Chika Udeaja

Live capture and reuse of project knowledge in construction organisations

It is important that the knowledge generated on construction projects is captured and shared between project team members for continuous improvement, to prevent the ‘re-invention of the wheel’ and to avoid repetition of previous mistakes. However, this is undermined mainly by the loss of important insights and knowledge due to time lapse in capturing the knowledge, staff turnover and peoples reluctance to share knowledge. To address this, it is crucial for knowledge to be captured ‘live’ in a collaborative environment while the project is being executed and presented in a format that will facilitate its reuse during and after the project. This paper uses a case study approach to investigate the end-users’ requirements for the ‘live’ capture and reuse of knowledge methodology, and shortcomings of current practice in meeting these requirements. A framework for the ‘live’ methodology that satisfies the requirements is then presented and discussed.

Barriers to public private partnership projects in developing countries

Purpose – Studies on barriers to public private partnerships (PPPs) in Nigeria, especially those that are empirical, remain rare. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify and classify barriers to PPP projects implementation in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – Primary data were collected through the administration of questionnaires to public sector authorities, concessionaires, local lenders, consultants, and contractors already involved in PPP projects. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, mean score, Kruskal-Wallis test, and factor analysis. Findings – The study identified 58 barriers and the analysis of the total ranking among stakeholders revealed that all the identified barriers were considered as serious barriers influencing PPP projects in Nigeria. The result of Kruskal-Wallis test indicated that except for 18 (out of 58) identified barriers, there was no statistical significant difference in stakeholders’ perceptions on barriers to PPPs project implementation in Ni...

Stakeholder perceptions on critical success factors for public-private partnership projects in Nigeria

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the perceptions of stakeholders on critical success factors (CSFs) for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the CSFs for PPP projects, which were employed to design a questionnaire survey. In order to capture a broad perception of stakeholders, the questionnaires were administered to five different stakeholder organisations involved in different PPP projects implementation in Nigeria. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, mean score, Kruskal-Wallis test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and factor analysis. Findings – The study revealed the result of mean score ranking, which indicated that all the stakeholders considered the identified 26 CSFs important and crucial for the successful implementation of PPP projects in Nigeria. Thus, the results of Kruskal-Wallis test and ANOVA indicated that except for six (out of 26) ide...

Analysis of reverse logistics implementation practices by South Australian construction organisations

Purpose – A large number of benefits have been reported when reverse logistics (RL) is fully implemented in the construction industry. However, RL is yet to become common place in the construction sector, particularly in Australia. The particular sub-sector in which RL operates is small and weak and the remainder of the sector must embrace and accommodate it comfortably. Research is lacking on how to promoting RL in the construction industry. Very little has been done to identify the current practices that have the potential to promote RL industry-wide. The purpose of this paper is to identify the practices that work well in the sector, a strategy could be mapped out to promote RL to all stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – In order to fill the above gap, the present study used a mixed method approach to gather and evaluate current practices and their potential to promote RL in South Australia’s construction industry. Practices that were identified using a comprehensive literature review were evalu...

Sustainable development in a construction related curriculum- quantity surveying students’ perspective

Higher education institutions (HeIs) across the globe are increasingly aware of the need to integrate sustainability education within the curricula. this triggered a number of studies were conducted by earlier researchers in embedding sustainability education within the curricula. thus, studies have been carried out to evaluate how students perceived sustainable development in their curricula, particularly in engineering and other related courses. few of these studies were conducted in built environment, most especially in quantity surveying. It is against this backdrop that necessitated this study. the purpose of this study is to establish the extent in which sustainable development is embedded in the construction related curriculum using the perception of quantity surveying students. the study adopted literature review, documentary reports among others as a secondary method of data collection. Primary data were collected through online questionnaire survey administered to 330 randomly selected quantity surveying students in a university in the uK. out of which 87 completed questionnaires were retrieved and suitable for the analysis. the quantitative data obtained were analysed using mean score, one-way analysis of variance (anoVa) and regression analysis. the study identified 46 sustainability topics, which were grouped into 6 categories (i.e. A–F). Based on these categories, the study found that students’ knowledge level on sustainability was a little above ‘basic/ limited knowledge with the overall mean score value of 2.38 on a 4 – point likert scale. the study further revealed that the students placed high importance on sustainability education, despite their knowledge level were found lower. The study findings would be used to establish the extent of sustainability within the curriculum in the quantity surveying programme. also, this study would be of great value to academic staff and university management boards to develop a framework for incorporating sustainability education in the curriculum.

The critical success factors for stakeholder management in the restoration of built heritage assets in the UK

Purpose Built heritage or historic assets (BHAs) constructed in the pre-nineteenth century in the UK are perceived to have certain characteristics which instill cultural significance in them and have seen them become valuable to the economy of the country. The heritage sector makes significant contributions to the UK economy through provision of tourist attractive sites, construction and servicing of heritage assets, heritage conservation, research, and commercial activities carried out within and around heritage assets. These benefits have seen them draw considerable interests from diverse stakeholders within and outside the heritage sector. Hence, a lot of attention is drawn toward restoration of such assets, from stakeholders of different interests, ranging from advocacies for no alteration to complete alteration of the heritage assets. As with construction projects, conflict of interests amongst stakeholders affect the outcome of restoration projects and the purpose of this paper is to examine the critical success factors (CSFs) for managing the stakeholders to achieve the projects’ objectives. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the views and experiences of practitioners in the heritage sector who have been involved with BHA restoration projects. A total of 32 CSFs for stakeholder management, obtained through rigorous reviews of literature, were subjected to a severe scrutiny with eight restoration experts to determine the importance of the CSFs in restoration projects. The outcome of the exercise was a modified list of 20 CSFs which were further tested on 52 restoration practitioners in the UK using a structured questionnaire to determine the degree of importance of each of the CSFs in restoration projects and their relationships as perceived by the practitioners. Findings The results of the analyses performed on the data show that most of the CSFs were perceived by restoration practitioners as truly critical and vital for successful management of stakeholders in restoration of BHAs. The results also indicate that there is a strong consensus amongst over 50 percent of the practitioners on the rankings of the CSFs. Practical implications The identified CSFs could be used by the restoration practitioners as a “road map” for the development of appropriate solutions for successfully managing stakeholders associated with the promotion and BHAs restoration assets. Originality/value Although CSFs for stakeholder management in construction have been studied by many scholars, no specific research could be identified prior to this study to have been done in defining the CSFs for stakeholder management in restoration projects.

Material Waste in the Construction Industry: A Review of the Legislative and Supply Chain Issues

This Chapter, introduces the reader to the legislative and supply chain issues surrounding the re-use of materials with regard to the construction industry. Sustainability is defined and material life cycle phases are identified. Key legislative issues are defined that control waste in the environment. Supply chain problems are considered as potential barriers to the use of re-cycled materials. Two case studies are examined that show financial incentives for material re-use and a green supply chain management system is recommended for future work.

The Use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in managing knowledge in construction project delivery: a conceptual model

Today’s construction environment is described as turbulent due to economic crisis, global competition and rapid changes in industry structure. For most of the construction organisations to stay afloat within this environment, organisations have to find new ways to create value for their potential and existing clients. Building information modelling (BIM) technology has been identified by many proponents in this area as the technology that can create value within the supply chain (SC). In the UK, BIM is increasingly being seen not just as a technical process to determine the likely performance of projects but a valuable tool in the mediation between many associated stakeholders with their differing visions, numerous requirements and variation in their expertise, and as a valuable process to promoting learning and managing knowledge. This emerging role presents new and considerable challenges for management of knowledge during its generation, capture and reuse to ensure the meaningful engagement of such stakeholders in the project process. This research will investigate the effective methods for Knowledge Management (KM) to be implemented in the current construction environment, using BIM as a means for managing knowledge and learning. The work presented in this paper will develop a conceptual model of how BIM can be used to manage knowledge in construction project delivery. The paper will describe the proposed conceptual model that uses BIM to manage knowledge in construction project delivery and concludes with suggestions of how this might be implemented in practice, as well as further work that is required in this area.

Sustainability Challenges in Civil Engineering Education

This paper focuses on how the design and delivery of the Civil Engineering (CE) program at two universities in Europe aims to develop graduates who are not only aware of the requirement for sustainability, but also satifies the aspirations of industrial, professional bodies and academic stakeholders. To achieve this, a review is undertaken to determine the main areas of interest in Sustainable Development (SD), particular attention being paid to the role of CE. Primary data is collected using two case studies, one on the CE program at a University in the North East (NE) of England and another in the central part of Italy The findings indicate that although efforts are already been made to integrate sustainability into the CE curriculum, there is a need for urgent interventions not only to ensure enhancement of students’ knowledge on the theme, but also to convert this knowledge into responsible actions.

Challenges of Implementing Infrastructure Megaprojects through Public-Private Partnerships in Nigeria: A Case Study of Road Infrastructure

Nigerias infrastructure deficit, especially in transport sector is appalling. This triggered the Lagos state government to start addressing its infrastructure deficit through PPPs. The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges at both development phase and implementation (construction) phase of PPP road infrastructure megaproject, and identify the critical success factors that actually made the project successful. The paper adopted case study approach within a mixed method paradigm employed to collect data. Semi structured interviews were used to collect data from the participants involved in the case study with a view to identifying the challenges and success factors. The identified challenges and success factors were incorporated into the questionnaire survey administered to the participants involved in the development and implementation stages of the case study. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the Relative Significant Index ranking indicate that perceptions of Nigeria as a high risk economy by foreign investors, bureaucratic nature of the state government, schedule delay by administrative procedures, threat of expropriation and reluctance to tender/bid, and public/political opposition are the most highly ranked challenges experienced at development phase. The paper further identified unexpected increased quantity, bottleneck in securing execution of the federal government support agreement, resistance by residents, and problem of access to the right-of-way as the most ranked challenges witnessed at implementation (construction) phase. The results of factor analysis grouped the identified twenty two challenges into seven major factors at development phase, and grouped twelve identified challenges into four principal factors at implementation phase. The paper further identified four critical success factors using factor analysis that made the PPP project successful. These include enabling legislation with due diligence, strong commitment of both public and private sectors, strong financial package, and enabling environment and allocation of risk.