Andries G. Doree

Achieving the unlikely: innovating in the loosely coupled construction system

Previous research suggests that a characteristic of the construction industry is a lack of technological innovation. Since this is seen as a problem, much theoretical development within construction management focuses on explaining the lack of innovation. Less effort has been expended on using such explanatory theories for investigating those rare exceptions in which construction firms succeed in the unlikely: successfully developing a new technology. This article makes use of the recently suggested framework by Dubois and Gadde. They describe the construction industry as a ‘loosely coupled system’ with four types of couplings, discuss why the particular mix of couplings in the construction system leads to a lack of innovation, and suggest types of couplings that construction firms should experiment with and change in order to boost innovation. A case study of a contractor developing a new technology is presented in terms of Dubois and Gaddes concepts and implications. The findings partly support and partly contradict their hypotheses. It seems that innovation is possible even if only a few of the existing couplings are changed. The most important changes relate to the tightening of intrafirm sequential inter‐project couplings enabling learning from project to project, and contract‐related couplings especially the design‐construction interface.

A century of innovation in the Dutch construction industry

In recent years, the number of publications on innovation in the construction industry has increased. Many of these documents address qualitative issues, e.g. policies for innovation and present case studies. A more quantitative approach is taken in this paper, which is the continuation of a previous study. It focuses on main types and sources of innovation in the construction industry, and includes an analysis of 55 years of publications in two leading Dutch professional journals. The results show a recent increase in innovation, with two‐thirds of innovations coming out of supplying industries. Construction companies contribute mainly in process innovations. Innovation in construction remains to be technology‐ rather than market‐driven. Regulations have a surprising impact, as over one‐third of all counted new innovations are related to new regulations.

The role of leaders' paradigm in construction industry change

As in other industries, firms in the construction industry need to become more client‐ and market‐oriented. In the last decade, several initiatives have been taken to change the construction industry in that direction. The changes, however, seem to be slower than other industries and less forthcoming than projected. Old practices and patterns die hard. Fundamental changes in orientation, strategy and strategy deployment require shifts in the management paradigms (i.e. the ‘frames of mind’ that steer individual and collective behaviour). Management is seen as a crucial factor in these change processes, but can the new business be created by old management paradigms? Can the leaders in the construction industry shake off the old paradigms? An explorative quantitative study shows that the mainstream paradigm of construction industry leaders today is much as it was in the past: technology‐ and project‐oriented. Acting out of this paradigm, issues as social‐organizational change and strategic focus on the client – regarded as important for the industry – will probably not be addressed properly. Change initiatives could gain in success, when they create wider awareness of existence and persistence of incumbent and prevailing paradigms.

A distributed data collection and management framework for tracking construction operations

Construction work typically means producing on shifting locations. Moving materials, equipment and men efficiently from place to place, in and in between projects, depends on good coordination and requires specialized information systems. The key to such information systems are appropriate approaches to collect de-centralized sensor readings and to process, and distribute them to multiple end users at different locations both during the construction process and after the project is finished. This paper introduces a framework for the support of such distributed data collection and management to foster real-time data collection and processing along with the provision of opportunities to retain highly precise data for post-process analyses. In particular, the framework suggests a scheme to benefit from exploiting readings from the same sensors in varying levels of detail for informing different levels of decision making: operational, tactical, and strategic. The sensor readings collected in this way are not only potentially useful to track, assess, and analyse construction operations, but can also serve as reference during the maintenance stage. To this extent, the framework contributes to the existing body of knowledge of construction informatics. The operationality of the framework is demonstrated by developing and applying two on site information systems to track asphalt paving operations

High reliability organizing at the boundary of the CM domain

The construction management (CM) domain regularly develops and explores new theories and perspectives. These new insights can shift the existing paradigm radically, they can be assimilated smoothly, or they can stall as they are debated at CM’s domain boundary. During our current research, we experience that the concepts from high reliability organizing (HRO) are caught in such a debate. We elaborate this debate from the viewpoint of two distinctive scientific traditions and evaluate the main premises that hold HRO at CM’s boundaries. It seems that reductionist scientific traditions underlie much of the critique which currently diverts debate off into an unproductive intellectual cul-de-sac. An alternative pragmatic approach would allow CM’s HRO researchers to avoid the confines of the reductionist arguments as it redirects minds and action on productive and practical research to achieving more reliable construction project performance, as well as dealing better with health and safety issues. Above all, the examination of the HRO boundary debate in CM may help other researchers experiencing impasses in their debates to explore whether these debates address the actual notions at stake or are restricted by deeply held views rooted in scientific traditions.

Employing a virtual reality tool to explicate tacit knowledge of machine operations

The quality and durability of asphalted roads strongly depends on the final step in the road construction process; the profiling and compaction of the fresh spread asphalt. During compaction machine operators continuously make decisions on how to proceed with the compaction accounting for projectspecific aspects as: ambient conditions, road geometry, roller type, asphalt mixture characteristics and behavior of other machines. In discussions over quality improvement in road construction it is often suggested to robotize rollers. To operate such robots would of course require operational strategies and routines. The reality of this moment is that these operational strategies and routines are not documented. To identify the existing best working practices and, ultimately, to proceed with developing automated robotized compactors, the knowledge of machine operators should at first be explored and described in a formalized way. Unfortunately operators have difficulty verbalizing their expertise. Observation of behavior, as machine movement patterns, could be helpful to extract the operational strategies, but such observations are time and labor consuming. To overcome this burden we developed a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. In this VR environment operators perform compaction virtually, and their operational choices are traced and analysed. This paper describes this VR development and explains how it helps in following machine operators and extracting their (tacit) professional knowledge. The road geometry and the working conditions are visually represented; the operators show - rather than explain - how they would proceed with the compaction process in the given conditions. Movements of virtual machines are documented, analysed, visualised and discussed. This VR approach is expected to contribute to learning, to more formal description of operational strategies; stepping stones towards compaction algorithms for roller robotisation.

Prediction of the in-asphalt temperature for road construction operations

During the construction of new asphalt roads, compaction is the final step. Proper compaction is crucial for the roads lifetime. The temperature of the asphalt mixture directly impacts on the compactability and therefore the construction process strategy. Ideally compaction should be done within a certain in-asphalt temperature window, with lower and higher temperature boundaries, to achieve high quality road surface. But, as there are no available systems to predict in-asphalt temperature, roller operators have to guess the actual temperatures. This paper describes a method and proposes an implementation of this method to predict in-asphalt temperature at any given position. Calculations are based on an initial asphalt mix temperature during paving operations and the automated computing of a cooling function for a specific mix within certain ambient weather conditions. The implementation of the method was tested using position and temperature information collected by following a real paving project. Outcome of the method - the resulted visualization - aims to provide information about in-asphalt temperature to support decisions of machine operators when to start and stop rolling process to obtain the high quality road surface more reliable.

Comparing mindfulness in manual and 4D supported coordination practices

This research investigates the role of 4D visualizations in enhancing mindfulness in construction project coordination. We introduce the mindfulness concept - defined as capacity to detect (potential) operational errors and take corrective action – to make a comparison of two distinctive coordination practices. To this end, manual and 4D supported coordination three cases of three inner city reconstruction projects were examined. Observations were structured using five principles underlying mindfulness. Four of these principles supported our hypotheses that 4D allows managers to better anticipate and contain errors. We conclude by describing how 4D creates focus on operational interdependencies (1), helps to detect potential conflicts (2), increases resistance to simplifications through detailed visualizations (3), and enables development of containment strategies (4). Such practices eventually reduce conflicts, delays, and cost overruns, enhancing the reliability of coordination processes.

A Constructivist Approach for Teaching Research Methodology in Construction Management

Construction Management (CM) is an acknowledged field of expertise and profession that requires students to research real world problems. To prepare the students for this task, many CM programs contain a Research Methodology (RM) course. However, after taking part in these courses, many students still lack the ability to define the scope of their research problem and find an appropriate research design. In order to counteract this situation, a constructivist approach to teach RM was developed. A role-play is the central element of this approach in which the students take on the role of “problem-owners” and “researchers.” The teaching approach was embedded in RM courses at the University of Twente (The Netherlands) and at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (South Africa). In both cases the lecturers noticed that the students became more aware of the complexity and vagueness of construction management problems. They were better able to define the research problems and communicate the relevance of the problem at hand. The approach further helps to put RM in a more realistic and pragmatic perspective.

Aligning laboratory and field compaction practices for asphalt – the influence of compaction temperature on mechanical properties

The approach used to identify a compaction temperature in the laboratory, based on binder viscosity, provides a single compaction temperature whereas, on-site, a roller operates within a temperature window. The effect on the density and mechanical properties of rolling during a temperature window remains unclear. Consequently, asphalt concrete binder mixtures were compacted in different temperature windows in the laboratory using a Roller Sector Compactor, and the observed phenomena were then related to field study observations. The results show that while similar densities can be achieved in a broad range of temperature windows, other mechanical properties such as fracture energy may decline up to 30% if compacted outside the optimum temperature window. These results indicate that a compaction temperature window should form part of mix design and quality control. The paper proposes specifying a compaction window based on temperatures and the resulting mechanical properties rather than a single compaction temperature.