.com
3
Associate Professor, Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, Faculty
of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa,
Email: caigbavboa@uj.ac.za

450
Introduction
Research in the real estate sector has evolved over the years. This situation has led to the
development of several models for forecasting of rental values of residential properties. The
process of assembling residential properties contributes to economic growth through
employment generation, production in the manufacturing sector and business opportunities,
among others (see Chiang, Tao, & Wong, 2015; Saks, 2008). Also, foreclosures in the real
estate market have been linked to the Global Financial Meltdown (see Jiang, Jin, & Liu,
2013). These shreds of evidence found in literature show that the residential property
market is an important segment of any economy. In the existing literature, the predictive
models for this class of properties focused on countries such as Australia (Li & Li, 1996);

(Bond & Hopkins, 2000); Nigeria (Abidoye & Chan, 2017); United Kingdom (McGreal,
Adair, McBurney, & Patterson, 1998) and United States of America (Nghiep & Al, 2001),
among others.
The approach used for modelling and forecasting of the value of residential properties
can be classified into two. First, modelling the relationship between economic variables and
value of residential properties (see Mallick & Mahalik, 2015). Second, forecasts of the
value of residential properties are generated based on attributes, such as the number of
rooms (see Abidoye & Chan, 2017; Li & Li, 1996). Despite the rapid development of
residential market research, certain markets in developing countries (such as Nigeria) are
under-researched. This has been attributed mainly to the lack of data (Abidoye & Chan,
2016). Also, little is known about the impact of tourist sites on the rental value of residential
properties.
The purpose of this study is to develop a predictive model for rental values of residential
properties using the neural network. The goal of this study was achieved through two
objectives: (i) model the relationship between the rental value of residential property and its
attributes and (ii) examine the impact of property attributes on rental value. The findings of
value of
study to the existing
knowledge.

Literature Review
Property attributes
Research into residential property value forecasting has a long history. Some of the studies
found in the literature include Abidoye and Chan (2017) and Lam et al. (2009), among
others. Bond and Hopkins (2000) found that proximity to high voltage overhead
transmission lines does not affect the value of residential properties in New Zealand. Lam et
al. (2009) reported that the presence of a garden has a significant impact on the value of
residential properties in Hong Kong. Other attributes affecting the value of residential
properties include: property location; number of bedrooms; number of toilets; number of
bathrooms; property type; number of boy's quarters; number of parking space; age of
property, number of floors and availability of sectors (Abidoye & Chan, 2017; Lam et al.,
2009; Nghiep & Al, 2001). Information gleaned from the literature shows that a multiplicity
of factors affect the value of residential properties.

451
Forecasting techniques used in previous research
A significant and growing body of studies has used modelling techniques for forecasting of
the value of residential properties. In forecast oriented research, the process of model
development can be divided into five distinct but iterative stages. First, relevant theories
useful for prediction of the outcome variable are identified from the literature. Second, the
theoretical constructs are operationalised into measurable constructs. Third, relevant data
relating to the constructs are collected from reliable sources. Fourth, the collected data is
divided into two groups (training data which is used for estimating the model and test data
used for evaluating the predictive accuracy of the developed model). Finally, the model is
calibrated, and the predictive performance of the model is calculated. The outcome of
forecasting oriented research is useful in testing of existing theories (Shmueli and Koppius,
2011). The theory upon which the model is developed is revised or discarded if the
predictive accuracy of the developed model is low.
Based on a review of the literature, the techniques used for modelling and forecasting of
the value of residential properties include analytical, regression (also referred to as
hedonic), neural network and support vector machine, among others (Abidoye & Chan,
2017; Lam et al., 2009; Li & Li, 1996). These techniques can be classified into two broad
groups: linear and non-linear approaches. Comparative analysis of the predictive accuracy
of different techniques has been used to evaluate the performance of the developed models.
For example, Abidoye and Chan (2018) found that the neural network model outperformed
the regression model when applied to residential property value forecasting. Also, Nghiep
and Al (2001) reported that the predictive performance of the neural network model was
better than that of the regression model when used for residential property value forecasting.
Based on the findings of previous research, the neural network was used for forecasting of
the rental value of residential property in this study.
Study Area
Recently, the Nigerian economy has been in a recession. This situation is primarily due to
low revenue from crude oil sales. Previous research has shown that changes in crude oil
prices have an impact on construction cost (Olatunji, 2010). However, it must be noted that
the effect of changes in crude oil prices on rental value is unknown. This could be attributed
to the lack of quantitative data in developing countries, such as Nigeria (see K'Akumu,
2007). Based on the foregoing, there have been government reforms aimed at improving the
volume of internally generated revenue. Also, rent is one of the potential sources of revenue
for private sector investors.
Nigeria is made up of 36 states and a federal capital territory Abuja. According to
Olaleye (2008), the Nigerian property market can be classified into two groups: primary
(characterised with high rental and capital values) and secondary markets (characterised
with low rental and capital values). Osun state is situated in the South-West region of
Nigeria. A lot of tourist sites, which holds historical information about the Yoruba race, are
located within Osun State. For example, the Osun grove is a tourist site that attracts a large
volume of tourists to Osun State (Woosnam, Aleshinloye, & Maruyama, 2016). Although
the state contains predominantly single-family residential homes, there are some multi-unit
houses and a small number of commercial properties.
Research Method
Data
Advancements in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has been tremendous. This has led
to the development of several techniques for modelling and forecasting. These techniques
452
have been applied to problems in the different field of research, such as food processing
(Cortez, Cerdeira, Almeida, Matos, & Reis, 2009), construction economics (Oshodi,
Ejohwomu, Famakin, & Cortez, 2017), structural mechanics (Tinoco, Gomes Correia, &
Cortez, 2016) and structural health monitoring (El-Abbasy, Senouci, Zayed, Mirahadi, &
Parvizsedghy, 2014), among others. Hence, the NN, which is an AI modelling technique,
was applied to rental value prediction in this research.
To achieve the first objective of this study, there is a need to collect data relating to the
rental value of residential properties. To this end, transaction data were collected from real
estate firms and property owners. This is because there is no centralised database for
property transactions in Nigeria (Abidoye & Chan, 2017). The collected data contained
information about transaction details of properties located in Oshogbo, Osun State. The
information relating to structural attributes for each property was collected. This is
consistent with the approach used in previous studies (Abidoye & Chan, 2017; Bond &
Hopkins, 2000; Nghiep & Al, 2001). In addition, spatial information relating to the
proximity of each property to tourist site (i.e. Osun grove) was collected.
Information relating to 160 property rental transactions were retrieved, and this
represents the data used for the study. The transaction data contains information on ten
independent variables and one dependent variable (i.e. the rental value of the residential
property). The variables in the final NN model are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Variables used in the model

Variable Name Variable Definition of variable

DFCS Distance from cultural site Classified into four groups (0-200m,
201-400m, 401-600m, 601-800m)
State Age of building
Security Perceived sense of security
Security.S Presence of security 1 if available and, 0 if not available
operatives
Interior
Exterior Numeric values of 1, 2, 3, 4,
Dist.to.shopping Proximity to shopping center
Water Pipe-borne water 1 if available and, 0 if not available
Road Road infrastructure 1 if available and, 0 if not available
Rooms Number of rooms Numeric values of 1,
Rent Rental value (per annum in Less than 50,000; 50,001-100,000;
Naira) 100,001-150,000; over 150,001

Model Specification
In the current study, a three-layer feed forward neural network (NN) model was applied to
forecasting of the rental value of residential properties. NN model is inspired by the human
brain. The NN model is made up of interconnected neurons whose functioning is similar to
the human brain. The neurons in the NN model is calibrated during the learning phase. The
final forecast computed by the model is largely dependent on the initial weights of the

453
neurons. To reduce the variations in the final forecast from the NN model due to
randomisation, an ensemble of NNs was applied in the present study. The final predictions
from each NN model were averaged (Hastie, Tibshirani, & Friedman, 2008). The
architecture of the NN model is 10-H-1. The input layer has 10 neurons (i.e. 10 independent
variables). The number of nodes in the hidden layer (H) is the only parameter of the ANN
model that was tuned using a grid search algorithm. The output layer (neuron) of the NN
model is rental value.
The predictive experiments were carried out using the R-programming (R Core Team,
2015) and rminer package, which facilitates application of artificial intelligence models
(such as ANN) to real-world problems (Cortez, 2010). The process of developing predictive
models entail two important phases: model estimation and model validation. The NN model
was estimated by capturing the relationship between the 10 independent variables and rental
value. To validate the model, the collected data was divided into two groups (i.e. training
and test data set). Zhang, Patuwo, and Hu (1998) mentioned that the ratio for training and
test data set in previous studies include 90:10; 80:20 and 70:30, respectively. For this study,
the collected data were randomly divided into two groups based on 70% and 30% (112 and
48).

Results and Discussion

Results
Artificial intelligence models are used to predict numerical values (regression) and groups
(classification). In this study, the rental value of residential properties was grouped into four
classes: (A) less than N 50,000; (B) N 50,001 - N 100,000; (C) N 100,001 - N 150,000; and
(D) over N 150,001. For classification problems, the predictive performance of the model is

classification models range between 0% and 100%, and a value close to 100% shows
perfect performance (see Cortez, 2015).
The results from model validation (i.e. prediction of the test data set using the trained
NN model) are summarised and presented in Table 2. The overall predictive accuracy of the
NN model is 93.75 percent.

Table 2. Prediction results for all for the logistic regression model

Observed Predicted Accuracy (%)

A B C D
A 5 0 0 0 100.00
B 1 8 1 0 80.00
C 0 0 14 1 93.33
D 0 0 0 18 100.00
Overall 93.75

Sensitivity Analysis
Compared to regression, the NN model does not provide outputs which contain coefficients
for each variable. This outcome makes it difficult to interpret the importance of each

454
independent variable included in the final NN model. Hence, little is known about the
contribution of each independent variable to the prediction of the outcome variable (i.e.
rental value). This is the main reason AI models are called black box models (see Dreiseitl
& Ohno-Machado, 2002). Sensitivity analysis was proposed in Cortez and Embrechts
(2013) as an approach for visualising the relative importance of variables included in AI
models, such as NN. Figure 1 shows the relative importance of the independent variables
used in the development of the NN model.
The RI value ranges between .0 and .25, where a .0 value indicates that the attribute
does not affect the rental value, while .25 connotes a highly significant contribution to the
rental value of residential properties. As can be seen from Figure 1, DFCS, Security.S,
Rooms and Security are the independent variables which have a significant impact on the
rental value of residential properties. Surprisingly, water has the least effect on rental value.

Figure 1. The relative importance of independent variables

Discussion of Findings
Very little was found in the literature on the effect of tourist site on the rental value of
residential properties. The present study was designed to address this gap in the literature by
modelling and forecasting of the rental value of residential properties. The most exciting
finding was that proximity to tourist site has a significant impact on the rental value of
residential properties located within the study area. The predictive accuracy of the
developed NN model is 93.75 percent. The finding of the present study also demonstrates
the efficacy of using NN model for forecasting of the rental value of residential properties.

455
Distance from the cultural site, the presence of security operatives, number of rooms and
perceived sense of security around the location of the building are good predictors of the
rental value of residential properties. Contrary to expectations, it was revealed that
availability of pipe-borne water has no impact on the rental value of residential properties.
The results of this study will now be compared to the findings of previous work. These
findings confirm that attributes of a residential property (see Table 1) are useful for
predicting its value. For example, Abidoye and Chan (2017) found that property attributes
are good predictors of property value. Similar findings were also reported in Lam et al.
(2008); McGreal et al. (1998); and Li and Li (1996), among others. The findings observed
in this study mirror those reported in previous studies focused on evaluating the efficacy of
using AI models for forecasting of property value. The outcome shows that the relationship
between the attributes of a residential property and its value is non-linear. The predictive
performance of the NN model could be attributed to its ability to capture the non-linear
relationship between property value and its attributes.
On the overall, the NN model provides a reliable forecast of the rental value of
residential properties. This study has shown that proximity to tourist site and presence of
security operatives are the two most important attributes affecting the rental value of
residential properties. This study contributes to the existing knowledge in the field of
property economics in two ways. First, it has provided evidence showing the influence of
tourist sites on the rental value of residential properties. Second, this, to our (i.e. authors)
knowledge, is the first study to apply classification models to the prediction of the rental
value of residential properties in the context of developing countries, such as Nigeria. While
the findings of the present study are promising, it must be acknowledged that not all
predictors of rental value are captured in the developed model. The developed NN model
can be used as a decision support tool for the prediction of the rental value of residential
properties.
Conclusion
The study, reported in this paper, set out to develop a model for predicting the rental value

proximi
main findings emanate from the outcomes of this research. First, the attributes of a
residential property are good predictors of its value. Second, the distance between a
residential property and a tourist site has an impact on its rental value. Finally, the neural
network model is an excellent for forecasting of the rental value of residential properties.
The outcome of this investigation clearly shows that proximity to tourist site has an
impact on the rental value of residential properties. Also, it is evident that the attributes of a
residential property emerged as reliable predictors of its rental value. In general, the
evidence from this study suggests that location is the most important variable that influences
the rental value of a residential property. The present study contributes to the existing
knowledge in the field of property economics by providing insights into the impact of
tourist sites on the value of residential properties.
The findings presented in this paper are subject to certain limitations. First, the data set
available for modelling is small. The lack of quantitative data remains a challenge faced by
researchers in the field of construction economics and property economics. Second, the
findings are based on the modelling approach. Third, the data collected is limited to a
particular section of Nigeria. Despite these limitations, the use of the hold-out sample (i.e.
training and test data set) ensure that the developed NN model is robust and reliable. This is
similar to the approach used in previous studies (such as Abidoye & Chan, 2017; Lam et al.,

456
2009). The findings of the current study offer insight into the relationship between attributes
of residential properties and its value. Further research is needed to establish whether
proximity to tourist site has an impact on the sale value of residential properties. Also, it
would be interesting to assess the impact of tourist site on the value of commercial
properties. These findings imply that location and attributes of residential property should
be taken into account when making a decision relating to investment.

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458
[Paper ID 154]

Monsuru Oyenola Popoola1, Olanrewaju Ahmed Apampa2

and Oladapo Samson Abiola3

Abstract
The prevalent and incessant delay in completion of road construction projects are alarming
that it creates several negative effects to social, economic and environmental values
of the project. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and determined the various causes
and effects of delay in road construction projects in Nigeria. Likert Scale questionnaire
design was used to administered and analysed the data obtained for the study. 135
questionnaires were completed and retrieved from the respondents, out of 200
questionnaires sent out, representing a response rate of 67.5%. The analysis utilized
the Relative Importance Index (RII) and correlation coefficient method, the analysis
of the relation is based on the categories of the respondents; Clients, Contractors,
Consultants and Users. The findings confirms that at least 30 factors were the causes of road
projects delay in Nigeria with most including delay in progress payments,
leadership/government instability, corruption, difficulties in financing project by contractor
and lack of commitment, and others; the study also identified six effects of project delay.
The Spearman's rank correlation test revealed that there were no difference in perception
among all categories of respondents. The outcome serves as contribution to the Nigeria road
construction industry in mitigating future delay.

Keywords: Client, cost overrun, government instability, project planning, road construction
delay

1
Civil Engineering Department, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta,
E-mail: popoola.monsuru@mapoly.edu.ng
2
Civil Engineering Department, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta,
E-mail: pampasng@yahoo.com
3
Civil Engineering Department, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta,
E-mail: lolu4dapo@yahoo.com

459
Introduction
A road construction project is commomnly admitted as succeful when it is completed as
scheduled, with budget, according the specifications, and stakeholder satisfaction. However,
most of the road project did not finish as the expected timetable. Instead, they are completed
after the scheduled time due to uncertatnty of events and its uniqueness
The influence of delay in road construction project in Nigeria cannot be underestimated as it
has grave consequences on the stakeholders (government, consultants, contractors and
users) and the nation at large. The problem of road project delay and abandonment such as
time overrun and cost target overrun have largely characterized the Nigerian road
construction industry. These occur as a result of many unidentified factors which eventually
lead to delay in completion of road construction projects. Unless the factors influencing
delay road construction project in Nigeria are identified, the statistics of failed road projects
will likely continue to be on the increase.
It was noted in Olusegun & Michael (2011) that there are about one hundred uncompleted
or abandoned road projects which belong to the Federal and state Government of Nigeria
with an estimated cost of over N180 billion which will also take years to complete at the
current execution capacity of the government. The study focused on road construction
projects in Nigeria, Lagos state and Ogun State region as a case study. In Nigeria, it is very
rare cases that road construction project is completed on the time specified or agreed upon.
There are many road construction projects in Nigeria, which suffered delay or in some cases
suffered suspension or abandonment.

Literature Review
Review of past studies show that the most common and frequent problem in construction
projects is the delay in project delivery or completion. Construction delay refers to the time
overrun in completion or delivery of project beyond the date on which parties agreed or
project completion data specified (Assaf and Al-Hejji 2006), in Nigeria we mostly
experienced untimely completion of road construction projects. Shi, et al (2001), Odeh and
Battaineh, (2002), Kaming, et al (2007) and Alaghbari, et al (2007) stressed on the early
identification of construction delays and suggested some main solutions for avoiding delays.
Many factors have been traced to delay of construction projects. Yeo (2002) discovered that
hostile company culture, political pressure, improper reporting structure, influences, vested
interest and inappropriate level of management commitment are the organizational and
managerial causes of road project abandonment. Ewusi-Mensah & Przasnyski (2001)
highlighted staffing, managerial and communication as the causes of road project
abandonment. Keider, (2004). in his study concluded that although some projects
completion are delayed as a result of technology or design problems, the main reason
behind project abandonment is a lack of understanding of the influence of project
management on road construction projects thereby leading to abandonment in some cases.
Other causes of road project abandonment include lack of social analysis of a project,
project imposition, improper financial analysis, under bidding of project, bankruptcy,
variation of project scope and incompetent project managers are responsible for road project
abandonment in Nigeria.
Delay of road construction projects as a result of these factors negatively has effect on both
the project and the system. Olusegun & Michael (2011) concluded that road project delay
leads to the disappointment of the community, wastage of resources, decrease in economic
activities, difficulties in attracting foreign investments, low standard of living and increase
in the final cost of the project. Carrero, et al (2009) described the impacts of delay in project
completion as both socio-economic and environmental. Henachor, (2012) suggested that
project abandonment has its effect on individual, community and the government.

460
The solutions according to Olusegun & Michael (2011) are adequate planning from
inception, making fund available at all times, engage competent construction professionals,
avoid variation in the scope of the project, regular and prompt payment to the contractors,
partnering risk appointment, clear and concise communication, root cause analysis,
government inflation should be at barest minimum, maintaining morale and right culture,
keeping register of uncertainty, previously started jobs should not be abandoned for new
idea and strong financial based contractors should be employed. Henachor, (2012) took a
multi-dimensional approach by suggesting social analysis, institutional analysis, financial
analysis, economic analysis and technical analysis to solve the problem of road project
abandonment.
Aibinu and Jagboro, (2002) studied the effects of construction delays on completion or
delivery of construction project in Nigerian large construction industry and mentioned them
as: time overrun, cost overrun, dispute, arbitration and abandonment. In construction
industry of Saudi Arabia, Assaf and Al-Hejji (2006) found that approximately 70% of the
construction projects experienced time overruns. Manavazhia and Adhikarib (2002)
conducted a survey to for the investigation of the delay in the delivery of materials and
equipment to the large construction sites and found important effect such as cost overruns.

Research Methodology
This study is both survey and descriptive in nature and involves the assessment through the
use of structured questionnaire and interview for data collection. The sample for this study
consists of on-going and abandoned road projects within Ogun State and Lagos state region
of Nigeria. The road projects used for the study were selected through convenience
sampling (Non-probabilistic) technique.

Data Collection and Sampling Design

The process of data collection and the design of questionnaire start with the development of
sample questionnaire with an intensive review of literatures, the questionnaire was
developed based on previous research; Manavazhia and Adhikarib (2002) and Ewusi-
Mensah & Przasnyski (2001). A pilot study conducting within Ogun and Lagos State region
of Nigeria, with an interview and questionnaire to select the significant causes and effects of
delay/abandonment. Finally, the validity of the questionnaire was also conducted by the
experience expert in road construction. As a result; the clarity, completeness, and
applicability of the questionnaire are confirmed. The study comes up with the design list of
30 causes under five main categories, namely; Client related factors, contractors related
factor, consultant related factors, materials/equipment related factors and external issues.
Also, six critical effects of delay in the Nigerian road construction projects were established.
Questionnaires were administered to the selected respondents who were identified using
purposive random sampling approach. These questionnaires were administered to the four
(4) groups of stakeholder involves in road project execution, This groups were chosen
because they represent the main groups of stakeholders having stakes and involvement in
the road construction projects; the group include the Client (Usually the government
ministries or agencies), consultants, contractors and the end- users. The selection is also
based on the researcher judgmental knowledge and it is regarded the most convenient in this
study.
The format of the questionnaire comprised of the five related factors (Client Related
Factors, Contractors Related Factors, Consultant Related Factors, Materials and Equipment
Related Factors, External Issues factors) under a combined 30 attributes factors. A five (5)
point Likert scale method was adopted (5 =
Extremely Significant (ES), 4 = Very Significant (VS), 3 = Moderately Significant (MS), 2

461
= Slightly Significant (SS), 1 = Not Significant (NS)
A total of 200 questionnaires were sent, 135 questionnaires were returned with complete
answers representing a response rate of 67.5%, the percentage distribution of target
respondent was based on the available number of each category of staff on road project;
Contractor has more staff on road project construction, the staff include the engineers,
technicians and plant operators, followed by Client category, which are usually ministry and
government parastatals staff, users category are the drivers plying the road and the
neighborhoods, and consultants provide the engineering and construction expertise to
provide real-world, cost-effective solutions, consultants have the least number of staff on
road project. This response rate was acceptable in a study with such a total questionnaire
sample size (Kobbacy 2013). The data were analyzed using the statistical tool relative
importance index (RII) method which ranks the different critical delaying factors.
Moreover, rs) was used to test the degree of agreement or
disagreement in the ranking of the significant delaying factors between the categories of
respondents. Finally, the analysis explained the respondents combined view and groups rank
based on RII values that are most critical in the ranking list.

Ranking and Computation of Relative Importance Index (RII)

Relative Importance Index (RII) is used to determine the relative importance of the various
causes and effects of delay in road construction projects using five- point Likert scale. The
higher value of the relative importance index (RII) represents the important cause or effect
of delay and vice versa (Aibinu and Jagboro, 2002). It is computed by equation 1
WiFi
RII ......................................................(1)
A N
where RII is the relative importance index, i is the response category index, Wi is the weight
given by respondents, Fi is the frequency of respondent for each weight, A is the highest
weight and N is the total number of respondents. Relative Importance Index (RII) had a
range from 0 to 1 (0 not inclusive). The greater the RII value, the more significant the cause
of the critical delay was.

rs) (El-razek, et al 2008), (Hwang et al 2013) is

used to evaluate and compare the degree of agreement or disagreement between the
categories of respondents (Clients, Contractors, Consultant and Users) on the critical
delaying factors. The rs values vary between 0 and 1.
The rs (Kottegoda and Rosso 1997) is used to measure by equation 2:
6 d2
rs ....................................................................( 2)
n(n 2 1)

where rs = Spearman rank correlation coefficient between two parties, d = difference

between ranks assigned to each factor, and n = the number of pairs of rank.

Results and Discussion

Table 1 presents the summary of the questionnaire distribution, their responses and
respondents' profile

462
 Table 1: Questionnaire distribution and their responses
Category of Questionnaire Distribution Profile of Respondents
respondents Sent Returned % Returned %
Clients 70 44 62.9 32.6
Contractors 80 57 71.3 42.2
Consultants 20 11 55.0 8.2
Users 30 23 76.7 17.0
Total 200 135 67.5 100

Ranking of Factors Responsible for Road Construction Delay

Table 2 shows the critical delaying factors
were separated and examined individually and
ranked based on RII values. Furthermore, a combined view of Clients, Contractors,
Consultants and view Users on delaying factors helps to identify the most critical significant
delaying factors.

Table 2: RII value and ranking of critical delaying factors

Client Contractor Consultant User Combined
Critical delaying Factors
RII Rk RII Rk RII Rk RII Rk RII Rk
Clients Related Factors
Unrealistic contract duration 0.672 12 0.684 11 0.766 3 0.55 27 0.668 10
Complex procedure and Delay in progress payments 0.668 15 0.793 1 0.654 12 0.781 1 0.724 1
Wrong choice of consultants and contractors 0.723 4 0.543 25 0.661 10 0.744 3 0.668 11
Delay in revising and approving design documents 0.638 18 0.577 22 0.603 23 0.673 11 0.623 22
Repetition due to changes of scope during construction 0.727 3 0.767 2 0.618 21 0.562 22 0.669 9
Contractors Related Factors
Difficulties in financing project by contractor 0.671 13 0.591 20 0.752 4 0.737 4 0.686 4
Construction repetition due to error in execution 0.511 30 0.764 3 0.642 14 0.654 17 0.643 17
Ineffective planning and Poor site management 0.577 24 0.527 27 0.593 25 0.67 14 0.592 29
inappropriate construction methods implemented 0.630 20 0.625 17 0.609 22 0.632 19 0.624 21
Inadequate, inexperience and Incompetent manpower 0.562 26 0.743 6 0.715 7 0.557 26 0.644 16
Delay in site mobilization 0.571 25 0.515 30 0.598 24 0.663 16 0.587 30
Consultants Related Factors
Project awarded to lowest bid price 0.819 1 0.562 24 0.795 1 0.517 30 0.673 8
Delay in evaluation of completed works 0.716 6 0.607 19 0.528 30 0.758 2 0.652 14
Discrepancies and ambiguities in contract documents 0.699 8 0.572 23 0.747 5 0.617 20 0.659 12
Delays in producing design documents 0.674 11 0.519 28 0.629 19 0.642 18 0.516 23
Insufficient data collection and survey before design 0.579 23 0.541 26 0.627 20 0.67 14 0.604 27
0.703 7 0.698 10 0.539 29 0.522 29 0.616 24
Materials /Equipment Related Factors
Shortage and unavailability of materials and equipment 0.591 22 0.615 18 0.640 17 0.561 24 0.602 28
Improper equipment selection and faulty equipment 0.769 2 0.517 29 0.582 26 0.71 7 0.645 15
Delay in material delivery 0.560 27 0.663 13 0.742 6 0.562 22 0.632 19
Poor quality materials 0.675 9 0.633 16 0.582 26 0.543 28 0.608 25
External Issues
Lack of adequate communication between the parties 0.634 19 0.589 21 0.649 13 0.559 25 0.608 26
Extreme/Adverse weather conditions 0.722 5 0.764 3 0.553 28 0.576 21 0.654 13
Dispute on land usage and legal disputes 0.647 17 0.711 9 0.642 14 0.694 9 0.674 7
Community Influences 0.517 29 0.719 8 0.642 14 0.673 11 0.638 18
Corruption 0.675 9 0.656 14 0.688 9 0.734 5 0.688 3
Natural disasters (force majeure) 0.544 28 0.647 15 0.633 18 0.701 8 0.631 20
Economy Instability/Inflation 0.659 16 0.665 12 0.714 8 0.673 11 0.678 6
Leadership/Government Instability 0.669 14 0.742 7 0.773 2 0.686 10 0.716 2
Government Inconsistency and Lack of Commitment 0.612 21 0.746 5 0.657 11 0.718 6 0.683 5
Average of Impact of Delay 0.647 0.643 0.652 0.645 0.647

463
The combined views of the top eight delaying factors are showed in Table 2, and includes
complex procedure and delay in progress payments (RII = 0.724), leadership/government
Instability (RII = 0.716), corruption (RII = 0.688), difficulties in financing project by
contractor (RII = 0.686), government Inconsistency and lack of commitment (RII = 0.683),
economy instability/inflation (RII = 0.678), dispute on land usage and legal disputes (RII =
0.674), and award project to the lowest bid price (RII = 0.673) in sequential order. It can be
concluded from Table 2 that one factor each were Clients, Contractor, and Consultants
related, while the other five factors were External issues related. None on the top eight
factors fall under materials and equipment related.
The delay in progress payment due to the road projects contractors is a factor amongst the
causes of project abandonment, and that is in agreement with the findings of Ayodele and
Alabi (2011) that delays in remittance of payment due to the contractor is a bane and a
cause to road project abandonment. This delay situation might last more than one year, and
in that case, the contractor will eventually abandon the project as there would be no money
to continue the project implementation. Therefore, sufficient and effective efforts should be
made in eliminating this cause so that projects can be completed within the specified
delivery time and date.
Another significance cause amongst the causes as confirmed in the findings is a lack of
adequate funds allocation. This is importance to abate as adequate funds allocation to
project implementations is imperative if projects are expected not to be abandoned, and this
is supported with the contention that cash flow in the project implementation is a cause to
project abandonment (Odenyinka and Yusuf 1997).
Other causing factors such as leadership instability, change of investment purpose,
inconsistencies in government policies, land or legal disputes, and improper project
planning and design, natural disaster and Economy Instability and Inflation, are in
agreement with the findings of Ayodele and Alabi (2011) work on causes of construction
project abandonment in Nigeria. The leadership and inconsistences in government policies
syndrome is such that any incoming government do not encourage project continuity instead
devises a selfish motivational project to start up and this in effect renders the already
commenced project to be abandoned. Land or legal disputes is so much pronounced that
even most of the disputes take ages to be attended to in the court before providing judgment
on such disputes, and because legal dispute exist, no project implementation shall continue
or even commence unless such dispute is/are completely resolved.
The other issue of improper project planning and design and Contractor Incompetence must
be ruled out through providing the project implementation with a competent personnel that
should be able to provide adequate planning and designing of the project as well as ensure
proper implementation (Ezenwa (2004).; Adedeji (1998); Opara (1996). This circumstance
should completely be removed since the road projects is/are expected not to be abandoned.
The issue of natural disaster is sometime unpredictable, human activities could contribute to
natural disaster occurring such as landslide or fire outbreak. In all these causes, it is
expected that proper project risk assessment is undertaken for road project before
commencing the implementation as this should help to explain the possible dangers and the
mitigation measures. Another seriously factor causing road project abandonment in Nigeria
as indicated by the study is the incessant community interferences in project development
and management. Most communities have through the illegal agitation for homages and
other demands, and where it is not meet by the contractor, they invade into the road project
site, damaging and prowling most materials predestined to be used in the construction. This,
in most cases has led to many contractors to abandonment the road projects with no
immediate hope of returning to site. However, in effort to resolving this cause, the
government promulgated a law that bared any community from interfering in any project

464
implementation and this must be fully enforced in the circumstance to avoid project
abandonment.
The remaining causes of delay in road project such as: improper project estimate,
unjustified project aim, change to investment purpose, climatic condition, increasing
material costs and sometimes lacking, unplanned urbanization system, lack of stakeholder
involvement, improper project budgeting, lack of proper project task communication and
bureaucratic bottlenecks, are also confirmed in this study as the causes of road project

can detract the achievement of the project mission and at the short run causes the road
project to be abandoned. This may be particular to the situation that the expected project
aim is not being justified or met. Also, it is normal that every road project should have a
need assessment before embarking on such project. This is a procedure that will justify
whether the expected road project is needed in that area before commencing and completing
the road construction, rather than having the project in a void situation (unproductive
period) at the end.

Analysis and Ranking of Combined Results by Delay Causes Groups

The group RII was computed as the average of the importance indices for the critical
delaying factors in the groups and the rank of all five groups according to their average
relative importance is shown in Table 3. A concise explanation of the ranking of groups
according to the RII of critical delaying factors follows below.

Table 3: Importance Index and Ranking of delay factors in group

Client Contractor Consultant User Combined
Critical delaying Factors
RII Rk RII Rk RII Rk RII Rk RII Rk
Clients Related Factors 0.623 4 0.698 1 0.656 3 0.686 1 0.666 1
External Issues 0.613 5 0.673 3 0.680 1 0.666 2 0.658 2
Contractors Related Factors 0.687 1 0.548 5 0.672 2 0.643 4 0.638 3
Consultants Related Factors 0.678 2 0.698 2 0.596 5 0.576 5 0.637 4
Materials /Equipment Related Factors 0.649 3 0.567 4 0.642 4 0.650 3 0.627 5

Clients Related Factors (Five Attributes)

Table 3 shows combined ranking of delay factors. It ranked (RII = 0.666) this group very
and agreed that this group
attributes lead to project delays and have a large effect on the road construction project
Complex procedure and Delay in progress payments
ranked as a significant cause of delay. The top three most delaying factors from combined
views were Complex procedure and Delay in progress payments (RII = 0.724), Repetition
of work due to changes of scope during construction (RII = 0.669), and Unrealistic contract
duration (RII = 0.668).

External Issues (Nine Attributes)

The study found that the project group (RII = 0.658) was the second-most important group
to cause critical delays. Different categories of respondent's view were quite similar, and
agreed that external issues delaying factors were significant factors. There was no much
difference in the ranking of the respondents' categories opinions. The three most significant
critical delaying factors from combined views related to external issues were
Leadership/Government Instability (RII = 0.716), Corruption (RII = 0.688), and Policy and
Commitment of Government (RII = 0.683).

465
Contractors Related Factors (Six Attributes)
Table 3 shows that the third most important group of critical delaying factors was
Contractors Related Factors
very important, but the contractors ranked it least significant. The combined view of the top
three significant factors related to this group was Difficulties in financing project by
contractor (RII = 0.686), Inadequate, inexperience and Incompetent manpower (RII =
0.644), and Construction repetition due to error in execution (RII = 0.643).

Consultants Related Factors (Six Attributes)

Table 3 shows that the group is ranked is fourth (RII = 0.637). This group was ranked
highly by both the Client and the contractor and was ranked poorly by the Consultant and
the users. It is notable, however, that both Contractors and the users have contrary views of
three factors related were Award project to the lowest bid
price/ Project underestimation (RII = 0.673), Mistakes, discrepancies and ambiguities in
contract documents (RII = 0.659), and Delay in evaluation of completed works (RII =
0.652).

Materials/Equipment Related Factors (Four Attributes)

Table 3 shows that the Materials /Equipment Related Factors group was last in the group
ranking from the combined view with RII = 0.627. Both contractors and consultants ranked
this group the lowest. The top three most critical delaying factors were Improper equipment
selection and faulty equipment (RII = 0.645), Delay in material delivery (RII = 0.632), and
Poor quality materials (RII = 0.608).

Comparison of Causes of Road Construction Delay by Category of Respondents

The Spearman correlation uses to determine the relationship among the categories of
respondents. In addition, the value of Spearman correlation is imperative to show the
difference in views of this researches. Table 4 determines the relation between the overall
and each category of respondent. "Combined View" is identified as the most highly related,
with range of (0.72 091) correlation value, it is followed by "Contractor's View" with
range of (0.73 0.88) correlation value, the next is "User's View" with range of (0.74
0.87) correlation value, and the least is "Consultant's view" with range of (0.72 - 0.74)
correlation value. However, there is no significant deferent in relation between each
category of respondents. The investigation of each category of respondents is identified and
ranked. The best analogous relation is between User's View and Contractors view with 0.87,
followed by Client's view and Contractor's view with 0.78, next is the User's view and
Clients view with 0.76. Therefore, the cause of delay as related to every category of
respondent are not different, all the values are more than 0.5.

Table 4: Value of Spearman rank correlation coefficient

Client Contractor Consultant User Combined
Combined 0.82 0.88 0.72 0.91 1
User 0.76 0.87 0.74 1
Consultant 0.68 0.73 1
Contractor 0.78 1
Client 1

Effects of Delays in Road Construction Projects

However, in a proposition to establish the effects of these causes of road projects

466
abandonment, in the table 2, the various effects are provided and ranked using the Relative
Important Index (R.I.I) values for each, and subsequently, discussion follows. The ranking
in this frame was aimed to establish which effect has more magnitude effect using their
individual R.I.I. value

Table 5: Effects of delays in road construction projects

NS SS MS VS FS RII Rank
Cost Overrun 2 11 49 41 32 0.733 1
Environmental Degradation 6 14 49 37 29 0.702 2
Time Overrun 9 18 52 33 23 0.664 3
Litigation and Arbitration 13 25 47 24 26 0.637 4
Total Abandonment/Contract Termination 17 29 44 21 24 0.609 5
Poor Quality of Completed Project 22 24 43 25 21 0.599 6

The findings in Table 5 that assessed and established the effects of delay in road project
confirm that six effects were significance. These effects are suggested to be negative, and
these are: Cost Overrun (RII 0.733); Environmental Degradation (RII 0.702); Time Overrun
(RII 0.664); Litigation and Arbitration (RII 0.637); Total Abandonment/Contract
Termination (RII 0.609); Poor Quality of Completed Project (RII 0.599).
Where completion of road projects are delayed behind schedule, it disappointing to the
government and the general populace. Aluko, (2008) acknowledged waste of Financial
Resources as one amongst the major effects of road project abandonment in an individual
and the country as a whole. The other effects are the increasing negative effect of
environmental issues of degradation to the community such as the problems of flooding,
traffic congestion and the encouraging land deterioration, air and water pollution and
illness/health hazards in the neighborhood. However, the effects of cost overrun,
unemployment opportunity and the Litigation and Arbitration which usually drag for so
long is also been acknowledged by Ayodele and Alabi (2011) and Lim and Alum (1995), as
the effects of road project abandonment.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The study results revealed a high degree of agreement among the categories of respondents;
they all share the same views and opinions on the causes and effects of delay in road
construction projects in Nigeria.
The study also demonstrated that there are at least thirty causes of delay in road construction
project and that the resulting effects of the abandonment have at least six far-reaching
effects. An innovative planning and best practice project management approach such as
developing reasonable implementation plans, timely monitoring, evaluating and reporting
on project activities. All these should be done in line with the road projects plans, as well as
providing excellent time phasing for the project, introducing modifications if necessary and
rewarding staff for overcoming procedural and other barriers that could delay
implementation activities is/are imperative in this study circumstance.
The governments in efforts to resolve delay in road construction project should sustainably
promote the convention of providing adequate policies and the continuity of those policies
by any incoming government. It is further recommended that timely release of project funds
to contractors should significantly facilitate the effective and efficient completion of road
projects as at the time expected. While this responsibilities are not only left for the
government and the contractors, the practitioners, agencies and other stakeholder involve in
road project execution should adhered to these recommendations to prevent effect of
environmental degradation and other ill effects of roads project abandonment to the citizens.

467
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469
[Paper ID 152]

Ohiomah Ifije1 and Clinton Aigbavboa2

Abstract
Sustainable development has become an important part of the lives and aspect of enterprises
operations globally. There is a global trend to enhance sustainable practices in all sectors
and most especially the construction sectors, this study discusses the factors that best
prevent the implementation of sustainable construction in the Nigeria construction industry.
The study further explores and determines the reliability of how sustainability should
be measured in the Nigeria construction industry. The study used both primary
and secondary data to meet the set objective. The primary data were gathered through
the use of a questionnaire distributed to construction professionals, contractors and clients.
Indicative findings arising from the study revealed that; Building regulations and financial
incentives are found to be the main drivers of sustainable construction in Nigeria and Lack
of client demand and awareness and a general perception that adopting sustainable
construction is expensive. The research concluded by recommending that government help
with building policies to help push construction firms towards sustainable construction
and also awareness campaigns should be carried out so that clients would demand
and be aware of the benefits of sustainable construction

Keywords: sustainability, barriers, construction, Nigeria

1
Department of Construction Management & Quantity Surveying, University of Johannesburg,
Johannesburg, 2028, South Africa, E-mail: ifije93@gmail.com
2
Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, FEBE, University
of Johannesburg, South Africa, E-mail: caigabvboa@uj.ac.za

470
INTRODUCTION
The construction industry is a very important division for sustainable development because
of impact environmentally and socio-economically. The industry influences in four ways
the socio-economic development. (Ofori 2007).
The construction industry builds facilities such as roads, buildings and production facility
amongst others. Due to a high demand in infrastructural development in developing
countries, the contribution of the construction industry to emerging nations is very
significant in terms that it supports the economic, social development which turns to wealth,
social equality and increases living standard (Gomes, Silva 2005). In developing countries,
the construction industry contributes a high percentage to the Gross Domestic Product than
the high-income countries (John et al., 2001; Gomes et al., 2005). Examples of this is seen
in Brazil whereby the construction industry contributes 14% to her economy, while in the
European Union it contributes 11% to its GDP (John 2000).

In developing economies which still battle with a high unemployment rate, the construction
industry employs a large number of the unemployed because construction is still labor
intensive due to low skills and knowledge due to lack of technology.
The end products of construction are spread throughout the country, and it has teamed up to
develop private enterprise and technology transfer to all nationals of the nation (Turin.
1973).

Despite all this positive of the construction industry to the economy, the impact of the
construction industry cannot be ignored and it is of significant importance for instance the
construction industry is responsible worldwide for usage of 40% of total energy production,
40% of raw materials and 25% of timber; the use of 16% of water, generates 30-40% of
solid waste and 35-40% of CO2 emissions (Son et al. 2011; Van Bueren, Akbiyikli et al.
2012; Berardi 2013). Hence because of the following impact on the environment, this has
led to calls by industry experts on how to lessen the effect of the activities of construction to
the environment. This call lead to the concept of sustainable construction which was in line
with The Brundtland report (WCED, 1987) on sustainable development which defines
sustainability development as the meeting of the wants of the present generation short of
compromising the ability of the upcoming generations to meet their own wants. Sustainable
Construction was defined by Agenda 21 for sustainable construction in Developing
Countries (SCDC) as a complete process with the aim of restoring and maintaining
agreement amongst the built and natural environments and create settlements that sustain
human self-worth and boost economic equity (Du Plessis, 2002). This description suggests
that the early methods, were associated with technical issues, thus do not guarantee a
sustainable development while economic and social aspects of sustainability were not well
thought-out (Shafii et al. 2006, Du Plessis. 2007). Technical problems of sustainability such
as efficient use of resources such as energy and water and the reduction of the
environmental effects of materials. Building components and construction technologies are
vital parts of sustainable construction. In developing countries, the degree of technical
issues of sustainability is very low and most at times underdeveloped. Examples of low and
underdeveloped technical issues of sustainability is the aspect of building energy code
which do not exist. Therefore, the success of Sustainable Construction (SC) in developing
countries is thought-provoking not only because their economic and social conditions may
be grim but also because the technical problems are unresolved. The success of SC may
necessitate approaches different among developing countries according to the development
of their individual construction industries and also their specific socio-economic condition.
For this reason, the overall strategy of Agenda 21 came up with an inclusive strategy for

471
addressing the execution of sustainable construction (Du Plessis 2002). Still, there is a
conflict at this juncture. On one hand, construction businesses need to be feasible in all
areas and, on the other hand, research have shown that the notion that sustainable
construction project such as buidlings are more expensive than the conventional buildings
(Yudelson 2009; Robichaud, Anantatmula 2011). Hence because of this notion from
literature, this study is seeking to determine the barriers that makes it difficult for Nigerian
construction firms to implement sustainable construction.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature has revealed that the construction industry contributes to the economy if
sustainability is pursued in the areas of sustainability of countries as well as Nigeria. As a

today will provide the built environment of the future and will influence the ability if future

Several countries policies on sustainable development is developed along the global

initiatives. Initiatives such as the 1992 Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environmental
and Development) deliberated on ways of accomplishing sustainable development, setting
Agenda 21 as the action plan. Several developed countries have gone on to develop their
various national sustainable development strategies. In order for developing to be able to
develop their own sustainable development and in turn sustainable construction strategies,
Zainul-Abidin (2010) suggested a way for attaining sustainable construction, which
encompasses all stakeholders such as; government, developers, clients, buyers/end users,
contractors, consultants. This route begins with awareness, interest and knowledge of SC.
This situation may reduce the drive of construction firms to promote SC practices. In

in the direction of sustainable construction.

Sustainable construction cannot be discussed without discussing the impact of sustainability
on construction;

2.1 Impact of Sustainability

Environmental Impact
Creation of waste; developed nations like the UK have come to estimate that 40% of all UK
waste is generated by the construction industry (RICS 2005b). Due to this waste, the UK
government estimate that landfill capacity would stay exceeded by 2017 (Better Buildings
Summit, 2003). In order to combat this issue of landfill, most developed countries have
introduced the Landfill Tax and Aggregate Levy which has aided to minimise waste due to
the increased costs related with discarding (OECD 2006). But this is not the case with
developing countries so at present, construction waste is almost left unattended to.
Energy use; in the UK it has been reported that the built environment consumes roughly
50% of the aggregate energy generated; 45% to heat, light and aerate the structures and 5%
to build them (Edwards, 2002). The United Kingdom government is looking to reduce
energy by 60% come 2050 (Better Buildings Summit, 2003). Even with this policy, the
Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors (RICS) is of the believe that the government is not
doing enough.
Water use; there has been an increased consumption of water in the last 30yrs, this is shown
for instance in the UK it has increased to 70% (Brownhill and Yates, 2001), which will

increase in populations and living standards which will have an effect on the supply of
water(Edwards, 2002). Worldwide construction industry is implementing techniques to
conserve water in new build projects. Taking the idea of water efficiency technology such a

472
reduced flow taps, low water flush toilets. This is done with the idea that an estimated 20%
improvement is achieved in proficiency (Better Buildings Summit, 2003).
Economic Impact
The construction sector contributes meaningfully to the GDP of any nation, the construction
industry in the UK contributes about 8% GDP and over 2 million persons in the UK are
hired (CIRIA, 2006), nearly 20% of most job created are connected to the sector (RICS,
2005b). Abidin and Pasquire (2005), discovered that the key driver to sustainable
construction is the client. Debate concerning the impacts on the environment has been
clearly demonstrated that the penalties of a poorly managed construction instruments can
have serious effects on sustainability. In order for this effect to be reduced, the increasing of
client awareness must be taken seriously as it is vital in a bid to deviate from mainly
financial making decision.
Value management concept has been found to deliver good economic return, accountability
with this positive impact of VM, practitioners of VM have prospects to lessen
environmental and social change (Abidin and Pasquire 2005). Construction businesses in
order to enhance their standing amongst stakeholders and seek to attract investment (The
Sustainability Construction Task Group 2004).
Social Impact
CIRIA (2006) noted that the commercial and residential structures designs, as well as the
performance can affect directly the quality of life, promotion of healthy living and coming
together of the community. Everybody connected with a structure can profit from added

provide valued response information on how they are affected and can co-operate in
ldings benefit from
lower
Design Impact
The concept of optimum design was better described in the Better Buildings Summit (2003)
states that optimum design requires optimized performance on the construction site. Studies
has shown that design plays a major
reputations can be boosted by adding sustainable designs to their building designs. Despite
the fact they have to work off the instruction of the client. The designers have a chance to
create an impact in the mind of the client, for instance capturing the reduced running costs,

Architects play a key role as argued by Wyatt et al (2000). Published in 1999 by the
Architects Registration Board code of conduct, it was detailed that the responsibility of the
architect is to the client, also in consideration to save and improve the quality of the
environment as well as the natural resources.
In practice, constructors are not usually tangled in the design and decisions on how
sustainable a construction project possibly will be, but good practices here can cut costs and
create a green image (Yates, 2003b). This was further backed up by Treloar et al (2001)
who specified that the choice of construction materials has noticeable and substantial energy
and emission of gas implications

METHODOLGY
This study adopted a survey method for gathering of data for this research. The population
includes professionals from the built environment within the built environment in the
Nigerian construction industry; specifically, in the South-West region.
The study adopted a close-ended questionnaire founded on existing knowledge from
literature. The questionnaire was designed to explore the barriers to the implementation of

473
sustainable construction practices. The circulation of questionnaires to respondents was
through mainly the google forms sent via email.
The background of the respondents was surveyed in the first section of the questionnaire,
while the second portion explored the barriers to sustainable construction implementation
amongst the identified construction professionals. A 5-point Likert scale was used to
examine based on level of agreement. The rating was as follows: 1=Strongly disagree;
2=Disagree; 3=Neutral; 4=Agree; 5=Strongly agree. Mean item score (MIS) and standard
deviation (SD) were afterwards calculated for each of the variables and the values were
used in ranking and determining their position

3.1 Findings and Result

The table below shows the barriers which impede the implementation of Sustainable
Construction in Nigeria.

Table 1. Barriers of Sustainable Construction

Barriers of Sustainable Construction Standard Deviation MIS Ranking

Lack of customer awareness 6.00 4.00 1
Additional building Costs 6.50 4.00 1
No understanding on the benefits of sustainable construction 6.70 3.90 2
Misconception of Construction cost overrun 5.30 3.80 3
Lack of coordination cost overrun 5.20 3.70 4
Lack of public awareness 5.60 3.70 4
Deployment of resources to back technological changes 5.80 3.70 4
Initializing sustainability due to lack of building regulations 3.70 3.70 4

The table showed the variables and how they are the respondents perceived the barriers, the
study hereby revealed that Lack of customer awareness (SD = 6.00, MIS = 4.00, R = 1), in
addition building costs (SD = 6.50, MIS = 4.00, R = 1) was ranked the highest as the highest
barriers perceived by the professionals sampled, closely followed by No understanding on
the benefits of sustainable construction (SD = 6.70, MIS = 3.90, R=2) amongst others were

Nigeria hindering the implementation of sustainable construction

shared by several studies carried out across different countries for instance Matt Pitt et al
(2008) from his study found that Affordability, lack of customer awareness and demand was
the three highest ranking barriers of sustainable construction in the United Kingdom. It was
further corroborated by Zhou and Lowe (2003) who pointed out that sustainable
construction is expensive, causing a major challenge in the embracing of sustainable
construction practices in emerging nations like Nigeria. Furthermore, the finding also
corresponds with study carried out by the CIDB-Agenda 21 (2001), where it was revealed
that the problems of sustainable construction ranges from deployment of resources to back
technological changes.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This research reports the barriers hampering the implementation of sustainable construction
practices in the Nigerian construction industry. The information used in this investigation
were obtained from both primary and secondary sources. The secondary data which is
literature show that the construction sector is an important contributor to the pollution
worldwide which have an effect on the ecosystem in numerous ways. On the other hand, the

474
focal test for the sector is to play an important part on the reduction of the impacts of
construction happenings on the environment. Collected works also exposed that the

but the way to achieve sustainability is a process which is proving difficult.

Results from the empirical survey showed there is a discrepancy of views on achievement
practices of sustainable construction implementation in the sector such as: Lack of customer
awareness being the highest rank, followed by the additional building cost ranked as next to
the implementation of sustainable construction. Similarly, the professionals additionally saw
sustainable construction activities as an additional cost to the ever-increasing ways of
construction practices in terms of purchasing new machinery and training of staff which is
true as this thought could lead to not implementing SC
Implication of Study
it is of importance that construction professionals in the Nigerian construction industry must
seek to overcome the barriers that hinders the implementation of sustainable construction.
As the long-term benefits from the implementation outweighs the present practices. it is of
importance that awareness of sustainable construction must be carried out amongst the
professionals, clients as this will help in the drive for the implementation of SC. Lastly; it is
the responsibility of construction professionals involved with sustainable construction
processes to enlighten the clients on the benefits of SC

Recommendations
This study has shown that there has to be an increase in awareness for the embracing of
sustainable construction practices, hence it is recommended that government and non-
government agencies must help in the increase of the awareness of sustainable construction
practices. Henceforth, it is also suggested that more enforced approaches and actions must
be pursued aggressively to hasten up the method in forming a sustainable-driven
construction industry, which is principal to building a sustainable future.

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477
[Paper ID 43]

Ernest L S Abbott1 and David K H Chua2

Abstract
RFID is used in many areas of commerce, and in some areas of the construction industry.
Prefabricated, prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC) is one area of the construction
industry that can benefit from the use of RFID. The full benefits cannot be realised by use
of RFID alone. RFID needs to be coupled with Building Information Modelling (BIM). This
paper outlines a framework of marrying the two technologies in constructing PPVC from
the drawing stage to the delivery on site and then to the final installation of the unit.
The benefits of this union are in material stock control, part location tracking, production
scheduling and re-scheduling, among other things.

Keywords: BIM, RFID, volumetric construction, intelligent logistics, PPVC

1
Research Fellow. Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering. National University
of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, E1A-07-03. Singapore 117576. Tel:+65-6516 4643,
Email: ceeaels@nus.edu.sg
2
Professor. Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering. National University of Singapore,
1 Engineering Drive 2, E1A-07-03, Singapore 117576. Tel:+65-6516 2195.
Email: ceedavid@nus.edu.sg

478
Introduction
origins can be traced to the work on RADAR during the second world war (Roberti
2007, Landt 2005). In 1948 Harry Sto Communications by means of
reflective power (Stockman 1948), suggested what is today RFID, although he fully
recognized the technical problems involved, as
ideas started to come to fruition (Jung and Lee 2015).
Since the 1970s, RFID usage has grown to fill almost every corner and aspect of life,
including agriculture and livestock, defence and security, healthcare and welfare,
transportation and identification system (Jung and Lee 2015). It was as long ago as 1995
that Jaselskis et al. discussed the use of RFID tags in the construction industry. Since then
the technology of not only the tags but also the RFID readers has seen dramatic
improvements, not just in size and ability but also in a reduction in cost. The various
suggestions of Jaselskis et al. were clearly limited by the then cost of using RFID. Their
proposal of tagging large objects, such as gas cylinders and Concrete Trucks for tracking
truck movements on and off site illustrates this.
RFID tags have a clear advantage over other identification systems such as Bar Codes or
QR codes, as they rely upon electromagnetic fields and not line of sight. RFID tags may be
active, semi-active, passive or semi-passive. Each tag type operates at a different frequency.
Active RFID tags have a battery as a power source. Passive tags do not have a power
source. For ease of understanding, semi-active tags can be considered as active tags without
a battery, and semi-passive tags as passive tags with a battery (Bridelall and Hande 2010).
This is summarised in Table 12.
The passive RFID is the most common tag. The cost, depending on purchase volume, is
between US$0.07 and US$0.1526. The passive RFID is the one used in the foregoing
discussion.
Building Information Modelling or BIM, has been defined in several ways. John Eynon
Building Information Modelling is the digital representation of physical
and functional characteristics of a facility creating a shared knowledge resource for
information about it and forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life cycle, from
(Eynon 2016, p3). This is the working definition used in
this paper.
Several AEC software packages support BIM. Revit, Tekla, Bentley and Archicad are
just four examples of widely used packages. Tekla Structures is the AEC software package
used in this paper for the design of prefabricated, prefinished, volumetric construction
(PPVC).
PPVC is usually used for multilevel constructions such as medium to high-rise
residential buildings. The modules are cast and assembled at a production location. All
finishes, such as plumbing, sanitary ware, electrical and HAVC, are installed prior to the
units being delivered and installed at a construction site. The benefits are really at the
construction site level where there is a reduction in manpower compared with in-situ
construction and environmentally, there is reduction in construction noise and dust.
Figure 5 illustrates a floor slab and three walls each cast separately. Figure 6 illustrates
the assembly of a module comprising of a floor slab and three walls. Following the
necessary fitting out, the completed module is transported to site where it is installed at its
predefined location.
BIM models are data rich. RFID is used to identify each component of a module. This
paper sets out a framework for marrying RFID and BIM, giving a synergy that greatly
benefits its users.

26
https://www.rfidjournal.com/faq/show?85

479
Table 12: Summary of RFID Tag Types

Emitted Energy
Reflective Energy
No Batteries Batteries
Semi-Active. Tags become Active. Tags transmit a
temporally active when they signal to be read by an RFID
reader. The tag data can be
RFID reader. read at distances of 30
meters or greater.
Passive. Tags receive Semi-Passive. This is also
known as battery-assisted
reader. The data is passive (BAP). The data is
transmitted by reflecting this read from the tag in the
power from the reader. (this same way as the passive tag.
is known as backscatter The battery is used for its
modulation.) Data can be operating power. Data can
read up to about 6 meters. be read at distances of more
than 30 meters.

The Framework
The marrying of RFID technology with BIM in the area of PPVC allows a systematic
approach to monitoring, managing and optimizing all aspects of the factory environment,
delivery to site and installation of modules.
Figure 7 shows the outline of the proposed framework. The Tekla BIM model, with
details of PPVC units, is imported to a central database. The importation of the site
installation schedule and the PPVC unit data are used to generate an optimised factory
production schedule in order to effect a JIT delivery at the construction site. All material
quantities, from the BIM data, allows for the minimization of stock holding costs through
prudent stock control. Drawing changes, leading to part modification or scrapping, are
readily tracked using the parts RFID.

Figure 5. PPVC Module before Assembly

480
Figure 6. PPVC Module after Assembly

Figure 7. Outline of Proposed Framework

Deriving the PPVC Module Production Schedule

The PPVC module production schedule is calculated from the broad installation schedule,
which indicates an installation period for the block. The storey installation cycle is
calculated as in equation (1)

Number of Working Days in Installation Period

Storey InstallationCycle (1)
Number of Storeys in Block

The PPVC factory needs to supply the building site with modules, at the required
intervals to meet the storey installation cycle.
From BIM, the number of components, walls, slabs, etc, are extracted, and a production
schedule is generated. For an optimal production schedule to be generated, additional
information on the factory layout pertaining to the area available for casting moulds, storing
moulds, for assembling PPVC components into modules is required. Space is one metric,
the other is time, i.e. the time for the various operations, e.g. fitting out the mould, pouring
concrete, time to demoulding, time for curing, time for assembling into modules, time to fit

481
information will also need to be included, if one is used.

Extracting BIM Data

The digital model created by the designer, using propriety software, is not in a suitable
format for some subsequent process. Although the model contains ample information,
propriety software is not designed as a general database. To overcome this, relevant model
data is extracted from the BIM and stored in a suitable form on a central database.
This paper is concerned with residential properties. The extracted database identifies
modules, storey location of the module, the residential block identity, and the propriety

Module Production and RFID Tracking

Figure 8 illustrates the schematic for RFID allocation and tracking at all stages of the
production of a PPVC module. The process begins by applying a RFID tag at the point the
part is moulded. (The tag is readable, provided it is more than 3mm from a rebar, or any

operation.)

Figure 8. RFID Tracking at All Stages of Production

Once a RFID tag is added to a part, and the computer system is notified, the part
becomes trackable. The RFID reader, used to read the tags, is connected, either directly or
wirelessly, to a computer system, which maintains pertinent information on the status of
module parts.
RFID tags are registered, in the computer system, to a specific location. This is
important, particularly when more than one PPVC production site is used.
The registration of the tag is prior to using the tag on a module part. When the RFID tag
is attached to a part, the RFID reader reads the tag, which links the part on the computer
system to the RFID tag as well as its BIM identity. Following any change in the status of a
demoulding, location in
factory, destination when being transported, is updated.
PPVC modules, or combined parts, but not whole modules, can be transported for a
number of reasons. For example, the parts were produced at different production sites. The
fitting out of the assembled module is done at a different location to the production location.
Each component part of a PPVC module has its own unique RFID tag. Parts are not
necessarily assembled into a final module in one operation. Walls may be joined together
before being joined to a floor slab, for example. When parts are joined, their association is

482
recorded in the computer system. RFIDs are linked in the computer system in such a way
that identifying just a single part, identifies all linked associated parts. In this way, only one
part needs to be scanned for every module or group of parts to enable status updating, or
location identification for example.
The RFID tag is automatically linked to the BIM component. When assembling parts to
compose a module, an authentication check is performed, ensuring the correct matching of
mould parts to a module

Delivery and Site Installation

Completed and fitted out PPVC modules are transported to the construction site. This is a
status change in the module, and all parts that comprise the module. Using the RFID of the
module (i.e. any part on the module), a despatch manifest is computer generated. Upon
arrival at the delivery point, t
original delivery information.
Completed PPVC modules are delivered to the construction site. At the construction

the development. The installation location is obtained from BIM model data of the
development.

Material Stock Control

The BIM model of a residential development holds the materials used in the various parts,
such as the rebar sizes and lengths and the type of concrete used. The physical
measurements of panels, length, width, height and volume are also found in the BIM model.
Once the BIM model has been completed, the total quantities of material required for the
construction can be calculated. This value can be used as a guide to the cost of production,
for example. This information combined with the PPVC production schedule gives a guide
as to the periodic stock requirement.
Each PPVC production location holds stock of some material, such as sand, cement,
agate and fly ash. Rebars cages and steel frames are often delivered to order. As module
parts are moulded, the RFID being the key to identifying the point of moulding, the stock
required to construct the prefabricated part can be depleted from the total stock held. The
RFID links to a given part, whose construction quantities are calculated from the BIM data.
There are several methods of stock control. One method is using the free stock
approach. This, coupled with delivery lead times of stock and minimum order quantities,
facilitates a more systematic method of stock control, based on what is built. It also enables
the factory to minimize their stock holding cost.

Scheduling and Rescheduling

Schedule disruption has many causes. Changes in design being one of them. If there is a
change in a module design after the production of the module has started, this has an impact
on the overall production schedule. The extent of which depends on the extent of the design
change. Using the BIM model, the design change can be identified, by means of versioning.
All parts that have been moulded, and their current status, are identifiable via their RFID.
The impact of changes on the schedule depends on whether the module part can be modified
or has to be scrapped. Modifying already moulded parts will often have a minor impact on
the schedule and stock. The scrapping of whole modules can cause delays in the schedule as
well as having an impact on the raw material stock.
The cost of scrapping is the material cost of the components plus the labour cost. The
raw material cost is the product of the raw material content, which is from BIM, and the unit

483
cost of the raw material, which is held on a database. The labour cost calculation depends
on the method adopted by the company.

Case Study
The case study will not cover all the framework. It will cover the core of the framework; the
extraction of BIM model data, the assignment of RFID to parts, stock control, despatch and
delivery of parts/modules.

Extracting the BIM Model

Figure 9 shows a residential unit modelled in Tekla. The residential unit consists of three
modules. The modules comprise of concrete walls, reinforcement bars, pipes, steel frames
and other smaller parts. Figure 10 views the same residential unit after it has been imported
into the computer system.

Figure 9. Unit of Three Modules Viewed in Tekla

Figure 10. Unit as Imported to Computer System

Registering RFID Tags

The registering of the RFID tags is at any point prior to their use. Figure 11 illustrates 10
RFID tags registered to production site A. These tags will have their first use at production
site A. The location of the tag changes when the part the tag is assigned to changes its
location.

484
Figure 11. RFID Tags Registered to a Production Site

Assigning RFID Tags to Parts

At part moulding time, a RFID tag is attached or embedded in the concrete. The tag is
scanned. Figure 12 shows the assignment of a RFID tag to a component wall. The cast

Figure 12. RFID Assigned to a Part

Part Status
The RFID tag is assigned at moulding time. At demoulding time, the RFID tag is read and
the status is changed to demoulded. The part location is also updated. Figure 13 is the
general part status change, which is used anytime there is a change in a part status. The
RFID tag is scanned and the current status is displayed
When a RFID tag is assigned to a moulded part, the raw materials used in the part are
automatically adjusted. Figure 14 illustrates the current rebar stock and Figure 15 illustrates
the current raw material stock. The composition of the concrete is stored on a database. This
is used, with BIM data, to calculate the quantities by which to deplete the stock.

485
Figure 13. Part Status Change

Stock Enquires

Figure 14. Rebar Stock Status Enquiry Figure 15. Raw Material Stock Status Enquiry

Parts Transportation
RFID is used to identify the parts loaded onto a lorry for transportation from one location to
another. The lorry loading details are quickly produced directly from scanning the part or
parts. For module parts that are joined to other module parts, the scanning of just a single
RFID is sufficient to identify all joined parts. Figure 16 illustrates the identification of parts
to compose a lorry load. Once the despatch information is printed, as illustrated in Figure
17, the status of the parts is automatically updated to show the part is on particular lorry.
Figure 18
the bar code on the despatch note is read. The part status is updated.

486
Figure 16. Lorry Loading for Part Transportation

Figure 17. Sample Despatch Note

Figure 18. Delivery to Site

487
Conclusion & Future Work
The framework outlined in this paper has shown the positive benefits of marrying together
two technologies, RFID and BIM, which gives a firm foundation for the optimization of all
aspect of the construction, delivery and installation of PPVC units as well as ensuring the
correct part is assembled with its intended module. With component identification, at the
point of production, leading to full tracking of all processes and statuses of the component,
analysis of the efficiency of the production process can be readily analysed with remedial
steps taken to improve workflow efficiency.
The framework outlined here, has not covered all areas, due to space and time
constraint. The areas omitted are the algorithms for the efficient production of the PPVC
modules. There are several scenarios to consider in this respect; (i) sufficient factory
capacity for continuous production by building storey, (ii) sufficient factory capacity but
insufficient manpower/time for continuous production, (iii) insufficient factory space for
continuous production by building storey, (iv) optimization of moulds, rather than using
mould sets, i.e. all moulds for a module.

References
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RFID Systems: Research Trends and Challenges,
edited by Miodrag Bolic, David Simplot-Ryl, and Ivan Stojmenovic, 23 56. John
Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Eynon, Jon. 2016. . John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management 121 (2): 189 196.
Jung, Kwangho, and
Journal of Open Innovation:
Technology, Market, and Complexity 1 (1). Journal of Open Innovation: Technology,
Market, and Complexity: 9. doi:10.1186/s40852-015-0010-z.
IEEE Potentials 24 (4): 8 11.
doi:10.1109/MP.2005.1549751.

Energy, 1 3. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/1338/1.
Proceedings of
the IRE, 36(10), 1196-1204. doi:10.1109/JRPROC.1948.226245.

Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the financial support by the National Research Foundation (NRF)
and SembCorp-NUS Corp Lab under project grant R-261-513-009-281.

488
5. INTEGRATION OF ENGINEERING
MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT

489
[Paper ID 57]

Mfundo Nkosi1, K Gupta2 and M Mashinini3

Abstract
The concept of minimizing human error in maintenance is progressively gaining attention
in various industries. The incorporation of human factors when solving engineering
problems particularly in maintenance can no longer be ignored where high standards
of performance are expected. The journey of improving maintenance performance through
reduction of human error begins with the understanding of causes and impact of human
error in maintenance. This paper evaluates previous scholarly writings on human errors,
to specifically establish the causes and impact of human error in maintenance. This study
relies predominantly on the existing literature on human error in maintenance derived from
published and unpublished research. The primary findings emerging from the research
exhibit a number of key factors that cause human error in maintenance such as poor
management and supervision, organizational culture, incompetence, poorly written
procedures, poor communication, time pressure, plant and environmental conditions, poor
work design and many more. The literature review also revealed that human errors have
a negative impact on safety, reliability, productivity and efficiency of equipment.
It was further discovered that equipment failures leading to accidents, incidents, loss of life
and economic losses are the major effects of human error. Human error in mechanical
em which needs adequate attention in order
to develop corrective and preventive measures. This review paper serves as a basis
for maintenance practitioners and interested parties to develop corrective and preventive
measures for minimizing human error in maintenance of mechanical systems.

Keywords: failure, human error, human factor, maintenance, mechanical systems

1
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology, University
of Johannesburg-Johannesburg (RSA), mnkosi@uj.ac.za, 011-5596474
2
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology, University
of Johannesburg-Johannesburg (RSA), kgupta@uj.ac.za
3
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology, University
of Johannesburg-Johannesburg (RSA), mmashinini@uj.ac.za

490
Introduction
Most mechanical systems require regular maintenance for best performance, however

performance. It is during the maintenance phase where a considerable portion of human

errors are committed [1]. The manifestation of human error during the maintenance phase
can impact the safety and performance of equipment in a number of ways [2]. Therefore,
initiatives aimed at the identification and analysis of human error in maintenance are very
important, since they can lead to the development of proper strategies for the reduction of
human error. The occurrence of human error is regularly considered as a threat with the
probability to lead to a significant rate of accidents [3]. In maintenance of mechanical
systems, human errors stem from a number of reasons which have led some industries to
develop various initiatives for addressing the issue of human error. The investigation of
measures and initiatives of minimizing human error in maintenance begin with the
identification and understanding of the factors responsible for human errors. Consequently,
this paper examines existing scholarly writings on causes and impact of human errors in
maintenance of mechanical systems. The error causal factors presented in Figure 1 are
among many that were discovered during the literature review process. These human factors
are seen as the key causal factors responsible for human error in maintenance of mechanical
systems.

Figure 2. Causes of human error in maintenance of mechanical systems

491
In order to fulfil the aim the research, the following research questions related with the
study are addressed:
1. What are the factors responsible for the occurrence of human errors in maintenance
of mechanical systems?
2. What is the impact of human errors in maintenance of mechanical systems and how
intense is their effect?
This paper identifies the causes and impact of human error in maintenance through
reviewing various scholarly writings. It begins with the introduction, follows with the
literature search methodology, literature review, key literature review findings and ends
with a conclusion that incorporates recommendations and proposed future work.

The Literature Search Methodology

The literature review research method was selected for this study. The literature review

through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of

to identify, evaluate and short-list the factors responsible for human error and the impact of
human error in maintenance of mechanical systems. The main was to understand the
existing body of knowledge and to create a research agenda.
The study is based mainly on the analysis of the existing published and unpublished
theoretical scholarly writings. The theme of this paper is predominantly a literature review
concerned with human errors in maintenance of various mechanical systems. As a concept
of human error in maintenance of mechanical systems started gaining attention, a number of
initiatives have been established with an aim of minimizing human errors. The
establishment and improvement of initiatives aimed at reducing human error begin with the
apprehension of the causes and impact of human error in maintenance of mechanical
systems. Hence, it is very crucial to analyze the causes and impact of human error. The
paper follows a rigorous approach to merge, evaluate and clarify segments of findings of
several research studies with specific attention to causes and impact of human error.
Twenty-eight publications have been reviewed, of which twelve are aimed at aviation,
seven intended for miscellaneous industries, four from a combination of chemical, oil and
gas, refinery and petroleum industries and five from the amalgamation of coal-fired and
nuclear power plant, mining, electrical transmission and healthcare.

Human Errors in Maintenance of Mechanical Systems

There is a frequent occurrence of inadvertent human errors in maintenance of mechanical
systems. Due to the complexity of technology, it is progressively becoming hard for human
operators to properly cognize [4]. Hence, there is a recurrent of
human errors. Human error is defined as a non-fulfillment of a stipulated task (or the
execution of an unacceptable action) having a potential to disrupt planned operations and
resulting to property and equipment damages [6]. Virovac, Domitrovic & Bazijanic [5],
defines human error as an inadvertent error in the execution of work which leads to sudden
system damage or it can be a dormant or latent error characterized as a potential to endanger
human
errors are viewed as examples of the ineffectiveness of the organization. Human errors can
be classified into, slips, lapses, and violations [4]. This classification is in agreement with
the one put forward by Reason [7] and Siu [8]. These are slips of actions and lapses of

492
memory both classified as distractions and loss of concentration while violation is an
intended action especially where there is an expected reward of violation.
The method which is easily adopted in various organizations when dealing with human
error is to blame incidents or accidents on individuals performing the task and focus
solutions on the mistakes of these individuals. Now, the idea of adopting the individual
approach in addressing human error, organizations disregards the dormant or latent
conditions within the work systems under which the workforce operate that give rise to
human error [3]. It is further stated that human error should be identified as a consequence
of amalgamated factors, as opposed to the root cause of an incident or accident. This paper
aims to unearth the various causal factors of human error in maintenance leading to

catastrophic accidents. It is approximated by NOPSEMA

Drury [10]; Begur & Babu [11]; Wiegmann & Shappell [12] and Pons & Dey [4] that
human error is a major causal factor of between 70-80% of most equipment failures,
incidents and accidents. It is about 15% - 20% of failures, incidents and accidents that are
due to maintenance error [10, 11].
In the study of Dhillon & Liu [1], human error was stated as a serious problem in
maintenance emanating from the operation, assembly, design, inspection, installation and
maintenance phase. The errors committed in other phases of the mechanical system are
inherited by the maintenance phase, and failure to identify these latent conditions during
maintenance can lead to disruptive situations. There is a serious need to identify human
errors, their causal factors and impact in any maintenance department. A guide developed
by Health and Safety Executive [13] is based on the thought that human errors in
maintenance are to a great extent predictable, hence can be identified and controlled.

Causes of Human Errors in Maintenance

The issue of human error in maintenance of mechanical systems needs to be properly
addressed, and to do that, one needs to begin with the appropriate analysis of the causes and
impact of human error. There are a number of factors during the maintenance phase that can
give rise to human error when not properly identified and controlled. Causes of human
errors in maintenance are the factors responsible for the manifestation of errors on the tasks
performed during the maintenance phase. A number of factors tabled in a study by Dhillon
& Liu [1] as a source of human error are lack of skills, insufficient training, badly written
operating manuals and maintenance procedures, poorly designed equipment, usage of
unsuitable tools, insufficient work layout, limited lighting in the work space and noise
levels. On the other hand, various causal factors derived from Dhillon [2] include the
complexity of maintenance tasks, inadequately written maintenance procedures and
obsolete maintenance manuals, fatigue of the maintenance personnel, insufficient training
and experience, under-designed work layout, inadequacy of equipment design, unsuitable
tools for specified work, substandard work environment. Substandard work environment
can include a poorly designed plant with insufficient accessibility of components. In a study

fabrication, working environment, work complexity, knowledge, work organization,

documentation (manuals and procedures), work planning, pressure, fatigue, insufficient
personnel for work, personal problems, and distraction while doing work were identified as
major error causal factors. Management commitment, casual organizational cultures, and

the proper implementation of initiatives for addressing human error [14]. In the analysis of
holistic performance, the key

493
human factors that impact the maintenance performance such as competence and
motivation, in contrast with supervision, workload, and performance feedback were derived
[15]. Lack of competence, and the inclination to disregard the established instructions, are
the core causal factors of human error as per research findings of Badenhorst & Van Tonder
[16]. In a research by Latorella & Prabhu [17] a number of human factors responsible for
the existence of human error such as, time pressure, inadequate feedback, difficult ambient
conditions (environmental factor) and the common erring factor of human were identified.
It was revealed that the major error causal factors are inadequate communication,
complacency, insufficient knowledge, disturbances, poor teamwork, scarcity of resources,
pressure, inadequacy of awareness, insufficiency of assertiveness, fatigue, stress, norms or
cultures[18]. Hobbs [19] discovered that the manifestation of human errors is related with
environmental factors, inadequate communication and coordination, time pressure,
maintenance procedures and documentation, lack of integration in teamwork, change of
shifts and handover, organizational and team norms, fatigue, sources of stress, lack of
system knowledge, equipment design and fabrication deficiencies, insufficient design for
maintainability, and absent minded. The factors such as the following: inadequacy of
supervision, memory and attention issues, poor decision making and judgment, poor design,
inflexibility and inadaptability, poor light in the workspace, and confined work area were
revealed as the major causes of human error [20]. Alonso & Broadribb [21] discovered that
organizational and team cultures, odd situations, psychological issues, procedural factors,
and organizational structure, complex environments, exposure to high stress and a tendency
to remain in the background are key causal factors of human errors. In the research findings
of Kovacevic, Papic, Janackovic, & Savic [22], non-fulfilment of t
technical instructions, the poorly organized or coordinated training process, insufficient
equipment for diagnosis, and a failure to understand the work activities are classified as the
key reasons for the occurrence of human error. While Laakso, Pyy, & Reiman [23] revealed
that common human errors stem from plant modifications, planning and auditing, post-
installation inspection, testing programs of the start-ups and training.
Dunn [24] established a number of factors responsible for human error such as, absorbed by
extra emotional or sensory demands, failure to maintain concentration or attentional focus,
the decrement attentiveness, repetition of work (routine work), fatigue, time pressure,
stresses emanating from physical factors, social factors, work pace and personal factors,
emotional decision making or clouding better judgement, confirmation bias when
diagnosing a problem, the level of motivation or arousal, morale of employees, the
competence (skills, knowledge and experience) of maintenance personnel (managers,
engineers, artisans, etc.,), tools availability, sufficient equipment and parts, shift changes,
and sufficiency of work instructions and procedures. The research findings of Gould &
Lovell [25] presented that the procedures can be both the origin and a defense of human
error. Substandard work environment can include a poorly designed plant with insufficient
accessibility of components. By looking at these sources of human error, one can deduct
that the same sources can be used as barriers or defenses against human error in
maintenance. Rashid [26] revealed the following main error causal factors: organizational
process, documentation (manuals and procedures), maintenance personnel training,
supervision, equipment design and fabrication, and resources. Substandard work
environment can include a poorly designed plant with insufficient accessibility of
components. By looking at these sources of human error, one can deduct that the same
sources can be used as barriers or defenses against human error in maintenance. It is very
important to analyses the causal factors of human error in order to come up with sufficient
strategies and initiatives for managing human errors in maintenance of mechanical systems.

494
The following event in the evolution of maintenance management is the inclusion of human
factors in performance measurement [15].

Impact of Human Errors in Maintenance

The next step after determining the causes of human error in maintenance of mechanical
systems is to establish the impact of human errors. The impact of human errors represents
the consequences or effects that are experienced when human errors occurring during the
maintenance phase of mechanical systems are not properly managed, reduced and even
eliminated. Dhillon [2] unveils that the impact of human error is the loss of life due to
accidents and cost constraints imposed by breakdowns and accidents or incidents. On the
other hand, the impact of human errors such as delays, damage to equipment, repairs and
accidents were revealed [5]. It is indicated in the Health and Safety Executive [13] guide,
that human error poses risks to health, effect on safety, impairment of performance and the
increased likelihood of accidents, low quality of maintenance, increased operational costs,
impairment on operating life of plant and risks of occurrence of accidents.
In a study by Latorella & Prabhu [17] it was revealed that human errors have the most acute
impact resulting in accidents and loss of life, delays in availability of equipment, and
obstruction of productivity of equipment and efficiency of operations. It has been
established that substandard maintenance due to human error has a considerable
contribution to accidents and incidents [19]. During the review, accidents kept appearing as
the major impact of human error, and these accidents have a negative impact on lives of
people and economic activities of the organization. Now, Krulak [20] indicates that the
impact of human error includes, the untold sums of equipment and lives that paid a price for
human error, occurrence of mishaps, and enabling the odds linked to the extremity of a
mishap. Human error is a common cause of many key safety incidents involving a huge loss
of life [21]. In a study by Dunn [24], it is shown that there is a huge impact on maintenance
quality and costs, safety and reliability equipment, and work performance. Human errors
have the following impact: high social and economic cost, equipment safety, maintenance
performance efficiency and effectiveness, equipment productivity, incidents and accidents
and fatality [26]. Propagation of loss of lives, damage to property and environment, and
disturbances on the economic state of any organization are stated as major effects of human
errors [27]. It is further stated that the economic impact significantly influences the
workplace, employees, society and economy. Human errors in maintenance impose the
safety and economic effects [28]. These effects are very costly imposing cost constraints in
the maintenance department of any organization.

Key Findings of Literature Review

A number of publications were examined with an intention of establishing the causes and
impact of human error in maintenance of mechanical systems. Figure 1 below presents the
classifications of reviewed scholarly writings according to industry. It can be seen that a
great amount of work has been done in the aviation industry to address the issue of human
error in maintenance.

495
 Figure 2. Classifying reviewed scholarly writings in percentages in relation to industry

A great amount of error causal factors was discovered through the literature review and the
key causal factors are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Factors Responsible for Human Error in Maintenance

Causes
Leadership and Management Factors
Poor management and supervision
Insufficient Training
Work design/planning/layout
Authors
Timmons, et al., 2014; Peach, Ellis & Visser, 2016; Krulak, 2004;
Rashid, 2010
Dhillon & Liu, 2006; Dhillon, 2014); Kovacevic et al., 2016;
Laakso, Pyy, & Reiman, 1998; Rashid, 2010
Dhillon & Liu, 2006; Peach, Ellis & Visser, 2016; B S Dhillon

Poorly written procedures, manuals
and work instructions
Poor communication and sparse
feedback
Time pressures
Dhillon & Liu, 2006; Gould & Lovell, 2009; Hobbs, 2008;
Dhillon, 2014; Dunn, 2004; Rashi, 2010
Visser, 2016; Laakso, Pyy, & Reiman, 1998
Laakso, Pyy, & Reiman, 1998; Hobbs, 2008; Dunn, 2004;

Poor organizational culture Timmons, et al., 2014; Alonso & Broadribb, 2018; Latorella &
Prabhu, 2000; Rashid, 2010
Individual Factors [Cognitive Factors]
Dhillon & Liu, 2006; Dunn, 2004; Peach, Ellis & Visser, 2016;
Incompetence/Inadequate skills Badenhorst & Van Tonder, 2004
Fatigue Latorella & Prabhu, 2000; Hobbs, 2008; Dhillon, 2014; Dunn,

Stress/Emotional demands
Routine or repetitive work
Ignoring standard work instructions
Physical Factors
Equipment design and construction
deficiencies
Environmental Factors
Poor work environment (e.g. lighting,
noise levels and ambient conditions)
Dunn, 2004; Latorella & Prabhu, 2000; Hobbs, 2008; Alonso &
Broadribb, 2018
Alonso & Broadribb, 2018; Dunn, 2004
Badenhorst & Van Tonder, 2004); Kovacevic et al., 2016; Dunn,
2004
Dhillon & Liu, 2006; Hobbs, 2008; Dhillon, 2014; Krulak, 2004;
Rashid, 2010
Dhillon & Liu, 2006; Krulak, 2004; Latorella & Prabhu, 2000;
Dhillon & Liu, 2006

496
The major impact of human errors in maintenance was also discovered through the literature
review, and key effects of errors are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. The Impact of Human Error in Maintenance

Impact Authors
Incidents and Accidents Latorella & Prabhu, 2000; Dhillon, 2014; Alonso & Broadribb,
2018;
Executive, 2000; Rashid, 2010; Hobbs, 2008;
Loss of life Latorella & Prabhu, 2000; Dhillon, 2014; Alonso & Broadribb,
2018; Rashid, 2010
Inefficiency, and impaired
productivity of equipment Dunn, 2004; Rashid, 2010
Cost (economic loss) Health and Safety Executive, 2000; Alkhaldi, Pathirage &
Kulatunga, 2017; Dhillon 2014; Dunn, 2004); Rankin et al., 2000;
Rashid, 2010
Safety/ risk to health Rankin et al., 2000;, Alonso & Broadribb, 2018; Dunn, 2004;
Health and Safety Executive, 2000
Equipment damage or loss
Kulatunga, 2017; Krulak, 2004
Impaired maintenance quality or Health and Safety Executive, 2000; Dunn, 2004; Rashid, 2010
performance

Conclusion
This paper reports review of past literature concerning human errors in maintenance of
mechanical systems. The review of the literature revealed that the causes of human errors
vary from those caused by poor maintenance management (e.g. policies and procedures)
and cognitive factors (stress and competence etc.,) to those that are caused by physical
factors (environmental factors, component design). The literature review further revealed
that there is a great negative impact of human errors in maintenance that can lead to failures
and even catastrophic failures (major damage to plant and human and even lead to fatality).

It is recommended that the errors and impact discovered in the literature review be
examined in the local context of those industries that have not yet adopted human factors
engineering in their maintenance policies. The training programs should be developed to
assist in bringing awareness of the impact of human error at individual and organizational
level. The adoption of human factors principles in the maintenance policy and strategy
development can assist the organizations to properly begin the journey of reducing and
better managing human error.
The following are considered to be eligible for future research focus:
The development of effective human error reporting systems to ensure the
availability of sufficient data for the analysis and management of human error.
Developing or improving tools for analyzing the probability of occurrence of errors
in each industry to prioritize the predictive and preventive measures.
The quantification of the impact of human error on maintenance performance and
economic activities.

References
Dhillon, B. S., & Liu, Y. (2006). Human error in maintenance: a review. Journal of Quality
in Maintenance Engineering , 12(1), 21-36.

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Dhillon, B. S. (2014). Human Error in Maintenance: Investigative Study for the Fcatories of
the Future. IOP Conference Series: Matrials Science and Engineering (p. 13). IOP
Publishing.
NOPSEMA. (2015). Human error risk reduction to ALARP. Perth: National Offshore
Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority.
Pons, D., & Dey, K. (2015). Aviation Human Error Modelled as a Production Process. The
Ergonomics Open Journal, 8(1), 1-12.
Virovac, D., Domitrovic, A., & Bazijanac, E. (2017). THE INFLUENCE OF HUMAN
FACTOR IN AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE. Promet Transport Interaction, 257-266.
Myszewski, J. M. (2012). Management responsibility for human errors. The TQM Journal,
24(4), 326-337.
Reason, J. (1990). Human Error. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Siu, N. (1994). Risk Assessement for dynamic systems: an overview . Reliability
Engineering Systems Safety, 43-73.
HUMAN FACTORS CONTRIBUTION TO
AVIATION SAFETY. Brasov: International Conference of Scientific Paper.
Drury , C. G. (2000). Human Factors in Aircraft Maintenance. New York: RTO AVT.
Begur, S. H., & Babu, J. A. (2016). Human Factors in Aircraft Maintenance. International
Advanced Research Journal in Science, Eng and Tech, 3(3), 14-17.
Wiegmann, D. A., & Shappell, S. A. (2003). A Human Error Approach to Aviation Accident
Analysis . Burlington: Ashgate.
Health and Safety Executive. (2000). Improving maintenance a guide to reducing human
error. UK: HSE Books .
Timmons, S., Baxendale, B., Buttery, A., Miles, G., & Roe, B. (2014). Implementing
human factors in clinical practice. Emergency Medicine Journal (EMJ), 32, 368-372.
Peach, R., Ellis, H., & Visser, J. K. (2016). A MAINTENANCE PERFORMANCE
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FACTORS: A CASE STUDY FROM THE ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION
INDUSTRY. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 27(2), 177-189.
Badenhorst, F. W., & Van Tonder, J. (2004). DETERMINING THE FACTORS CAUSING
HUMAN ERROR DEFICIENCIES AT A PUBLIC UTILITY COMPANY. SA Journal of
Human Resource Management, 2(3), 62-69.
Latorella, K. A., & Prabhu, P. V. (2000). A review of human error in aviation maintenance
and inspection. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 133-161.
Foyle, B., & Dupont , G. (1995). Maintenance errors and their prevention. International
Federation of Airworthiness 48th Annual International Air Safety Seminar. (pp. 353-357).
Arlington, VA: Flight Safety Foundation.
Hobbs, A. (2008). An Overview of Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance . Canberra
City: Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Krulak, D. C. (2004). Human Factors in Maintenance: Impact on Aircraft Mishap
Frequency and Severity. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, 429-432
Alonso, I. J., & Broadribb, M. (2018). Human error: A myth eclipsing real causes.
American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 145-149.
Kovacevic, S., Papic, L., Janackovic, G. L., & Savic, S. (2016). The Analysis of Human
Error as Causes in the Maintenance of Machines: A Case Study in Mining Companies.
South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 193-202.
Laakso, K., Pyy, P., & Reiman, L. (1998). Human Errors Related to Maintenance and
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Rashid, H. S. (2010). Human Factors Effects in Helicopter Maintenance: Proactive
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499
[Paper ID 53]

Chukwuebuka .M. U-Dominic1 and Harold .C. Godwin2

Abstract
In this study, an extrusion process was studied in a cable manufacturing company located
in Southeastern Nigeria. The critical-to-quality (CTQ) characteristic considered in the study
was the cable diameter, and the design effort was to reduce the possibilities of having cables

to achieve the optimum parameter settings after statistically investigating the assumed
correlations between the process parameters in relation to cable dimension. Thereafter,
an appropriate engineering tolerance interval for the improved process was designed
to
the engineering tolerance by 82.7% from the initial tolerance limit. After the process
improvement, the Taguchi loss function approach was used to estimate cost attributed
to deviations. The loss function estimation result has shown that the cost attributed to cable
diameter deviations from the nominal valu

termination stage and the estimated annual loss decreased by 72% from the baseline value.
Keywords: cable manufacturing, engineering tolerance, loss function, sigma level, taguchi
design

1
Industrial & Production Engineering Dept, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Nigeria,
bukkyudom@yahoo.com
2
Industrial & Production Engineering Dept, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Nigeria,
hcgodwin@yahoo.com

500
Introduction
It is generally accepted that the high number of critical-to-quality (CTQ) characteristics
attached to cable manufacturing makes the possibility of having defective products almost
inevitable. Few of these quality considerations range from insulation thickness, conductor
diameter, insulation smoothness, high voltage failure, poor conductor resistance,
uniform/consistent dimension etc. The organization under investigation has been plagued
with a high percentage of cables extruded with inconsistent dimensions, and this production
anomaly of having inconsistent dimensioned cables requires a design attention to cut the
possibilities of having over-dimensioned and under-dimensioned products. Over-
dimensioned cable (ODC) is an indication that the process is using more Polyvinyl chloride
(PVC) material that is required for production, which negatively affects the company's
returns on investment (ROI). Apart from the direct financial impact, in practice, over-
dimensioned cables often pose serious challenges to workmen due to the difficulty of
passing these cables through defined electric sockets and gangways. Low dimensioned
cables are in other hand attributed to insulation thickness failures, and when used in practice
often leads to electrocutions as a result of energy leakages.
The organization's approach to solving this problem has been un-systematic. It has
always been a thing of trial and error among the operators manning the production shifts.
This production anomaly often time seize to occur mostly when the operators have gotten
him/herself acquainted with the control settings, but with time this identified production odd
resurface again and mainly as a result of job rotation, retrenchment and retirement. The
previous approach deployed by the organization in solving this problem does not consider
translating production losses in financial terms for cables with dimension off from the
nominal value. Design of experiment (DOE) using Taguchi concept would be followed to
systematically arrive at optimal control settings that would be documented for daily
productions activities and thus circumvent the cost of not knowing.
In other words, recent review reports from literature examination in the sphere of
Taguchi method of experimental designs has shown that the approach has been widely
implemented in a whole lot of improvement studies such as; in the machining/drilling
operations (Zhang et al 2009); (Ghani et al 2014); (Yang & Tang 1998); (Satikaya & Gullu
2014); (Kurt et al 2009), in service sector (Raajpoot et al 2008), in the design of injection
moulds and thin-wall plastics ( Tang et al 2007); (Fei et al 2013); (Oktem & Erzurumlu
2009); in wastewater treatment and Aluminium recycling processes (Silva et al 2014);
(Khoei et al (2002), in welding processes (Kondapalli et al 2013); (Kumar & Jindal 2014),
in neural computing (Sukthomya &Tannock 2005), in aquatic studies (Sii et al 2001).Venil
et al (2001) applied Taguchi experimental design to optimize the conditions for protease
production by Bacillus subtilis HB04. Akbarzadeh & Kouravand (2013) designed a robust
Bimetallic Micro Thermal Sensor using Taguchi method. Triggering of chemical oxidation
processes and Biodiesel production was achieved using Taguchi design (Ranganathan et al
2016); (Kumar et al 2015). Laccase production from Marasmielluspalmivorus LA1 was
optimized using Taguchi design approach (Chenthamavaskshan et al 2017). The approach
has also been applied in environmental building designs (Srinivasan & Braham 2015).
Lastly, in the healthcare industry, Luo (2011) reportedly used Taguchi design-based
optimization of sandwich immunoassay microarrays to optimally detect breast cancer
biomarkers.
From the above-cited literature, it can be deduced that the Taguchi approach is
generally used in finding the optimal processes parameters in a whole number of
organizations. In this study, the Taguchi design and loss function approach were used
primarily to set up the optimal control parameters for the cable extrusion and in relating

501
quality losses in financial terms.

Research Methodology
Taguchi method was used in this study to create a fractional design of the experiment
considering time, cost, and mathematical simplicity over a full factorial design. The
experimental design, considered two optimization stages in sequential order, the parameter
design and the tolerance design. Taguchi designed experiment often use a 2-step
optimization process, and the two-step optimization order as observed in the study are as
follow:

1. Step 1: Use the S/N ratio to identify those control factors that reduce variability.
2. Step 2: Identify the control settings that bring the mean to the nominal value.

Parameter Design Stage

The parameter design stage involves improving the uniformity in cable dimensions by
finding the optimal parameter settings that will reduce the effect of available noise factors.
In this study, cable dimension is the quality characteristics under investigation, thus a
nominal-is-best characteristic was chosen. The nominal is the best Signal-to-noise ratio
(SNN) assumes that the given target is best and is appropriate when there is nominal value
with both upper and lower tolerance limits. The goal of this experiment is to reduce
variability around a specified nominal value. The following guidelines were followed in the
experimental design:

1. Recognition and statement of the problem

2. Choice of factors and levels
3. Selection of the response variable
4. Choice of experimental design
5. Performing the experiment

Equations 1-3 are used to compute the SNN using Minitab-17 statistical software.

x2
S/NN = 10log ( s 2 ) (1)

n
1
Mean response (x) = n
xi (2)
i 1

n
( xi x ) 2
Standard deviation (s) = n 1 (3)
i 1

Where; k is a constant, and s2 are the mean and variance of the measurements of quality
characteristics respectively, and n is the nominal value of the process.

Tolerance Design Stage

The tolerance stage is for determining the acceptable range of variability around the
nominal value determined in the parameter stage. Equation (4) & (5) were used to compute
the tolerance after the process improvement.

502
 (4)

S= (5)

where K is a constant and is determined so that the interval will cover a proportion P of the
, s = sample standard deviation, x = each value in the sample,
= the mean of the values and N = the sample size.
The loss function approach was used in this study to determine the economic impact of
tightening the engineering tolerance. Equation (6) was used to compute the quality loss
function due to deviations from the nominal value.

L(y) = k (y-T) 2 (6)

A
k= 2
(At specification) (7)

Let y be the measured value of the characteristics, and that the adjustment of the process is
o y-T.
The quantity (y-T) is usually estimated based on available data, and the usual estimate of
mean square deviation (MSD) is denoted as follows:

1 2 2 2
MSD = y1 T + y2 T yn T (8)
n

Where n is the number of measurements available, and yi is the value of the ith

T = nominal value, A = cost incurred pro

tolerance limit, MSD = (y-T).

Analysis of Results
Common knowledge of the extrusion process has linked the existence of a correlation
between Capstan and Extruder speed to variations in the cable dimension. ANOVA test was
first conducted to

- -
- -

503
Table 1: -

ANOVA

Source of SS df MS F P-value F crit

Variation

Sample 0.485774 3 0.161925 60.67432 1.08E-18 2.748191

Columns 0.242544 3 0.080848 30.2943 2.61E-12 2.748191

Interaction 0.03871 9 0.003763 1.4102 0.202625 2.029792

Within 0.1708 64 0.002669

Total 0.932989 79

In the present study, the interaction between the two extruding parameters is neglected.
Using the degree of freedom (DOF) rule to determine the number of experimental runs;
overall mean = 1, Capstan speed = (4-1), Extruder speed = (4-
1+3+3 = 7. The total DOF is seven; we choose a Taguchi Orthogonal Array Design L16
he experiment was designed to undergo 16 runs at four
levels of the two experimental parameters.

Figure 1. Main effect Plot for SN ratio

From fig. 1., following the first optimisation step, the control factor settings that have the
greatest S/N ratio value was found at the Capstan speed of 425rpm and Extruder speed of
900rpm.

504
 Figure 2. Main efect Plot for Means

From fig. 2, following the second optimisation step, the control settings that bring the mean
to the nominal value was also found at a Capstan speed of 425rpm and Extruder speed of
900rpm.

However, it was observed that after the experimental design, that the engineering tolerance
of the process was too wide, with the upper and lower specification limits being far apart
from each other. To determine the acceptable range of variability in the extrusion process,
equations 4 & 5 as described in the research methodology section were used to design for
new tolerance intervals to truly capture the capability of the process and subsequent six
sigma ratings.

Tolerance Interval Design

S= = 0.0087977

. finding K value for two sided

will contain 99% of the population with 95% confidence.

Economic Impact Estimation on the Before and the After Improvement Measurements
we now express the quality level of the cable diameter in financial terms using the new
tolerance intervals. The new tolerance intervals for the process was changed from 2.90 to

any 1.0mm single coil produced that do not meet with the target value, and also considering
that customers will complain if the diameter is a bit less, and the organization stands also to
lose materials if the prescribed diameter value is above by a bit. Tolerance interval range
from T-

USL LSL 2.74 2.67

T= =
2 2

505
Substituting the cable diameter values before the Improvement in Equation (8)

1 2
MSD = MSD = yi T = MSD = 1/100[0.838478] = 0.00838478
n

L (2.785) = 30/(0.185)2 (0.00838478)

Substituting the cable diameter values after the Improvement in Equation (8)

1 2
MSD = yi T = MSD = 1/100[0.008508] = 0.00008508
n

L (2.709) = 30/(0.035)2 (0.00008508)

Assuming the organization worked for 300 days in a year and the daily production
capacity is maintained on the average of 810 coils per day, then the estimated overall annual

The result of the comparative economic impact analysis between the baseline
measurements and improved measurements with the tightened tolerance limit depict a
remarkable improvement. A whole lot of positive deviations were noticed in the baseline
measurements compared to the after improvement measurements, thus an indication that
there were more material usage in the production process before the improvement process.
Net yearly improvement due to redesigning the tolerance after the experimental design
becomes = [7.34- 8,180. The percentage decrease in the annual loss
estimation after improvement is computed with the formula:

Decrease in annual loss estimation= Orignal loss estimation-New estimated los (9)

Decrease
in
% Decrease in annual loss estimation = Cost * 100 (10)
Original
Cost

Decrease = 1,783,620-505,440 = 1,278,180

1,278,180
%Decrease = * 100 = 72%
1,783,620

Table 3: Quality Improvement Achieved Due to the Designed Experiment

Toleranc MSD K Expected Expected Net

e quality annual annual
loss per Improve
ment due
to new
design

506
 Orig 8.38478E- 876.55 7.34 1,783,620 *******
inal 03

Tigh 8.5088E-05 24489.8 2.08 505,440 1,278,180

tene
d

Table 3 contains the results of the improvement study as translated in financial terms. With

Conclusion
The study was conducted in a cable manufacturing industry located in the southeast of
Nigeria that specialized in the manufacture of cables of different sizes and colours. The
study emphasis was on the extrusion process of 1.0mm single cable. Five notable
contributions were made from the study:

1. Taguchi design of experiment is a powerful technique in prediction and selection of

input factors that will give a reduced amount of variation on the output response in
case of cable extrusion.
2. Capstan speed and Extruder speed has significant effects on cable diameter
variations.
3. The optimal parameter setting for the extrusion process was determined from the
Taguchi method of experiment.
4. Tightening the engineering tolerance after improvement process is essential in
ensuring that the engineering tolerance is not far apart from each other with a large
standard deviation.
5. Economic impact assessment of the process after improvement was estimated
through loss function approach in order to relate the quality level of the
improvement in financial terms.

Research limitation and future research direction

1. Due to budgetary and time constraint, the duration of data collection after the
experimental design were not well spaced-out to accommodate the likely effects of
ageing machine components on the parameter speeds.
2. The machine was solely powered by 50kva energy set during the study, thus the
researchers were not able to test/validate the results from the design using alternate
(the main) power source.
3. During tolerance interval design, smaller sample were randomly selected from the
stable process population and as result of this the designed tolerance interval may
not be long enough to cover a large portion of the distribution.

507
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509
[Paper ID 74]

Krzysztof Ejsmont1

Abstract
Due to the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution based mainly on intelligent
technologies used in the production area, rational assessment of their functioning has
become the subject of interest of many scientists. The main aim of the article is to present
the method of intelligent technologies assessment and to determine the possibilities
of its adaptation by manufacturing companies.
The following methods and research approaches were used in the construction
of the method: integrated method, controlling, desk research, observation of the functioning
of intelligent technologies, questionnaire interview. The research procedure assumes
the adoption of a three-stage assessment process (measure module dimension).
The holistic approach adopted in the study is achieved through horizontal aggregation
of obtained values of measures and modules.
The method was verified for the assessment of an intelligent technological line operating
in a large metallurgical company. The substantive analysis of the achieved results allowed
to develop a list of recommended activities within modules that have not been assessed
positively. It has also become possible to assess the implementation of strategic
and operational goals realized through the use of intelligent technological line.
The developed final assessment formula will help determine the effectiveness
of the activities undertaken (comparative analysis).

Keywords: holistic approach, intelligent technologies, technology assessment.

1
Research/teaching Assistant, Institute of Production Systems Organisation, Faculty
of Production Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Narbutta 86, 02-524 Warsaw,
Poland, Tel: +48-22-2348128, Fax: +48-22-8499390, E-mail: krzysztof.ejsmont@wp.pl

510
Introduction
A number of studies have reported or suggested that Industry 4.0 is a concept characterized
by the integration of intelligent machines and systems, as well as introducing changes in
production processes aimed at increasing production efficiency and enabling flexible
assortment exchanges. Industry 4.0 refers not only to technology, but also to new forms of
work and the function that workers will perform in a company
Lu, 2017; Zezulka et al., 2016). However, it should be clearly underlined that an
indispensable element of industrial development is its rational and factual assessment,
therefore the issue of the assessment of intelligent technologies discussed in this paper is
extremely important and still actual.
Based on the review of the literature on the subject of the assessment of intelligent
technologies used by manufacturing companies, there are some gaps in this area. Available
publications mainly deal with issues such as the evaluation of the potential of these
technologies (Daim et al., 2018) and to quality assessments of specific production processes
using intelligent technologies (Kumar et al., 2016). Many publications also address the issue
of assessing intelligent technologies in manufacturing companies and its impact on the
development of Industry 4.0, but without proposing specific solutions (methods, models,
tools) that could serve this purpose (Mashhadi & Behdad, 2018; Zhong et al., 2017).
After analyzing the classical methods used for technology assessment (Tran & Daim,
2008; Tran, 2007), it can be concluded that they are characterized by certain limitations,
imperfections and that do not fully take into account the specificity of intelligent
technologies used in the production area. Existing methods allow for the assessment of
technology only in some areas of its functioning (mainly economic and technological) and
are based mainly on financial data, they reflect limitedly the specificity of the environment
and management needs determined by the environment. Available methods do not provide
the opportunity to take into consideration the complexity and new features of intelligent
technologies used in production area. After the literature review, not identified the method
for assessing intelligent technologies in real time, which would consider the implementation
of operational and strategic objectives of the company.
The research problem formulated in the article is to construct a method that allows for
carrying out the most comprehensive assessment of intelligent technologies in real time.
A thesis has been also formulated, that the application of the assessment method of
intelligent technologies used in the production area will allow obtaining information
enabling companies to make rational decisions regarding the improvement of functioning of
intelligent technologies.

Method of assessment intelligent technologies

The basis for the elaboration of the solution proposed in the article were: the integrated
method (Marciniak, 1989) and the controlling tool (Marciniak, 2008).
In previous publications (Ejsmont, 2016; Ejsmont, 2017) the author developed a model
for the assessment of intelligent technologies based on a two-step approach (dimension
measure). In this paper, its development assumes creating functional modules (Table 1)
within the adopted dimensions, consisting of a specific group of measures (Figure 1). The
measure is understood as an indicator specifying the size, quality or value of something. It
may have a quantitative or qualitative form. The module is an element of the evaluation
system performing a specific function in it. It is easy to use as part of a larger whole.

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 Table 1. Examples of functional modules

Dimension Measures Module Function

rationalization of energy use [y/n]
assessment of the
Environmental energy consumption [kWh] level of energy
Energy consumption and
adjusting level of energy
determining if it
consumption to the production order
is rationally used
being carried out [y/n]
number of accidents during the work
with technology [pcs.]
losses due to accidents [PLN] determining
whether
level of security of handling Employee cooperation with
Social intelligent technology [Likert 1-5] safety intelligent
risk of an accident [0-1] technology is safe
for staff
level of employee participation in
realization of production process [%]

Figure 1. Structure of method for intelligent technologies assessment in a holistic approach

In order to develop a list of measures, and then to create functional modules, it is
necessary to collect key information about the research subject. In the initial phase of this
process, an interview questionnaire and participant observation are recommended, which
will allow the preparation of an assessment questionnaire. Its final structure will depend to a
large extent on technical documentation of intelligent technology, analysis of the external
and internal environment of the company as well as operational and strategic objectives
implemented by the technology. The questionnaire should be completed by employees

512
inside the company, possessing substantive and practical knowledge about intelligent
technology. Thanks to this, it will be possible to determine the value of individual measures,
and then entire modules and dimensions. It is recommended to select both quantitative and
qualitative measures, while their total number should not exceed 100. Each measure should
have the most adequate method/tool to determine its value.
Each of the created modules should have selected (e.g. in an arbitrary manner, based on
the knowledge and experience of the person/team conducting the assessment or based on the
literature on intelligent technologies) specific weights (values in the range from 0 to 1,
where 1 is very important). The weights can depend on many factors, such as the type,
characteristics and technical specification of intelligent technology, the significance of the
measures included in the module for achieving company objectives, etc. Benchmarking can
also be used during selecting weights and if it is possible to analyze the processes of
functioning of such intelligent technologies in other organizations. The weighting may be
done by using heuristic methods or by using the available research tools (e.g. a
questionnaire to be completed by the evaluation team). The final value of weight can be, for
example, the arithmetic average obtained by completing the questionnaire by all members
of the evaluation team.
The big advantage of assigning weights to the created modules is also the fact that if the
evaluating team have decided about the slight impact of a particular module on the final
result of the assessment, it is possible to disregard it by giving a weight equal to "0". Using
the weight approach, it is also possible to obtain a greater objectivity of the assessment (it is
useful, for example in a situation where there are differences of opinion regarding the
meaning of a given module), also selection of only those modules that are particularly
important from the point of view of the operational and strategic goals of the company
thanks to intelligent technology.
After creating a list of measures within each of the functional modules (functions of
modules should be related to the operational and strategic goals of the company), the
method of determining their value should be chosen. Different methods and tools (e.g.
financial, statistical, comparative analysis, etc.) can be used for this purpose.
After making a detailed analysis of each measure, determining its value and determining
the evaluation (positive, neutral or negative), proceed to calculating the assessments of
individual modules. Horizontal aggregation of measures takes place here. In the further
stage of the assessment process, the assessments (numerator) and weights (denominator) of
the individual modules within a given dimension should be summed up and multiplied by
the relevance level of this dimension. In this way, a complete assessment can be obtained
using the following formula 1:

*100 (1)

where:
LRD level of relevance for dimension (E economic, T technological, En
environmental, S social, L legal),
A assessment of individual module in dimension,
W weight of individual module in dimension.

Referring to modern concepts of management and technology assessments, the author

postulates the pursuit of the assessment comprehensiveness (holism). However, it is not
possible, when adapting the method to the conditions of a chosen company, to include all
possible groups of measures in the assessment. A lot depends on the internal and external

513
environment of the company, intelligent technology being evaluated, as well as the
company's priorities regarding the achieving of operational and strategic objectives.
It is also worth noting that a given dimension may also manifest itself in an indirect way
in other dimensions, which is consistent with the idea of a holistic approach. For example,
in the environmental dimension there are measures related to emission of pollution that have
a big impact on society (social dimension).

Results
In order to verify the method proposed by the author, it was decided to assess the intelligent
technology functioning in a large Polish manufacturing company The
research object that served the assessment is a line for forming profiles for steel structures
(Figure 2) of the Italian company STAM S.p.A Ponzano Vento (TV). It has been designed
for the production (starting from the semi-product coils) of sheet profiles of various
widths and lengths. The length of the line is 82m, it consists of several machines
(straightener, punching machine, cutter, guillotine, profiler, feeder).

Figure 2. Line for forming steel structure profiles

Functions that indicate that technology can be considered as intelligent include:
thanks to equipping the line with sensors and devices, it is possible to collect very large
amounts of data and based on carrying out analysis processes optimization of the
production processes;
the line is able to learn from the collected data;
energy saving as a result from the adaptation of the line to energy needs in the
production of a given type of product;
in case of any irregularities or failures, the line informs the operator (also telediagnosis
option is possible), but if it is able to solve this problem by itself, it does not stop and
continues production;
working of the line takes place without human intervention (fully automatically), so it is
safe the operator is only responsible for delivering the raw material and uploading the
required order data to the main computer;
while executing the same orders (which have already taken place in the past), the line is
able to independently adjust the optimal technical and operational parameters.
According to the developed method, the process of assessing intelligent technology in a
particular company was carried out. For this purpose, it was necessary to thoroughly
familiarize with the characteristics and technical specification of the research facility. This
was possible thanks to the management of the company providing technical documentation
of the intelligent production line and the author's interviews regarding its operation with a
member of the top management, the main technologist and operators who work with
514
technology on a daily basis. The author's participation in the direct observation of working
technology was significant, which made it possible to understand what the entire production
process looks like while using it.
After conducting an interview with a member of the top management, the collected
information was sorted out, and a questionnaire for further research was prepared. The
questionnaire consisted of five dimensions within which measures have been contained
together with units and were grouped into functional modules. In addition, there are fields
for entering weights for individual modules as well as relevance levels for the adopted
dimensions. The questionnaire was completed by: a member of the top management, the
main technologist and two employees serving the line. Taking into account the answers
contained in the questionnaires (mainly the qualitative measures), as well as the
measurements made by the author, the size of the quantitative measures has become
possible to analyze and evaluate them. The list of all measures with units, as well as a
description of the research by which their values have been evaluated have been described
in detail in the publication (Ejsmont, 2018). Synthetic results of the research are presented
in Table 2.

Table 2. Research results on the assessment of intelligent technology

Dimension Module Weight Evaluation Assessment

(W) of measures (A)
Economic Expected economical results 0.5 4 "+" 0.50
Level of Costs 0.3 3 "+" 0.30
relevance: 5
Short-term flexibility of 0.6 2 "+" 0.60
demand
Line work efficiency 1 4 "+"; 2 "0"; 0.63
2" "
Technological Line functionality 1 2 "+"; 1 "0" 0.83
Level of Technological modernity of 0.2 4 "+"; 1 "0" 0.18
relevance: 4 the line
Technical and utility 0.8 5 "+"; 3 "0" 0.65
parameters
Environmental Saving raw materials 0.5 3 "+" 0.50
Level of Natural environment 0.5 7 "+" 0.50
relevance: 1 preservation
Environmental policy 1 3 "+" 1.00
Social Employees 0.5 3 " "; 2 "0" 0.10
Level of Recipients of products 0.3 2 "+"; 1 "0" 0.25
relevance: 3.5
Work safety 0.3 5 "+"; 1 "0" 0.27
Employment 0.8 3 "+" 0.80
Legal Compliance with legal 1 6 "+" 1.00
Level of requirements (internal and
external)

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 relevance: 2 Service and warranty 0.8 3 "+" 0.80
Legal status of technology 1 3 "+" 1.00
Total 11.1 9.91

To perform a parametric assessment for the measures evaluated positively ("+") a value
of 1 was assigned, for measures evaluated negatively (" ") the value of 0, and for measures
evaluated neutrally ("0") the value of 0.5. Afterwards the measures with the values assigned
to them were added together within each module and the sum was divided into the total
number of measures in the module. The obtained value multiplied by the module weight is
its final assessment (last column). For example, in the module "Line work efficiency" we
have 4 measures evaluated positively, 2 neutral and 2 negatively. Thus, the total score is:
.
Due to the fact that some modules contain quantitative measures that require regular
control of deviations, the way in which they were measured, analyzed and evaluated was
presented in Table 3.
Based on interviews with company employees, as well as getting acquainted with the
aggregate data stored in the IT system, the author was able to determine the base value of
the measures. Mostly they were the arithmetic mean of the values obtained from all
correctly executed production orders from the beginning of the line functionating. Similarly,
acceptable deviations were determined (mainly using statistical methods). Table 3 presents
the results of the evaluation for one selected production order lasting 1 hour (production of
134.71 lm trapezoidal sheet). The units of measures are given in brackets.

Table 3. Quantitative measures to

regular control of deviations

Acceptable

Evaluation
Base value
Measured

deviation

deviation
Actual
value

Specification planned and monitored

measures

A,
Examples XR XB XR XB CA,
NA
Economic measures
Delivery time [days] 8 10 -2 0 A
Work in progress [lm] 21.27 50 -28.73 20 NA
Utilization of workstations [%] 100 80 20 20 CA
Downtimes [h] 0 1.3 -1.3 0.3 A
Unit cost (per one lm of steel) [PLN] 10.22 10.22 0 0.78 A
Unit profit (per one lm of steel) [PLN] 0.92 0.92 0 0.10 A
Changeover time [min] 10 5 5 5 CA
Production added per man-hour [PLN] 123.93 230 -106.07 92 NA
Technological measures
Tension [V] 350 400 -50 100 A
Frequency [Hz] 40 50 -10 25 A
Molding speed [m/min] 20 30 -10 15 A
Input speed [m/min.] 3 5 -2 2 CA
Acceleration [m/sec2] 2 4 -2 2 CA

516
 Pass speed [m/min] 25 35 -10 15 A
Pressure force [kg] 8 12 -4 6 A
Cycle of lowering and lifting sheet [sec] 0.5 0.7 -0.2 0.2 CA
Environmental measures
Ratio of material consumption to generated 2 3 -1 2 A
waste [%]
Reduction of wastes/wastage [%] 1 1 0 0.5 A
Energy consumption during using the line 12 15 -3 1.5 A
(on average per 1 hour of operation) [kWh]
Noise level [dB] 80 75 5 10 A
Amount of wastes (on average per 1 hour of 8.5 23.5 -15 9.4 A
line working) [kg]
Social measures
Number of accidents (per year) during line 0 0 0 1 A
working [pcs.]
Financial losses due accidents [PLN] 0 0 0 6500 A
where: A acceptance, CA conditional acceptance, NA no approval.
Thanks to the controlling tool, it was possible to compare the measured values with the
base values, and compare these values with the acceptable deviation. This helped in the
analysis and evaluation of the measures, which in turn enabled the calculation of the
assessment of entire modules. According to the adopted form of evaluation of measures:
neutral, and "NA" negative. In a brief summary,
it can be stated that in the environmental and social dimensions all measures were evaluated
positively, in the technological dimension, 3 measures were evaluated neutrally, and in the
economic dimension, 2 measures were evaluated negatively and 2 neutrally. By regular
control the value of deviations of the measures, it is possible to focus on those not evaluated
positively and to develop remedial/corrective actions that may contribute to the better
functioning of intelligent technology.
Using the formula 1, a complete assessment of intelligent technology has been made:

*100 = 87,53% (2)

The value obtained (2) can be interpreted similarly as the OEE indicator (Mansour,
Ahmad & Ahmed, 2013). It can be an internal measurement tool used to assess the
functioning of intelligent technology, and help identify areas (modules) in which corrective
actions are indicated. It can also contribute to improving cooperation on the operator's line
intelligent technology, as well as better adapt technology to the expectations of the society
(employees, recipients, etc.).

Discussion
During the realization of the intelligent
Ltd. no particular difficulties were encountered. Thanks to the good cooperation of the
author with the member of the top management, the main technologist and operators
servicing the technology, it has become possible to obtain all the necessary data to carry out
the whole research procedure. It should be emphasized strong involvement in the process of
assessing workers employed in the company, as well as the evaluation team's professional
approach to the tasks entrusted to it (e.g. preparation of appropriate documentation). Thanks
to this, the author could obtain information interesting for him without much difficulty, as

517
well as determine the value of particular measures. As a consequence, it became possible to
develop a complete, holistic assessment of the STAM's intelligent technological line and to
familiarize the persons concerned with the results obtained. The author discussed in detail
the determined values of individual measures, modules and dimensions, and also indicated
the areas that in his opinion, based on the conducted assessment, should be improved in the
near future (e.g. employees responsible for serving technology). After substantive
discussion with the members of the evaluation team, as well as a careful analysis of the
results achieved, the author recommended actions within the modules that did not achieve
the maximum possible assessment.
The main practical advantages of the assessment process include primarily its speed,
flexibility and no need to incur additional costs. Therefore, it has been adapted to the
requirements of industrial practice, and also allows the assessment of intelligent
technologies in a different time horizon.
It has also become possible to connect strategic and operational goals with the functions
implemented by intelligent technology. The main strategic goals of the analyzed company
were: increasing market share, acquiring new customers and expanding the offer. The
operational objectives included: increasing the production volume of profiles for steel
structures and increasing the unit profit (per one lm of steel). All the above objectives were
indirectly included in the developed modules. Strategic goals were included in the social
dimension, in the "Recipients of products" module and in the economic dimension, in the
"Expected economical results" module. Both modules have been highly assessed, so it can
be concluded that the accomplishes the strategic goals set by it thanks to the
intelligent technology. In terms of operational goals, they were included in the economic
dimension in the "Line work efficiency" module, which was assessed at 63%. It can
therefore be concluded that the company should pay more attention to the execution of
current orders, and strive to improve the organization of work related to the preparation of a
line for the production of particularly new products (previously not manufactured).
It should also be emphasized that the economic dimension (relevance level: 5) and
technological (relevance level: 4) were deemed the most important by the member of the
top management and the main technologist. This confirms the classic approach to
technology assessment, in which these two perspectives are considered the most important
by many authors. In the case of the analyzed technology, the low significance of the
environmental dimension (relevance level: 1) is fully justified, as production results in trace
emissions of pollutions and the amount of wastes is at a low level. Legal aspects are set at
the stage of preparing the offer and their fulfillment is a condition for the purchase of
technology. The social dimension is playing an increasingly important role in the methods
of technology assessment, which was indirectly confirmed by the evaluation team, which
defined its significance level as 3.5.

Conclusion
In summary, it is worth emphasizing the validity of the interdisciplinary approach in the
assessment of intelligent technologies, which leads to an increase in the level of essential
rationality. The need to include in the assessment of intelligent technologies many
dimensions, as well as paying attention to the role which played in this process
consideration of the operational and strategic objectives of the company, enabled obtaining
comprehensive information on intelligent technology and contributed to improving the
In addition, it is worth mentioning that
the applicability of the method was also confirmed as part of the author's work in the
European Project (E-SCOP, 2013-2016), whose main goal was to create a service-oriented

518
middleware that could be used, among others, in integrated production systems. This is
proof that the thesis formulated in the article is correct.
The importance of the subject matter discussed in the publication seems to be so
significant from the point of view of development of technology assessment methods that it
is fully justified to continue research aimed at constructing a universal, comprehensive and
coherent method of assessing intelligent technologies. To achieve this, it is advisable to
conduct further research works aimed at expanding and refining the proposed method.
These are the directions of future theoretical work and the continuation of cooperation with
production companies interested in the obtained results. This will enable conducting
empirical research as well as continuous improvement of the method through its practical
verification and achieved feedback.

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[Paper ID 95]

Khelina Swate1, Goodwell Muyengwa2 and Yvonie N. Mawane3

Abstract
Modelling and simulation of industrial systems has become a conventional method
for productivity improvement through optimizing design, operation, performance
and troubleshooting. This paper analyses the current Shearcut process flow through
modelling and simulation. A case study research was undertaken at a steel processing
company that transform steel coils into sheets, plates, slits, tubes, blanks and various
roofing products. Two models were created using Arena software. The models were
a representation of the process flow found in the Shearcut warehouse. The first model was
developed from data obtained from production records and time studies that were carried
out on some of the operations. Bottleneck stations and non-value adding operations were
identified. The second model was created with some improvements that included reduced
non-value adding times. Results from the second model had an improved output. This paper
contributes to the use of computer simulation as a tool to improve productivity.

Keywords: Arena, modelling, productivity, simulation

1
University of Johannesburg, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology,
Corner Siemert and Beit Streets, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, Tel. +27 11 559 6381,
Email: kpswate@gmail.com
2
University of Johannesburg, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology,
Corner Siemert and Beit Streets, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, Tel. +27 11 559 6381, +27 84
398 6369, Email: gmuyengwa@uj.ac.za
3
University of Johannesburg, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology,
Corner Siemert and Beit Streets, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, Tel. +27 11 559 6381,
Email: yvoniem@uj.ac.za

521
Introduction
Modelling and simulation are emerging as key technologies in supporting manufacturing in
the 21st
use modelling and simulation tools and techniques to improve manufacturing efficiency
within the dimensions of business (Abeya and Mulugeta, 2014). It has been reported that,

production cost, market price, and flexibility of manufacturing (Xiaofeng and An, 2011).
Obviously, the manufacturing industry has to respond quickly to these changes and
continuously improve manufacturing systems in order to sustain their competitiveness
(Jondeau, et al., 2000). It is believed that, there is a need for pervasive utilization of
modelling and simulation for decision support in current and future manufacturing. Hence,
simulation has been adopted in manufacturing systems by a large number of industrial
organisations.
Simulation is defined by Kelton, et al., (2015) as a broad collection of methods and
applications to mimic the behaviour of real systems, usually on a computer with appropriate
software. It plays a critical role in the design of products, materials and manufacturing
processes. Simulation reproduces behaviour of a sytem, which assists to observe,
understand and define bottlenecks of the system in order to have adjustments in time
(Altinkilinc, 2004). Several authors agree on the simulation potentials which includes, the
ability to simulate years of real system in a much shorter time, potential dangerous or
hypothetical systems can be studied without the physical or financial risks that may be
involved in building and studying the real system, the ability to study smaller or larger
versions of a system, the ability to intergrate complex system components to study their
interactions, the ability to study different systems in different or identical environments and
everything in a simulated environment can be absolutely monitored and controlled (Abeya
and Mulugeta, 2014; Battista, et al., 2011; Xiaofeng and An, 2011).
According to Kelton, et al., (2015), modelling is the process of producing a model. It is
the representation of an object or phenomena, which is utilised by simulation to predict a
future state. A model should be a close approxiamtion to the real system and should
incoroporate most of its features. The purpose of a model is to enable the analyst to predict
the effect of changes to the sytem (Abeya and Mulugeta, 2014).

study presents simulation modelling using arena software to improve efficiency in a steel
processing company that transform steel coils into sheets, plates, slits, tubes, blanks and
various roofing products. The objectives of the company are adjusted to meet the
custome
is faced with several challenges and the key one is to effectively manage the manufacturing
system. The study focuses on the Shearcut process, which is a major bottleneck section in
the manufacturing system.

Literature review

Arena simulation modelling

Several simulation modelling systems exist in the market and most of them are capable of
planning, testing and analyzing a manufacturing system (El-Khalil, 2015). Arena modelling
system is a flexible and powerful tool that allows the creation of animated models that
522
accurately represent virtually any system (Abeya and Mulugeta, 2014). Arena is built on the
Siman simulation language. Simulation language is a software package that is general in
nature and where model development is done by programming (Hosseinpour and
Hajihosseini, 2009).
Arena combines the ease of use found in high-level simulators with the flexibility of
simulation language and even all the way down to general-purpose procedural languages
like the microsoft visual basi programming system (Kelton, et al., 2015). Arena also
maintains its modelling flexibilty by being fully hierarchical as shown in Figure 1.

Modules in Arena are composed of Siman components. Further, Arena includes dynamic
animation and also provides intergrated support, including 3D graphics and business
dashboards for some of the statistical design and analysis issues that are part and parcel of a
good simulation study (Kelton, et al., 2015).
Abeya and Mulugeta (2014), identified eleven steps involved in developing a simulation
model, designing a simulation experiment and performing simulation analysis.

523
 The steps are:
1) Identify the problem
2) Formulate the problem
3) Collect and process real system data
4) Formulate and develop a model
5) Validate the model
6) Document model for future use
7) Select appropriate experimental design
8) Establish experimental conditions for runs
9) Perform simulation runs
10) Interpret and present results
11) Recommend further course of action.
Depending on the type of simulation study and methodology used, not all steps may be
required and on the other hand, additional steps may be required.

Owen and Greasley, (2018), carried out a literature review on the use of discrete-event
-up. Their

decisions, availability, task performance, customer arrival rate and people movement within

that incorporate human behaviours that included issues such as worker turnover and
absenteeism. Neumann and Medbo, (2017), used discrete-event simulation in evaluating

-individual learning rate variability in

Kasie, et al., (2017), undertook a literature review on decision support
systems within modelling and simulation studies. They developed a framework that
incorporated artificial intelligence, decision support system database and simulation.
Gopalakrishnan and Skoogh, (2018), carried out a simulation experiment that assessed

and simulation can be used in a variety of ways and can incorporate various data such as
worker behavior and machine availability in identifying areas of improvement. However
this paper focuses on the modeling and simulation of a Shearcut process in a steel
manufacturing plant and does not include worker behavior and machine availability.

Shearcut process flow

The Shearcut department studied is equipped with a computer logging system that records
data. This information includes data on steel coil arriving from the mill. Information on
Shearcut operating elements including value and non-value adding activities were collected
manually from the Shearcut department. Figure 2, shows the Shearcut process flow.

524
 Figure 2. Shearcut Process Flow
Research Objective

The major objective of this paper is to analyse and improve the current Shearcut process
through modelling and simulation.

Research Questions

The research questions for this are:

To what extent can modeling and simulation be used to analyse a Sheracut process?
How can modeling and simulation be used to improve productivity and resources
utilization?

Methodology

A case study approach was done for this paper. The standard methodology used for this
study is a generally computer simulation model, where two models were created using
Arena software at a steel manufacturing company. Eleven tasks were identified in the
Shearcut process, and these tasks are shown in Table 1. An average of ten observations was
carried out on each task to improve accuracy of the model. Input data to the model was
triangulated from observations, time studies and production records. The first model was a
representation of the current process. The model was first validated by experts working
within the Shearcut department and these included the managers, supervisors and shop floor

525
workers. The second validation was done through a comparison of model output results and
the results from production records. The second model was an improved process, which
optimized the current process. Data was collected regarding to total number of tasks,
servicing time for each task, transfer of Work-in-process between stations, priorities
between processes, arrival frequencies of entities or time between arrival, production output
and defect rate. The parameters of the distribution used in both the current and improved
model is the Triangular (TRIA) distribution, which has parameter values (Min, Mode,
Max), which are the minimum time, the most likely time and the maximum time a task
takes. TRIA is one of the probabilities built within the Arena software. Table 1 shows lists
of task, resources used and collected servicing time to be utilized in the first model. Table 2
shows the time durations that were used in developing the improved Shearcut process.

Results
The researchers obtained the processing times and actual time taken for all the activities that
are carried out in the Shearcut processing line. All the times were standardized to Triangular
(TRIA) times, which represents the minimum expected time, the most likely and the
maximum expected time. These are the durations that were uploaded in the first model
which represented the current Shearcut process. It is important to note that the current
model was built with the average time frames obtained from the production records and

also the resources involved in executing the process.

Table 1, shows Shearcut operating elements, both value adding and non-value adding
but necessary activities. Storage and picking are some of the non-value adding but are
necessary to get the job done, they however take considerable long processing time. The
prolonged times are due to factors outside Shearcut department but can be controlled.

Table 1. Shearcut input operating elements- Current process

Task Resource Service Time (mins)

TRIA

Inspect coil Overhead crane operator (2, 2.5,5)

Receive coil Coil logistics supervisor (4, 5, 12)
Complete NCR Crane operator (1, 1.8, 2.3)
Storage - (120, 240,300)
Process Sales Order Planner (3, 7, 11)
Process picking slip Supervisor (2, 3, 5)
Pick coil Picker (20, 45, 120)
Set Machine according to Machine Operator (5, 7, 19)
job card
Process Full Coil Machine (13, 25, 45)
Process partial coil Machine (13, 25, 45)
Receive finished goods into Dispatch clerk (13, 25, 45)
finish goods warehouse

Discrete event simulation was used to create the Shearcut process. Coils are delivered to
the Shearcut process truck arrival station at a rate of 49 minutes (Random Exponential), a

526
probability distribution found in Arena. The coils are routed for inspection. Normally 95%
of the coils are found to be in good condition and are released to pre-storage. The inspector
complete a non-conformance report (NCR) on coils found to be of poor quality (5%). The
supervisor further inspects coils with NCR, and usually 70% of these coils are approved by
the supervisor for release to pre-storage. 30% of the NCR coils are returned to suppliers as
defects. A process sales order is generated as per customer requirements. The sales order
indicates if the coil is sold as a unit or if it needs some processing. Shop floor workers pick
the sales order, the coil and go on to record if the coil is sold as a unit or not. Normally 70%
of the coils are sold as a unit with 30% processed as per machine job card issued by the
sales office. Of the 30% processed coils, only 605 coils get full processing into sheets and
40% coils are partially processed. Processed coils are then recorded and released to the
finished goods warehouse. The partially processed coils are sent to the pre-storage. The
researchers used the basic, advanced process and advanced transfer modules found in the
Arena software. The Shearcut process model was animated and it was run for a replication
length of 6 hours per day for 20 days, giving 7200 minutes. This was the estimated time the
Shearcut process operates in a month. Simulation results from the current model gave an
output of 99. Bottlenecks were identified in the storage area, coil picking time, slow
overhead crane and time taken by the warehousing clerk. An Arena flowchart for the current
model is shown as Appendix 1.

In the improved Shearcut process model, the following durations were reduced: storage,
pick coil and receiving finished goods into warehouse, as shown in Table 2. The research
team proposed a new warehouse layout and suggested that the company purchases a new
and faster overhead crane. 5S a tool and technique to properly arrange the warehouse was
also introduced. This approach reduced the time taken in the storage and the picking up
time. Furthermore on receiving finished goods there was an opportunity to reduce the time
by introducing the barcoding system which can capture the coil transfer to a different
warehouse by scanning the finished goods serial numbers. The process would take the clerk
a constant 5 minutes instead of the current times (6, 12 and 25 minutes). The output from
the improved model was 120 which gave an increase of 21.

Table 2. Shearcut input operating elements- Improved process

Task Resource Service Time TRIA (mins)

Inspect coil Overhead crane operator (2, 2.5,5)

Receive coil Coil logistics supervisor (4, 5, 12)
Complete NCR Crane operator (1, 1.8, 2.3)
Storage - (60, 120,150)
Process Sales Order Planner (3, 7, 11)
Process picking slip Supervisor (2, 3, 5)
Pick coil Picker (10, 22.5, 60)
Set Machine according to Machine Operator (5, 7, 18)
job card
Process Full Coil Machine (13, 25, 45)
Process partial coil Machine (13, 25, 45)
Receive finished goods into Dispatch clerk (13, 25, 45)
finish goods warehouse

Figure 3, shows a comparison of how the resources were seized in the two models. It can be

527
seen from the results that in the improved model resources were seized for longer periods
compared to the the initial model, hence the output of the improved model is 120 an
increase of 21 from an output of 99 in the current model. The increment shows that the
improved process has more value adding to the system.

Figure 3. Comparison of Process Value Adding (Seized Times)

Table 3, illustrate the counts of entities exiting the system. The table shows both current and
improved, the figures reflect an increase except for record of coils returned to supplier.

Table 3. Count of entities existing in the system

Count Current Model Improved Model

Record coils returned to 1.0000 0.0000

supplier 94.00 112.00
Record coils sold as unit 1.0000 1.0000
Record processed coils 3.0000 7.0000
Record scrapped coil

Recommendation and future work

This research recommends that all activities that led to improvement in the Shearcut process
be considered in order to run the department efficiently and effectively. The department
should use the model to track bottlenecks and their effect on overall business. Just as
reflected with the storage and picking process. Although the model and simulation practice
is mostly applied for training purpose it is a good tool to use to analyse the system thus
recommended for use in feasibility studies and decision analysis.

528
 Future work will focus on connecting the simulation model with aspects of demand
forecasting and human behaviour in Shearcut process. It is planned to lengthen the model
with the possibility to attach explanations to processes and resources. Also, the simulation
will be extended with addressing the uncertainty of number of coils arriving at coil logistics
on a daily basis.

Conclusion

This paper provided basic knowledge of the Shearcut process flow. The use of Arena
software to model and simulate the process made it easy to be able to manipulate what
would be impossible, too expensive, or too impractical to perform on the system which it
portrays. However, what the presented model does not simplify is the data gathering. To
recreate a realistic scenario in a simulation, it is still necessary to find out the values and
numbers that are used by the simulation. For example, to map the Shearcut process flow, the
sub-process within it that is production process, the machinery runtime, duration, raw
materials and all resource activities have to be gathered.

References

Abeya, T. & Mulugeta, N., 2014. Modelling and Performance Analysis of Manufacturing
Systems in Footwear Industry. Science, Technology and Atrs Research Journal, 3(3),
pp. 132-141.
Altinkilinc, M., 2004. Simulation-based layout plaanning of a production plant. USA,
Proceedings of the 2004 Winter Simulation Conference.
Battista, C. D. S., Giordano, F., Iannone, R. & Schiraldi, M., 2011. Manufacturing systems
modelling and simulation software design: A reference model. Vienna, Annals and
Proceedings of DAAAM I nternational 2011.
El-Khalil, R., 2015. Simulation analysis for managing and improving productivity: A case
study of an automotive company. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management,
26(1), pp. 36-56.
Gopalakrishnan, M. & Skoogh, A., 2018. Machine criticality based maintenance
prioritization: Identifying productivity improvement potential.. International Journal
of Productivity and Performance Management, 67(4), pp. 654-672.
Hosseinpour, F. & Hajihosseini, H., 2009. Iportance of simulation in manufacturing.
International Journal of Economics and Mangement Engineering, 3(3), pp. 229-232.
Jondeau, P., Vonderembse, M. & Ragu-Nathan, T., 2000. Exploring work system practices
for time-based manufacturers: their impact on competitive capabilities. Journal of
Operations Management, Volume 18, pp. 509-529.
Kasie, F. M., Bright, G. & Walker, A., 2017. Decision support systems in manufacturing: a
survey and future trends.. Journal of modelling in Management, 12(3), pp. 432-454.
Kelton, W., Sadowski, R. & Zupick, N., 2015. Simulation with Arena.. 6th ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill Education.
Neumann, W. and Medbo, P., 2017. Simulating operator learning during production ramp-
up in parallel vs serial flow production.. International Journal of Production
Research, 55(3), pp. 845-857.
Owen, C. & Greasley, A., 2018. Modelling people's behaviour using discrete-event-
simulation: a review.. International Journal of Operations and Production
Management, 38(5), pp. 1228-1244.
Xiaofeng, H. & An, R., 2011. Modeling and simulation of manufcturing systems in

529
 unstable environment. London, UK, Proceedings of the World Congress on
Engineering.

Appendix 1: Shearcut Process model

530
[Paper ID 93]

Thabiso Malatji1 and Goodwell Muyengwa2

Abstract
This paper investigates current productivity levels of baked beans in a fast manufacturing
consumer goods (FMCG) company. The market demand for baked beans on average
has increased by 14% year on year over the past two to three years. This growth was
unexpected and was unplanned for, hence equipment was utilized to maximum capacity,
at times ignoring maintenance issues. The outcome of this approach was a major concern
of unplanned stoppages on the production line. The canning process has manual activities
such as soaking and sorting. Blanching is semi-automatic while filling and seaming are fully
automated. The filling station was identified as the bottleneck station due to its slow speed
(145 cans/minute) as compared to the seamer (200 cans/minute). The major objective of this
study was to evaluate how productivity of the canning process was achieved. Efforts were
made to increase output of soaking, sorting and blanching. This led to reduced cycle time
of the filler and the elimination of sources of contaminations. Industrial engineering tools
such as autonomous maintenance, total productive maintenance, total quality management

contributes to the theory of productivity improvement and to industry practitioners

it highlights challenges faced when improving productivity.

Keywords: automation, bottleneck, cycle time, productivity and total quality management

1
University of Johannesburg, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology,
Corner Siemert and Beit Streets, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, Tel. +27 11 559 6381,
Email: malatjit@ymail.com
2
University of Johannesburg, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology,
Corner Siemert and Beit Streets, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, Tel. +27 11 559 6381, +27 84
398 6369, Email: gmuyengwa@uj.ac.za

531
Introduction
meeting delivery targets, producing quality products, creating shareholder value and
improving productivity, (Hooi and Leong, 2017). Literature suggests that some companies
have successfully addressed some of these problems through the implementation of the
following tools and techniques: total quality management (TQM), total productive
maintenance (TPM), just in time (JIT), Kaizen, 5S, 20 keys to workplace improvement,
Lean and Lean Six Sigma, (Hooi and Leong, 2017; Gopalakrishnan and Skoogh, 2018).
Improving productivity positively impacts ( deleted-- is important for companies as it
impacts) on revenue and profits, enhances competitiveness and maintains market share. (
deleted--Within an organization there are various). Components that influences productivity
include employees, efficient use of equipment and standardized processes, (Ahuja and
Khamba, 2008).
This paper analyses how a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company improved its
productivity. (deleted--The investigation of) This study will focuses largely on dry small
white bean for baked beans manufacturing process. (deleted--More than) 80% of baked
beans produced in South Africa are used in the canning industry. Canned beans are
normally made ready by hydration in water earlier before being canned in a brine of tomato
sauce, (Mahalik and Nambiar, 2010). (deleted-- More technology still needs to be applied so
as to upgrade the systems and processes since a lot of processes are manual.). However
most canned beans manufacturing is largely manual. These manual processes (deleted--may
be) are causes of delays on the line, with every slight stoppage affecting productivity.
The studied company will be known as Company DW, to safeguard its confidentiality.
(Company) DW is the largest diversified food manufacturing company in South Africa and
other African countries. (deleted--It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
(Compan
canning and bottled food. In the financial year of 2014 the company recorded revenue of
R3.6 billion and a trading profit of R1 billion from all its operations. South Africa accounts
for 85 per cent of DW group profits. The Company DW currently employs around 4800
workers throughout its South African operations.
(Company) DW has been facing some challenges in improving its productivity mainly due
to lack of adaptability to culture change in the past years. It has tried many times to
implement tools to improve productivity without much success. However the company
made a new approach to improving its productivity by hiring and setting up a continuous
improvement department. The (deleted new) department was manned mainly by Industrial
Engineers who were tasked to improve productivity. The company has implemented tools
like TPM, 20 Keys, TQM, and mission directed work teams. (remove from here --- This
paper evaluates how Company DW implemented these tools and to what extent did these
tools improve productivity.
When ( delete--one of the) researchers joined this company it was realized that there were
no maintenance system followed on the canning process line. A software to plan and control
maintenance for all equipment in the manufacturing plants was available but it was not
being used effectively. However this company was partially using system like Pragma, and
part of the 20 keys namely keys: 3 (improvement team activities); 6 (manufacturing value
analysis- methods improvement); 11 (quality assurance system) 9 (maintaining equipment);
17(efficiency control) and 19 (conserving energy and materials). (added here--This paper
evaluates how Company DW implemented these tools and to what extent did these tools
improve productivity)

532
Literature review

Dry Bean Value Chain

South Africa produces three types of beans, namely Red Speckled, Small White and Large
White Kidney, (SA Department of Agriculture, 2015). The Small White beans are used for
canning. Figure 1, shows the market value chain of dry beans. Dry beans is sold to the
market either as dry beans or processed canned beans. The branded canned beans is sold
through well- . The value
chain diagram shows that there is potential for exports of canned beans. The potential for
Company DW to expand its market share locally and venture into exports was (deleted--has
been) the motivation of this study. (Added--Export earnings improves the exchange rate of
the Rand).

Figure 1. Market value chain of dry beans (SA Department of Agriculture, 2015)

The Dry Bean Producers Organisation, (SA Department of Agriculture, 2015) have
indicated that bean consumption is a good source of plant proteins and beans have less salt,
fat and with no cholesterol. The composition of cooked dry beans is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Composition Of Cooked Dry Beans

533
Figure 3, shows the bean canning flow process. (deleted--It is important to note that the)
Processes that were targeted for improvement (deleted--to be improved in this study) were
soaking, sorting, blanching and the filling station. The filling station was identified to be a
bottleneck station and the emphasis was to reduce the filling cycle times.

Figure 3. Bean canning flow process.

Figure 4, shows that bean production increased drastically as from 2013 to 2015. This has
been attributed to the demand by consumers.

Figure 4. Bean productivity in the past seven years, (SA Department of Agriculture, 2015)

Figure 5, shows an increasing gross value contribution of dry beans from the year 2005 to
2014.

Figure 5. Gross Value of Production for Dry Beans, (SA Department of Agriculture, 2015)

534
Productivity
Demin

--Generally there are) Three

productivity factors that are used when analyzing how productive a manufacturing entity is
are: (deleted--These factors are) partial factor productivity which considers a single input in
the ratio such as output/labour, output/machine, output/energy or output/capital, (Drucker,
1991); multi factor productivity uses more than a single factor, for example it may consider
labour and materials or at times capital, (Drucker, 1991); and total factor productivity
combines the effects of all resources used in the production to come up with an output,
(Drucker, 1991). Productivity can be improved by reducing wastage of input resources such
as labour, material, machine, time, space and capital. (Literature suggest that) Productivity
can be improved by tools and techniques such as TQM, TPM, 20 keys, value analysis and
operations research. Netland, (2017), highlighted 5 rules of productivity improvement and
these are:

Get processes under control,

Sync processes as a system,
Shorten throughput times and

Drucker, (1991), summarized the importance of productivity as an influence to the

generation of wealth through higher sales due to lower cost per unit and this results in lower
prices thereby improving profits for the organization. Workers can be paid more, thus
improving their standard of living and productivity can be used as a vehicle to reduce
poverty and unemployment. Higher productivity enhances shareholder value and improves
reby generating more foreign currency.

Total Quality Management

TQM is a
comprehensive method used by competitive companies to attain and maintain organisational
excellence, (Oakland, 2001), and fulfilling the ever-changing demands of the customer.
(deleted Effective). TQM implementation requires top management commitment,
availability of resources and education and training of the workforce. This was supported by
Deming, (1982) who presented 14 points for management to follow when implementing

philosophy and have a desire to improve quality of products and service; build quality into
the product and avoid inspections; stop awarding business based on the price tag; improve
productivity and decrease costs; train workers at the job; develop good leadership; create a
conducive environment without fear; departments must work together and provide methods
on how to achieve zero defects and meeting set targets. Figure 6 shows TQM
implementation factors, (Gunasekaran et al.; Oakland, 2001; Deming, 1982). that must be
considered when a company is implementing TQM. This paper evaluates how TQM
implementation helped productivity improvement in DW.

535
 Figure 6. Total Quality Management Implementation Aspects, (Gunasekaran, et al., 1998;
Deming 1982)

Total Productive Maintenance

efficiency and availability of equipment through the use of teamwork, zero breakdowns,

between maintenance and production functions in a company aimed at improving product

quality, reducing production costs, reducing waste, increases equipment availability and

improvement, planned maintenance, quality maintenance, education and training, safety

health and environment, office TPM and development management. Jain et al, (2014)
identified that TPM makes use of tools and techniques such as 5S, poka-yoke, team based
problem solving, statistical process control brainstorming, 5M, cause and effect diagrams,
bottleneck analysis, pareto analysis, reduction in waste, and simulation as tools to address
TPM problems. This paper will evaluate how Company DW made use of the above tools
and techniques in improving its bean canning productivity.

20 Keys to Workplace Improvement

book is used to promote factory revolution as a total package to create synergy among the
various departments in a company. The 20 keys are a methodology of implementing
practical program of revolutions in factories (PRORF), aimed at improving production.

activities; key 5: Quick changeover technology; key 6: Manufacturing value analysis

(methods improvement); key 9: Maintaining equipment; key 11: Quality assurance system
--just to mention a few.)
This paper will investigate how some of these keys were used by DW in improving its bean
canning productivity.

536
Research Objectives
This paper has the following objectives:
To evaluate how productivity improvement was carried out on a bean canning
process line.
To automate and reduce cycle times on the soaking, blanching, sorting and filling
stations and
To eliminate source of contaminations.

Research Questions
This paper will answer the following research questions:
To what extent does the current production practices affect productivity?
What are the constraints to productivity improvement on the bean canning line?
What are the current maintenance practices on the bean canning line?
How did DW made use of TQM, TPM and 20 keys in improving the bean canning
line?

Methodology
This study was carried out through a case study approach, (Yin, 2009 and Creswell 2011),
where both qualitative and quantitative information was gathered to evaluate how Company
DW improved its canned bean production. (Added-- ualitative
research is a correct approach which includes interviews to find information about the

managers, supervisors, quality control officers and canned bean process operators.)
(deleted--This study was conducted along the bean product value chain as previously
defined.) (Added--Quantitative data was gathered through close ended questions (Creswell,
2011), that sought to understand to what extent has DW benefited from its improvement
efforts. Both qualitative and quantitative data was gathered through open ended and close

The study took place during January 2015 to October 2015, but data collected and analysed
was from 2012 to 2015. (deleted--The principal data was largely collected by interviewing
managers, process operators, key resource experts and quality control office. Mouton,
al approach which includes interviews to

implementation of TQM, TPM and 20 Keys of workplace improvement. The data was
analysed through graphing techniques.

Research Results
A total of 32 questionnaires were distributed and on 28 usable responses were received by
the researchers. The following sections presents the findings of this study.
Productivity
Figure 7 summarizes overall understanding of productivity improvement tools and benefits
from the system. The overall response from all employee asked in an interview showed that
DW staff understands the system. Data from interviews carried out showed that employees
in the canning section had a better understanding of productivity after the company had
adopted TQM, TPM and 20 keys as productivity improvement tools.

537
 Figure 7. Employees understanding of productivity

Figure 8, shows the challenges that were pointed out by staff in the canning department.
The major concern was the filling and seaming stations. The filling station was considered
slow, hence it was labelled as the bottleneck station. The filling station had a cycle time of
145 cans / minute which was slow as compared to the seamer which was running at 200
cans / minute. Line preparation was also a cause of concern.
Challenges to performance

Figure 8. Challenges faced in the canning section

Total Quality Management Implementation

Senior managers of Company DW understood that TQM is a journey to excellence which
cannot be achieved overnight. Their commitment to TQM implementation was witnessed by
the recruitment of industrial engineers and the setting-up of a Continuous Improvement
department that worked with the production personnel. Resources for training were made
available, but all the training was done in-house with the industrial engineers acting as the
resource personnel. Most of the production personnel were trained in the seven basic
quality tools: Pareto analysis, histogram, cause and effect diagram, check sheet, scatter
diagram, control charts and flow chart. The most common tools that workers were using
were the histogram and the check sheet. A few of the workers understood the Pareto
analysis. (deleted--Through the efforts of TQM productivity of canned bean improved as
shown in figure 9.) The continuous improvement team also used key 11 which focusses on
quality assurance system. Production operators were trained on quality issues and
researchers witnessed some inspections that they were now carrying out unlike in the past.
There was reduction in defects.

538
 Productivity

(deleted information covered in Figure 4--Figure 9. Canning productivity in the past three
years)

Total Productive Maintenance Implementation

(Added--Maintenance personnel had a planned maintenance system that was not effectively
used. The team worked on breakdown calls and attended to major breakdowns on weekends
to gain overtime.) The company had a committee that led the TPM implementation. The
senior production manager was in-charge of that team and it included TPM Coordinators
that worked together with the continuous improvement team. Maintenance strategies,
policies and procedures were formulated and adopted. Autonomous maintenance was
taught to employees and it followed the 7 steps of Nakajima, (1989). However during the
initial phase of training employees demanded extra pay for extra duties. The intervention of
top management solved the problem. Workers on the canned bean production line were now
responsible for cleaning and inspection of the line. Breakdowns and time to repair were
reduced as shown in figure 9. There was a noticeable improvement on Overall Equipment
Effectiveness (OEE). Before TPM implementation OEE was around 53%. OEE is
calculated from Availability (A) x Product Efficiency (E) x Quality rate (Q) , Jain et al.,
(2014). Therefore OEE = A*E*Q. After TPM implementation the OEE = 0.89*0.9*0.9 =
72%. The mean time to repair (MTTR) has improved as shown in figure 9. There was
noticeable improvement in safety and cleaniliness on the canning process line.

B r e a k d o wn s

Figure 10. Time to Repair breakdowns

539
Automation

The company invested in new equipment, the new Lyco and Tegra machines which
replaced the manual sorting and soaking. It used to take 6 hours for soaking beans before
preparing for filling. The Lyco machine takes 1hour and 30minutes to soak and release to
filling station, this system improved the cycle time. The Tegra sorter was set by colour and
size configuration of the bean, using pneumatics to remove all defects from the batch. New
capital equipment improved productivity. A scan track was also introduced just before the
cooker, to assure quality of product in the cans, checking if the can is over or under filled.
This instrument improved quality.

Discussion and Conclusion

The implementation of TQM and TPM is an ongoing process. The company has done well
on the canning production line. The investment of new equipment and their efforts in
implementing TQM and TPM has yielded some positive results. The researchers observed
that workers were involved and communication had improved. Senior management support
was clear and this gave workers confidence. The continuous improvement team developed
standard operating procedures (SOPs) and they managed to eliminate non-value adding
activities. TQM and TPM brought in both tangible and intangible benefits. Tangible
benefits were reduction in defects, reduced stoppages, and improved set-up times.
Intangible benefits were enhanced worker morale, a cleaner environment and general
confidence of employees. Employees had a higher level of job satisfaction through their
recognized involvement and contribution of new ideas. (deleted--were now contributing
some improvement ideas which were considered by management.)
This paper concludes that TQM, TPM and 20 keys are tools that when implemented

hence these results cannot be generalized.

References
Ahuja, I.P.S. and Khamba, J.S., 2008. Total productive maintenance: literature review and
directions, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 15(3), 241-756
Drucker, P. 1991. The new productivity challenge, Harvard Business Review. 69(6)
November-December 69-79.
Deming, W.E., 1982. Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Boston, MA
Eti, M.C., Ogaji, S.O.T. and Probert, S.D., 2004. Implementing total productive
maintenance in Nigerian manufacturing industries, Applied Energy, 79, 385-401.
Creswell, J. & Clark, V. L. P., 2011. Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research.
2nd ed. London: Sage
Fredriksson, G., and Larson, H. 2012. An analysis of maintenance strategies and
development of a model for strategy formulation. Master Thesis. Chalmers University of
Technology. Sweden.
Gopalakrishnan, M. and Skoogh, A., 2018. Machine criticality based maintenance
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Productivity and Performance Management, 67(4), 654-672.
Gunasekaran, A., Goyal, S.K., Martikainen, T., and Yli-Olli, P, 1998. Total quality
management: a new perspective for improving quality and productivity, International
Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 15(8/9), 947-968.
Hooi, L.W. and Leong, T. Y., 2017. Total productive maintenance and manufacturing
performance improvement. Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 23(1), 2-21.

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Jain, A., Bhatti, R., and Singh, 2014b. Total productive maintenance (TPM): a proposed
model for Indian SMEs, International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering
Research and Development (IJMPERD), 4(1), 1-22
Kobayashi, I., 1994. 20 Keys to Workplace Improvement, Productivity Press, Portland,
Oregon.
Mahalik, N.P. and Nambiar, A.N., 2010. Trends in food packaging and manufacturing.
Trends in Food Science & Technology. 21 (3): p. 117-128.
Mouton, J., 2012. How
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Nakajima, S., 1989. TPM Development Programme: Implementing Total Productive
Maintenance, Productivity Press, Cambridge, MA.
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operations .com/2017/03/06/productivity-improvement-five-rules/
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Conference proceedings. APICS, Birmingham, 683-692

South Africa Depart of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2015. Available at:
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Yin, R., 2009. Case Study Research: deesign and methods. 4th ed. s.l.:Thousand OAKS:
Sage

541
[Paper ID 88]

Lesiba George Mollo1, Fidelis Emuze2 and Nicholus Sishuba3

Abstract
Productivity in the construction industry is declining in real time. The decline
in productivity is a source of worry for practitioners and researchers. The purpose
of this paper is to ascertain major factors influencing productivity in relation to the notion
of respects for people (RfP) in construction. The reviewed literature influences semi-
structured questionnaire used to survey construction professionals in Johannesburg, South
Africa. The results reaffirm the tension productivity increment and the enhancement of RfP
as both ideas appear to be moving in opposite directions on a typical construction site.
It was discovered that respect for workers on a construction site is a major concern.
The paper argues that ethical reasoning affects productivity. Therefore, an appropriate
management system is required to improve the workers' perception of productivity and RfP
working on construction sites.

Keywords: construction, productivity, respect, working conditions

1
Lecturer, Department of Built Environment, Central University of Technology, Free State,
20 President Brand Street, Bloemfontein, Email: lmollo@cut.ac.za
2
Professor, Department of Built Environment, Central University of Technology, Free State,
20 President Brand Street, Bloemfontein, Email: femuze@cut.ac.za
3
B. Tech Graduate, Department of Built Environment, Central University of Technology,
Free State, 20 President Brand Street, Bloemfontein

542
Introduction
The economist, contractors, and organized labour argued that to remain competitive in the
industry, one need to produce more for each money spend on projects and that every worker
at a job site must contribute to improve productivity (Dozzi and AbouRizk, 1993).
According to Abdel-Wahab and Vogl (2011), the productivity of the construction industry is
a key driver of the economic growth in any country. In construction, productivity is
influenced by people, although the use of technology and machinery have moderating
effects on specific projects (Snyman and Smallwood, 2017). In fact, Crawford and Vogl
(2006) states that construction productivity does not move in tandem with technological
change, not with factor replacement, where cost and equipment may be replaced for labour.
In brief, low productivity is a source of anxiety for stakeholders in the construction
sector (Thomas and Sudhakumar, 2014) because it is declining in real time for several
decades (Li and Liu, 2010). The decline of productivity is a source of worry for
professionals and researchers worldwide and the phenomenon is increasing unemployment
rate in developing country like South Africa (CIDB, 2015). There are numerous factors
contributing to the decline of productivity in the construction industry. For example, in
South Africa, productivity has been worsening due to labour unrest, leading to a negative
impact on the cost and quality of the product as well as the livelihood and moral of the
workers (CIDB, 2015). The industrial factors causing productivity to decline are connected
to behaviors towards people working in the construction industry.
Respect for people (RfP) is described as a method designed to create organizational
culture and climate in which improvements to the work method and procedures are being
made every day, by every single member of the organizations in every area of the
organization within the workplace (Korb, 2016; 47). The concept of RfP in the industry
relates to the improvements of working conditions and that they are judged purely in
relation to their contribution to efficiency and profitability rather than in term of oral
imperatives or fairness of the organizations (Ness, 2010). Therefore, the aim of this study
was to ascertain major factors influencing productivity in relation to the notion of respects
for people (RfP) in construction.

Productivity in the construction industry

To understand the term productivity, production function in general should be understood.
The term production is defined as a network of processes and operations used in the
industry (Shingo, 2005). Process in the industry represents a flow of material in time and
space, resulting in the transformation from raw material to semi-processed component to
finished product. Operation in the industry represents the work performed to accomplish
this transformation, the interaction and flow of equipment and operators in time and space
(Shingo, 2005). Secondly, stakeholders need to understand the factors affecting productivity
-Wahab and Vogl, 2011).
According to Li and Liu (2010), the term productivity has been described as a technical
concept which refers to a ratio of the input to real output as a measure of the efficiency of
projects. The ratio of the input in the construction industry includes labour, materials,
equipment, energy, and capital, and while, the output includes; the quantity, and labour
productivity of the construction projects (Arditi and Mochtar, 2000). Productivity in the
construction industry refers to making use of production resources, operators that do not
waste imports, for example, increasing growth rates while decreasing the use of resources
(Snyman and Smallwood, 2017). According to Arditi and Mochtar (2000) productivity is
not only influenced by labour, but also by other factors such as materials, equipment,

543
construction methods, and site management. However, the impact of labour productivity is
the main factor in the industry. For example, the Department of Labour in South Africa
reported that in 2013 the industry lost about R6.7 billion ($527 166 787.00), due to the
participation of workers in wages, bonus, and other compensation strikes or protest (CIDB,
2015).
The productivity in the sector is measured by contractors, project consultants and the
clients. For example, labour productivity is measured by contractors in the bidding stage of
the project and it is monitoring the daily activities at a job site. The total productivity is used
by the project consultants for specific programme planning and by the clients for conceptual
cost and period, estimating on individual projects (Arditi and Mochtar, 2000). The best way
to comprehend productivity improvement in the construction industry is to understand the
construction procedures as a visual complete system. For example, to define the
management practices of the projects (i.e. scheduling, planning, data collection, job
analysis, and control), material, timelines of the projects (i.e. proper procurement,
scheduling, and site layout), and labour effectiveness of the projects (motivation, job safety,
environmental factors, and physical limitations) (Dozzi, and AbouRizk, 1993).

The impact of working conditions on construction sites

According to Abrey and Smallwood (2014), poor working conditions in the construction
industry are part of the problems causing poor quality of work, which lead to the decline of
productivity and overall performance at the job site. In the construction industry, working
conditions are linked directly to construction productivity and workers' performance on site
projects (Loera et al., 2013). There are numerous factors causing poor working conditions in
the construction industry. These factors include noise, irritant or sensitising materials, dust,
fumes and gases, and other hazardous materials such as asbestos (Abrey and Smallwood,
2014). These factors affect workers negatively, and often management fails to address them,
which end up resulting in poor working conditions at the job site (Robles et al., 2014). The
outcomes of poor working conditions do not only reduce productivity, but also raise
questions about respect for safety and safe practice at the job sites (Dozzi, and AbouRizk,
1993).

Research Methodology
Several authors have investigated the impact of productivity in the industry (Doze and
AbouRizk 1993, Arditi and Mochtar 2000, Abdel-Wahab and Vogl 2011, Valverde-

2015, and Snyman and Smallwood, 2017). The authors flagged a range of causal factors in
their publications. The causal factors were conceptualised with the notion of RfP to produce
a semi-structure survey questionnaire for this study. For example, three principle
productivity factors include, site management, working conditions and construction
and satisfaction.
An expedited literature review discovered factors affecting the productivity of the
construction industry. The identified factors were discussed with the construction
practitioners working on project sites in Johannesburg, a city in South Africa. The research
design of this study adopted a quantitative research approach as explained by Creswell
(2014). For collection of the data, a survey research of 20 questionnaires were distributed
among construction professionals made up of a client, project consultants, and a contractor.

544
However, only 17 responses were received, resulting in 85%. The questionnaire consisted of
questions relating to the demographic of the respondents, open ended questions, and five-
point Likert scale type questions. The five-point Likert scale questions were ranking major
factors influencing productivity and respect for people in construction and the ranking
factors were designed according to a scale between 1 and 5 (Creswell, 2014). The scale was
represented as: 1 = strongly disagree (SD), 2 = disagree (D), 3 = neutral (N), 4 = agree (A),
and 5 = strongly agree (SA). The results in the form of mean score (MS) were used to rank
the factors. Most responses were from contractors at 82% (14 out of 17), project consultants
at 12% (2 out of 17), and clients at 6% (1 out of 17). The gender of the respondents of this
study show that 52.9% were male and 47.1% were female. In terms of years of experience
in the construction industry, 41% of the respondents have 0 > 5 years, 35% have 5 > 10
years, 18% have 10 > 15 years, 0% have 15 > 20 years, and 6% have 20 > years of
experience.

Results, Analysis and Interpretation

Table 1 indicates the ranking of nine factors causing poor productivity on construction sites.
The site management is the principle factor of this listed nine factors, this is because these
factors are all addressing the impact of site management on construction sites. The ranking
of this factor is in terms of percentage responses to a scale of 1 = strongly disagree (SD) to 5
= strongly agree (SA), and the MS ranking between a minimum value of 1.00 and maximum
value of 5. 00 (Creswell, 2014). The MS ranking in representing a minimum MS > 2.00 and
a maximum MS 5.00. It is discovered that the highest ranked factor causing poor
productivity in the site management of the projects is in MS 4.24, and there are two factors
having the same MS 4.24, namely poor management style and unrealistic deadline. It is
notable that poor management style and unrealistic deadline have the same MS 4.24, but
their scale ranking was differentiated with the standard deviation rule. For example, both
factors scored 0 in the scale 1 and the statistical results starts to differ from scale 3 to 5 in
scale 3, poor management style > 5.00 and unrealistic deadline > 11.00, and in scale 5, poor
management style > 29.00 and unrealistic deadline > 35.00. It is no surprising that these two
factors ranked the highest, as it is explained that most of the small, and medium sized
construction business do not undertake detailed site activity planning because of a lack of
skilled people and finance (Valverde-
The lowest ranked factor (9th) is at MS 2.94 namely; accommodation of the workers.
The 3rd ranked factors at MS 4.00 is the designed construction method. The training and
skills development factor ranked 4th at MS 3.88, the management of material supply factor
ranked 5th at MS 3.76, the availability of resources factor ranked 6th at MS 3.41, the distance
and location of site factor ranked 7th at MS 3.06, and the language barrier factor ranked 8th
at MS 3.00. It is very important for management or supervisors of the projects to address
this site management factor to improve productivity since these factors affects the job site of
the project. This statement is supported by Valverde-
proven that the most important factors affecting poor productivity in the construction
industry can be influenced and improved through jobsite management effort.
Table 1. The site management

Response (%)
Factors affecting productivity MS Rank

545
 1 2 3 4 5

Poor management style 0.0 0.0 5.9 64.7 29.4 4.24 1

Unrealistic deadline 0.0 0.0 11.8 52.9 35.3 4.24 2

Designed construction methods 0.0 0.0 23.5 52.9 23.5 4.00 3

Training and Skill development 0.0 0.0 23.5 64.7 11.8 3.88 4

Management of material supply 5.9 0.0 29.4 41.2 23.5 3.76 5

Availability of resources 5.9 6.0 35.3 47.1 5.9 3.41 6

Distance and location of sites 5.9 12.0 58.8 17.6 5.9 3.06 7

Language barriers 11.8 24.0 17.6 47.1 0.0 3.00 8

Accommodation of the workers 0.0 29.0 47.1 23.5 0.0 2.94 9

Table 2 indicates the ranking of the five factors causing poor productivity on
construction sites. Working conditions are the principle factor of the listed five factors, as
explained in the literature that poor working conditions in construction are part of the
problems causing poor quality of work, which lead to the decline of productivity and overall
performance at the job site (Abrey and Smallwood, 2014). The statistical ranking of the
factors in Table 2 highlights a minimum MS > 3.00 and a maximum MS 5.00. The analysed
survey responses show that the highest (1st) ranked factor is lack of supervision at MS 4.06.
The 2nd ranked factor is poor safety condition at MS 3.71. The 3 rd ranked factor is poor
housekeeping, and the 4th ranked factor is hostile work environment at MS 3.59. The lowest
(5th) ranked factor is workers fatigues at MS 3.47. This principle factor of working
condition is extremely significant to improve the productivity and respect of the workers on
construction sites. According to Lee et al., (2014) working conditions have substantial
influence on the workers' quality of life, and workers spend more than a half of their
working hours at a project site. Therefore, the working conditions influence the life of the
workers, this might be the reason why the respondents did not rate the scale of 1 (SD) in all
the five factors.
Table 2: Working conditions

Response (%)

Factors affecting productivity MS Rank

1 2 3 4 5

Lack of supervision 0.0 0.0 23.5 47.1 29.4 4.06 1

Poor safety conditions 0.0 5.9 23.5 64.7 5.9 3.71 2

Poor housekeeping 0.0 11.8 23.5 52.9 11.8 3.65 3

546
 Hostile work environment 0.0 17.6 11.8 64.7 5.9 3.59 4

Workers fatigue 0.0 5.9 58.8 17.6 17.6 3.47 5

Table 3 indicates the ranking of seven factors which influences construction workers
morale and satisfaction negatively. The scale of the ranking was in terms of percentage
responses to a scale of 1 (SD) to 5 (SA), and MS ranking between a minimum value of 1.00
and maximum value of 5. 00. These seven-construction workers morale and satisfaction
factors could cause low productivity as explained in the literature (Thomas and Sudhakumar
2014; CIDB 2015). It is notable that the highest ranked factor is at MS 4.12 and the lowest
is in MS 3. 41. The highest ranked factor is the industrial strikes or protest ranked at MS
4.12, the 2nd ranked factor is racism at MS 3.88, the 3 rd
MS 3.76. The 4th ranked factor is gender equality at MS 3.71, the 5th ranked factor is
xenophobia or cultural tribalism at MS 3.65, the 6th ranked factor is staff turnover, and the
7th lowest ranked factor is disciplinary procedures at MS 3.41. It is no surprising that
industrial strikes or protest ranked 1st due to the statement issued by CIDB (2015) that
labour productivity in South African industry has been worsening due to labour unrest,
leading to a negative impact on the cost and quality of the product as well as the livelihood
and more of the workers. Furthermore, Thomas and Sudhakumar (2014) states that labour
strikes is a critical factor causing labour productivity to decline in the construction industry

Table 3: Construction workers morale and satisfaction

Response (%)

Factors affecting productivity MS Rank

1 2 3 4 5

Industrial strikes or protest 0.0 5.9 11.8 47.1 35.3 4,.12 1

Racism 0.0 5.9 23.5 47.1 23.5 3.88 2

Workers absence 0.0 0.0 35.3 52.9 11.8 3.76 3

Gender equality 0.0 5.9 41.2 29.4 23.5 3.71 4

Xenophobia or cultural 0.0 11.8 35.3 29.4 23.5 3.65 5

tribalism

Staff turnover (change of jobs) 6.0 11.8 11.8 64.7 5.9 3.53 6

Disciplinary procedures 6.0 17.6 5.9 70.6 0.0 3.41 7

Conclusions
The study explored 21 factors which are categorized into three principle productivity
factors, the site management principle factor, working conditions principle factor, and

547
 rs
explored, poor management style, unrealistic deadline industrial strikes or protest, and
lack of supervision was identified as the most critical factors impacting productivity.
Designed construction method, training and skill development, racism, worker's
absence, management of material supply, and poor safety conditions were the other
major factors identified in the survey. Based on the survey results, poor management
style and unrealistic deadline (the site management principle factor) are the most ranked
factors in MS 4.24. The second highest ranked factor is industrial strikes or protest
(construction workers morale and satisfaction principle factor) at MS 4.12. It can be
concluded that these three factors influence RfP on one hand and productivity on the
other. Also, they discredit the adopted management system in the South African
construction industry. Therefore, these factors must be addressed to eradicate low
productivity on construction sites. The research findings show the need to improve
respect towards construction worker on construction sites. This resonates with the CIDB
(2015), who contends that productivity is a major issue in South Africa. This research
has identified the three principle factors impacting productivity in the construction
industry, and the findings will assist contractors in setting strategies to improve
productivity. Therefore, it is recommended that the scope of this study should be
extended to other cities in South Africa as it is limited to one city with little data. Also,
an appropriate management system is required to improve the workers' perception of
productivity and respect for themselves and others on a project site.

Reference
Abdel-Wahab, M., and Vogl, B. (2011). Trends of productivity growth in the construction
industry across Europe, US and Japan. Construction Management and Economics, 29,
635-644.
Abrey, M., and Smallwood, J.J. (2014). The effects of unsatisfactory working conditions on
productivity in the construction industry. Procedia Engineering, 85, 3-9.
Arditi, D., and Mochtar, K. (2000). Trends in productivity improvement in the US
construction industry. Construction Management & Economics, 18(1), 15-27.
CIDB. (2015). Labour & Work Conditions in the South African Construction Industry:
Status and Recommendations. Pretoria, South Africa: Construction Industry
Development Board (CIDB).
Crawford, P. and Vogl, B. (2006). Measuring productivity in the construction industry.
Building Research & Information, 34(3), 208-219.
Creswell, J.W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, & Mixed Methods
Approaches (4 ed.). California: SAGE Publications.
Dozzi, S.P and AbouRizk, S.M. (1993). Productivity in construction. Ontario, Canada:
National Research Council Canada.
Lee, B. P. (2014). The relationship between working condition factors and well-being.
Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 26-34.
Li, Y., and Liu, C. (2010). Malmquist indices of total factor productivity changes in the
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Construction (pp. 43-52). Boston, MA, USA: International Group for Lean Construction

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Thomas, A.V. and Sudhakumar, J. (2014). Factors Influencing Construction Labour
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Valverde- -Astor, E., Fuentes-del-Burgo, J. and Ruiz-Fernandez, J.P.
(2011). Factors that affect the productivity of construction projects in small and medium
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Bristol, UK: Association of Researchers in Construction Management.
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549
[Paper ID 48]

Andre Vermeulen1, Jan-Harm Pretorius2 and Albert Viljoen3

Abstract
This paper reviews the extent of the disruptive nature of Industry 4.0 technologies
applied to existing manufacturing industries. The inherent efficient and precision nature
presented within the Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) and the nine pillars of Industry 4.0
technologies will increasingly exploit industry operations. This development of strategies
and the impact thereof is significant for the drivers impacting on competitive forces within
industry as well as consumers across the globe.
The paper objective will therefore (i) critically analyse the current developments

and (iii) how a multitude of exponential improvements can be realised for the early adopters
of a digital strategy as a catalyst for increased organisational capability maturity through
exponential continuous improvements and sustained innovation opportunities.

Keywords: Capability Maturity, Continuous Improvements, Cyber Physical Systems (CPS),

Industry 4.0, I

1
Post Graduate School Engineering Management, University Of Johannesburg, Auckland Park,
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, avermeulen@uj.ac.za
2
Post Graduate School Engineering Management, University Of Johannesburg, Auckland Park,
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, jhcpretorius@uj.ac.za
3
Post Graduate School Engineering Management, University Of Johannesburg, Auckland Park,
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, albert.viljoen@autoindustrial.co.za

550
Introduction
Continuous Improvement remains a pursuit to perfection striving for improvement
in products, services and processes. Two classifications of improvements are observed, with
one characterised through incremental improvement over a period of sustained Kaizen
activities and another of breakthrough improvement of all at once. The Data Science of
Continuous Improvement (CI) through the advances presented in Industry 4.0 technologies
are enabling exponential efficiencies in design, development, manufacture, service,
maintenance and delivery.
The research explores how the traditional approaches in Kaizen are complemented
by the staged employment of Cyber Physical Systems in an integrated Maturity Model
presented within Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI) adaption of existing
Software and Hardware industry improvement approaches.

Purpose of the paper

The constant in changes in consumer demand and technology has necessitated the
review of the contribution of capability maturity in both service and manufacturing
industries with the technological advances observed in the Industrial Internet of Things
(IIo Jones, C., and
Pimdee, P. (2017) that Industry 4.0 indeed enables Lean through deployment of smart data
science deployment.
Traditional CI techniques such as Lean Six Sigma, Design for Six Sigma, Theory of
Constraints, Agile and Scrum effectiveness is explored in an integrated CI strategy through
the confirmation of Critical Success Factors previous and current research. The design and
development of an integrated Capability Maturity Model is a result of staged deployment
modelled on the proven effectiveness of CMMI from the rapidly evolving Software
Engineering domain and its impact on the traditional physical engineering domains as a
direct evolution of the Industrial Internet of Things ( ) presented in Industry 4.0
advances.

Related Work

self-adjusting and self regulating through the interconnected nature of modern day systems
and subsystems facilitated by constant data streams with predetermined logic with human
programming but increasingly more significantly in machine learning through Artificial
Intelligence.
Data Science is observed as the continuing convergence of the physical and the
cyber domains is observed to be the main driver of innovation and change in all industries
of the global economy. The global economy is being transformed as a result of the
continued exponentially growing amount of data and the ever increasing convergence of
various low cost technologies that are emerging through the confirmation of ICT which is
responsible for the evolution of the global industrial economy. In Asia Pacific, Europe and
North America, the , Data and Services is a symbiotic link in managing energy
transformation, in developing a sustainable mobility and logistics sector, in providing
enhanced health care and in securing a competitive position for the leading manufacturing
industry.

551
 This article discusses the Data Science of Continuous Improvement and its impact,
challenges and opportunities of digitisation and concludes with examples of recommended
policy action. The two key instruments for enhanced value creation in the CPS in Industry
4.0 are platform-based cooperation and a dual innovation strategy as observed also in
Kagermann, H. (2015).

Research Design
The nature of this research is primarily exploratory and descriptive. The main elements
of the research are formed by Phase 1 by means of thorough literature reviews in terms of
emerging Industry 4.0 technologies, Lean Six-Sigma (LSS), Design For Six Sigma (DFS)S
and Capability Maturity (CMMI), (note: - limited number of literature / references shown in
this paper). Phase 2- survey questionnaires and interviews with industry specialists. Phase 2
targeted knowledgeable LSS and DFSS industry participants across South Africa and
Internationally. The questionnaires and interviews were designed with specific research
objectives to determine:
i. Research Objective 1: What are the most signi
deployment in an organisation.
ii.
deployment in an organisation.
iii. Research Objective 3: What is the contribution of CMM to LSS and DFSS
implementation where such models have been explored.
iv. Research Objective 4: What impact does leadership have in achieving capability
maturity.
v. Research Objective 5: How will an integrated framework assist organisations to
achieve capability maturity.
In addition to the five research objectives the paper is designed to (i) critically
analyse the current developments of the nine pillars Industry 4.0 (ii) identify the

improvements can be realised for the early adopters of a digital strategy.

Critical analysis of the nine technological pillars observed in Industry 4.0

The nine technological pillars observed in Industry 4.0 are (i) Industrial Internet of
) - embedded computing enables field devices to communicate and interact
both with one another with more centralised controllers including decentralise analytics and
decision making in terms of enabling real-time responses; (ii) Cyber Security closed and
unconnected cyber systems are no longer the norm with increased levels of interconnected
devices necessitating the increased need for robust cyber security protocols; (iii) The Cloud
increased levels of data interchange across the organisation, assets and supply chain as a
characteristic of Industry 4.0.; (vi) Additive Manufacturing (AM) categorising a process
by which digital 3D design data is used to build up a component in layer upon layer of
material deposits; (v) Augmented reality - based systems that support a variety of services,
such as selecting parts in a warehouse and sending repair instructions over mobile devices.;
(vi) Big Data Analytics - has emerged as a simile for many varying business intelligence
(BI) and application-related applications.;(vii) Autonomous Robots - autonomous robots
are intelligent machines capable of performing tasks in the world by themselves, without

552
explicit human control or command; (viii) Simulation during the design phase, 3D
simulations of products, materials, and production processes with increasing modelling and
accuracy whereby these simulations also replicate virtual organisations and operations. This
real-time data replicates the physical world in Cyber Physical Production System (CPPS)
such as equipment, products, process and human interaction and (ix) Horizontal and
Vertical System Integrations
systems are still not integrated in totality. This include Supply Chain Management (SCM)
and visualising real time SCM issues inclusive of functional areas such as logistics, quality,
R&D, engineering, production and service.
Figure 1 in McCabe, B. (2016) depicts the 9 pillars of Industry 4.0 supports both LSS and
DFSS methodologies in using Big Data computing, Autonomous Robotics, Design
Simulation, System Integration, Internet of Things, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing,
Additive Manufacturing and Augmented Reality enabling cost, reliability and speed parameters
not possible previously.

Figure 1. Industry 4.0 and 9 technological pillars presented in Cyber Physical Systems
(CPS).
All the above will ensure that Industry 4.0, companies, departments, functions, and
capabilities are increasingly evolving into a cohesive, data-integrated networks evolve and
enable truly automated value chains.

CPS dynamics and industry relevance

The term Cyber-Physical System (CPS) originated at the National Science
Foundation (NSF) in the United States around 2006 in Gunes et al. (2014) which depicts a
variety of complicated multi-functional interdisciplinary advanced technologies which are
known to be physically-aware of their functionality and integrated in various industries.
This integration is not only limited to observation, communication and control aspects of
the physical systems from the multi-disciplinary and multi-functional viewpoint. CPS take
advantage from the integration of cloud-based and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to
deploy end-to-end support from the cradle to the grave perspective. CPS can interact with
all the hierarchical layers of the automation pyramid (i.e. ERP, MES, SCADA, PLC, field
level) and are able to empower the exchange of information across all the phases, resulting
in a better product-service development considering product and process efficiency, timing
and sigma quality.
It emerges to be very significant that CPS have the potential to impact massively
globally in terms of economy and society and therefore industrialist operating in CPS and
Industry 4.0 domains take note of future developments. Furthermore, several challenges
should be addressed such as privacy, security, dependability, genitive abilities, human
interaction, ubiquity, standardisation, robust connectivity and governance.

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 Exponential impact of Industry 4.0 technologies
To determine the extent of Industry 4.0 technologies on industries and societies is
not very simple due to the disruptive nature of the CPS and its inherent nature to accelerate
operations, improve quality constantly trough self-regulation, real-time-measurement
producing flawless processes and products, maximising yields with exceptional levels of
flexibility and Lean Six Sigma personified.
Some maturity models have already been developed for determining Industry 4.0
capabilities which will explore both readiness for Industry 4.0 and maturity of organisations
in the production and manufacturing industries.

Research findings
The research results obtained assisted in the design and testing of a comprehensive
ramework interacting and supported by Industry
4.0. The developed framework is undergoing testing at an international auto manufacturer in
South Africa. The framework will assist the organisation to optimise processes and product
quality coupled with product performance transcending into successful capability maturity
outcomes in the pursuit of increased customer loyalty.

deployment in an organisation.

previous literature reviews of 31 similar research documents. Research survey results

obtained across multiple industries from 200 organisations sampled (Financial, Insurance,
Pharmaceutical, ICT, Aerospace, Automotive, etc.) and participant responses from global
geographical origins (Asia, USA, Canada, Europe, South Africa, etc.) inclusive of
interviews with industry specialist to determine geographical assisted in identifying industry

results confirmed Management commitment as the single most important CSF in

achievement of successful LSS deployment. The significant changes in CSF ranking is
observed in the 2016 survey results where the increased prominence in ranking position is

Antony, J. (2012). Interviews conducted also confirmed that the metrics should not be
exclusively linked to financial improvements but also customer LSS metrics in CSF number
4. LSS staff selection has emerged as a significant CSF including Myers Briggs personality
testing on Black Belts and Master Black Belts in similar research conducted in Thompson,
S.J. (2007) determining TJ personality profiles as more suited for Six Sigma project
leadership than other personality types in ranking CSF number 5.

554
Table 13. Survey results in Critical Success Factors determination for Lean Six Sigma
Deployment.

LSS financial accountability emerged as prominent CSF ranked in position number

6 where more than half of the respondents in both survey and interviews confirmed the
importance of linking LSS metrics with financial metrics and typically this would include
divisional and organisational annual financial reports. Extending LSS to the Supply Chain
was also ranked in 8th position. It is noted that it is not practical to target 4, 5 or even 6 Sigma
Quality when the supply chain is not delivering similar sigma metrics with their input
processes. This aspect is the single highest risk to the attainment of Six Sigma quality and
metric targets. Interviews conducted confirm Industry 4.0 as a significant technological
enabler of achievement of both Lean and Six Sigma objectives. Similar questions were also
presented to interviews conducted with industry CI program executives and CI program
leaders and specialists which also concurred the results in table 1 obtained from the survey
results.

deployment in an organisation.

results and the responses obtained from interviews conducted is illustrated in Table 2

result of 0.8600 and a mean rating of 4.077. LSS Organisation maturity illustrate a ranking
of 2nd with a mean rating of 4.295. Leadership and management commitment is also
th
position with a mean rating of 4.525.

555
Table 2. Critical Success Factors identified for DFSS deployment

The significance of Maturity of Agile and Scrum ranked in 8th position with a mean
rating of 4.392 during product development holds relevance in research conducted when
Agile and Scrum was combined with both CMMI level 1 and level 5 maturity seen in Figure
2.

Figure 19. Agile CMMI Performance Analysis when combined with Scrum and varying
CMMI maturity levels
Sutherland, J. et al (2007) also reflects that the breakthrough results achieved at
Systematic is attributed them being the only Scrum company in the world appraised at
CMMI level 5 integrated with Lean. It should be noted that CMMI will improve the Sigma
Quality but not the rate of production, Scrum enables project delivery and speed increases.
Industry 4.0 presents increasing levels of continuous and sustainable improvements being
realised as a result of Cyber Physical Systems made possible with quantum computing and
Big Data and real-time predictive analytics.
Research Objective 3: What are the contribution of CMM to LSS and DFSS
implementation where such models have been explored.
Industry 4.0 presents several supporting enablers to Capability Maturity Model and
in particular to LSS and DFSS methodologies as illustrated in figure 1. It is noted that Lean
in Toyota Production System (TPS) seeks to support the two pillars in Muda reduction in
the achievement of the two TPS which are (i). Just-in-Time (JIT) and (ii) JIDOKA

556
(Autonomation).
The research results obtained in both survey and interview results confirm the
contributions as significant and confirmed by both interview respondents who are CMM
users inclusive of those respondents who does not have such a framework implemented. All
recognises the principles of basic CMM in identifying gaps which can be resolved and in
turn improve any CI strategy.
Research Objective 4: What impact does leadership have in achieving capability
maturity.
Leadership is the key enabler for providing vision and Akao, Y. (1988): - Hoshin
Planning: Policy Deployment for Successful TQM, sustained resources for the achievement
of Innovative Black Belt projects such a designed with inputs from McKinsey and Company
at Clariant.
In Geissbauer, R. Vedso, J. and Schrauf, S. (2016) also maturity and Industry 4.0
awareness increases with organisational size and complexity. Industry 4.0 is disruptive and
with an Industry 4.0 strategy afford the organisation competitive position significantly
improved to improve LSS metrics reported in Kolberg, D. and Zuhlke, D. (2015) who report
the necessity for an integrated framework for Lean Automation and Industry 4.0.
The absence of leadership is also reported to be a key challenge combined with a
necessary digital operations vision. Leadership impact on achieving organisational maturity
is significant in both LSS and DFSS CI initiatives researched in researched objective 1 and
2. DFSS is only possible with sustained mature LSS deployment and the development of the
necessary organisational stability. Leadership requires awareness and drive internal and
external reviews for industry 4.0 organisational impact.
Capability maturity should not exclude the impact of technology which acts as a key
Lean enabler and significant speed, quality and cost benefits building a competitive
advantage when integrated in a framework as proposed by Kolberg, D. and Zuhlke, D.
(2015) such as the framework proposed in Figure4. Leadership therefore has a major contribution
to make in achieving the desired capability maturity through CI strategy deployment and the
inclusion of Industry 4.0 technology strategy.
Research Objective 5: How will an integrated framework assist organisations to
achieve capability maturity.
A Capability Maturity Model (CMM) addresses the capabilities of a business process and
the entire organisation, expressed as overall maturity, to deliver higher performance over time. The
present study has elaborated on the theoretical model components to specify what is being measured
by a CMM. The proposes integrated framework titled CMMI 4.0 was developed to consist of staged
Continuous Improvement implementation using CMMI maturity and Industry 4.0 technologies to
facilitate the integration of improvement methodologies and best practices available in the 9 pillars
of Industry 4.0 in Table 3.

557
 Table 3. Industry 4.0 Primary Industry Benefits.

Similar observations are reported for Industry 4.0 and CPS which implies Lean
manufacturing in Sanders, A., Elangeswaran, C. and Wulfsberg, J. (2016).

Integrated Capability Maturity Framework (CMMI 4.0)

CMMI 4.0 fugure 4,. represents the Integrated Capability Maturity Framework
designed and developed to harness the varying Continuous Improvement methodologies. It
focuses on both hard and software industries due to the need for improved speed and agility
in the design of end products to market execution inclusive of a constant increased
connectivity of CPS and consumer solutions where one methodology becomes the
constraint as opposed to the needed improvement solution.
The Capability Maturity Model has been labelled CMMI 4.0 due to the compositions
and the direct link to Industry 4.0 enabling technologies to achieve high yield sigma product
quality, JIT deliveries, Jidoka process management and ultimately maximising Return on
Investment (ROI) for improvement projects.
The framework in Figure 3 uses a basis of CMMI level 1 to 5 maturity whilst
making provision for Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma to be utilised throughout
all maturity stages and the respective ISO standards developed to also guide the user in
effective deployment. Maturity level and maturity model use is not of key importance
although this is recommended to become and remain an Innovative and self-regulating
industry participant.
Maturity level of CMMI level 2 is a minimum standard although CMMI level 3 is
the suggested maturity level for sustained data driven decision making in reviewing existing
and new process and product development and often also an industry requirement for the
supply chain. The increased contribution in innovation possibilities within DFSS and
CMMI at maturity levels 4 and 5 warrants further research, not included within the scope of
this research document.
Industry impact studies for Industry 4.0 and organisational capability maturity could
establish the organisational GAP analysis as stated in Slack, et al (2010). Impact research in
Schlaepler, R.C. and Koch, M. (2015), Otto, H.P. (2016) and in Geissbauer, Vedso, J. and
Schrauf, S. (2016) underlines the significance and the necessity to comprehensively position
and also strategically adjust the organisations position to use Industry 4.0 technology to
improve the customer relationship, market penetration, operational efficiency such as cost

558
and speed and ultimately secure a sustainable and integrated organisational CI strategy
inclusive of capability maturity.

Figure 3. CMMI 4.0 - Integrated Capability Maturity Model developed to harness multiple
Continuous Improvement methodologies within CMMI.
The constant review of Industry 4.0 as enablers to increased cost and customer
satisfaction metrics are pivotal in achieving CMMI level 4 and 5 but also economically.
The CMMI 4.0 framework includes a plethora of existing ISO standards and some in
advance stages of review and development, affording the user a navigation map in
achieving increased levels of Continuous Improvement with a linear increase in
organisational maturity capability.

Conclusion
The final graphical representation of an integrated framework constructed (figure 3)
was made possible with analysis of standardised tools available and inputs in Phase 1 and
Phase 2 of the research. The results of the extensive empirical research undertaken confirm
the validity of the research objectives.
The research objectives reliability and inter-correlation for Critical Success Factors
identified are high and acceptable. This would apply to all of the research objectives such as
Critical Success Factors confirmation for Lean Six Sigma and Critical Success Factors
establishment for Design For Six Sigma (Research Objectives 1 and 2), the Contribution of
Capability Maturity Model to Lean Six Sigma and Design For Six Sigma implementation
(Research Objective 3), the significance of Leadership in achieving, Capability Maturity
(Research Objective 4) and how an integrated framework assist organisations to achieve
Capability Maturity (Research Objective 5).
It is concluded that the theoretical integrated Capability Maturity Model proposed in
Figure 4 (Capability Maturity Model Integrated 4.0) as well as the five Research Objectives
identified and assessed are valid and provides for construct of a hybrid Continuous
Improvement framework. This assumption is based on organisational capability maturity
proposed in Capability Maturity Model Integrated and International Standard for
Organisation standards necessary for the dynamics of the technology influx presented to

559
organisations in Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things.
Final note is that it is observed that numerous organisations do not embrace either
Design For Six Sigma, Agile Scrum, Capability Maturity Model or Theory Of Constraints
as part of their Continuous Improvement strategy. The impact of Industry 4.0 technology on
organisational improvement is vast and unfortunately also not understood by many
organisations. The limited responses for Design For Six Sigma deployment suggest that the
Critical Success Factors determined in the research document requires additional research
and could change the Critical Success Factors identified but also their ranking of
importance.
The research results also concurs with similar research results in Jones, C., and
Pimdee, P. (2017) where Lean outcomes and Kaizen strategies are complemented with the
staged deployment of Cyber Physical Systems presented in Industry 4.0 technologies as
part of an integrated Continuous Improvement Strategy.
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between TQM, six sigma and Lean, School of Engineering, University College of Bora,
Sweden.
Andersen, B. and Fagerhaug, T. (2000): Root cause analysis: Simplified tools and
techniques. Milwaukee: ASQ Quality Press.
Antony, J. (2006): Six sigma for Service Processes, Business process Management Journal,
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Antony, J. and Desai, D.A. (2009): Assessing the status of six sigma implementation in the
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Cooper, D.R. Shindler. P.S. (2011): Business Research Methods. New York MacGraw-Hill,
11th Edition.
Dahlgaard, J.J., and Dahlgaard-Park, S.M. (2006): "Lean production, Six Sigma quality,
TQM and company culture", The TQM Magazine, Vol. 18 Iss.: 3 263 281.
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enterprise, 2016 Global Industry Survey, https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/industries-
4.0.

and challenges in cyber-

Systems, Vol. 8 No. 12, pp. 4242-4268.
Jones, C. and Pimdee, P. (2017): Innovative ideas: Thailand 4.0 and the fourth industrial
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Kagermann, H. (2015): Change Through Digitisation Value Creation in the Age of
Industry 4.0. In: Albach H., Meffert H., Pinkwart A., Reichwald R. (eds.) Management of
Permanent Change. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Kolberg, D. and Zuhlke, D. (2015): Lea Automation enabled by Industry 4.0 Technologies
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Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH, Kaiserslautern, Germany, ELSEVIER,
www.schiencedirect.com.
Laureani, A. and Antony, J. (2012); (2015): Leadership characteristics for Lean Six Sigma,
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Otto, H.P. (2016): Design Principles for Industrie 4.0 Scenarios accessed on 4 May 2016
Sanders, A., Elangeswaran, C. and Wulfsberg, J. (2016): Industry 4.0 implies lean
manufacturing: research activities in industry 4.0 function as enablers for lean
manufacturing. "Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management", October 2016, vol. 9,
-833.
Schrauf, S. and Berttram, P. (2016): Industry 4.0: How digitisation makes the supply chain
more efficient, agile and customer-focused,
https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/reports/industry4.0
Schlaepfer, R.C. and Koch, M. (2015): Industry 4.0 Challenges and solutions or the digital
transformation and use of exponential technologies, Deloitte AG, The Creative Studio,
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6. INTEGRATION OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

562
[Paper ID 36]

Hendri du Plessis1 and Pierre Oosthuizen2

Abstract
The main objective of the study was to compare the main building contracts used
in South Africa against the main knowledge areas of Construction and Project Management.

management was subsequently highlighted. This study investigated the possibility

and practicality of managing a project through the conditions of contract.
A literature study was followed by a quantitative empirical study which comprised
of a questionnaire that was sent to a selected sample of respondents. A total of 110
professionals and academics within the built environment was approached with an initial
response rate of 57%. This study focused on the four contract suits recommended by the
Construction Industry Development Board of South Africa. The literature research revealed
that the South African Government is striving to standardize contracts to ensure uniformity.
The study concluded that the main building contracts have the potential to be used
as a project implementation plan. It was further concluded that the Construction Contract
should consider all the Project Life-Cycle stages. This knowledge could assist

and consider all the project life cycle stages.

Keywords: construction management, contract conditions, implementation, project

management

1
Department of Quantity Surveying and Construction Management, University of the Free State
+27 (0) 51 401 3322 or +27 (0) 73 177 8953, E-mail: duplessishb@ufs.ac.za
2
Department of Quantity Surveying and Construction Management, University of the Free State
+27 (0) 51 401 3322 or +27 (0) 84 244 1344, E-mail: oosthuizenpm@ufs.ac.za

563
Introduction
The structure of the construction built environment in South African share many similarities
with the construction industry in the United Kingdom. Role players in the construction
process could be divided into three basic parties, namely the employer, the contractor, and
the consultants. Employers may appoint consultants to manage the building contract on their
behalf according to the terms stipulated in their agreement. Contractors may appoint
subcontractors as needed and will require appropriate subcontract agreements with each
subcontractor appointed. McKenzie (2009: 1-2) lists the following parties that may be
involved in building projects: The employer (sometimes referred to as the owner, building
owner or client), the contractor, the architect, quantity surveyor, consulting engineer (or

various subcontractors.
Construction contracts have to be managed on a daily basis. There are many fields
or areas to keep track of, such as the program (time), the quality of work, progress
payments, and safety, to name but a few. If left unattended, it may lead to disagreement
or even a dispute between parties (Lester, 2013: 1-2; Bowen, Hall, Edwards, Pearl &
Cattel, 2002: online).

Research Problem, Hypothesis and Importance

It is perceived that the two main parties involved with the construction project have the
same objectives, namely to complete the project on time, to specification, and within the
cost agreed upon initially.

From a multi-
into a working document and eventually relaying it to the contractor can become a daunting
task. A certain amount of control is needed over the process and questions may arise on
how much control the consultant should have (Finsen, 2005: 215; Emmitt & Gorse, 2003:
165).
The identified research problem, questions the responsibilities of the consultants in
terms of the main building contract by determining the extent of the responsibilities and
liabilities of the consultants as stipulated in that contract.
The construction contract is subsequently compared against the main knowledge
area of Project Management and the four Construction Management areas. This aims to

during the construction process.

Construction Contracts Types

Contractual law can briefly be summarized as a collection of legal rules that control
contracts, which in turn forms part of the law of obligations. The law of obligations in
return forms part of the law of property, which is regarded as forming part of private law
(Van der Merwe, Van Huyssteen, Reinecke, Lubbe & Lotz, 1993: 1). McKenzie (2014: 1)
defines the building contract as a contract between two parties, the contractor (builder), who
agrees to perform building or engineering work for the client. He continues to explain that
there are two distinct types of construction works, namely engineering and building work. A
few standard types of contracts are used in South Africa. The main differences between
these contracts are as follows (Loots 1995: 143): the roles of the parties, the emphasis on
management, the method of payment, the allocation of risk and the nature of the work.
The type of contract used is influenced by a number of factors, as listed above, but
can also be influenced by the information available, parties involved, and the applicable

564
 country. The most common contracts used in South Africa is subsequently discussed.

price competition from competing contractors at the tender stage and should work
successfully provided that (Cooke & Williams: 29):
The design is complete before the tender stage;

The design does not substantially change during construction, so contract variations
are kept to a minimum.
The construction industry is slow in the adoption of innovation (Naoum & Egbu,
2015:12). Government utilises the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act to
appoint contractors, which promotes two criteria namely: namely price as the dominant
dimension and then preference (van den Heever, 2015: online). In South Africa, the
traditional method is still prevalent. This study will be limited to the traditional method of
procurement and the general condition of contracts that accompany them.

The Four Main Construction Contracts Used In South

Africa
The standard of uniformity published by the Construction Industry Development Board
(CIDB) narrows the contracts down to four suites of contracts for construction work (CIDB,
2015a: 3-4):
General Conditions of Contract (GCC) for Construction Works (Third Edition 2015)
as published by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering;
International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) suite of contracts. In
particular Conditions of contract for Construction for Building and Engineering
Works designed by the employer (Red Book) (1999);
The Principal Building Agreement suite of contracts published by the Joint Building
Contracts Committeee, (JBCC) (Edition 6.1: March 2014); and
NEC4 Engineering and Construction Short Contract or NEC4 Engineering and
Construction Contract (referred to as NEC).
Contracts have developed from different directions or angles in the construction
industry to meet the different needs therein, e.g. engineering, architecture and
contractor needs. According to the Construction Industry Development Board Act,
No.38 (South Africa. Government Gazette, 2000b:18), all contractors who wants to
conduct public sector construction work should be registered with the CIDB. Although
this is not needed for the private sector, it does, however, suggest that the CIDB acts as
the governing body on which tenders and construction contracts are based. The best
practice guidelines published by the CIDB tries to guide contractors and consultants in
the way in which documents should be developed.

Construction Contracts versus Project Management

The contract is a document that spells out the rights and obligations of the parties. It protects
the parties against certain risks and is an administrative tool (Verster, 2006: 7). It is an
appointment between two legal parties who have the intention to bring about certain
obligations on one another. It is a serious and committed endeavour by the parties to fulfil
their obligations (Nagel, -Kuschke,
Roestoff, Van Eck & Van Jaarsveld, 2000: 17). Through the research, it was learned that
building contracts have evolved over the years and do not only comprise of the actual
contract document. There are many components that, together with the contract, form an

565
overall agreement and standard for the work to be undertaken. In order for the parties to be
truly informed about the content of the contract a certain structure has evolved.
Before the construction specialist (builder) becomes the contractor, he/she
should be able to price or cost the work. In order to enable him/her to do so, the necessary
information is needed. This is usually done through a tender process which encompasses a
tender document (CIDB, 2006: i).
Many other project specific items may also form part of the contract, among
other, the drawings and specifications. These items all aid in the execution of the work and
may include guarantees, bill/schedule of quantities, preliminaries, and trade preambles
(Verster, 2006: 8).
There should be an offer and acceptance stipulating exactly what the
objectives of each party is. Usually there should be an offer by the contractor for the
proposed work and an acceptance by the employer
i). It should be stipulated who is responsible for what documentation or designs, who will be
the representing parties, what regulations will apply, and who will be responsible for
insurances, indemnities, and work risks. With the execution of the work, it should be clearly
stated by whom and how the site will be run and who will have access to the site. It should
be clear when work will be deemed complete, whether work will be completed in stages,
how the liability period will apply, if there are penalties, and how and if extension of time is
applicable. The method and procedure of payment and disputes should be clear and the
method of dispute resolution concise (SABS, 2004: 48-86).

Construction Contract Design

McKenzie (2014: 175) highlights specific topics normally found in a building contract.
When compared to the structures of the four main contracts endorsed by the CIDB, the
following most common themes are derived: general, roles and responsibilities, time related
items, payment (costs), quality, risks or change, termination and finally claims and disputes.

Project Management Defined

The Project Management Institute (PMI) (PMI, 2008: 5) defines a project as a temporary
undertaking to create a unique product, service or result. There is a definite beginning and
end, but the impact may last much longer. Every project creates a unique service or result
through a new team. The experience of the team plays a major part in the success of the
project. Looking at project management as a whole, Burke (2003: 28) divides projects into
four basic project life cycle phases, namely: concept, design, implementation and finally
closing.
The project and the management thereof usually take place in an environment larger
than the project itself. The project life cycle (PLC) is a collection of sequential and
sometimes overlapping phases. The allocation and naming is given by the organization or
field that the project takes place. The PLC can be captured in a methodology with a definite
start and end. The items in between can however vary considerably (PMI 2008:15). The
knowledge areas are as follows: project stakeholder -, scope-, time-, cost-, quality-, human
resource-, communication-, risk-; procurement- and integration management (Van der
Waldt & Fox, 2015: 147).

Project Management Compared to the Construction Contract

Table 1 summarizes and compares the main themes of the four main contracts against the
nine knowledge areas of project management as well as the additional four construction
management themes. The main objective of this table is to compare and give an overview of
possible overlapping themes with change management being a common factor.

566
 It would seem that the objectives of the construction contracts are to deliver
projects on time, within budget, and to the required quality. It is clear that similarities occur
within the construction contracts, which gives a framework for the management of the
project. It further seems that the aim of standardizing these documents, is to enable all
parties to be knowledgeable of the content of the contract.

Table 1: Comparison between main contract, Project- and Construction management themes
General Contract Themes Project Management27 Construction Management28
General Scope Management Environmental Management
Roles and responsibilities Human Resources
Time related items Time Management
Payment Cost Management Financial Management
Quality Quality Management
Risks or change Risk Management Safety Management
Termination
Claims and disputes Claims Management
Stakeholder Management
Integration Management
Communication Management
Procurement Management
Change

Empirical Study
A quantitative approach was used to collect data by means of a questionnaire which was
sent to a selected sample group. Care was taken to analyse the data in a transparent and
honest fashion. Furthermore, a purposive sampling method was used (Davies, 2007: 57-58).

Empirical Methodology
The questionnaire comprised twenty-seven questions, with the objective of establishing the
background, knowledge, and experience of the respondents, before asking specific outcome-
based questions. The questions were categorized as follows:
Profile of the respondents;

and
open questions.

Data Analysis
Rated questions were used in the survey and for the purpose of analysis, these questions are
evaluated using the following formula (Survey Monkey, [n.d.]: online):
Y
w = weight of ranked position
x = response count for answer choice

A questionnaire was sent to 110 professionals

within the field of architecture, quantity surveying, project management, engineering,

27
Source: van der Waldt & Fox 2015
28
Source: Zulch, 2012

567
contractors, and academics. An initial response rate of 57% was achieved with a total of 64
questionnaires returned. This response rate was deemed adequate taking into account that a
purposive sampling method which took into account the experience and profiles of the
respondents.
Respondent Profile
Of the total number of respondents, consultants were the largest group at 73%. Of the five
demics and one a sub-
contractor. Most of the respondents were quantity surveyors (50%) with project managers
(17%) being the second largest group. The largest portion of the respondents had more than
xperience relatively equally
distributed with only one respondent being a non-South Africa citizen.
The Role the Construction Contract Plays Towards Managing the Project
contractor, with regard
to the management of the three main knowledge areas on projects, namely time, quality, and
cost management is shown in figure 1 below:

Figure 1: Involvement of the agent against the contractor

Through the subsequent questions, it was concluded that even though the contractor is
mainly responsible for the quality of workmanship on site, he/she requires the support or
involvement of the employer through the agent/s. The respondents furthermore, indicated
that the project can be controlled through the contract (47 or 98% of the respondents); with
62% of the respondents indicated that 61% and more of the project can be controlled
through the contract. Figure 2 indicate to what extent the respondents thought each
management area could be influenced by the contract.
The last question before the open questions, established that the South African
construction industry can adapt to management of the construction process using the
contract. An emphatic majority (96%) indicated that this could be the case.

568
 Figure 2: Influence of the contract on the ten knowledge areas

Open Ended Questions

Through a set of open ended questions, it was established that the leading cause of poor
management was the lack of experience, especially towards the consultants, with the
contractor close behind and not excluding the client.
To enable the data to be analysed and interpreted, different categories were derived
from the answers provided. The answers of the respondents were separated into two groups,

includes the respondents with more than 25 years of experience. Table 2 illustrates the
responses of the first open question.

Table 2: Opinions on leading causes of poor management on a construction site

No. Category All Respondents More Than 25 years Of Experience
1 Consultants 11 7
2 Contractor 9 5
3 Clients 3 1
4 Resource management 4 0
5 Communication 15 0
6 Experience 21 6
7 Excessive Fee discounts 1 1
8 Poor documentation 7 1
9 Accountability 1 0
10 General Project management 6 0
11 Conflicts 1 0

The subsequent questions established that the main perceived objective of building
contracts are to bestow fairness towards all parties by controlling specific management
themes. From the results it could also be seen that the Construction Project Management
knowledge areas are prevalent in the way the respondents perceive and understand the
construction contracts.

Conclusion and Recommendation

569
Taking into account the evaluation of construction contracts and more specifically the
building contract, it was confirmed that contract management and project management have
very similar goals. From the literature study it is concluded that all the knowledge areas are
supported by the construction contracts reviewed, some more than others. The empirical
study proved that the project managers think and refer to the same terms as was found in the
contracts. They further emphasized that a good contract cannot be left alone. Poor
management and the lack experience will lead to challenges. A good construction contract
will however assist in an amical resolution to change management on a construction project.
Recommendations that stemmed from the study advise that the compiler of the
procurement document and ultimately the contractor should compile the document to
act as the project implementation plan (PIP). This PIP is supplemented by the

recommended that the project manager, engineer, or agent who will ultimately be
responsible for the implementation of the project be appointed from the inception stage
together with the proposed site representative.
From the research, other subject areas with the potential for further study arose.
They include:
Collaborative and electronic tender methods and the role they can play towards the
building of super project teams with common objectives.
The influences and possibilities of Building Information Modelling (BIM)
technology on building contracts and procurement methods.
Managing the construction project strictly according to the contract and the effect it
may have on the relationships between the construction team.
Alternative incentives or rewards for construction project stakeholders and their
effect on project delivery.

References
Bowen, P.A., Hall, K.A., Edwards, P.J., Pearl, R.G. & Cattell, K.S. 2002.
Perceptions of time, cost and quality management on building projects. The Australian
Journal of Construction Economics and Building, 2(2), pp. 48-56.
Burke, R. 2003. Project management, planning & techniques. 4th edition. Ringwood: R.
Burke.
Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). 2006. Standardized construction
procurement documents for engineering and construction works. South Africa. Pretoria.
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[Accessed 31 July 2015].
Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). 2015a. Standard for uniformity in
construction procurement. South Africa. Pretoria. July. [online] Available from:
<http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/Documents> [Accessed 16 September 2016].
Cooke, B. & Williams, P. 2009. Construction Planning Programming and Control. 3rd
Edition. Wiley-Blackwell.
Emmitt, S. & Gorse, C. 2003. Construction communication. Oxford, UK: Blackwell
Publishing.
Finsen, E. 2005. The building contract, a commentary on the JBCC agreement. Cape Town,
SA: Juta & Co Ltd.
Lester, A. 2013. Project management, planning and control: managing engineering,
construction and manufacturing projects to PMI, APM and BSI standards. 6th edition.
Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.
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570
 lding and engineering contracts and
arbitration. Kenwyn, SA: Juta & Co Ltd.

arbitration. Kenwyn, SA: Juta & Co Ltd.

Nagel, C.J., Boraine, A., De Villiers, W.P., Jacobs, L., Lomba -
Kuschke, B., Roestoff, M., Van Eck, B.P.S. & Van Jaarsveld, S.R. 2000. Besigheidsreg.
3de uitgawe. Durban, SA: Butterworths.
Naoum, S. Egbu, C. 2015. Critical review of procurement method research in construction
journals. In: Elsevier B.V. Proceedings of the 8th Nordic Conference on Construction
Economics and Organization. 28th to 29th May 2015. Tampere. Finland
Project Management Institute (PMI). 2008. A guide to the project management body of
knowledge (PMBOK guide). 4th edition. Newton Square, PA: Project Management
Institute.
South Africa. 2000b. Construction Industry Development Board Act No 38, 2000.
Government Gazette No 21819, 17 November. Cape Town: Government Printer.
South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). 2004. South African National Standard
(SANS) 294 Guide for construction procurement processes, methods and procedures,
Edition 1. Pretoria: SABS Standards Division.
van den Heever, B. 2015. Awarding cost effective tenders. The Association of South
African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS). September. [online] Available from:
<https://www.asaqs.co.za/news/251704/Awarding-cost-effective-tenders.htm>
[Accessed 16 September 2017].
Van der Merwe, S., Van Huyssteen, L.F., Reinecke, M.F.B., Lubbe, G.F. & Lotz, J.G. 1993.
Contract, general principles. Kenwyn, SA: Juta & Co Ltd.
Van der Waldt, G. & Fox, W. 2015. A guide to project management. 2nd edition. Cape
Town, SA: Juta and Company.
Verster, J.J.P. 2006. Managing cost, contracts, communication and claims: a quantity
surveying perspective on future opportunities. In: Semolic, B., Kerin, A. & Stare, A.
(Eds.). Proceedings of the 1st ICEC & IPMA Global congress on project management,
5th World congress on cost engineering, project management & quantity surveying,
Ljubljana 23 26 April 2006. Slovenia: ZMP.
Zulch, B.G. 2012. The construction project manager as communicator in the property
development and construction industries. Thesis (PhD). Bloemfontein: University of the
Free State.

571
[Paper ID 69]

Austin DaValle1 and Salman Azhar2

Abstract
The construction industry often falls short of other industries in terms of innovation; overall
productivity within the construction industry has remained nearly flat for fifty years.
As such, the industry is frequently exploring new technologies with the potential to increase
its work efficiency as well as productivity. Mixed Reality (MR), which allows
for the blending of real and virtual worlds, is one such technology that has a capability
to improve productivity. The aim of this research study is to tes
assembly tool in construction. The study more specifically determined if holographic BIM

sufficient information to assemble and install their work without using paper plans.
A controlled experiment was designed to test if the electrical and plumbing components
of a mock-bathroom could be installed only with MR. A total of 5 sub-groups, each
consisting of two participants, took part in this experiment and the time taken by each sub-
group (i.e. aka the MR group) to complete the assembly was recorded. This was then
compared with the time taken by similar number of sub-groups (i.e. aka the Control group)
to complete the same assembly using paper plans only. The analysis indicates that
on average the MR group took approximately 9% less time as compared to the Control
group. Qualitative analysis via a post-exercise questionnaire found several technological
limitations that the MR must overcome before it sees widespread implementation as a tool
for guiding construction assembly. The post-exercise questionnaire also gathered

the benefits and limitations of the MR technology in construction along with

recommendations for improvement as well as future research.

Keywords: assembly, HoloLens, productivity, mixed reality, visualization

1
Graduate Student, McWhorter School of Building Science, Auburn University, Auburn,
Alabama 36849, USA, Tel. +1-334-844-4518, Fax: +1-334-844-5386,
Email: azd0071@tigermail.auburn.edu
2
Professor, McWhorter School of Building Science, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama
36849, USA, Tel. +1-334-844-5383, Fax: +1-334-844-5386, E-mail: salman@auburn.edu

572
Introduction
The Construction industry is frequently subject to claims of inefficiency. Studies focusing
on construction efficiency have documented 25 to 50 percent waste in coordinating labor
and in managing, moving, and installing materials (Tulacz and Armistead, 2007). This
might not come as a surprise to most in the field; in 2016 the World Economic Forum
claimed that overall productivity in the Engineering and Construction (E&C) sector has
remained nearly flat for 50 years (World Economic Forum, 2016). In an industry that
accounts for about 6% of global GDP, that seemingly stagnant pace of innovation permeates
further than the industry itself. Society as a whole could benefit economically, socially, and
environmentally if the construction industry caught up to other industry sectors. Many
studies in the last 10 years have focused on what the construction industry can do to pick up
the pace (Javed at al., 2018; Allmon et al., 2000).
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a glimmering exception to the traditionally
bleak outlook on E&C innovation. The use of BIM in construction projects has increased
significantly in recent years. According to research by McGraw-Hill Construction, the
percentage of companies using BIM jumped from 17% in 2007, to 49% in 2009, to 71% in
2012 (Contractors Center Point, 2012). In 2018, that number is likely even higher. If this is
in fact the case, the statement could be made that most construction companies develop and
use some form of digital 3D models of their projects. If inefficiency stems from failing to
make the best use of accessible resources, and a resource accessible to most AEC entities is
BIM, it would be imprudent not to explore ways in which entities can achieve more from
their BIM models. Mixed Reality (MR) technology has the potential to offer construction
professionals more out of their BIM Models (Blackmon and Azhar, 2018).
Mixed Reality (MR), as defined by Paul Milgram in 1994, is the merging of real and
(see Figure 1) (Milgram et al,
1994). It essentially allows for digital objects to exist and interact with real objects in real
time. Similar to basic computing in the 60s, MR has traditionally been reserved for entities
holding both specialized equipment and personnel. However, recent advancements in this
field, such as the Microsoft HoloLens, have simplified MR hardware to the point where
almost anyone can take advantage; no specialized knowledge is necessary to perform most
tasks. More so, applications such as SketchUp Viewer and 3D Viewer have made it
exceptionally simple to transform BIM models into holograms (Blackmon and Azhar,
2018). With almost no additional effort, these holographic BIM models can be scaled,

ratios, allowing the user to walk through and view their holographic BIM models in the
same way as a person walking through a constructed building. These features open the door
to countless additional ways in which entities can further utilize their BIM models via MR,
one of which is guiding construction assembly.
Numerous prior research studies support MR as a tool capable of aiding assembly.
Richardson et al. (2017) conducted a between-
effectiveness between traditional model based instructions (MBI), the same MBI on a
moveable tablet, and AR work instructions. He found that users completed the assembly in
33% less time while using the AR work instructions. Chryssolouris et al. (2009) evaluated
the use of AR assembly instructions in manufacturing and found that they contributed to
reduced product development times and cost savings while simultaneously improving first
time quality and market response time. An experiment conducted by Chalhoub et al. (2017)
showed that MR can be effective for communicating design for electrical prefabrication.
Though MR has been proven useful for assembly, much of the existing research is
theory-based and largely detached from the settings and scopes of work that would be

573
experienced in real construction. The aim of this research study is to implement MR
technology for construction assembly with two specific objectives, (1) to test MR
to communicate design details to installers for onsite assembly; and (2) to compare
assembly efficiencies using MR and traditional paper plans. The research also investigated
the technological limitations that MR needs to overcome in order to see its widespread
adoption in the construction industry. This study is limited to the use of Microsoft (MS)
HoloLens as a MR platform for construction components assembly. The following sections
highlight the experiment setup, data analysis and its interpretation, followed by conclusions
and recommendations for future research.

Mixed Reality (MR) Applications for Construction

Defining Mixed Reality
Figure 1 explains various forms of real and digital environments using a virtuality
continuum developed by Milgram (1994). At one extreme, on the left, is the case in which
nothing is known about the remote world being displayed. This describes the real world as it
is seen with own eyes, absent any virtual computer-generated images. The other
extreme, on the right, refers to a world that the user perceives as completely virtual. This is
essentially a world in which the user is 100% immersed in a virtual environment. In

continuum was created to define: augmented virtuality, augmented reality, and mixed
reality. Mixed Reality (MR), sometimes referred to as hybrid reality, is the merging of real
and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and
digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. Mixed reality takes place not only in the
physical world or the virtual world, but is a mix of reality and virtual reality, encompassing
both augmented reality and augmented virtuality via immersive technology (Signer and
Curtain, 2017).

Figure 1.
Currently, not ma
-known device
that does market itself as MR is the Microsoft HoloLens.

Microsoft HoloLens
The MS HoloLens is a self-contained head-mounted display, depicted below in Figure 2.
Specialized components such as a HoloLens Processing Unit (HPU) and advanced sensors
enable holographic computing. This enables HoloLens users to engage with digital content
and interact with holograms in the world around them (Microsoft, 2018).

574
 Figure 2. Microsoft HoloLens (Microsoft, 2018)
Advanced sensors within the HoloLens continuously capture data pertaining to the
. They can see, map, and understand the
physical places, spaces, and objects around the user. The device understands gestures and
maps the world around the user, all in real time. In addition, the HoloLens has a see-through
holographic high-definition lens and an advanced optical projection system. These enable
the HoloLens to generate multi-dimensional full-color images with very low latency,
allowing the user to see holograms in their own world. The headband is designed to
distribute the weight around the crown of the user head, saving the ears and nose from
undue pressure. Though the HoloLens has more computing power than the average laptop,
it is passively cooled without fans. Lack of wires and external cameras, as well as the lack
of phone or PC connection requirements, allows the user to move freely (Microsoft, 2018).

Mixed Reality (MR) Applications in Design and Construction

MR technology has long been explored as a potential asset to the design and construction
industries. In 2011, Dunston and Wang published a hierarchical taxonomy of AEC
operations for MR applications. They found that MR-based technology is suitable for
information-intensive tasks, which in the AEC industry, often deal with the information
translation usually between a paper-based source and the work. In these tasks, MR can

-making ability (Dunston and

Wang, 2011). Table 1 outlines various applications of MR in the design and construction
industries.

Table 1. MR Applications in Design and Construction

Application Area Description/Example

Progress Monitoring To overlay the as-planned building model of a structure over
the actual as-built structure to determine the percent completion
of the project.
Onsite Clash To allow trades to perform clash detections on the construction
Detections site itself by integrating holographic models with real objects.
Information Overlay To superimpose useful information onto real objects in the
surrounding environment or to add comments to their
surrounding real environment.

Several design and/or construction related Apps are available in the Microsoft store to
use with the HoloLens. Some of the most useful Apps are:
575
 SketchUp Viewer for HoloLens: SketchUp Viewer allows users to quickly and easily
import a SketchUp model to the HoloLens for visualization as a hologram.
ARchitect: ARchitect offers a sample home for walkthrough. A unique feature in this
app allows the user to see how the home looks in varying sun-lit conditions.
BIM Holoview: BIM Holoview projects 3D Revit and Navisworks models into the
physical world as holograms.
HoloLive 3D: HoloLive 3D allows users to bring BIM models from a native design
software and place them in the real world. This app provides advanced measuring,
scaling, and other tools that allow for a highly immersive experience.

Research Design and Methodology

A mixed-methods research design, consisting of quantitative and qualitative measures, was
employed to carry out this research study. Figure 3 outlines the research methodology.

Figure 3. Outline of Research Methodology

For quantitative data collection, a between-group experimental design was employed
(E&P) Assembly
determine the time taken by 2-
member groups to install electrical and plumbing components into a mock-bathroom using
. The exercise required the installation of 85 components, most of
which consisted of pre-cut PVC conduit and fittings. Participants were required to lay the
plumbing and electrical components into their proper positions inside of a preassembled
-bathroom. Each of the 85 components were labeled to guide the installation.
Figure 4 shows the mock-bathroom as well as E&P assembly model.

576
 Figure 4. Mock-bathroom and Electrical & Plumbing Assembly Model

Participants of both groups were

selected by convenience and were limited to willing student volunteers enrolled at Auburn
McWhorter School of Building Science. There were a total of 5 MR sub-
groups and 5 Control sub-groups. The MR sub-groups used the holographic model to install
all components in place whereas the Control sub-groups used traditional paper plans. All
sub-groups were filmed, monitored, and timed through their completion of the exercise.
Additionally, participants were given a pre-exercise questionnaire to collect demographics
and a post-exercise questionnaire (for MR group only) to collect qualitative data on their
perceptions of the MR technology and/or HoloLens.
As mentioned above, the quantitative data was gathered by measuring the sub-
completion times of the assembly. The exercise timer was turned on promptly at the start of
each group and turned off directly upon completion, when participants placed the last
remaining piece into its appropriate position. This data was later used to compare the
efficiency between the two groups.
was kept in addition to the primary timer. The purpose of this timer was to measure any
uncontrollable errors experienced by the participants. An example of a discrepancy would
be if a participant found they were missing a piece required for assembly. Prior to beginning
the activity, participants were instructed to promptly inform the instructor upon
experiencing any uncontrollable error; in such cases, the discrepancy timer would then run
from the moment the error was noted to the moment the error was resolved. Discrepancies
were predicted to be much more common in the MR group, as pilot testers experienced
problems such as the device turning off, the application closing, or the E&P model jumping
out of place. These times were recorded in addition to the total time it took the groups to
complete the exercise. Figure 5 shows an MR group completing the assembly.

577
 Figure 5. An MR Sub-group Completing the Electrical & Plumbing Assembly

Results and Discussion

Pre-Exercise Questionnaire
A pre-exercise questionnaire was given to all test sub-groups prior to commencing the
exercise. A total of 6 questions were designed to collect demographic and relevant prior
experience data from the participants. Table 2 shows summarized information collected
through this questionnaire. The results indicate that all sub-groups have more or less the
same composition and possess very similar construction and/or E&P assembly experience.
Hence it is reasonable to compare quantitative and qualitative data collected from all sub-
groups.

Table 2. Pre-Exercise Questionnaire Results

Measure Control Groups (n=10) MR Groups (n=10)

Group composition 92% undergraduate students, 100% undergraduate students
8% graduate students
Gender 89% male, 11% female 92% male, 8% female
Age 18-24 years: 77%; 18-24 years: 100%
25-34 years: 23%
Prior construction Internship: 65%; 1-2 years Internship: 70%; 1-2 years
experience full-time: 15%; No: 20% full-time: 30%
Prior E&P assembly No: 78%; Some: 22% No: 23%; Little: 46%; Some:
experience 31%
Prior experience with No: 100% No: 100%
HoloLens

Experimental Data
The E&P assembly completion times for all sub-groups are reported in Table 3. The
description of the recorded times is as follows:

T1: Assembly time in minutes

T2: Discrepancy time in minutes
T: Net time taken to complete the assembly (in minutes) = T1 T2

578
 Table 3. Assembly Completion Times

Sub-group # Control Group (minutes) MR Group (minutes)

T1 T2 T T1 T2 T
1 18.52 0.00 18.52 20.44 0.00 20.44
2 21.53 0.00 21.53 22.26 2.46 19.40
3 19.36 0.00 19.36 22.24 0.00 22.24
4 31.35 0.00 31.35 21.15 0.51 20.24
5 25.05 1.58 23.47 27.36 7.34 20.02
Net Average Assembly Time 22.51 20.47

A comparison of the net average assembly time for both main groups indicate that the
MR group took approximately 9% less time to complete the assembly as compared to the
control group. The 9% improvement in productivity, though small, is significant because it
shows that the MR technology has a potential to boost work efficiency and productivity of
the construction trades. Due to the small data size, it was decided not to perform any
inferential statistical tests on the collected data.

Post-Exercise Questionnaire
The purpose of the post-exercise questionnaire
MR technology in construction. As such, it was only administered to the MR sub-groups.
The results of the post-exercise questionnaire are summarized in Table 4.

Table 4. Post-Exercise Questionnaire Results

Measure Response (n =10)

Effectiveness of HoloLens for MEP
components assembly
Perception on whether the HoloLens or
paper plans would be more effective if
asked to complete the exercise again
Any problems experienced
Learning curve associated with using
HoloLens
- Extremely effective: 77%
- Very Effective: 23%
- HoloLens: 100%
- Paper plans: 0%
- Model moved out of position: 73%
- Model was not bright enough: 27%
- Application stopped/crashed: 27%
- HoloLens physically uncomfortable:
9%
- Other technical issues: 18%
- No learning curve: 31%
- Small learning curve: 62%

579
 Based on the analysis of the post-exercise questionnaire, the following conclusions can
be drawn:
1. MR in general, and HoloLens in particular, are found to be an effective tool for
communicating design details to electrical and plumbing installers or other
construction trades. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of participants found it to be
23% found it
participants reported that the HoloLens was moderately or slightly effective, or not
at all effective.
2. If asked to complete the same exercise over again, 100% of participants predicted
they would be more effective using the MS HoloLens rather than paper plans.
3. Two-thirds of participants felt there was some degree of learning curve associated
with using the HoloLens, whereas the remaining one-third felt that no learning curve
was required and the HoloLens was immediately effective in practice.
The following technological limitations of the HoloLens were recorded:
Spatial anchoring: Spatial anchoring refers to the HoloLens
to a designated location in the real world. Seventy-three percent (73%) of participants
reported that the model moved out of position. This makes the improvement of spatial
anchoring technology one of the most prominent needs for the HoloLens. Without sufficient
spatial anchoring, the Microsoft HoloLens loses the ability to depict assemblies in their
accurate position to installers.
Model brightness: Approximately 27% of participants claimed that at some point or
another, the model was not bright enough to see. In one instance, the discrepancy timer was
even initiated due to the participan After reviewing the film of
the groups who experienced problems with model brightness, it was found that all cases
occurred on days that were exceptionally sunny, with bright light coming through the
windows. As construction assembly predominantly takes place outdoors, the HoloLens
needs to improve upon its ability to display holograms in direct sunlight.
Application reliability: The HoloLens turning off by itself or application crashing was
reported by 27% of participants. Amongst the discrepancies, the timer was initiated twice
because there was an error with the application and it had to be restarted. In these instances,
the SketchUp model flipped upside down as the result of a glitch. As the HoloLens is new,
and developers are still getting used to developing MR applications, this limitation is not
surprising. But for implementation of MR into construction assembly tasks to occur on a
large scale, these applications need to become more reliable.

Conclusions and Recommendations

This research demonstrates that MR technology can successfully communicate design
details for construction assembly, specifically validating that the MS HoloLens is a tool
capable of guiding electrical and plumbing component installation. Additionally, the
elaborate nature of the Electrical and Plumbing Assembly exercise used in this research
serves a strong proof of concept for construction assembly via MR. A 9% productivity gain
is promising for a new technology that is still in its infancy. A number of technological
improvements are required if MR is to see widespread adoption for assembly purposes. The
most prominent need for improvement is spatial anchoring technology, as successful
assembly would require the model to hold its position without jumping out of place. This is
especially true in the realm of construction, where installation of components frequently
require accuracy to be within 1/16 of an inch from perfect. Other shortcomings the
HoloLens must overcome before widespread adoption are occluded visuals in sun-lit
conditions, as well as the inability to wear a hardhat with the HoloLens.

580
 This study is a pilot test of MR technology and has several limitations which must be
improved in future studies. One of these limitations is the small sample size, prohibiting
inferential statistical testing from being carried out. One of the greatest advantages MR
provides is its ability to display information at the exact spot it is required; in construction
assembly, this equates to a reduction in time spent thinking about component layout, as the
installer would automatically know the exact spot where the components are to be
assembled. But in this research, the holes in the walls and subfloor, through which the
components were installed, were pre-drilled for participants. This method took away the
greatest advantage of the HoloLens, as the pre-drilled holes allowed the control groups to
have a very good idea of the layout. In a scenario where the assemblers had to drill their
own holes, the control groups using paper plans would not have this advantage, and they
would have to spend additional time measuring out the intended layout. We predict this
would work heavily in favor of the groups using MR. In addition, the 85-parts required to
be assembled by the exercise were labeled in somewhat of a sequential order. For example,
C1, C2, C3, C4, and C5 all had to be installed in order. Although not all areas of the
assembly were labeled in a sequential order that was straightforward, a better way to design
the exercise would have been to label the parts completely non-sequentially. Similar to the
pre-drilled hole bias, sequential part labeling took away one of the main advantages of MR
for assembly.
For future research, the following measures are recommended: (1) Test MR technology
against other forms of design visualization such as the 3D BIM models; (2) E
to non-construction students (i.e. novice users) as well as professionals to determine how
each group is benefited from this technology; (3) Synchronize two or more HoloLenses so
that all group members can see the exact same hologram; and (4) Try out more Apps to
compare their effectiveness in relation to SketchUp App.

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Javed, A.A., Pan, W., Chen, L. and Zhan, W., 2018. A systemic exploration of drivers for
and constraints on construction productivity enhancement. Built Environment Project
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df [Accessed Dec. 18, 2017].
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Winer, E., Davies, P., and Terry, S., 2017, Fusing self-reported and sensor data from
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Dec. 18, 2017].
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augmentation of virtual objects, Technical Report, WISE-2017-01, March 2017.
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582
[Paper ID 106]

-
Polycarp Olaku Alumbugu1, Winston MW Shakantu2 and Abel John Tsado3

Abstract
. This study is aimed
at understanding the out bound logistics channels of construction materials logistics
management utilised in Nigeria manufacturing industries. A case study research approach
and purposive sampling technique were adopted, sample comprising six construction
materials manufactured and distributed within the North-central region of Nigeria.
The study was descriptive using primary data collected through observations, direct
measurement onsite and archival records of transactions. Data analysis revealed that all the
manufacturing companies used multiple channels for the delivery of their products
to customers, 79% of the distribution centres/warehouses and retailers store were located
between 0 - 350 kilometres away from the manufacturers plants which is the recommended
distance for road transport economies to be achieved. In addition, the findings established
that the average transportation cost per average distances decreases as the distance
increases, while the average transportation cost per average tons shipped increases with
increases in average distance. The study findings would assist the practitioners and decision
makers on how to achieve effective and efficient outbound logistics channels
for construction materials.

Keyword: logistics channels, distribution centre, construction materials, transportation

and warehousing

1
Department of Construction Management, School of the Built Environment, Faculty
of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology, Nelson Mandela
University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, PH (+27) 731291906,
Email: s216788099@madela.ac.za
2
Department of Construction Management, School of the Built Environment, Faculty
of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology, Nelson Mandela
University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, PH (+27) 0785147492,
Email: Winston.shakantu@nmmu.ac.za
3
Department of Construction Management, School of the Built Environment, Faculty
of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology, Nelson Mandela
University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, PH (+27) 0638283505,
Email: s217072933@mandela.ac.za

583
 -
-
hat is the
performance of outbound logistics channel utilised by the Nigeria construction material
manufacturing industry. While

Logistics Channels
Logistics channels are
, storage, handling, communication and supplementary roles that add to
efficient flow of materials( . Contingent on whether
the channel is modest or multifaceted the task of achieving effective logistical flow might
be more challenging and the manufacturer might deal directly with the customer (Hannan,
2011: 27). Figure1, present the vital different logistics channels. While, channel 3 is
common, in the food manufacturing. Channel 4 is as the same as channel 3, aside that a
manufacturer contracts with an agent who advertise the materials to wholesalers (Rushton,
Croucher and Baker, 2006: 46; Boone, Kurtz, MacKenzie and Snow, 2010: 390). However,
the worldwide logistics revolution have modified traditional supply chains which leads to
- knowledge of the products
and ordering could be done through e-business or e-commerce (United States Postal
Service, 2013).

Figure 1. Outbound logistics channels

Source: Rushton, Croucher and Baker (2006:46); Boone et al (2010:390)

The significance of logistics channels has been widely debated in the literature
and Kilibarda, 2016: 137). In spite of the fact that intermediaries add a markup to the
products cost, they give some benefits to the two, manufacturer and customers, three of
which are specialised outbound functions, better product variety, and increased
transactional efficiency( McKinnon, 1989: 27).

584
Construction Material Logistics Cost
Poor cost execution of manufacturers and suppliers can increase the Total Acquisition Cost
(TAC) of construction materials which, by rising material price, brings about higher
construction costs. In any case, increased cost performance of material delivery bring about
lower material costs and accordingly construction costs(Vidalakis and Sommerville,
2013:474). A study by (Wegelius-Lehtonen, 1995:209) established that materials delivery
costs can vary between 2% and 18% of material price , certifying that construction costs
can be fundamentally affected by the indirect costs associated with delivery logistics
-based research by Soderman, (1985:78), up to 40%
of materials cost can be ascribed to procurement costs connected to logistics operations.
Thus
manufacturers and the dealers, who will minimize the cost of delivery to the construction
site without considering the handling costs(Sven and Jorgen, 1997: 4)

Efficiency and Effectiveness of logistics channels

The objective of efficient and effective logistics network is to choose the optimum
numbers, location and capacities of plants and warehouses to open so that all customers
demand is fulfilled at minimal overall costs of the delivery network , (Turkensteen and
Klose, 2012:499; and Kilibarda, 2016:137). Minimisation of shipping distance-

centers (Turkensteen and Klose, 2012:499) . But, in a construction industry setting this is
especially complex, if not infeasible, since customers work in a geographically changing
market(Vidalakis and Sommerville, 2013:471).
Additionally, important competitive benefits are
transportation costs, as well as improving efficiency, reliability and
administration of the systems (Hoff, Andersson, Christi
2010: 181). However, it is worthy to note that, the cost of materials may rise due to
presence of middle people (intermediaries) in the materials delivery process, but from a
widespread perspective, comparing to manufacturers, intermediaries profit users by
reducing the transportation unit cost.(Khooban, 2011: 111). From a micro scale viewpoint,
logistics effectiveness depend on the time and distance between the nodes of the system,
for example, DC/WH, Material Suppliers (MSs) and Builders Merchants (BMs') proximity
to construction sites (Vidalakis, Tookey and Sommerville, 2011: 73).

Research Methodology
A case study research approach was adopted where six construction materials (cement,
reinforcement bar, ceramic tiles, gravels, hollow sandcrete block and sand) manufactured
and distributed within the North-central region of Nigeria were selected for this study.
Purposive sampling techniques was adopted because it allows a researcher to choose sample
or units for specific reasons. Consequently, the selected sites were logistically, rather than
statistically significant in the population(Shakantu and Emuze, 2012; 662). Thus, the
sample was composed of thirty-two (32) manufacturing companies, fourty-two (42)
-two (72) transport providers. Multiple method of data collection
techniques adopted were systematic observation of logistics process as it tends to record a
phenomenon at the current state, measurement on site and use of records of order processing
and delivery of materials. The data collected were, floor areas of DC/WH and retailers
stores, road distances between plants and nodes, number of DC/WH in the various

585
locations, quantities driven per vehicle, cost of transport per delivery, vehicle capacity, and
unit price of materials.
The study adopts a descriptive analysis of the data obtained through data collection
instruments. Observations were presented with the aid of bar charts as figures and
interpreted directly. This kind of descriptive study can be informative when there is little
knowledge and understanding of a phenomenon (Loeb, Dynarski, McFarland, Morris,
Reardon, and Reber, 2017: 2).

Data Analysis, Result, and Discussion.

This presents the result of summary analysis of outbound logistics channels utilised by
construction material manufacturing companies. The analysis thematically starting with
identifying current logistics channels, network structures used in DC/WHs and retailer
store, size of DC/WHs and retailers store, and the economies of distance of the logistics
channels.

Outbound logistics channels.

Figure:2 presents results of analysis of percentage of all the companies using each of the
identified outbound logistics channels in the delivery of materials. It was established 100%
of companies used direct- end user channel which tend to bypass all other intermediaries in
the supply chain. It was also established that 60% of the companies used
Agent/Marketer/Distributor/Wholesaler-retailer-end user channel. Furthermore, 40% of the
companies used BM/MS -user channel. While
20% of the companies observed used retailer-end user channels.
The ratio of multiples channels used was established, it revealed that 70 % of companies
used at least two channels while the remaining 30% used multiple of three channels in
delivery of their products to customer. The significance findings are that all the companies
used the direct end user channels, while majority used agent
/marketer/distributor/wholesaler and retailer-end-user channels for delivery.

100 100
Percentage of all the

80
each channel (%)
companies using

60
60 40
40 30
20
20
0

Figure 2. logistics channels utilised by construction materials manufacturing

companies

Network structures used in DC/WHs and Retailer Store

From figure3 it revealed that 93% of DC/WHs and Retailer Store were mixed warehouse
structures, while 7% were consolidated warehouse. In a mixed warehouse, deliveries from
several manufacturing plants arrive in
shop. Thereafter, deliveries are broken up and consolidated once more to create several
multi-product FTL shipments. Each of these multi-product FTL or Less Truck Load (LTL)

586
as direct shipment to one of the several retailers/customers.

100 92,86
companies (%)
Percentage of
80
60
40
20 7,14 0 0
0
Consolidation Break-bulk Mixed Cross-docking
Structure Type

Figure 3. Network Structures Used in DC/WHs and Retailer Stores

Size and space utilisation in DC/WHs and retailers store

Figure 4 shows 80% of the DC/WHs and retailers stores sizes were less than 500m2 and
17% were between 5001-3000m2. The significance of the findings is that majority of the
DC/WHs were small sizes (less than 500m2) therefore have limited capacity for large
stockholding of materials. However, an interesting finding is that granite is being stored in
three towns, Minna, Lafia and Makurdi.

100 80,43
companies(%)
Percentage of

80
60
40 17,39
20 0 2,17 0 0
0

Size of DC/WHs

Figure 4. Size of DC/WHs and Retailers stores

sites
Distance and cost plays an important role in the outbound logistics process of any product.
Figure.5 present analysis of distances from individual materials manufacturers plants to the
50% and 83% of
r shop and sites were between 151-
350km for reinforcement bar, tiles and granite respectively. In addition, 50% of cement
-500km,
while 100% and 92% of the block and sand industries distances to sites were between 0-
50km.
reinforcement bar, tiles and granites were between 151-350km away from their
hop were between 351-
500km away from cement plants. But majority of block and sand industries distances to
construction sites were between 0-50km.

587
 100
91,67

83,33
100

41,66
Percentage of
80

materials(%)

50

50
16,67

16,67
16,67

16,67
16,66

16,66
individual
60

8,33

8,33

8,33

8,33
25

25
40
20

0
0

0
0

0
0

0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0-50 51-150 151-350 351-500 Above 500
Distance (Km)

Cement Reinforcement Tiles Granite Blocks sand

Figure 5. The average transportation cost of material per average distance travelled

Figure 6 indicates the summary of distances from manufacturers plants to

-50
ki
between 151

40 36,11 34,72
summary of all
materials(%)
Percentage

20 12,52
8,33 8,33
0
0-50 51-150 151-3 50 351-500 Above 500
Distance (Km)

sites

Summary of average transportation cost of material per average distance travelled

The summary of correlation between average transportation cost and average distance for
all materials is presented in figure7. The highest transportation cost per distance of
N996.95/km was recorded between 51-150km, while a trend was noted, as the
transportation cost/ distance decreases as the distance increases, N610.05/km and
N328.18/km for 151-350km and above 500km respectively. But in the case of 0-50km
where the transportation cost per distance was lower (N662.27/km) may be explained by the
fact that some blocks moulding industries normally give discount on transportation for
certain range of distances. While some only charge for fueling the vehicle.

Additionally, information generated was that average transportation cost/ average tons
shipped were increasing as the distance increases, N823.99/tons, N4447.67/tons and
N5200.00/tons for 0-50, 151-350 and above 500km respectively.

588
 2 330,65

4 447,67

5 194,03

5 200,00
996,95
823,99
6 000,00

662,27

610,05

459,59

328,18
Transportation
4 000,00
Average 2 000,00
-
0-50 51-150 151-350 351-500 Above 500
Distance (Km)

Av. Trans. Cost/distance(N/km) Av. Trans. Cost/Av.tons(N/tons)

Figure 7. Average transportation cost of material per average distance travelled

Discussion of Result
outbound logistics channels for construction material in North Central Nigeria

Based on literature there exist six alternative outbound logistics channels that can be used
separately or in combination with each other to deliver materials to end users. The result of
analysis revealed all the manufacturing companies used direct to end -user channel.
However, most of the companies have minimum quantities an individual or company can
order at a time. This create a constrain on customers using the direct to end-user channel.
The research established that all companies studied used multiple channels for delivering
their products to customers. This is supported by Gwynne, (2014: 41) companies are
increasingly delivering via multiple channels to reach customers more effectively. Though,
the cost of materials may rise due to the presence of intermediaries in the materials delivery
process, but from a widespread perspective, compared to manufacturers, intermediaries
profit users by reducing the transportation unit cost(Khooban, 2011:111). Additionally,
customers benefit through, reducing lead times, delays, and entire transportation costs, as
well as improving efficiency, reliability and quality in delivery of materials (Hoff, et al,
2010: 181).
Furthermore, the study established that majority (80%) of DC/WHs, retailers stores sizes
were less than 500m2. However, there is an ongoing debate as to whether companies are
going to increase or decrease the number of warehouses operated within locations
(Gwynne, 2014:20). A study by Motorola, (2013:14) showed some planned to increase the
number of warehouses operated whilst others to increase the size of their existing facilities.
In the other hand Milan ( 2013: 98) suggest that it does not matter the size of a warehouse
or distribution center but the importance is to cut costs and to improve operating
efficiencies. However, the size of the storage facilities will also affect, the stockholding
capacity, transport arrangements and frequency of delivery. (Gwynne, 2014: 219). In
addition, the study revealed that majority of the DC/WHs and retailers stores adopted mixed
structure. This agrees with Apte and Viswanathan ( 2000: 93) and Bowersox, Closs,
Cooper and Bowersox (2013:226) that a mixed structure DC/WH combines the approaches
of both consolidation and break-bulk warehouses in which transportation economies can
be obtained. This leads to better product variety, and increased transactional efficiency(
McKinnon, 1989: 27).

The result of summary analysis for individual company (cement, reinforcement bar, ceramic
tiles and granite) established majority (79%) of distances from manufacturer plant to

589
 r shop and sites were between 0 350 kilometers. This agrees with
Khooban (2011:118) recommendation of road transport range of 350km as ideal for
achieving economies of transport for long distance haulage. However, if road distance is
beyond the 350km, rail road intermodal transport becomes more economical than road
transport, progressively more expensive if distance increase above 500km (Pienaar,
2016:390). Moreover, the distance between manufacturer and the end customer determine
the amount of stock to be held in the warehouse and distribution centers. The trade-off here
is between more expensive local suppliers and producers and increased costs in transport
and inventory holding costs (Gwynne, 2014:13). In addition, the result revealed majority of
block and sand industries distances to the construction sites were between 0-50km. This
finding is similar to study by Saka and Mudi, (2007: 784) that most suppliers of selected
materials are located at between 5 and 10 km from construction site. Vidalakis,Tookey and
Sommerville(2011:73) asserted that logistics effectiveness depends on the time and distance
between the nodes of the system, for example, DC/WH, MSs and BMs proximity to
construction sites
The study established 67% (4) of the materials average transport cost per average distance
were above N500/km and 50% (3) of the materials average transportation cost per average
tons were above N5000/ average tons. This supported the claim by and Kilibarda,
(2016: 138) that though distance driven, and quantity of goods delivered in tons are
important information for transport management. But these major drivers are not
sufficiently examined in the literature. In additions, the analysis revealed the average
transportation cost per average distances decreases as the distance increases. This supports
Pienaar,( 2016:381) assertion, that the economics of distance is attained when total
transport cost per kilometer decreases as the trip distance increases. This will invariably
reduce the price of material thereby reducing construction project cost.

Conclusion
The study concludes, there exist six alternative outbound logistics channels that can be used
separately or in combination with each other to deliver materials to end users. Majority of
the Nigeria construction material manufacturing companies used multiple channels for
quick response and more effective delivery of materials to customers. The DC/WHs and
retailers store were mostly sited within the distances of 0- 350km form the manufacturing
plants and the average transportation cost per average distances decreases as the distance
increases which signify that economies of distance were achieved. Generally, the DC/WHs,
and retailers stores floor area sizes are small, this limit their capacity for large stock holding,
but it is more important to cut costs and to improve operating efficiencies. Besides, the

consolidation and breakbulk transportation economies and improved product variety.

The findings of this study would provide guidelines for decision making and planning
towards effective and efficient construction materials logistics management. This study was
conducted using observations which is one of the limitations of this study. Another
limitation of this study is geographical in nature; since this study covered only one out of
the six geopolitical zones of the country, other zones should be study and compare the
results.

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592
[Paper ID 167]

-
Turki I. Al-Suleiman (Obaidat)1, Subhi M. Bazlamit2, Mahmoud Azzam3
and Hesham S. Ahmad4

Abstract
Allocated budgets for maintenance of road networks are normally limited. Therefore, not all
roads receive the required attention they deserve in a timely manner. These roads are left
to deteriorate until the next maintenance round. The cost associated with delayed
maintenance is significantly excessive. A Pavement Maintenance Management System
(PMMS) can be a useful tool for evaluation, prioritization of Maintenance
and Rehabilitation (M&R) projects, and determination of funding requirements
and allocations.
The pavement condition is normally indexed using a parameter called Pavement
Condition Index (PCI) which represents an overall assessment of surface defects by type,
severity and extent. Periodic collections of PCI over time for different sections within
the roadway network provide an approach to monitor changes in pavement serviceability
over time and can produce useful data to predict and evaluate required maintenance
solutions and their associated cost.
The researchers intend to use available data collected over the span of a year and a half
on sections within the roadway network at the campus of Al-Zaytoonah University
of Jordan (ZUJ) to study the relation between the maintenance cost and the pavement
deterioration rate. This study may incorporate variables such as pavement age, traffic
volumes, maintenance history and pavement condition assessment results. The available
records of PCI will be analysed and the findings will be clearly presented. The practical
inclusion of the findings within the current PMMS used at the university will also
be detailed.

Keywords: condition, deterioration, maintenance, pavements, serviceability

1
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering,
P.O. Box: 130 Amman 11733 Jordan, president@zuj.edu.jo
2
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering,
P.O. Box: 130 Amman 11733 Jordan, s.bazlamit@zuj.edu.jo
3
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering,
P.O. Box: 130 Amman 11733 Jordan, mahmoud.azzam@zuj.edu.jo
4
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering,
P.O. Box: 130 Amman 11733 Jordan, h.ahmad@zuj.edu.jo

593
Introduction
The aim of PMMS is the achievement of better and smoother roads at reasonable cost.
According to Shahin and Walther (1990) and Shahin (2005), the maintenance at early stages
of pavement deterioration proved to produce large saving before the start of the costly
decline in pavement condition. Therefore, funding are normally allocated in the most
efficient and economic manner to allow engineering pavement managers to employ an
efficient decision making process. Good pavement management systems require the
collection of substantial amounts of road condition data over time. This can be used in the
development of pavement deterioration models. The monitoring of pavement deterioration
over time is the back bone of a pavement management system and is used to determine
several fundamentals, including the rate of asset degradation at the project and network
levels. Furthermore, it aids in the evaluation of remaining life and in the scheduling of
future maintenance.
In this particular project, the pavement condition was evaluated using on a number of
occasions where each section was evaluated for the surface defects including various types
of flexible pavement failures such as cracking and other surface defects (Patel et al., 2017).
In addition, deterioration can lead to reduction in ride quality as reported by some
researchers (Ng, 2015). Others, have developed composite pavement condition indices
based on pavement surface condition and ride quality (Reza et al., 2005). In this project, the
pavement condition was evaluated using the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) as developed
by Shahin and Walther (1990) and Shahin (2005).
In the paved area of this study, traffic loading is not the leading contributor to pavement
failures. Weather related factors such as climate cycles of temperature and precipitation are
the leading causes of distresses such as longitudinal and transverse cracking. Researchers
have noted that pavement performance has shown that with the exception of longitudinal
and wheel track cracking formation, roughness of the road increases with additional
precipitation (Li et al., 2011). Pavements experience thermal cracking due to compressive
and tensile stress when temperature fluctuates. Smith et al. (2008) showed a dependence
between temperature and pavement deterioration, where a rise in temperature lead to
development of rutting and propagation of cracking in the pavement. In some areas, thawing
during the spring may result in deformation of pavement leading to fatigue and wheel path
cracking (Jackson & Puccinelli, 2006). In addition, some researchers suggest that snow
storms and floods can worsen road conditions by generating failure and cracking
(Shamsabadi et al., 2014).

Literature Review
Some researchers have studied the relation between maintenance cost and pavement
deterioration rate for roads.
George et al. (1989) developed equations for predicting pavement deterioration. The
authors employed over a 2-years period of historical information that includes structural
information, traffic volume and pavement condition data. The studied areas (paved areas
with asphalt surfacing) were classified into three groups including flexible pavements with
no overlay, flexible pavements with one or more overlay(s), and composite pavements. In
all the three equations developed for the three classifications, age of the pavement was
found to be the most significant variable to predict road serviceability among other variables
of traffic volume and weight, and the structural makeup of the pavement.
Shahin et al. (1994) studied the economic effect of different M&R strategies. The
different strategies were applied to pavement sections in a studied paved network. The

594
results showed the economic effectiveness of asphalt overlay compared with other
strategies. MicroPAVER pavement management system were used in this study to produce
deterioration curves and work planning techniques for the different M&R strategies.
Tinni (2013) has argued that the estimation of pavement maintenance costs for long
periods of time is mostly comes with an inaccurate end results. His paper has demonstrate
the inaccuracy of the used methodology in Australia. The research concluded that a way to
reach a reasonable accuracy is to carry out a detailed historical long term cost study for
different pavements, which is rarely to be applied. The researcher also concluded that with a
time period of over 20 years, the total maintenance cost of concrete pavement is at least 19
times less than for flexible pavements with the same traffic volume.
Babashamsi et al. (2016) have analyzed current methods used for Life-Cycle Cost
Analysis (LCCA). LCCA is an economic analysis process used to evaluate the cost-
efficiency of alternatives in order to obtain optimum pavement life-cycle costs. LCCA takes
into consideration the total economic worth by analyzing the initial cost and discounted
future cost including maintenance, use, reconstruction, rehabilitation, restoring, and
resurfacing costs, over the life of the project segment. Another study on LCCA by Wang Z.
and Wang H. (2017) aimed at developing LCCA model to evaluate the impact of pavement
preservation on agency cost (M&R work) and Vehicle Operating Cost (VOC), and
estimating the optimal time of pavement preservation treatment. The study used long-term
data of International Roughness Index (IRI), a parameter for evaluating the functional
condition of the pavement. It was found that the optimal timing to apply preservation
treatment depends on the type of treatment, the existing condition before the treatment (or
pavement age), and the effect of treatment on pavement performance deterioration. The
results also showed that, the cost benefits in VOC is greater than the benefit in agency cost,
while the optimal timing calculated based on VOC is always earlier than the optimal timing
calculated based on agency cost.
Previous studies have investigated the relation between maintenance cost and pavement
condition. However, this study concentrates on the relation between maintenance cost and
pavement deterioration when the paved road subjected for low-volume vehicles, and the
deterioration of pavement is caused mainly by weather.

Objective and Scope

The aim of this research is to develop formulas that relate maintenance cost with pavement
deterioration rate for low-volume roads. This formula will depend on data collection and
analysis from the road network in Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan (ZUJ). A Pavement
Maintenance Management System (PMMS) for the road network in ZUJ was previously
developed and presented in research papers (Obaidat et al., 2018; Bazlamit et al., 2017).
This research incorporated the following stages:
Developing a database inventory for the road network at ZUJ based on a Geographic
Information System (GIS) map. This inventory includes the engineering properties for
each section in the road network.
Conducting a first round evaluation to the pavement condition following the procedures
that depend on calculating PCI for each road section developed by Shahin and Walther
(1990), and by using PAVER system software developed by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineering.
Based on the results of pavement condition evaluation, priorities of the areas that need
Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M&R) were decided. After this, the required work of
M&R was decided and the required quantities and budget were estimated.

595
 Conducting a second round of evaluation to the pavement condition and using PAVER
system to estimate the reduction on PCI for each road section.
Studying the relation between the maintenance cost and the pavement deterioration rate
and developing calculation equations by conducting regression analysis.

Process
The first step in establishing a PMMS for the paved network in the area of the study was to
prepare an inventory that organizes the paved areas for M&R management using the method
presented by Shahin and Walther (1990) and Shahin (2005). The paved network in ZUJ was
divided into four branches. Only the results for one branch named Ring Road (RINGR)
consisting of 46 sections will be used for the purpose of this paper. For practical objectives,
sections were classified to identify areas with relatively consistent characteristics, such as
dimensions, surface condition, traffic type and volume, and construction history. It should
be noted that the pavement thickness and composition, the traffic type and volume for the
different sections in the studied branch are relatively consistent.
The second step is to conduct a field inspection to evaluate the current condition of the
different paved sections using Pavement Condition Index (PCI) method (Shahin and
Walther, 1990; Shahin, 2005). This method uses a scale of 100 points to rate the condition
of each road section that can be presented in seven pavement condition classifications as
shown in Figure 1.

Standard PCI
Distres rating scale
s type 100
Good
85
Satisfactory
70
Distres Fair
s PCI 55
Poor
quantit
40
Very Poor
25
Distres Serious
s 10
Failed
severit 0
Figure 1. Rating scale used for Pavement Condition Index (PCI) method (Source: Shahin (2005))

In this study two cycles of field inspections were conducted with a time period of 1 year.
Between the first cycle and the second, M&R project was implemented on some of the poor,
very poor, serious and failed sections in ZUJ road network. The areas that need M&R were
decided regarding the pavement condition evaluation, the location importance and the
available budget. Hence, the number of PCI high rated sections has increased in 2018
compared with what was in 2017, while the number of low rated sections has decreased, as
shown in Figure 2.

596
 Figure 2. Comparison of Pavement Condition between 2017 and 2018

The results of the field inspections and the calculations of PCI values for the two cycles
of the years 2017 and 2018 were conducted by using Paver 7 software. Figure 3 shows the
PCI results for the road section where no M&R works have executed, while Figure 4 shows
the results for the maintained sections. The 100 points scale and the seven color coded
layers for the pavement conditions were used in the two figures.

Figure 3. PCI Results for Road Sections with no M&R Works

597
 Figure 4. PCI Results for Road Sections with M&R Works
Results
The aim of this study is to develop a relation between the maintenance cost and
deterioration rate. To fulfil this aim, the paved areas subjected to maintenance and repair
were classified into three groups regarding their condition evaluation prior to the M&R
implementation. The three groups include Poor, very poor, and failed and serious pavement
condition ratings to reflect the quantity, severity and type of distresses in the road sections
prior to the M&R project implementation. The type of repairs used for the defected areas
depended on the type and severity of each defect. Figure 4 represents examples of repair
types may be used for certain conditions of pavement.

PAVEMENT
CONDITION
100
Good
85
Satisfactory Relatively low Low Cracks Sealing
drop in quality cost of
70 with time M&R
Fair Thin Overlay
55 High
Poor cost of
Thick Overlay
Relatively high
40 drop in quality M&R
Very Poor with time
25 Reconstruction
Serious
10
Failed
0
TIME
Figure 5. Examples of repair types may be used with PCI evaluation
The sections subjected to M&R applications were used to study the relation between
improvement or change in the pavement condition ( PCI) and maintenance cost. The
598
relations was studied for the whole ratings as well as for the classified groups of pavement,
as shown in Figure 6.

Linear Regression
Polynomial Regression
Logarithmic Regression

Figure 6. Relation of PCI and maintenance cost

As shown in Figure 6, regression analysis was conducted by using three types of
relations including linear, polynomial and logarithmic equations. The analysis was
conducted and presented for the results of the whole maintained sections as well as for the
separated groups of poor rated sections, very poor rated sections, and serious and failed
sections. The results were summarized in Table 1. Also, the detailed calculations for PCI
and maintenance cost per meter square are shown in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 1. Formulas developed to relate maintenance cost and deterioration rate of paved areas
# Linear Polynomial Logarithmic
Rating of
sec. Equation R2 Equation R2 Equation R2
-1.0642(Mc)2
Poor 7 Mc +12.665
0.8728 +13.649 Mc+3.9498
0.9414 ln(Mc) +14.23
0.9557

Very -0.3201(Mc)2
7 Mc +37.91 0.1288 +4.3031 Mc+37.024 0.1508 ln(Mc) +43.321 0.1658
Poor
Failed -1.3435(Mc)2
& 4 Mc +10.447
0.9828 +21.828 Mc+3.0197
0.9955 ln(Mc) +38.11
0.9405
Serious
All 2
18 Mc +18.743
0.4782 +1.888 Mc+20.181
0.4808 ln(Mc) +33.194
0.3252
Ratings
Mc = Maintenon cost per square meter in U.S Dollar ($).

599
 Table 2. Detailed Calculations for Sections after Maintenance

Table 3. Detailed Calculations for Sections without Maintenance

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 The results indicated the reliance of maintenance cost on the condition evaluation of
pavement prior to the M&R projects execution. Linear regression proved to appropriately
represent the relation between the cost of maintenance and the rate of deterioration. The
results of R2 calculations indicated high level of reliability and validity of the equations. The
equations can be used as prediction model for estimating cost of required maintenance for
paved areas with low traffic volume. In the future studies, it is recommended to conduct
comparative studies to study the effect of the traffic volume and the structure of pavement
for broader areas of pavement. This requires conducting more tests and collecting more data
during longer period of the road network life-cycle.

Conclusion
The developed equations can be used as prediction model to estimate the required cost for
maintaining paved areas depending on information about pavement condition, rate of
deterioration and the area for each evaluated section. Values of R 2 refers that the equations
are representing the results in a good manner, and so the equations can be used for cost
prediction.
Conduction more iterations of PCI evaluation during the coming years and after M&R
projects will help to improve the prediction equations. In the future development of this
study, it is recommended to use modern tools and methods for more effective evaluation of
the conditions of paved areas, such as using image processing, remote sensing and ground-
penetrating radar techniques. Improvement of pavement condition valuation and setting for
M&R work will aim at making required procedures become more robust.

Reference
Babashamsi, P., Yusoff, N., Ceylan, H., Nor, N. and Jenatabadi, H., 2016. Evaluation of
pavement life cycle cost analysis: Review and analysis. International Journal of
Pavement Research and Technology, 9, 241 254.
Bazlamit, S.M., Ahmad, H.S. and Obaidat, T.I.A., 2017. Pavement Maintenance
Applications using Geographic Information Systems, Procedia Engineering/ 7th
International Conference on Engineering, Project and Production Management, 182,
83-90.
George, K.P., Rajagopal, A.S. and Lim, L.K., 1989. Models for Predicting Pavement
Deterioration. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research
Board, 1215, 1-7.
Jackson, N. and Puccinelli, J., 2006. Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Data
Analysis Support: National Pooled Fund Study TPF-5(013): Effects of Multiple Freeze
Cycles and Deep Frost Penetration on Pavement Performance and Cost. Nichols
Consulting Engineers, Reno, Nevada, United States.
Li, W., Mills L., and McNeil S., 2011. The Implications of Climate Change on Pavement
Performance and Design. University Transportation Center, University of Delaware,
Newark, DE.
Ng, V.L., 2015. A study of deterioration in ride quality on Ohio's highways. Thesis (M.S.),
University of Toledo, Ohio, United States. Available from:
http://utdr.utoledo.edu/theses-dissertations/1861
Obaidat, T.I.A., Hamici, Z.M., Bazlamit, S.M. and Ahmad, H.S., 2018. Assessment of the
Effect of Alligator Cracking on Pavement Condition Using WSN-Image Processing.
Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering/ 8th International Conference on
Engineering, Project, and Product Management (EPPM 2017), 265-274.

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Patel, K., Prajapati, B., Kanojia, N. and Chauhan, S.J., 2017. Literature Review on Types
of Flexible Pavement Failures. International Journal for Scientific Research &
Development|, 5(2), 145-147.
Reza, F., Boriboonsomsin, K., and Bazlamit, S.M., 2005. Development of a Composite
Pavement Performance Index. ST/SS/05-001. Ohio Department of Transportation,
Columbus, Ohio, United States.
Shahin, M.Y., 2005. Pavement Management for Airports, Roads, and Parking Lots. 2nd ed.
Springer Science and Business Media, LLC.
Shahin, M.Y. and Walther, J.A., 1990. Pavement Maintenance Management for Roads and
Streets Using the PAVER System. 1st ed., US Army Corps of Engineering.
Shahin, M.Y., Stock, C. and Beckberger, L., 1994. Comparing Pavement Performance and
Its Effect on Maintenance and Rehabilitation Cost. 3rd International Conference on
Managing Pavements, 237-245.
Shamsabadi, S.S., Tari, Y.S.H., Birken, R. and Wang, M., 2014. Deterioration Forecasting
in Flexible Pavements due to Floods and Snow Storms. 7th European Workshop on
Structural Health Monitoring, July 8- .
Smith, J.T., Tighe, S.L., Andrey, J.C., and Mills, B., 2008. Temperature and Precipitation
Sensitivity Analysis on Pavement Performance. Transportation Research Circular,
Surface Transportation Weather and Snow Removal and Ice Control Technology, 558-
571.
Tinni, A., 2013. Comparison of Maintenance Costs of Heavy Duty Pavements. Tinni
Management Consulting, Eesti , March 2013.
Wang Z. and Wang H., 2017. Life-cycle cost analysis of optimal timing of pavement
preservation. Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 11(1), 17-26.

602
[Paper ID 32]

Joshua Mangvwat1, Duga Ewuga2 and Yohanna Izam3

Abstract
This qualitative and quantitative study evaluates the time and cost performance of fixed-
price contracts in Tertiary Institutions projects in Plateau State, funded as intervention
projects from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund. Literature review gives the background
on the types and forms of contracts. Questionnaires, interviews and records from projects
are tools that were used in collecting the relevant data. Sixty-two professionals consisting
of 12 Architects, 8 Builders, 12 Engineers, 22 Quantity Surveyors and 8 Estate Surveyors
randomly selected responded to issues of time and cost challenges. Records were
purposively obtained from Twenty-Three projects studied. Regression Analysis was used
to predict the time and cost performance. Results show a cost increase of $14,423.59
for every one-month increase in time. Interviews revealed all 23 projects suffered time
overruns with only 5 overrunning in cost. Specifications of 18 projects were found
et objective of the firm price. The research
recommends that to enhance time and cost performance, designs must be fully completed
before biding. Alternatively, the entire procurement system which favours the fixed price
arrangement should be overhauled to accommodate other options.

Keywords: fixed price, time, cost, performance, building contract

1
Department of Quantity Surveying, University of Jos-Nigeria, mangvwat@yahoo.com
2
Department of Quantity Surveying, University of Jos-Nigeria, djewuga@yahoo.com
3
Department of Building, University of Jos-Nigeria, majidadi67@yahoo.com

603
1. Introduction
Due to the complexity of construction projects and the high demand from construction
clients, various forms of building contracts are employed by the parties involved to deliver
the project successfully (Lupton, Cox, & Clamp, 2007). Bennett (2007) explained that the
procurement method and type of project determine the choice of the contract to be used.
Procurement of construction projects is the network of relationships amongst the various
parties involved in the delivery of a project. This relationship is formalised by entering into
a legal contract (Lupton et al., 2007). The contracts, therefore, have to be tailored towards
revolves around the triumvirate of
Cost (initial expected cost, capital cost and maintenance cost),
Time (time required for design and construction, securing timely planning
approvals, timely completion etc.) and
Quality (expected in terms of design flexibility to changes, technical specification,
functionality and aesthetics/workmanship) (Love, Skitmore, & Earl, 1998; Lupton et
al., 2007; Masterman, 2003).

Other factors that determine the type of procurement method and contracts to be used are
the size, type and complexity of the project (Eriksson, 2017) because the performance of a
construction project is related to the method of procurement used in its delivery (Ghadamsi
& Braimah, 2012). Also, the level of participation of the client mostly influences the
success or failure of a project (Boyd & Chinyio, 2008; Kometa, Olomolaiye, & Harris,
1996; Masterman, 2003).
contract strategy to be used which guides the decision on the form of payment. These
contract strategies can be either priced-based or cost-based. The priced-based are lump-sum
or re-measurement contracts with prices being submitted by the contractor in their bid while
the cost-based are cost-reimbursable or target cost where the actual cost incurred by the
contractor is reimbursed with a fee added to cover for overheads and profit (Potts, 2008, p.
178). Potts (2008) further explained that the allocation of risks to the parties involved in the
contract is also a factor that determines the choice of the payment system.

The procurement of public projects in Nigeria is conducted mainly through the traditional
procurement system, using mostly price-based contract strategy. Olatunji (2008) observes
that public projects in Nigeria awarded based on the lowest price has led to contractors
bidding with ridiculous rates while delivering very low-quality work and workmanship. He
further observed that from the projects studied, only 44% were completed within budget and
only about 5% these were delivered within the actual completion time (Olatunji, 2008).
Also, Adedokun, Ibironke, & Babatunde (2013) reveal that educational projects in Nigeria
are mostly procured through the open competitive tendering method. They explained that
using this method of tendering is influenced by the need for obtaining high quality,
accountability, price competition, and speedy execution. However, Olanrewaju & Anavhe
(2014) observe that construction projects in Nigeria have suffered from a lot of claims;
some of the major sources of the claims include late payment, delayed approval of change
order and delay cost which was noted to be extremely influential while the least influential
were storage charges, loss of productivity, and costs of preparing claims. They found that
major claim factors are behavioural rather than technical issues (Olanrewaju & Anavhe,
2014).

With the amount of investment made on infrastructure projects in Nigeria, especially in

higher educational institutions through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND)
funding there is the need for a better understanding of the performance of these projects in

604
meeti
based (lump-sum/fixed contract) system of the contract
needs and objectives and also to identify areas of necessary improvement to ensure that

2. Literature Review
Background of TETFUND and procurement/contract strategies in use in construction is
reviewed.

1. Background on Tetfund
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) was set up to administer and disburse
education tax collections to Federal and State tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria.
The main source of income available to the Fund is the 2% education tax paid from the
assessable profit of companies registered in Nigeria. The Board of Trustees (BOT) of the
Fund is statutorily charged with the responsibility of administering, managing and
disbursements of these funds to beneficiaries in the public tertiary educational institutions
under established guidelines. The Act that set up the fund prescribes the distribution of the
funds in the ratio 2:1:1 respectively to Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education
(COE). TETFUND has been responsible for over 60% of the infrastructure development in
public tertiary institutions in Nigeria. This translates to One Trillion Naira expenditure
(about $2.78 Billion) within a period of five years. Based on the 2016 allocation alone, 181
tertiary institutions comprising 74 universities, 50 polytechnics and 57 colleges of education
benefitted from the particular fund (Uwandu, 2017; Agbakuru, 2017).

2. Procurement systems and Construction Contracts

Procurement of construction projects is the outcome of a chain of relationships amongst the
various parties involved in the delivery of a project (Lupton et al., 2007). Different
procurement methods use different types of contract. For example, The Joint Contract
Tribunal (JCT) (2006) identified fixed price contract as one of three types of contract under
the traditional procurement methods. It describes a fixed price contract as an arrangement
where the contract sum is determined before the beginning of construction work. The
contractor undertakes a defined task in return for an agreed amount of money. Furthermore,
Rodriguez (2013) opined that in a fixed price contract, the owner has essentially assigned all
the risk to the contractor, who in turn charges a higher percentage of cost as a safety net
should any unforeseen circumstance arise.

In theory, the different contractual arrangements have a different effect on the time, cost,
and quality as well as in the allocation of the risks among parties involved. These are the
most important parameters, which are critical to building project performance (Chitkara,
2005). According to the Construction Industry Institute (2008), the main difference with
respect to a fixed price contract is the risk factor. This is because risk has a significant
impact on construction project performance. How risks are shared between the parties is to a
large extent governed by the procurement option and the content of the related contract
document and forms (Osipova et al, 2011 in Izam, 2014).

In comparing the tender sums and final costs of construction projects in Nigeria awarded
using due process procedures from 2003 - 2007, Olatunji (2008) found that all the projects
awarded were based on the lowest price. He observed that apart from the fact that it
weakens competition, as some contractors are still found bidding with very ridiculous rates,
low quality of workmanshi

605
features of many of these projects. He further found that although 44 per cent of the
construction projects were completed within budget, only 5 per cent were delivered within
time. Also, Shwarka and Anigbogu (2012) in examining the impact of public procurement
options on building projects performance in Nigeria based on the impact of traditional and
design and build methods found that there is no significant difference between the two in
terms of quality but that there is a significant difference in duration and cost.

3. Methodology
This research adopted the strategy of a case study in a survey (Yin, 2003). Data is collected
using a combination of library/desk search, questionnaire and personal interviews. Project
files are examined and interview questions are developed to enable this. A list of time, cost
and variation variables were drawn from literature and from discussion with the parties
involved in the projects. An interview guide was prepared based on the compiled list after a
pilot study. The piloting improved the wording and increase the reliability of the questions
asked. These were structured into the questionnaire we have used. Respondents were
required to rate frequency and severity of each of the factors using a 5 - point Likert scale.
The primary data was collected from the contract documents, progress reports, and minutes
of monthly site meetings, correspondences as well as available site records.
The research focused on TETFund sponsored projects in tertiary institutions in Plateau state.
The target population consists of
representative and construction professionals because of their expertise and experience in
the projects studied.

Data collected are presented and analysed using descriptive statistics and Regression
Analysis to predict the time and cost performance. Also, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
was used to carry out a simultaneous comparison of several population means; to determine
whether or not variation in sets of data produce a different outcome. The method is used in
this research to test a significant difference between the mean responses on time and cost
performance of all the projects studied. It is a useful technique in modern statistical methods
which enables the total variation in a set of data to be reduced to components associated
with possible sources of variability whose relative impact needs to be accessed (Howel,
2002). Variation between samples and within a sample are the possible sources of
variability and for each source of variability, the sum of squares is computed using the
degrees of freedom.

A total of 29 building projects were contracted and completed within the period 2005 to
2014 under the TETFund intervention programme in the three tertiary institutions selected
for the study. Records were available on 23 of these projects representing 79% of the total
number. Since the total population of professionals that participated in these projects could
not be ascertained due to the mobility of labour and lack of accurate personnel records,
especially in the contractor and consultant organizations, the research purposively targeted
75 respondents; 25 each from the 3 institutions. The purpose is to obtain an equal
representation from each institution cutting across professionals who actively participated in
the projects. For the interview, 5 of the 7 respondents with over 21years working experience
were selected on the assumption that they are knowledgeable as professionals on TETFund
projects.

606
 4. Presentation and Discussion of Results
A total of 62 out of 75 questionnaires were returned as valid, giving a response rate of
82.6%. Table 1 shows the background of respondents comprising Quantity Surveyors
(35.5%), Architects (19.4%) and 12.9% Engineers, Builders and Estate Valuers each. This
depicts a cumulative of 87.1%, with predominance of professionals commonly found on
construction sites during the survey. However, a cumulative of 51.6% has experiences
spanning over 10 years; an indication that the majority are reasonably experienced to
contribute to the study.
.
Table 1: Background of Respondents
Professi Freque % of Experienc Freque % of Organiza Freque % of
on ncy Respo e ncy Respo tion ncy Respo
nse nse nse
Architect 12 19.4 1 5 years 8 12.9 Contracting 18 29.0
Builder 8 12.9 6 10 years 20 32.3 Consultancy 22 35.5
Engineer 12 19.4 11 15 years 10 16.1 Government 22 35.5
Quantity 22 35.5 16 20 years
8 12.9
Surveyor
Others 8 12.9 Over 21years 14 22.6 Total 62 100.0
Total 62 100.0 Total 60 96.8
Missing 2 3.2
Total 62 100.0
SOURCE: Field Survey, 2015

4.1 Factors That Promote Choice of Fixed Price Contract

Among factors that influence the choice of the traditional procurement route presented in

factor. This is followed by early completion with 54.8%; quality expectation with 45.2%
and risk reduction with 32.3%. Hence the requirement for firmness of cost and adherence to
the time schedule for early completion are important factors that influenced the choice of a
fixed price contract.

Table 2: Factors that influence the choice of the procurement system

Factors Rating Frequency Percentage Cumulative
Percentage
Not important 8 12.9 12.9
Quality expectation Important 26 41.9 54.8
Very
important 28 45.2 100
Total 62 100
Not important 4 6.5 6.5
Firmness of cost Important 22 35.5 51.6
Very
important 36 58.1 100
Total 62 100
Early completion Not important 4 6.5 6.5
Important 24 38.7 45.2
Very
important 34 54.8 100
Total 62 100
Not important 6 9.7 9.7

607
 Risk reduction Important 36 58.1 67.7
Very
important 20 32.3 100
Total 62 100
SOURCE: Field Survey, 2015

4.2 Time Cost Performance

The differences in time and cost data of the projects studied were collected from three
different institutions. A total of 23 projects were involved. Figure 1 and Figure 2 are a
graphical representation of the time and cost relationship of these projects.
(Months)

Figure 1: Initial and actual completion period

(Naira)

Figure 2: Initial and actual cost of the project (Naira)

4.3 Results and Discussions

Results of the analysis are presented in Tables 3, 4 and 5.
Linear regression was used to assess the ability of initial and actual time to predict the
actual cost. Preliminary analysis was conducted to ensure there is no violation of the
normality, linearity, multi co-linearity and homoscedasticity. The initial and actual time was

608
entered as independent variables while the final cost was entered as the dependent variable.
The total variance explained by the model as a whole was 59.79%, degree of freedom F
(2.10) = 2.78, P-value > 0.05, R= 0.597, R-square = 0.225.
From the model summary in Table 3, This is an overall measure of the strength of
association and does not reflect the extent to which any particular independent variable is
associated with the dependent variable. Finally, the variables were not statistically
significant.
The implication of these to decision-makers, as shown in Table 5 is that when all other
variables are held constant; there is an N5, 192,491.09 (currently equivalent to $14,423.59)
unit increases in the actual cost for every unit increase in months in actual time. This is
however insignificant as shown on the t and Sig. columns. Interpreting these statistics with
respect to the projects studied shows that the cost increase emanated from 5 out of 23
projects. This explains the reason for the insignificance as 18 of the projects which did not
have a cost increase despite the time overrun.

Table 3: Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of the Estimate
Square

1 .597a .357 .228 70845434.285

Table 4: ANOVA

Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.

Regression 27857091313126228.000 2 13928545656563110.000 2.775 .110b

Residual 50190755589642976.000 10 5019075558964298.000

Total 78047846902769216.000 12

a. Dependent Variable: Actual Cost

b. Predictors: (Constant), Actual Time, Initial Time

Table 5: Coefficients of Actual Cost

Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized
Model Coefficients T Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 32947133.123 65933111.008 .500 .628

Initial Time -3464037.680 6464861.182 -.171 -.536 .604

.
Actual Time
5192491.092 2419787.654 .686 2.146 057

Dependent Variable: Actual Cost

609
The outcome of the interviews shows that although time and cost overruns were
experienced, these were accommodated within the contingencies cost of the projects and
also because of the firmness of the contract, material specifications and scope of work were
changed. This further supports earlier studies of the significant relationship between time
and cost. The participants further explained that where the scope of the work was not
changed but due to delay in payments and honouring of architects certificates; these have
led to increasing the running cost of the project. Other factors identified were inadequate
design information which leads to discrepancies in the bill(s) of quantities, and also
inadequate time provided for detailed design and other contract documents all of which
contribute significantly to the delay and poor performance of the project.

5. Conclusion
In conclusion, this study was able to establish and build to the existing body of knowledge
by identifying the key factors that promote the use of fixed-price/lump sum contract on
TETFUND projects in Nigeria. The firmness of the cost is the major factor for adopting this
type of contract. While out of the 23 projects studied, 5 suffered from cost-overrun and all
the 23 suffered from time overrun. What this study indicates is that there is a trade-off in the
quality of the project while trying to meet the cost target. This trade-off will eventually lead
to the higher maintenance cost of the facility. Furthermore, the study found out that in the
evaluation of time and cost performance of building projects executed through fixed-price
contract, the practice that allows time to overrun without adequate allowance in the cost
element of buildings, and yet expecting to have a building as specified in the design, scope
and quality is unrealistic.

Therefore, the study suggests that for an effective use of the fixed price contract, there is a
need
(cost, quality and time). On the alternative, the study recommends that public institutions
can take advantage of the experience of project teams by adopting other alternative
procurement methods that provide some level of flexibility and also gaining from the design
and construction expertise of teams.

REFERENCES
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tendering methods of procuring educational building projects in Nigeria. Journal of
Facilities Management, 11(1), 81-94. doi:10.1108/14725961311301484
Agbakuru, J. (2017, May 15). TETFund releases N1Trn to Varsities, Polytechnic in 5years.
https://www.vanguardngr.com>news
Bennett, F. L. (2007). The management of construction: A project lifecycle approach:
Routledge.
Boyd, D., & Chinyio, E. (2008). Understanding the construction client: John Wiley & Sons.
Chitkara, K. K. (2005). Project management - planning, scheduling and controlling.New
Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.
Ghadamsi, A., & Braimah, N. (2012, 2012). The influence of procurement methods on
project performance: A conceptual framework.
Howell, D. C. (2002).Statistical methods for psychology. Wadsworth Group: CA.
Izam, Y. D. (2014). Construction Estimating and Procurement Issues: A monograph of the
Department of Building, University of Jos, Nigeria
JCT, (2006).Deciding on the appropriate JCT contract. Practice note. Published in August
2006 by Sweet & Maxwell Limited; retrieved from www.jctcontracts.com

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Kometa, S. T., Olomolaiye, P. O., & Harris, F. C. (1996). A review of client-generated risks
to project consultants. International Journal of Project Management, 14(5), 273-
279.
Love, P. E. D., Skitmore, M., & Earl, G. (1998). Selecting a suitable procurement method
for a building project. Construction Management & Economics, 16(2), 221-233.
Lupton, S. A., Cox, S., & Clamp, H. (2007). Which Contract? Choosing the appropriate
building contract: RIBA Publishing Enterprises.
Masterman, J. (2003). An introduction to building procurement systems: Routledge.
Olanrewaju, A. A., & Anavhe, P. J. (2014). Perceived claim sources in the Nigerian
construction industry. Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 4(3), 281-
295. doi:10.1108/BEPAM-05-2013-0014
Olatunji, O. A. (2008). A comparative analysis of tender sums and final costs of public
construction and supply projects in Nigeria. Journal of Financial Management of
Property and Construction, 13(1), 60-79. doi:10.1108/13664380810882084
Potts, K. F. (2008). Construction cost management: Learning from case studies. Oxon:
Taylor & Francis.
Rodriguez, J. (2013). Lump Sum: What Is A Lump Sum? Lump Sum Construction Contract
http://www.about.com guide. Accessed on May 7, 2013
Shwarka, S. M. &Anigbogu, N. A. (2012). The impact of public procurement options on
building projects performance in Nigeria. The Professional Builder3(2), pp. 46 54
Uwandu, E. (2017, July 20). TETFund responsible for 60% infrastructure development in
public tertiary institutions Bafa.. https://www.vanguardngr.com>news
Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research design and methods(3rded.) California: Sage
Publications.

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7. INTEGRATION OF TRIPLET ENGINEERING,
PROJECT, AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

612
[Paper ID 51]

Bo Terje Kalsaas1, Una Obiose Kriston Nwajei2 and Christine Bydall3

Abstract
Does the IPD concept deliver as required and expected, and if not, how can that
be explained? This paper is a critical realist inspired methodology based on a combination
of the inductive and deductive approaches used within case study research. IPD is based
on relational contracting between multiple parties, in this case between the Owner,
Contractor and a group of Consulting engineers who share control of the project. At the core
of the concept is shared risk and opportunities among the parties in the IPD contract.
Our theoretical perspectives are based mainly on the Principal Agent theory (PA),
Transaction Cost theory (TC), and its related incentives.
This paper reports on a study of development of an existing public hospital that
is constructing first a psychiatry and then a somatic building. The data collection in the
paper is mainly in connection with the construction of the psychiatry building.
Our findings show that IPD represents a game changer in the behaviours
and the organizing of AEC (Architect-Engineer-Construction) projects. We identify
examples of swapping occurring that require deep collaboration, and less opportunistic
behaviour based on the commercial incentives. However, different individual incentives
coupled with accompanying mindsets and opportunistic behaviour are still part of everyday
life and are linked to people's past experiences, which can be understood as contextual
conditions. In addition, the decision-making processes was not effective and characterized
by revisiting previous decisions.

Keywords: AEC-industry, alignment of interests, commercial and individual incentives,

IPD, public procurement

1
Professor, Department of Engineering Sciences, University of Agder, Jon Lilletunsvei 9.,
Grimstad, Norway, Tel. +47-97082582, Email: bo.t.kalsaas@uia.no
2
Research Assistant, Department of Engineering Sciences, University of Agder,
Jon Lilletunsvei 9., Grimstad, Norway, Tel. +47-41324281, Email: obiose.nwajei@gmail.com
3
M.Sc. Graduate, Department of Engineering Sciences, University of Agder, Jon Lilletunsvei 9.,
Grimstad, Norway, Tel. +47-41675595, Email: christine.bydall@gmail.com

613
Introduction
Many challenges have been registered in construction (AEC) projects within what one
designates conventional project delivery models, Design-Bid-Build (DBB) or Design-Build
(DB). There are challenges that are especially related to delivery of quality and customer
value, and the industry is characterized by relatively low profit margins. It is also argued
that the industry has lower productivity growth than other industries (Klakegg, 2017) and
that there is little innovation and a high level of conflict. The DB form appears to be
replacing DBB as the preferred project delivery model. This is very common within the
Norwegian construction (industry) and can be seen in the transition from DBB to DB in
regards to the construction of infrastructure projects
2018).
Projects are usually carried out by many companies that specialize in branches of
design, construction and supply, all with their own business model. In order to align
commercial interests and goals, one need a shared business model for the whole project.
Furthermore, there is a trend for construction projects to become more technical in relation
to automation and technology (e.g. smart buildings), which means that projects increase in
complexity and require more collaboration to solve interdependencies.
In Norway, there are changes in the choice of project delivery model. There is a debate
surrounding traditional models as they are characterized as models that often lead to conflict
and dispute. One example of this is a meeting 29 where
of view that the Norwegian Standard (NS) for contracts regarding DBB and DB has few
common incentives and is more a cause for problems than solving problems.
In the Lean Construction (LC) environment in the USA, there has been interest in a type
of delivery model denoted Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) which is characterized as a
game changer (Lichtig, 2005). Thus, multiple party contracts are introduced with risk and
opportunity sharing, which is expected t
relation to working together without any hidden agendas by alignment of their interests. The
theoretical foundation lies within the LC-triangle (Ballard, 2012; Howell, 2011) which
looks at the importance of fine tuning the parties in relation to commercial interests,
organization and production. Our research interest is to contribute by critically
highlighting the potential that lies within IPD in improving project execution. We will
do this by studying a IPD-
process of building new psychiatric and somatic wards. The data in the study is mainly
collected from the creation of the psychiatric building which is built before the somatic part.
The paper builds upon and is a development of a master thesis by Nwajei and Bydall
(2018).
In the next section, the methodology used will be described and then we will examine
the theoretical aspects related to understanding behavior in construction projects. The IPD
concept is further explained, including how incentives change. Three propositions have
been developed that are further substantiated then an empirical analysis is carried out of the
propositions and finalized with a conclusion.

The IPD concept

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) according to has been an emerging

where adversarial supplier relationships were transformed to cooperative relationships 30.

29
Seminar at DLA Piper, March 13 th, 2018
30
Further information can be found in cases of Jaguar and Nippondenso and the Sutter Health project (Ali,
Smith, & Saker, 1997; Lichtig, 2005).

614
 IPD is considered to have started in 2005 with the aim of aligning the commercial
incentives of project participants in the AEC industry (Do, Ballard & Tommelein, 2015;
Matthews & Howell, 2005). In the United States (US), the Lean Construction environment
tried to address the challenges in the construction industry, by trying to define an integrated
- collaboration;
relationships; networks of commitments; optimization; and, the pairing of learning with
action (Lichtig, 2005). Several projects adopted IPD and put it into practice. (Matthews &
Howell, 2005).
It was not until 2014 that the IPD-principles were defined as continuous involvement of
the owner, key designers and contractors from early design through to project completion:
shared risk and reward; joint project control; limited liability; and, a multi-party agreement
or equal interlocking agreements. Without building on those principles, projects could not
really be described as IPD (op cit.). The IPD concept consists of collaboration and
coordination which can be realised by the solution of fusing the core organizations under a
single agreement- integrated to work together and share ideas (American Institute of
Architects, 2014).
In an IPD, the constructors are present from the outset. They are part of the team and the
team are not just focused on their own speciality. Knowledge and expertise are no longer
hoarded (Ghassemi & Becerik-Gerber, 2011). The group make progress together, as they
are aware of risks and rewards, not just their own but for others. IPD has been described as
a game changer in the way projects have been delivered. In the United States (US), projects
using all these principles have been successful, as no litigation has ensued as a result.
Do et al. (op cit.) also argues that there is a close connection between IPD and the
Target Value Design (TVD) concept (Ballard & Reiser, 2004), which was introduced in
2004. The American Institute of Architects (2007) describe TVD as a unique way of
creating value within budgeted constraints by designing to a financial target, using several
iterations, rather than estimating a pre-decided detailed design. Designing to targets allows
changes to occur, that normally would be regarded as an extra cost. Because of combining
IPD and TVD commercial incentives that normally would be present in projects achieve
It is no longer
about completing unilateral contributions at the least cost. Thus, it moves to re-aligning the
thinking of participants from short term objectives to the bigger picture - optimization and
improvement of the whole product.

Method
In this paper, we study the impact of IPD in different aspects of collaboration in relation to
Since what we are dealing
with here is a single project, the most obvious research approach to choose is the case study
method. In this instance we first look to Sayer (1992) concerning critical realism
(theoretically informed) case studies, then supplementing this with Yin (2003) using the
case study method.
In line with critical realism thinking, we seek to identify mechanisms that have the
potential to produce certain results, which we entitle propositions (Yin, 2003). Incentives
are something that motivate people into action, and that might affect behavior and choices
by making one alternative preferable than another. We consider incentives as a structure
that together with mechanisms can lead to certain outcomes, given certain conditions
(Sayer, 1992). Conditions can be identified though contextual analysis. It is a part of our
method to compare our findings with incentives in traditional project delivery models. We
focus on commercial incentives where rewards can come in the form of financial gains, but

615
also on the internal and individual incentives which might be in the form of satisfaction or
pleasure in the action or activity one has performed (Reinertsen, 1997).
Qualitative data collection was done through conducting fourteen interviews, of which five
are with the client, five with the main contractor (design management and production) of
which one is an electro subcontractor and four are with the project consultants (design
management). In addition, quantitative data was collected from 18 survey participants. 10 of
those participants were from the client, 7 were from the main contractor and 1 was a
subcontractor.

Theoretical perspectives
When analysing relationships between companies and organizations in construction
projects, it is relevant to first think of the principal agent theory (Eisenhardt, 1989), that
analyses the contractual challenges confronting business partners under conditions of
information asymmetry, which is a typical situation in the beginning of a buyer -supplier
relationship. Information asymmetry has the potential to lead to opportunism, defined as
self-interest seeking with guile (Williamson, 1979). Schauwecker (2012) in Steinle, Schiele,
and Ernst (2014), lists the following types of opportunistic behaviors by suppliers:
unpunctual delivery, quality deficits, poor service, over charged prices for spares and
additions, limited commitment to problem solving, and the manipulation of markets through
the bribing of purchasers. Moreover, opportunism can include cheating, breach of contract,
stealing, distortion of data, dishonesty, false threats and promises, misrepresentation, and
withholding information ((Anderson, 1988; John, 1984; Wathne & Heide, 2000;
Williamson, 1979). However, when we examine the AEC-industry in a Norwegian context,
we recognize again several aspects, such as late delivery, overcharged prices for addenda
and quality deficits. According to Lai, Liu, Yang, Lin, and Tsai (2005) opportunism
represents purely selfish behavior, whereby one ignores the consequences for the other
actors.
Related to bounded rationality, a contract may only include the conditions that the
principal is able to predict in advance, which in turn gives rise to an incomplete contract,
and the agent gets the possibility to act opportunistically after the contract is signed
(Rindfleisch & Heide, 1997). The risk of opportunism is, to a large extent, the driving force
behind contractual control mechanisms in business relationships (Williamson, 1985).
A challenge for the buyer is to realise an important potential capacity of transactions,
that supplier commitment and trust may evolve over time. An important distinction can be
made between before (ex ante) and after (ex post) contractual conclusion, and it is here that
Steinle et al. (2014) expands on agency theory by showing that not only does ex post forms
of opportunism but also ex ante forms can lead to moral hazard which can be understood as
opportunistic behavior after contracting.
Opportunism is also a central aspect in transaction cost theory (Williamson, 1979),
which in relation to principal agent theory is based on the fact that humans have bounded
rationality and are seeking self-interest. This means that if individuals are presented with the
opportunity to maximize their utility, they will behave opportunistically, which leads to a
rise in transaction costs. A central difference between these two theories is that agency
theory has an ex ante contractual focus (i.e. alignment of interests, while transaction cost
theory addresses ex post governance structure (Williamson, 1988). Transaction cost theory
focuses more on minimising ex-post transaction costs, while principal agent theory aims at
minimizing these same costs, but with an ex ante alignment of incentives (Bergen, Dutta, &
Walker Jr, 1992).
We understand opportunism explained earlier in principal agent theory and transaction
cost theory as opportunism based on commercial incentives. When Do, Ballard, and

616
Tommelein (2015) discuss the challenges in misalignment of commercial incentives on IPD
and TVD projects, they are discussing the same phenomenon, even though they do not use
our theoretical basis. They base their article on experiences from six IPD projects and a
practical brainstorming of ideas of potential misalignments, which in our understanding is
found in opportunistic behavior based on various commercial interests. Opportunistic
behavior, however is a broader term that is not only related to commercial incentives which
we will elaborate below.
Luo (2006) and Masten (1988) distinguish between strong and weak opportunism,
where strong opportunism violates unwritten but understood relational norms. Relational
vior that at least partially is shared by
(Steinle et al., 2014, p. 127).
Muris (1981) operates with a different distinction, subtle and blatant opportunism.
While subtle is difficult to detect and could be masked as legitimate conduct, blatant is
defined as an obvious attempt to act opportunistically. Uncertainty occurs in a lot in AEC-
projects and is furthermore a driver for opportunistic behavior (Williamson, 1979).
In theory and practice, however, the mechanisms of governance and incentives to
regulate inter-organizational behavior do not find universal support. Several scholars have
criticised the theoretical grounds for opportunistic behavior in business relationships. In his
vast examination of contracts, Macneil (1977) distinguishes between transactional and
relational contracts, where the latter puts more emphasis on trust rather than monitoring
mechanisms. IPD is an example of relational contracting.

The Case
Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)
model in a Norwegian context 2018;
. TP is in the seventh stage of a renewal process of the Hospital in
Vestfold- and is planned to finish in 2021. The remaining
stages consists of two new buildings; psychiatry (which is studied) and somatic. Handover

estimated price of ca. 2.7 billion NOK. The project organization consists of three parties;
The Hospital in Vestfold (SiV) representatives, entrepreneur organization (Skanska UK &
Norway) and an alliance of consultants (CURA). The owner procured the consultants and
the contractor alliances in parallel. The owner considered DB as a starting point with the
strategy of later transforming DB to IPD. That is why the owner procured consultants
individually to avoid traditional DB relationships between the contractors and the
consultants. During the competitive procurement process, there were ten bids from
consultant groups and three from contractor alliances. The owner had developed a sketch
project as part of the basis for the competition. When evaluating the different bids, the
owner weighted 20 percent on price, 40 percent on task understanding and how they
intended to conduct an IPD and the last 40 percent was on competence.
The consulting alliance selected is an amalgamation of six companies, under the group
name CURA. The contractor alliance is made up of the main contractor and three technical
subcontractors. Contractors and consultants signed a Memorandum of Understanding, as a
document attachment to the DB contract, which showed a joint intention to use IPD as the
project delivery model. The consultant group was contracted based on an hourly rate, while
the contractor had a price per square meter and a mark-up.
With guidance from an American attorney (and one attorney representing each party),
they set up an IPD contract customized to conform to Norwegian laws on public
procurement, which was adapted according to the EU regulations on the same topic. The

617
industrialisation and prefabrication, to be ten percent cheaper and improve customer quality
more than similar projects. To achieve their goals, they chose to establish common tools and
references for everyone involved through the IPD contract, colocation and digital
interaction.

The IPD

simplified version is illustrated in Figure 1. This figure shows four different scenarios (each
represented by a column), where the top

column. The first scenario and point of departure illustrates the profit when the project
reaches the target cost. Scenario two shows what happens if they go over the target cost;
they eat into their profit. If they can lower their target cost (e.g. coming up with better

illustrated in scenario three. The worst case is represented in the fourth column. That is the

however, the owner covers the additional cost. Risks and opportunities (reward) lie in the
target cost segment.

are similarities that confirm that this project is an IPD project. Firstly, when looking at the

the latest version of the AiA guide (2014). The project applies interlocking contracts, joint
decision making, shared risk and reward and continuous involvement from the owner.
However, the project does not have limited liability among project participants instead it
limits the use of compensation clauses in the contract for delays and changes (Jon Gresseth,
2016). Secondly the use of mirrored interlocking contracts and the formation of the players
is consistent with AiA guide (2007) whereby projects should have IPD key and IPD
supporting players. However, the conversion from a Design Build (DB) to a IPD is
unstipulated in the literature except for Ashcraft (2013) in the owners guide whereby he
explains the challenges participants have felt going over from a DB to a IPD.

618
Theoretical analysis and propositions
perspectives discussed earlier the following research question was formulated: Is IPD a
game changer that leads to alignment of incentives and interests? We answer the
research question by testing whether we can verify it using three propositions (Yin, 2003),
cf. Table 1. The mechanisms identified in the right-hand column are built on the thinking,
specifically around economic incentives, cf. the theoretical perspectives. Mechanisms have
the potential to produce what we denote as propositions. Different conditions, however, may
cause the result not to be confirmed. Effort has been made to define such conditions in the
contextual analysis.
Shared risk and reward means that even though people are self-seeking in their behavior, the
economic incentives work in such a way that no one wins if good ideas are held back to
increase sales later, as all are sharing a profit. On the contrary tactically holding back ideas
could lead to lost opportunities. The incentives work in such a way that it becomes
rationally best to think of what is best for the project, which is in stark contrast to sub-
optimization and risk aversion. In terms of Principle Agent (PA), the IPD arrangement
aligns the incentives and the interests of the IPD-involved parties where important sources
of opportunistic behavior and moral hazard is supposed to be removed. The same theoretical
analysis can be applied to proposition 2, where a deepened form of collaboration occurs to
include swapping of work tasks.

Table 14. Propositions and mechanisms for the study

No Proposition Mechanism/commercial incentives
1 IPD provides less scope for sub- Share risk and opportunities. Thus no
optimization and opportunistic behavior one has the commercial incentive to
between companies in the value chain hold back good suggestions or
engage in risk aversion
2 IPD provides better conditions for unified Same mechanism as in the first
solutions (swapping) than traditional proposition, but where the
contracts mechanism takes the collaboration a
step further
3 IPD safeguards quality and customer The owner is involved in the
value in a better way than alternative management of the project at the
implementation models while maintaining same level as the IPD-contractors
constructability and the consultants

provides the opportunity to follow up on short and long-term interests (i.e. a building that is
fit for its purpose in terms of design, operation, maintenance and energy consumption). The
counterproductive incentives have disappeared from a DB whereby the owner has the
incentive to lean back and avoid taking unwanted risks. In addition, the contractor has the
incentives to not involve the owner in decisions related to quality and customer value. Yet
in a DBB, the owner has the incentive to design and engineer a good product, but instances
arise where the contractor can be opportunistic because he is not responsible for the
integrated design and production.

619
Empirical analysis
Proposition 1

behavior by establishing a common business model for the actors through the alignment of
commercial incentives. As in projects organized as DB and IPD the challenges are similar
-making, for example delaying of decisions caused by the
exposure to pressure from strong user groups. As a result of the delays, challenges have
occurred in the choice of technical solutions which is not characterized as "blatant", but
rather a "subtle" form of opportunism. The argument for a more expensive and better
facility can perhaps be interpreted as being driven by commercial incentives. We can
assume that they want to do what they think is best for their own work situation and for the
owner, and so they have chosen to fight hard for these purposes.
This form of opportunism can also be seen in the different mindsets that exists between
the designers and contractors, i.e. individual incentives and subtle opportunism in relation to
a level of quality and cost, referring to the description of individual incentives in the method
chapter. This problem is partially people dependant and forms a culture where decision-
making is a rematch in discussions. In that context it can be argued that designers search for
the best possible solution while contractors focus on achieving least possible costs. What we
experience can also be based on old behaviors of thinking and acting found in traditional

The data confirms that the main contractor is reverting in his thinking back to a DB when it
comes to the operations on site. The data also shows that the main contractor finds it
frustrating not being able to control the designers as they would in a DB model.
In addition, the entrepreneurs were secretive about the target cost calculations,
especially towards the designers in the project, practising what they are used to doing in DB
contracts. It can be assumed that the constructors purposely kept the designers away from
the target cost calculation due to a fear that the designers would drive up the costs. This
would border on commercial opportunism by creating asymmetric information, which could
lesson learned
designers should participate to get ownership of the target cost calculation. However,
transparency in the calculations seems to have been significantly improved after the IPD

process. There is otherwise nothing structurally in the IPD model that stops them from
rationally collaborating in applying joint efforts in the calculation of the target cost.
A structural feature of the IPD is that the owner gets more leeway to demand work
which might be difficult to identify from the participants point of view as inclusive work or
additional work. A representative from the consultant alliance explains the problem as: "The
customer wants something evaluated and then you spend two days, then you show him, and
he says; its good but it's too expensive, I do not want it! Now you have lost two days
considering alternative solutions, scenarios and materials. You can claim compensation but

However, this was not the case from the perspective of a respondent for the owner, who
claims that resources are always set aside for calculation of alternative solutions in any form
of project delivery model.
Some participants point out in the interviews that the psychiatry building has been a
learning arena, and now they know each other, it is the belief that the somatic building will
go much better. A reoccurring issue when it comes to making difficult decisions is the scope
and quality that is the basis for target costing, which is at the very least conceptually a

620
source of opportunistic behavior. One can imagine that there are alternative contracting
methods that could be beneficial in avoiding it in projects.

Proposition 2
Swapping is a deepening of the collaboration between the actors, which is made possible by
the commercial incentives of the IPD model, and the data confirms it took place. However,
to make this work it is important that the actors understand the rationale behind IPD.
Swapping is an example that the participating organizations have broken down important
dividing lines between them and taken the variety of business models and replaced it by one
common model addressing optimization of the project.
Proposition 3
IPD has several aspects that are beneficial in safeguarding customer value through the fact
that the owner is an equal partner throughout the implementation phase of the project. It
ing
organization is not very much involved in making design decisions. However, this must be
investigated further, as some part of the design work is very important for customer value
The project has a shortage of time, even though there are no penalties for late delivery, but
the contractors and designers choose to go for an aggressive time schedule. An aggressive
time schedule may be a risk in relation to sufficient involvement in the choice of solutions.
Lack of penalties also has the potential to be beneficial in obtaining customer value, as
carelessness and shortcuts in the end phases of construction projects can be avoided.

calculating out the cost in order to reduce the extent of change requests, which maybe
stressful for collaboration when safeguarding customer value.
The data also shows that there was unanimous consensus about the challenging decision-
making process which was characterized by many rounds of discussions involving slow and
We
have unclear lines as to who is making decisions, therefore we can we spend a lot of time
discussing solutions, then someone else will say, no
technical consultants describe joint decision making as:
In addition, respondents also gave examples of waste
in the process as: a decision is made orally; however, it is difficult to follow up because of
an unclear organizational structure . Another example was:

okay. But here there will be a new round afterwards. It's the biggest challenge here I've
either
based on function or a half-described product g, you do

different views,

the strongest party wins, and everyone has their good arguments
perspective a flat organization means less hierarchy, and then we can expect less formal
power and influence in that structure, however individuals with a strong will can exert
influence on that basis.

Conclusions
In the paper we have asked the question whether IPD is a game changer which leads to an
alignment of incentives and interests? The short answer is, yes. However, it is important to
distinguish between different types of incentives and interests since we find that what we
perceive as commercial incentives has changed radically, and perhaps the best example of

621
the practice is to get swapping of solutions into the project. Commercial incentives are
something we primarily have at a company level and the incenti
project does work. We are generally talking about a common business model for the

and the owner on what quality should be the basis for selecting solutions that supports the
budgeted target cost, where solutions are not always carefully specified. However, in

framework for deeper collaboration in complex construction projects.

The project owner benefits from the IPD model by having a hand also on the steering
wheel to ensure his short-term and long-term value-creating interests. In addition, the
constructors have a good opportunity in the project to obtain an acceptable and predictable
return. The model is also a game changer when it comes to the distribution of power in the
implementation phase compared with the registered frustration in DB projects, now the
main contractor must share power with the owner, the designers and the Mechanical,
Electrical and Piping (MEP) subcontractors. In addition, IPD gives better possibilities for
communication in that its incentives encourage dialog.
We see in the concept (structure) and in the underlying data that there may be a danger
that the project owner pushes the designers and constructors too much regarding the
economy and with constant demands for changes that can deteriorate the social environment
and erode profits. If the IPD concept should work optimally, the owner must see his
responsibility here. The data indicates tendencies of opportunistic behavior however, this is
primarily not based on commercial incentives, but in what we in theory refer to as
individual incentives, and which come in as a contextual factor in the analysis. In this area,

based on DB or DBB, as late decisions by the owner in construction are a common

challenge in many projects.
The data also shows that individual incentives and opportunistic behavior play a role in
forming distrust between disciplines, especially between the main contractor and the
designers. The architectural profession is particularly susceptible to mistrust which is often
seen in the behavior by the constructors. This mistrust is referred to as a different mindset in
the tensions between costs and well-designed technical and architectural solutions.
Based on our data, IPD provides at least equally strong incentives to develop good
buildable solutions as found in DB models. There is strong focus in the project to stay
within, or preferably undergo, the target cost, to secure profits. Here the discussion is
focused on the price of components, materials and design of the simplest possible solutions.
However, the owner may choose a higher quality than that set out in the cost estimate if he
places more money on the table. Here there is space for opportunistic behavior from the
constructors if quality has not been defined in the cost estimate, cf. the discussion of an
alternative procurement model to be combined with IPD.
Research also shows that the decision-making process is challenging in the project, and
this is linked to the flat structure as stated by the informants who argue that many more than
usual must participate in the decision-making process. This has led to many rounds of
discussions, which has particularly stressed the designers who get many more iterations than
they are used to. In addition, the project planned to build according to the BIM model, but
that was not possible, so traditional 2D drawings had to be prepared. Moreover, too many
decisions have been sent up to the top management team, while the principle is that
decisions should be taken at the lowest level possible. The explanation given was that
mandates have been unclear.
Another contextual factor was that it was not just challenging to enter an unknown IPD-
world, but the project was also very ambitious not just in having a drawing free production

622
regarding BIM but also by introducing many new Lean Construction inspired planning and
management methods. For example, the reversed scheduling approach in the Last Planner
System collapsed for the psychiatry building.
Furthermore, there was unanimously agreement from everyone that the productivity
would increase in the somatic building. The logic is that the psychiatry building was a
learning arena, now that the players are familiar with each other and actions have been
taken to make the decision-making process more efficient.
In relation to the theory used, the approach with critical realism has been fruitful with its
distinction between structure, mechanisms and context. Structure here is especially the
commercial incentives of the IPD. Furthermore, the nuances between different types of
incentives is important in explaining and understanding the data collected. Commercial
incentives are very important, however, there are also individual incentives and different
mindsets that strongly affect the context.

Further research
We will later address IPD as a framework for innovation and learning. What are the
common goals in the project, and more generally in projects, is a question we also want to
conceptually examine further. Furthermore, more interviews are important to focus on
acquiring other experiences from subcontractors, user groups and also from actors who are
outside the risk pool. In addition, more data needs to be collected from the survey to ensure
improved validity. The somatic build, being built from 2019-2021 will provide an updated
analysis of the attitudes in the project that will be used in a comparison of the decision-
making process between the two builds: Psychiatric and Somatic.

Acknowledgement
project, and to him and all the others at the project who openly have shared their
experiences and perspectives. Also, thank you to Nye Veier AS who have contributed to
financing our costs.

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625
[Paper ID 77]

Matthew Kwaw Somiah1, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa2

and Wellington Didibhuku Thwala3

Abstract
on
of each in the Ghanaian construction industry. The qualitative study employed the Delphi
technique and structured questionnaire aided the data collection. Data were analysed using
standard deviation, mean, interquartile deviation, percentile and median. The study had
its theoretical basis in the resource-based and core competence theory; it revealed that
11
competitiveness. Out of which (5) had a very high impact (VHI: 9.00-10.00), whiles
(6) recorded high impact (HI: 7.00- usion, elements

soundness, and the quality of the knowledge management mechanism, with a varied degree
of impact. The study recommends indigenous construction to have quality plant base,
financial soundness, and a well-functioning knowledge management mechanism
ruction firms
of

Keywords: competitiveness, construction industry, Ghana, indigenous firms

1
Ph.D. student, Civil Engineering, University of Johannesburg, APK Auckland-Kingsway,
South Africa, +233277054286, brokwaw@yahoo.com
1
Lecturer, Building Technology Department, Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi, Ghana,
+233277054286, matthew.somiah@tpoly.edu2 Professor, Sustainable Human Settlement
and Construction Research Centre, University of Johannesburg, APK Auckland-Kingsway,
South Africa, +27787958231, (083) 383-5537, caigbavboa@uj.ac.za
2
Professor, Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, University
of Johannesburg, APK Auckland-Kingsway, South Africa, +27787958231, (083) 383-5537,
caigbavboa@uj.ac.za
3
Professor, Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, University
of Johannesburg, APK Auckland-Kingsway, South Africa, +27787958231, (083) 383-5537,
caigbavboa@uj.ac.za

626
Introduction
According
benchmarked firms in terms of market share, profitability, or sales in a given industry. Thus
in this study
turnover benchmarked against best performing firms in the Ghanaian construction industry
(see Porter, 1980; Porter, 1985; Porter,2000; Lall,2001; Flanagan et al.,2005; Wang,
2014).Whereas -specific resources and competencies that
aid firms to outperform their competitors(Bain, 1959; Oral, 1986 Buckley et al., 1998; Man

have been advanced in some national contexts. However, little is known of studies that
tigate their relative impact on

mine the relative impact of each in the

Ghanaian construction industry.
The specific objectives that guided the study were:

n construction industry; and

industry.

Indigenous construction firms are registered contractors who undertake civil

engineering works in Ghana; such firms are 100% owned by indigenes or indigenes are
majority shareholders in the firm in accordance with section 98 of the Public Procurement
Act 663 of the Republic of Ghana (Parliament of Ghana 2003).The remaining sections of
this study is organized under the following main headings, literature review, methodology,
results and discussions, and conclusions.

Literature Review
This section reviewed relevant
also presented the theory that underpinned the study. It provided the framework that guided
the study and a clear avenue to contribute already existing body knowledge.

Theoretical background
In
the resource-based and core competence theory was employed. The Resource-Based and
Core Competence Theory has its root in the seminally work of Selznick (1957), Penrose
(1959), Barney (1991) and many other scholars. The Resource-Based and Core Competence
Theory is based on two conceptions: the resource concept and the competence concept.
Resource is understood as resource possession, whiles competence or capability refers to the
utilization of the resource (Brumagim 1994). Thus, resources are seen as the inputs into the
production process whiles, capabilities are the processes by which the resources are utilized
(Lu 2006).

627
 The Resource-Based and Core Competence Theory is hereinafter called the
Resource-Based View (RBV). The RBV theorizes that resources are the only attributes that
a firm as is a

utilize its resources to its advantage in a competitive market (Penrose, 1959; Ambrosini,
2003). The resources could be both tangible and intangible resources (Parnell 2013).It
comprises of, according to Barney (2002) the skills, assets, organizational processes,
competencies, knowledge and information that are controlled by the firm; and ability on the
firm to apprehend and implement strategies. Barney (2002) further categorized the
resources under four main headings namely:

1) Financial Resource: all sources of funds and funding for the entity;
2) Physical Resource: location, technology, equipment;
3) Human Resource: training, insight of individual managers, efficiency, relationships.

4) Organizational Resource: formal and informal planning, administrative structure, culture,

reputation, coordination (Martins et Kato 2010).
nal factors in existing literature

It is evident from existing literature that over the past years, some variables have been

Kokemuller (2017) identified specific variables for measuring internal factors to

include organizational culture, operational efficiency, interdepartmental collaborations,
leadership style, as well as management competencies. Hitherto, Wanjiku (2012) informed
that the internal factor
marketing, product differentiation, cost, research collaborations and unique technology
(Wanjiku 2012) actors include
financial soundness, reputation, health and safety, management capability, and technical
ability. Furthermore, Shen et al. (2006) had argued that the specific variables that constitute
city and availability, technology
capacity, availability and effectiveness of risk management systems, relationship with
subcontractors and suppliers, bank credibility, availability of quality management systems,
and site management abilities. Whereas Lu (2006) identified enterprise system, internal
operations, and internal communication as specific variables of internal factors of Chinese
contractors in China.
Hence, it is obvious from the previous studies that, no single study was exhaustive
of all the internal factors. More so, a critical look at the various internal factors previous
studies identified gives an indication that there is much resemblances and commonalities in
s present study

Ghanaian construction industry; thus making this study more comprehensive in measuring

not been studied together in a single study. Hence, making this study a novelty. As a result,
tors includes: the competence level of the
management team, the leadership style within the firm, the existence of a well-functioning

financial soundness, the quality of interdepartmental relationships, the operational

efficiency level within the firm, the quality of the knowledge management mechanism, the

628
organizational culture in running the firm, and the existence of productive relationship with
subcontractors and suppliers.

Methodology
This qualitative study adopted a two stage approach to research. The first stage was a

d stage was the use of the Delphi

industry. In all 17 experts (drawn from academia and industry) completed three rounds of
the Delphi process. This size of the experts was consistent with that of similar studies in
engineering and management which had employed the Delphi method (see Ameyaw et
al.,2016). According to McKenna (1994) the expert panel is a panel of informed individuals.
The Delphi method was employed in accordance with the principle that, forecasts from a
structured group of persons are more accurate than forecasts from unstructured groups (
Rowe & Wright, 2001;Ameyaw, et al., 2016). Additionally, it is suitable for studies that

views, and to predict the likelihood of a future event (Lang 1995).According to Miller
(1993) and Hanson et al.(2000),the Delphi method is a qualitative methodology and it seeks

al., 2000).It uses structured questionnaires in collecting data from

experts(Aigbavboa,2014;Ameyaw et al., 2016).In relation to this study, the common criteria
for selecting the experts was that ,an expert should have had both theoretical and practical
competitiveness. Again, the panel of experts
were carefully selected to represent a broad spectrum of opinion on the issue being
examined (see Loo,2002; Aigbavboa,2014; Tilakasiri, 2015). Subsequently, after each
round of the Delphi survey, a statistical e
analyzed using the interquartile deviation, median, standard deviation, and the mean. The
adopted scale for measuring consensus was:
4. Strong consensus - median 9-10, mean 8- and
-10);
5. Good consensus - median 7-8.99, mean 6- -
7.99); and
6. Weak consensus -
The scale was based on a 10-point impact scale where 1 and 2 represent no impact;3 and 4
represent low impact;5 and 6 represent medium impact;7 and 8 represent high impact; 9 and
10 represent very high impact (see Aigbavboa,2014). Ethically, the identity of the experts
was kept confidential in this study.
Further, informed by the aim, the research paradigm, and the major philosophical
considerations of this study, this research adopted qualitative methodology, and a
subjectivity epistemology stance (see Jean, 1992). Phenomenal about subjectivity
epistemology is that, meanings to reality are constructed (constructivism) and interpreted
(interpretivism) by the researcher, hence aligned to the concept of interpretivism and
constructivism (Creswell 1994). However, since reliability and generalization of the
findings are undermined since data generated in qualitative studies are heavily impacted by
the values and views of the researcher (Bryman, 2001; Sarantakos, 2005).Nonetheless, the
weakness of non-generalization and non-reliability of qualitative research is overcome when
a qualitative research is based on sound theoretical reasoning (Mitchell 1983).Therefore,
629
this study has its theoretical bases in the resource-based and core competence theory
(Selznick,1957;Penrose,1959; Barney,1991).

Results and Discussions

Sub-elements M IQD
The competence level of the management team 9 8.53 0.92 1.00
The leadership style within the firm 8 8.00 0.53 0.00
The existence of a well-functioning marketing team 8 8.07 0.26 0.00

The 9 8.40 0.83 1.00

9 8.53 0.92 1.00

9 8.53 0.92 1.00

The quality of interdepartmental relationships 9 8.53 0.92 1.00

The operational efficiency level within the firm 8 8.07 0.59 0.00
The quality of the knowledge management mechanism 8 8.07 0.7 0.50
The organizational culture in running the firm 8 8.00 0.65 0.00

The existence of productive relationship with 8 8.00 0.53 0.00

subcontractors and suppliers

M = Median; = Mean; x = standard deviation; IQD = Interquartile deviation

Objective one
competitiveness in the Ghanaian construction industry;
The results as shown in Table 1.
the competence
level of the management team, the leadership style within the firm, the existence of a well-
functioning market

efficiency level within the firm, the quality of the knowledge management mechanism, the
organizational culture in running the firm, and the existence of productive relationship with
subcontractors and suppliers. Largely, the result is consistent with that of earlier studies.

Objective two: to determine the relative impact of each of the elem

industry.
In relation to objective two of the study, the results as shown in Table 1. revealed that out of
actors, (5) had a very high impact (VHI: 9.00-10.00),

630
whiles the (6) recorded high impact (HI: 7.00-

competitiveness included the competence level of the management team with a median
value of (9) and a mean score of (8.53). This supports the findings of the study by Hatush &
Skitmore (1997) and Kokemuller (2017) that identified competence of management team, in
addition to other factors, to have constituted internal factors in their respective
industries. More so, the uniqueness of the technology with a median value of (9) and
a mean score of (8.40) had a very high impact on competitiveness. This supports the
findings of Wanjiku (2012) that, among other internal factors, is the uniqueness of a
technology. Similarly, plant capacity with a median and mean scores of (9) and
(8.53) respectively recorded a very high impact on competitiveness; hence affirming
the findings of Shen
and the quality of
interdepartmental relationships both recorded median and mean values of (9) and (8.53)

construction. This supports the findings of Kokemuller (2017) and Hatush & Skitmore
e inclusive of the
quality of interdepartmental relationships and financial soundness respectively. In addition
to these elements, elements such as the operational efficiency level within the firm, the
quality of the knowledge management mechanism, the organizational culture in running the
firm, the existence of productive relationship with subcontractors and suppliers, the
leadership style within the firm, and the existence of a well-functioning marketing team,
recorded a median score of (8) each, which is an indication that they had high impact on

organizational culture, operational efficiency level, and leadership style (Kokemuller,2017);

relationship with subcontractors and suppliers (Shen, et al.,2006).More so, none of the

competitiveness; whiles the IQD scores also revealed a strong consensus in the views
expressed by the expert panelists as they obtained scores ranging from 0.00 to 1.00.

experts

Conclusions

competitiveness in the Ghanaian construction industry; namely: the competence level of the
management team, the leadership style within the firm, the existence of a well-functioning

financial soundness, the quality of interdepartmental relationships, the operational

efficiency level within the firm, the quality of the knowledge management mechanism, the
organizational culture in running the firm, and the existence of productive relationship with
subcontractors and suppliers. However, the level of impact of each of the elements varied;

9.00-10.00), whiles (6) recorded high impact (HI: 7.00-

study recommends that though all the elements had impact on firms
attention should be given the competence level of the management team, the uniqueness of
the technology, plant capacity, , and the quality of

631
interdepartmental relationships since these elemen
competitiveness in the Ghanaian construction industry.
Finally, the findings of this study will inform indigenous construction firms of the
the Ghanaian

competitiveness studies in the Ghanaian. It will also inform policy makers when
formulating policies that seek to positively imp
competitiveness in the Ghanaian construction industry.

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Publicly Funded Housing Schemes in South Africa.Doctorate Thesis, University of
Johanessburg.
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Ameyaw, E. E., Hu, Y., Shan, M., Chan, A. P.C. and Le, Y. 2016. Application of Delphi
method in construction engineering and management research: a quantitative
perspective. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 1-10.
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Barney, B. J. 1991. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of
Management, 17 (1), 99 120.
Brumagim, A. L. 1994. A hierarchy o f corporate resources. Advances in Strategic
Management, 10, 81-112.
Bryman, A. 2001. Social Research Methods. Oxford,UK: Oxford University Press.
Buckley, P J, Pass, C.L.and Prescott, K. 1998. Measures of international competitiveness: a
critical survey. Journal of marketing management, 4 (2), 175-200.
Creswell, J .W. 1994. Research Design:Qualitative,Quantitative and Mixed Methods
Approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Flanagan, R, Jewell, C. Ericsson, S. and Henrics, P. 2005. Measuring construction
competitiveness in selected countries , Final Report, the University of Reading,
Reading: School of Construction Management and Engineering,the university of
reading.
Hanson, W.E, Creswell, J .W.,Clark, V.L .P., Petska, K.S and Creswell, J.D. 2005. Mixed
Methods Research Designs in Counseling Psychology. Journal of Counseling
Psychology, 52 (2), 224 235.
Hatush, Z, and Skitmore, M. 1997. Assessment and evaluation o f contractor data against
client goals using PERT approach. Construction M anagement and Economics, 15,
327 340.
Jean, K. 1992. Livelihood strategies among farm youth in Rwanda. Michigan: Michigan
State University.
Kokemuller, N. 2017. What are Internal & External Environmental Factors that Affect
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factors-affect-business-69474.html[Accessed 14 June 2017].

632
Lall, S. 2001. Competitiveness, technology and skills. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar
Publishing.
Lang, T. 1995. An overview of four futures methodologies(Delphi,environmental
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Loo, R. 2002. The Delphi method:A powerful tool for strategic management,policing. An
international journal of police strategies and management, 25 (4),762-769.
Lu, W
Thesis(PhD),the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Man, T. W, Lau, T. and Chan, K.F. 2002. The competitiveness of small and medium
enterprises: A conceptualization with focus on entrepreneurial competencies.
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Martins, T.S, and Kato, H .T. 2010. An Analytical Framework for Miles and Snow
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McKenna, H. 1994. The Delphi technique:A worthwhile research approach for nursing.
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633
[Paper ID 68]

Slawomir Karas1

Abstract
Here, the green bridge is understood as an analogue to the green house. This bridge
can be one of the challenges of future sustainable engineering. In Poland, the ecological
corridor map overlaps with forests, as well as with the road network. Another open issue
is the functioning of local roads. Such roads often witness fatal accidents. The police have
recorded near a 100% increase in animal mortality over the last decade. In most cases,
bridges automatically serve as passages for animals, even if they have not been considered
and designed for such a role. The idea of green bridge takes into consideration
the following facts: silence is positive for animals, natural guides are better than fences
and walls, gentle lighting moderates car lights at night. Therefore, the semi-transparent
canopy-type noise screens should be used, as well as olfactory tracks (marking with animal
waste). The solution proposed here is beneficial for both the environment and road users.
A detailed characteristic of the green bridge elements are discussed further in the text,
moreover, some drawings are included to further enhance legibility of the concept.
For the proper functioning of the bridge, it is crucial to take into consideration that animals
are more efficiently guided by their smell than by channelling fences. However,
the commonly used fences would also be provided. Olfactory traces can come in two kinds:
animal faecal matter and mating scents. In a natural habitat, decreasing the immediate
proximity between animals and humans should also be considered. A multi-criteria analysis
was conducted to prove benefits both in terms of bridge maintenance effort and the impact
on the environment. The criteria were selected on the basis of expert opinions.
The conclusion stresses that this technical proposal can be immediately implemented.

Keywords: green bridge, sustainable development, environment

1
Lublin University of Technology, Nadbystrzycka 40, Lublin, Poland, s.karas@pollub.pl

634
Introduction
Protecting the environment poses a problem to different people, including road and
bridge engineers. Even especially for them, perhaps. Motorways and highways are carefully
fenced so as to isolate them from both people and animals contributing to eliminate
mortality in the cases of animal intrusion on roads. Another open issue is the functioning of
local roads, Fig. 1, which are not distinctly separated from their surroundings. Such roads
witness fatal accidents i.e. running over medium-sized animals, as well as small wild and
domestic animals.

a) b)
Figure 1. Insufficient distance between trees and the road edges a) national road S19 near

The majority of Polish roads are not adjusted to safety transport which, in fact, is related
to their geometry. Major, as well as well as secondary roads in wooded areas usually came
in the shape shown in Fig. 1.
The two examples show the potential of a dramatic situation for the driver, as well
as for the wild animal in the case of its intrusion on the road. Currently, the only
environmentally positive solution is the speed limit of 30 km/h. However, the question
arises whether it is feasible to drive at such a speed every day. It is also worth noticing that,
in the Polish tradition, forests are open areas for walking, running, mushroom picking, etc.
In Fig. 2, two types of bridges are shown. In both cases the bridges automatically serve
as bottom transitions for animals, even though they were neither considered nor designed
for such a role, but simply due to their peripheral location.

a) b)

Figure 2. Bridges in natural surroundings a) wooded area around a provincial road b)

meadow crossed by a national road
These types of bridges are especially taken into consideration in the case of the
green bridge. With regard to highway and expressway bridges, anti-glare barriers are
commonly used, Fig. 3. An anti-glare barrier reduces the vehicle noise only partially.

a) b)

635
 Fig. 3. Anti-glare screens on a bridge - transitions for animals located on national roads a)
S19 near Kurow b) S17 near Lublin
The proposed green bridge type refers to covered/roofed wooden bridges, Fig. 4. In
Europe, the most known bridge of th

a) b)

Figure 4. Examples of roofed bridges a) Crawfordsville Bridge, Oregon (1932) b) Albania,

near Skopje

Green bridge - Technical Proposal

The green bridge proposal envisages supplementing an ordinary bridge with a
canopy cover on the bridge and its approaches, as well as with additional equipment
monitoring the migration of animals (cameras powered by solar panels). Simultaneously,
traffic monitoring and bridge condition monitoring is conducted in the same way, Fig. 5.

Figure 5. The green bridge technical proposal a) plain view b) cross-section. Components:
1- existing bridge, 2 - scarps of road embankments, 3 - canopy cover over the bridge and its
approaches, 4 - in the case of an existing bridge, an additional carrying frame for the
canopy, 5 - photovoltaic panels, 6 - LED lighting, 7 - environmental and road traffic
monitoring cameras, 8-9 - boxes for accumulators and the wireless data transmitting
apparatus, 10 approx. 20 metres wide meadow strip separating the forest from the road,
11- guiding fences, 12 - forest approaching the bridge opening, 13 olfactory tracks for
animals.

The following assumptions were taken into consideration:

the proposal refers to existing bridges, nevertheless, a new bridge can also be designed
in the proposed way,

636
 a bridge is over the water or is only a passage for animals, especially if it runs over a
migration corridor for animals,
is located in a non-urban area, especially a forest or a meadow,
pedestrian traffic is minimal, however, a pavement of a single pedestrian clearance
gauge, of the width of 0.75 + 0.5 = 1.25 m, and the other one for technical service and
maintenance, of the width 0.75m, should be provided,
in the case of intensive bicycle traffic, the sidewalks should be redesigned to fit a proper
clearance gauge,
typical environmental equipment / devices are installed, as well as apparatus for
continuous environmental wireless monitoring,
before the canopying, the bridge structure should be renovated and adjusted to current or
future traffic needs.

In the case of existing bridges, the water clearance gauge was designed under the
hydraulic and hydrologic conditions which constitute necessary requirements. Additional
rules may be taken into consideration, too. These additional conditions are related to
environmental needs e.g. the openness index or conditions resulting from geomorphology
i.e. deep and narrow canyons, for instance. Nowadays, designed structures generally meet
all of these conditions. In this sense, it is a situation corresponding to the notion of sufficient
conditions.

Methodology
The technical proposal in question is new in the true sense of the term. It has never
been known or discussed in the presented or similar form.
The aim of a multi-criteria analysis is to assess the probability of its acceptance or
rejection by opinion-forming, environmental and road and bridges engineering milieus. The
experts represent various professional disciplines. Their common denominator is their
acceptance of the principles of sustainable development, especially pro-ecological
processes.
The research consists of two stages. In the first stage a group of experts is
familiarised / instructed / habituated with the technical proposal. At this stage, the experts
discuss and evaluate the proposed sub-criteria. Slightly differently from the classical form
of Delphi Method, one does not aim to moderate extreme positions here, but can deem some
sub-criteria irrelevant, negligible instead. Individual experts can apply or change their
evaluation of the sub-criteria in the first and second stages.
First of all, the experts establish the validity /elevance of the sub-criteria applying
reference measures on the grading scale from 2 to 5.
It is simultaneously assumed that an in-depth discussion of the sub-criteria will
result in the convergence of the second stage assessments. In the case of certain boundary
divergences, i.e. the occurrence mainly of the boundary values 5 or 2, e.g. in the evaluations
performed by two out of five experts, two options of a
allowed, as follows:
1) Expanding the group of experts by two more specialists representative of the areas
where the boundary evaluations occur,
2) Applying the modified exceedance measure of 95% (e.g. EN 13791, 2007) which
will naturally favour conservative evaluations

637
 fm n 0.1 k n
f95% .
f lowest 0.4
(1)

Sub-criteria assessments are not directly applied in the second stage, but the experts
are well familiarised with the meaning and sense of the basic criteria: ecological, technical
and financial.
The second stage is concerned with three technical variants of the green bridge. The
grading scale of 2 to 5 is again applied. The variants are graded on the scale from an
ordinary bridge, i.e. an unarranged bottom passage, to the variant corresponding with the
technical proposal in question. In the case of the remaining variants, the simplest criteria
assessment standards were applied

1
k I, II, III. i 1, 2, 3,. mki j 1, 2 ,...,5, or 6 .
Cijk
25 or 30
(2.1)
1
k I, II, III. mk mk m ki
3 i 1, 2, 3.

(2.2)

where m j - k-variant assessment, m kj - detailed assessment

C i - ecological, technical and financial criteria successively,
Cij -
Cijk - assessment value in k-variant,
25 reference value for an assessment of the criteria in tables 1, 3.2, 3.3 and 4; 30 -
reference value in tables 2.1, 2.2; 3- number of the assessed criteria in k-variant.

Expert assessment of a lower animal passage in the case of the green

bridge
The analysed technical solution is something new and, as such, requires an

extrapolation and anticipation of its accuracy and potential defects, the same applying to its
monitoring equipment (Terry and Franklin, 1994), (Biruk et al., 2017).
Three variants of a lower animal passage were considered, based on a bridge of the

Experts in question represented various disciplines: ecology, civil engineering,

computer science, road and bridge administration.

generate subjective assessments with internal weighting assigned to their particular

disciplines. (Johnson, 2008).
The costs of construction work and monitoring equipment installation were assessed
according to relevant prices in Poland in the period of the last three years. The reference
unit for the costs in question are the average costs of the construction of a 20-metre long

638
bridge with an 8-metre wide road and two pedestrian pavements of a useable width of 1.5
m. The total bridge width B = 12 m was assumed.
The second stage concentrated on a multi-criteria assessment of the three variants of
a lower animal passage. The aim of the analysis was a relative assessment of the proposed
technical solution, i.e. the green bridge.

First stage description of the criteria and sub-criteria

C1 ecological criterion and sub-criteria

c11- continuous monitoring of the lower passage for small, medium-sized and large
animals,
c12 adjustment of the lower animal passage (narrowing),
c13 sensitive place for animals predators and their victims,
c14 decreasing (eliminating) animal mortality on roads,
c15 significant reduction (elimination) of vehicle generated noise on roads a
muffling zone,
optical reduction of the impact of vehicle lights.

Nowadays, when constructing or reconstructing a bridge, solutions regarded as pro-

migration routes, their location is not 100% sure, especially at points where they cross with
existing roads. Continuous monitoring of animal migration near bridges is cognitively
justified. Cases have been reported where an animal passage became the feeding ground of
predators; hence, an assessment of the occurrence and range of this phenomenon is required.
Teaching animals to use a passage, apart from guiding fences, may be supported with
organoleptic baits. It has been assumed that animals are encouraged to use a passage in a
silent area, where the vehicle noise has been muffled, as well as with weak lighting reducing
an optical shock caused by vehicle lights. The purpose of such passages is reduction or local
elimination of animal mortality on roads.

Table 1. Assessment of ecological sub-criteria relevance

c11 c12 c13 c14 c15

Ecologist 5 4 3 5 5
Greenpeace.pl 5 5 2 5 5
Local politician 4 3 2 5 5
Road administrator 2 2 2 5 5
Road journalist 4 4 2 5 5
j
C1 j / 25 0.8 0.72 0.44 1 1

The highest relevance was found in sub-

assessments being homogenous. Sub-criteria c11 and c12 were deemed auxiliary, while sub-
criterion c13 marginal, as too specific.

C2 technical road and bridge criterion sub-criteria:

c21- construction of a new structure increased costs,

639
 c22 preparation of an existing structure additional costs,
c23 protection of a bridge against environmental impacts (rain, snow),
c24 - monitoring the technical condition of a structure as well as road traffic,
c25 repairs and maintenance of monitoring and power supply equipment,
c26 reduction of maintenance work improving the durability and longevity of a
bridge,
c27 traffic organisation, collisions, accidents including fire, surface renovation.

In the case of a decision to renovate an existing bridge, additional costs include re-
profiling of the riverbed under the bridge and in the vicinity, reconstruction of pavement
supports to install noise barriers, Fig. 5 d f. Modernisation of the road surface and
pavements is also required, as well as installation of traffic safety systems. Optionally,
independent supporting elements for noise barriers located on the sides of a bridge can be
considered.
Bridges constructed currently to ecological standards are not equipped with
monitoring devices registering animal migration and road traffic. Consequently, additional
costs of the installation of a photovoltaic power supply, batteries, cameras and wireless
devices for the obtained data transmission should be taken into account.
A canopy / roofing noise barrier on a bridge and its approaches creates an almost
silent zone which encourages wild animals to use its lower passage, while weak internal
lighting decreases the contrast caused by vehicle lights.
Putting a roof over a bridge significantly reduces environmental impacts. It regards
snowfall especially, as it also means that de-icing of the road surface and pavements by
means of salt, aggressive to the structure and causing cryohydrates, can be eliminated. It
improves the longevity of the structure as well as road safety.
There are, however, negative effects of bridge roofing, which are generally
characteristic of tunnels. These are: fire resulting from e.g. a collision, aerodynamic
overpressure and underpressure, and the necessity of extra ventilation when laying new
asphalt surfaces for instance.
Due to criteria c11 and c12 being mutually exclusive, the relevance assessment was
carried out in two independent variants.

Tab. 2.1. Assessment of technical sub-criteria relevance new bridge construction variant

c21 c23 c24 c25 c26 c27

Road-bridge designer 4 5 5 2 5 4
Contractor 5 3 3 2 4 3
Local politician 5 5 3 2 5 4
Road administrator 2 2 5 5 5 5
Road journalist 3 2 2 2 4 3
j
C 2 j / 30 0.63 0.70 0.60 0.43 0.77 0.63

Criterion c25 was deemed marginal. The relevance of the remaining sub-criteria
varies, but their assessment span is characterised by an approx. 10% variation coefficient,
which, from the technical point of view, can be regarded as a convergence. In terms of
detail, sub-criterion c26 is the most relevant, while c21, c23, c24, c27 are auxiliary.

640
 Tab. 2.2. Assessment of technical sub-criteria relevance existing bridge variant

c22 c23 c24 c25 c26 c27

Road-bridge designer 5 5 5 2 4 3
Contractor 4 5 2 3 2 3
Local politician 3 5 4 3 3 4
Road administrator 5 5 5 5 5 5
Road journalist 4 2 2 2 5 4
j
C 2 j / 30 0.70 0.73 0.60 0.50 0.63 0.63

In the case in question, the assessment of the sub-criteria relevance amounted to

approx. 13%. C25 was deemed the least relevant. Disregarding c25, the variation coefficient
equalled 8.3 %. Therefore, the relevance of the remaining sub-criteria wa similar. The most
relevant among them was sub-criterion c23.

C3 costs, cost components.

Estimation of costs was performed by means of assuming the price of a new bridge
without ecological equipment in euro as the reference value.
Provided that the cost of 11 (sm) m2
4,200.00), the final price of the bridge construction is 20*12*1,000=240,000.00 euros
(PLN 1,000,000.00).
For the purposes of the analysis it was assumed that

the price of a new bridge is 250,000.00 euros 100%.

A relative measure expressed as a percentage was applied, where the point of reference
for costs was the price of a new bridge. Renovation of an existing bridge with improvement
of the load-bearing capacity of its superstructure to the standards of new bridges amounts to
approx. EUR 70,000.00, i.e. 30% of the costs of a new bridge.
The costs of design documentation were estimated at 3-5%. For the sake of
simplification, they were not considered.
1 sm of a typical noise barrier of the height of 3 m costs approx. EUR 470. Assuming
the barrier length of 2*(3*20 m) = 120 m, i.e. 360 sm. The price of a noise barrier is EUR
170,00.0 which constitutes approx. 70% of the price of a new bridge.
Optionally, on bridges and simultaneously, on their lower passages for animals, anti-
glare barriers can be installed, reducing noise only to a certain extent. The price of 1 sm of
such a barrier amounts to EUR 165.00; therefore, in the case of a 360 sm barrier it is EUR
60,000.0, i.e. 25% of the price of a new bridge.
In Poland, there are only a few transparent canopy / tunnel barriers, hence their
prices are high, as it is a new product on the market. It is assumed that the price of a canopy
barrier is approx. 2.5 times higher than the price of ordinary noise barriers and amounts to
EUR 510,000.0, i.e. 170% of the price of a new bridge, in the case under consideration.
The price of monitoring equipment (photovoltaic panels, batteries, data transmission
wireless devices, cameras and sensors) was estimated at EUR 50,000.0, i.e. 20% of the price
of a new bridge.
A canopy-type barrier protects a bridge against atmospheric impacts, reducing steel
and concrete corrosion. It is assumed that the longevity of a bridge structure is improved as
a result, and, consequently, structure renovation is required once in 50 years. Nowadays, it
is approx. once in 30 years. Furthermore, it reduces the maintenance costs to one-off

641
renovation within the period of 100 years. In terms of percentage, it amounts to 30% of the
price of a bridge.
The assessment did not take into consideration the costs of asphalt surface
replacement as it falls into the scope of the standard road surface maintenance.
Furthermore, the price of the purchase and installation of guiding fences was also
not included due to the fact that it does not exceed EUR 5,000.0, i.e. 3% of the price of a
bridge.
To sum up:
c31 the cost of a new bridge - 100%,
c32 the cost of existing bridge renovation - 30%,
c33 the cost of a noise barrier - 70%,
c34 the cost of an anti-glare screen - 25%,
c35 the cost of a canopy-type barrier - 170%,
c36 the profit from longevity improvement - 30%.

It is assumed that sub-criteria c31 and c32 are mutually exclusive, therefore, two
separate cases are considered.
Tab. 3.1 shows relative prices of ecological equipment in various configurations,
taking into consideration the costs of a one-off structure renovation.
Bearing in mind the relative costs, the relevance assessment of the ecological
equipment configuration variants was conducted.

Tab. 3.1 Relative prices of a green bridge in two separate cases [%]

c31 c32 c33 c34 c35 c36

100 70 170
New bridge 100 25 125
100 170 30 240
30 70 100
Existing 30 25 55
bridge
30 170 200

Once again, the ordering grades from 2 to 5 were applied. The experts were informed
that the price criterion could not be considered in terms of contractor vs. investor. In other
words, the lowest cost the highest profit preference in not applicable. That which was
important was relevance which could be interpreted as acceptability.

Table 3.2. The case of a new bridge

c31 c33 c34 c35 c36

Investor 4 3 5 2 2
Contractor 5 4 3 5 2
Local politician 4 2 5 2 5
Road administrator 5 2 4 5 5
Road journalist 5 2 3 5 5
j
C3 j / 25 0.92 0.52 0.8 0.76 0.76

642
 Table 3.3. The case of an existing bridge

c32 c33 c34 c35 c36

Investor 4 3 5 2 2
Contractor 5 2 5 5 2
Local politician 3 2 5 2 5
Road administrator 2 2 4 5 5
Road journalist 5 2 4 5 5
j
C3 j / 25 0.76 0.44 0.92 0.76 0.76

The obtained results presented in the tables were convergent. Criterion c33 could be
deemed negligible. The use of an anti-glare barrier was confirmed as appropriate, c34.
Simultaneously, the most expensive solution, i.e. a canopy-type barrier, c34, was found
acceptable.

Stage II multi-criteria analysis

The applied method of the proposed structure assessment is a modification of Delphi

method (Bolognini (2001). Online communication replaced a face-to-face contact.
Three variants of a lower passage for animals were considered. It was provisionally
assumed that the bridge in question was new or an existing one equipped ecologically in
different ways.

Variant I the bridge water clearance gauge (bridge light) is used as a passage for animals
without any pro-ecological equipment. There only are road signs warning about the possible
appearance of animals and limiting vehicle speed.
Variant II applied in currently constructed bridges with guiding fences and ordinary noise
or anti-glare barriers.
Variant III the new proposal discussed in the paper. Continuous monitoring of animal
migration and the traffic on the bridge as well as the possibility of monitoring of the work of
the bridge. Monitoring, lighting and data transmission devices are powered by photovoltaic
panels. The bridge and its approaches are covered with a closed noise barrier. A traditional
way of guiding animals to the bridge by means of fences is complemented by the
afforestation of the vicinity of the bridge, as well as by olfactory tracks.

Table 4. Comparison of the ecological variants equipment on a bridge used as a lower

passage

I II III
C1 C2 C3 C1 C2 C3 C1 C2 C3
Ecologist 2 2 2 3 3 2 5 4 3
Designer 3 4 5 5 4 3 5 4 3
Local politician 2 2 4 4 4 4 5 5 3
Road administrator 3 2 3 4 4 3 4 5 4
Road journalist 2 3 3 3 3 3 5 4 4
m ki C ijk / 25
j 0.48 0.52 0.68 0.76 0.72 0.6 0.96 0.88 0.68
mk C ijk / 75
i j 0.56 0.69 0.84

643
Conclusions

When discussing the result of the variant relevance assessment, it should be

highlighted that the experts took into consideration the notes regarding the price as a
decisive criterion, and accepted it to be as important as the other criteria. The fact
that the quality of a pro-ecological solution was taken into account was expressed by
assigning the highest relevance to the new variant III. Accordingly, the lowest
relevance / acceptability regarded variant I - without ecological equipment.
The obtained results can be interpreted as an expression of the understanding
that it is necessary to bear additional costs of environmental protection. It can also
mean that the increased costs have been satisfactorily justified.
It is a technical proposal which can be immediately implemented.

References
Biruk S. at al., 2017. Decision-making in construction project management. Problems and
methods. [online]. bc.pollub.pl/dlibra/publication/13440/edition/13111?language=pl;
[27.04.2018].
Bolognini M., Democrazia elettronica. Metodo Delphi e politiche pubbliche, (2001), Rome:
Carocci Editore, ISBN 88-430-2035-8.
EN 13791 Assessment of in-situ compressive strength in structures and precast concrete
components, 2007.
Johnson C.G., A Design Framework of metaheuristics, (2008), Artificial Intelligence
Review 29(2), 136-178.
Terry G.R., Franklin S.G., Principles of management, (1994), AITBS Publishers and
Distributors.

644
[Paper ID 147]

-
1

Abstract
The concept of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is currently intensively
discussed in scientific literature and in the industry as a result of making it a cross-cutting
theme for the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union. RRI
may be understood as a process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually
responsive to each other with a view to the acceptability, sustainability and societal
desirability of the innovation process and its products. It is argued in the paper that
in the industrial context the RRI concept should be split into two distinct terms:
Responsible Research (RR) and Responsible Innovation (RI). Furthermore, the attempt
is made to clarify what Responsible Innovation means for an enterprise in practical terms
and what makes an innovation project in an enterprise a responsible one. Finally, the paper
reviews possible approaches to diagnosing and measuring responsibility of the innovation
activity of an enterprise.

Keywords: Responsible Research and Innovation, Technology Assessment, foresight,

responsibility, innovation

1
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering Management, Bialystok University of Technology,
Wiejska 45A, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland, Tel. +48 85 7469802, E-mail: l.nazarko@pb.edu.pl

645
Introduction
The complex relationship between research, technical development, innovation
and dominant societal values has been an important subject for theorists with important
practical implications. However, as our societies are being transformed into knowledge
societies, the issue is becoming more relevant than ever.
Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a term that refers to research
and innovation that is ethically acceptable and socially desirable. One of the most popular
definition that is rooted in the EU policy principles states that RRI is a transparent,
interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive
with a view to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the

concept that calls an interdisciplinary discussion on its theoretical and ideological

underpinnings, policy implications and practical applicability.
RRI may be seen as a new attempt to engage all relevant stakeholders in a debate about
the right outcomes, right motives and right processes in the R&I activity. It is a term that
refers to research and innovation that is ethically acceptable and socially desirable. In this
context the following questions may be posed:
1. Can the right outcomes and impacts of research and innovation activity be
defined and specified?
2. Can the right outcomes and impacts of research and innovation activity be
agreed upon among the stakeholders?
3. Can an effective mechanism of steering the research and innovation activity
towards the right outcomes be created?
The purpose of this paper is first of all to provide a synthesis of the current body of
knowledge on RRI as a new and insufficiently explored paradigm of technology
management (Nazarko 2016) innovation governance. The scientific contribution of the
papers consists in:
1. clarifying conceptual relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and RRI,
2. providing an inventory of possible ways of diagnosing and measuring responsibility
of the research and innovation activity of an enterprise,
3. proposing Future-Oriented Technology Assessment as framework methodology to
advance RRI in industry.

Defining Responsible Research and Innovation

RRI first appeared as a concept related to the nanotechnology development in a work
by Robinson (2009). European Commission used the term for the first time in 2011
(European Commission 2011) and the European Parliament in 2013 (European Parliament
2013). RRI has become a cross-
Programme for Research and Innovation (H2020). One of the earliest and most frequently
quoted definition of Responsible Research and Innovation comes from von Schomberg
(2012) in which he defines it as a: transparent, interactive process by which societal actors
and innovators become mutually responsive with a view to the (ethical) acceptability,
sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable
products (in order to allow a proper embedding of scientific and technological advances in
our society).
Owen's evolving and intentionally broad definition of RRI sees it as: a commitment
of care for the future through collective stewardship of science and innovation in the
present (Hankins 2013). This definition, stresses the prospective aspect of RRI whose

646
primary goal is to bring about the futures that have been collectively envisioned as

-holders of R&I

on fault and punishment, risk a

2016).

Figure 1.
Source: own elaboration on the basis of (Owen et al. 2012).
RRI is sometimes considered to be a proposition that applies more to publicly funded
research institutions rather than to market driven corporate research and innovation (Ceicyte
and Petraite 2018). Figure 2 is a result of the efforts to make RRI concept more relevant to
industry by clearly stating how RRI could be implemented in a company and what benefits
might result from it.

Figure 2. Rationale and operationalisation of RRI in Industry. Source: own elaboration on the

647
RRI and CSR interrelations and dilemmas
It is indeed a difficult task to establish relations between two terms in a situation when
neither of them has a fixed, commonly agreed definition: RRI and CSR. Nevertheless, some
attempts have been made in that respect. Following the discourse of Iatridis and Schroeder
(2016) one may conclude that RRI is broader in scope than CSR because the former

whereas the latter in its traditional form

treated as a bonus act of corporate philanthropy. At the same time, RRI is narrower in scope
than CSR because its main focus is on product development stage (research and innovation)

life cycle (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Relation of CSR and RRI from the perspective of the product life-cycle. Source: own

If one agrees on the outset that the responsibility of an enterprise goes be-yond the
creation of value for its owners, principles of Responsible Research and Innovation are
difficult to argue with. After all, the alternative irresponsible in-
do not seem appealing at al
voices that would oppose the RRI principles at the general, theoretical level. However, there
are legitimate voices that question the pre-assumptions and the (in)coherence of the concept
itself (Blok and Lemmens 2015). It remains unclear what RRI principles could mean in
practice given the very complex nature of innovation.

policy language. Report published by the European Science Foundation (2013) points at the

challenge for individual scientists who pursue their careers in a system that places little or
no value on societal engagement (i.e. responsibility understood in the spirit of RRI). The
same dilemma could be trans-posed to the industrial context. Business excellence is
evaluated by indicators linked to financial performance and market share whereas corporate
social engagement (responsibility) does not seem to be integrated into the concept of excel-

648
If this is really true then the re-definition of the meaning of excellence in business is needed.
Debate on RRI in industry brings back (or exacerbates) the known tension between
competing principles of stakeholder participation and scientific freedom (Owen et al. 2012).
In the context of corporate innovation, that could be translated into the tension between the
social obligations of a company and the freedom of entrepreneurial discovery. That tension
may be somewhat relaxed by the emergence of user-driven or open innovation but it has not
disappeared entirely.

Measuring responsibility of the research and innovation activity of an

enterprise
Following the line of thought of Ceicyte and Petraite (2018) it is argued in this paper
that decomposing RRI into Responsible Research (relating more to the publicly funded
scientific endeavors) and Responsible Innovation (more relevant to industrial context) may
bring more clarity to the reflection on responsibility in R&I. The proposed distinction helps
understand better how the notion of responsibility may be measured in both public and
private (corporate) context.
In Table 1 it can be seen clearly that only few metrics and indicators of responsibility
(Ravn et al 2015) are relevant to businesses the ones that relate to market and marketing,

management. The metrics found in the literature clearly focus on policy-makers and public
research performing and funding organizations. Study by Flipse and Yaghmaei (2018)
confirms that there is a clear need to develop frameworks and key performance indicators
that would connect better to the R&I activities in industry.

Table 1. RRI metrics and indicators relevant in public and private domains

RRI Metrics and indicators Relevance in

dimension relevant in public domain private
domain
(Responsible Research)
(Responsible
Innovation)
Models of public involvement in S&T decision making
Policy-oriented engagement with science
Citizen preferences for active participation in S&T decision making
Active information search about controversial technology
Public engagement performance mechanisms at the level of research institutions
Public Dedicated resources for PE
low
engagement Embedment of PE activities in the funding structure of key public research
funding agencies
Public engagement elements as evaluative criteria in research proposal
evaluations
R&I democratization index
National infrastructure for involvement of citizens and societal actors in research
and innovation
Science Science curricula
literacy and RRI related training
low
scientific Science communication
education Citizen science

649
 Share of research performing organisations (RPOs) with gender equality plans
Share of female researchers by sector
Share of RFOs promoting gender content in research
Dissimilarity Index
Gender Share of RPOs with policies to promote gender in research content
equality
moderate
Glass Ceiling Index
Gender Pay Gap
Share of female heads of RPOs
Share of gender-balanced recruitment committees at RPOs
Number and share of female inventors and authors
Ethics at the level of Universities
Ethics National Ethics Committees low
Research Funding Organizations Ethics Index
Open Access Literature
Data publications and citations per country
Social media outreach
Open access Public perception of Open Access
low
Funder Mandates
RPO support structures for researchers as regards incentives and barriers for data
sharing
Composite indicator: Governance for responsible research and innovation

Governance
Existence of formal governance structures for RRI within research funding and low
research performing organisations
Share of research funding and performing organisations promoting RRI

Future-Oriented Technology Assessment a proposal of a methodology to

advance RRI in industry
One of the major obstacles for wider RRI adoption in industry is the lack or
unawareness of suitable approaches and tools (van de Poel et al. 2017). As Grunwald

analysing RRI is decomposing it into: anticipatory governance, engineering ethics and

Technology Assessment (Grunwald 2011). Both approaches establish a link between RRI
and Technology Assessment understood as an interdisciplinary effort to provide knowledge
for better-informed and well-reflected decisions concerning new technologies (Grunwald
2009, Grunwald 2014).
The proposed approach labelled Future-Oriented Technology Assessment (FOTA) is not
a completely novel and distinct form of TA. It should be rather seen as a proposal to use the
potential of Technology Assessment in further development and consolidation of RRI
concept in industry. The suggested features of FOTA are (Nazarko 2017):
1. re-orientation from risk assessment toward innovation governance,
2. integration with RRI agenda (RRI),
3. more extensive methodological reliance on qualitative and heuristic tools
common to foresight studies

650
 Table 2 drafts a process of transition and integration of two distinct streams of
Technology Assessment, corporate TA and public TA, into Future-Oriented Technology
Assessment in Industry.

Table 2. Future-Oriented Technology Assessment in Industry the context of RRI

Corporate TA Public TA Future-Oriented TA in Industry

Objective Research on Assessment of Reflecting on underlying values,
specific consequences of motivations, potential impacts,
products; technological uncertainties, assumptions, and dilemmas
exploration of progress of research and innovation (Anticipation
market and Reflexivity)
opportunities
Institutional Integrated in Financed or run Variety of possible setups. Potential for
setup internal by government sectoral alliances and joint coordination
innovation with public institutions or civil society
processes and entities (Participation/Inclusion)
industrial
practice
Dependence Subject to Subject to Driven by the company ethos. Ensuring
company political dynamics responsiveness to stakeholders in the
obligations on and lobbying spirit of RRI (Responsiveness)
shareholder
value and
economic
aspects
Results Focus on Focus on political Focus on adaptive learning and aligning
practical solutions and R&I with societal needs and ambitions
solutions regulation (Responsiveness)
Process Internal Mostly expert- Engagement and dialogue with different
based stakeholders in an iterative, inclusive, and
deliberative way. Introduction of a wide
range of perspectives to reframe issues
and enable early warning (Deliberation,
Participation/Inclusion)

The integration of FOTA with RRI agenda is reflected in its objectives, institu-tional
setup, problem of dependence, envisioned results and designed process. All the mentioned
aspects are related to guiding principles of RRI: Anticipation, Re-flexivity, Deliberation,
Participation, Inclusion and Responsiveness.

Conclusions and Future Research

RRI is a rapidly evolving concept. At the same time, it is quite obvious that a big deal of
ambiguity remains with regards to motivation, theoretical conceptualisation and translation
of RRI into practice (Owen et al. 2012).

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 Agreeing on what are the right impacts of research and innovation is inherently a
political, philosophical and ethical discussion. RRI will always be tied to value-related
dilemmas and conflicting views as to what is ethically acceptable and socially desirable.
According to Stahl (2018) there is a good reason to believe that RRI is relevant to
companies. He notes, however, that the RRI discourse is not necessarily the kind of
language that industry understands and the uptake of the concept up to date has been meagre
(Scholten and Blok 2015). There is, therefore, a continuous need to carry out "translation"
work to propose terms, metrics, tools and practices that could be adopted by industry.
The academic and policy circles are aware of those challenges and an in-creasing number
of EU-sponsored initiatives tackles questions like: What are the motivations to integrate
RRI in industry? What is the state of implementation of RRI in industry? What are
responsible practices in innovation? Who are the stakeholders involved in RRI? Which
factors have a bearing on RRI implementation in industry? How does RRI relate to adjacent
discourses on responsibility of/in business (Martinuzzi et al. 2018)? Unless R&I

becoming a new label for business-as-

Publishi
important step forward but much more fundamental reflection and groundwork is needed if
one expects that the majority (if not all) processes and outcomes of research and innovation
activity in European enterprises become ethically acceptable, socially desirable and
environmentally sustainable. One of the important steps would be to develop RRI metrics
and indicators that are relevant to business context.

Reference

, [online]. Available from:

http://archives.esf.org/fileadmin/Public_documents/Publications/spb50_ScienceInSociety
.pdf

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