Kirti Ruikar

Electronic commerce in construction—trends and prospects

There is growing interest in the conduct of business transactions by electronic means through the Internet and/or dedicated networks; this is often referred to as electronic commerce. This paper reviews developments in electronic commerce, with a particular focus on its applicability and uptake within the construction industry. Electronic commerce business models are reviewed and the enablers and barriers to their uptake in the construction sector presented. The paper concludes with future trends in electronic commerce and the need for construction organisations to make the necessary investments that will enable them to take advantage of these.

End‐user perspectives on use of project extranets in construction organisations

Purpose – Web‐based technologies such as project extranets have introduced a new concept for communication and collaboration during construction projects. Project extranets have been used in the industry for some time now to manage information and document flows throughout the lifecycle of construction projects. Very few end‐user companies already using project extranets have documented and disseminated information about the implications of using this technology in terms of the impact on their businesses, benefits incurred and possible drawbacks. This paper aims to present findings from the UK.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is case studies conducted with end‐users of a leading project extranet application in the UK.Findings – Findings suggest that some of the perceived drawbacks of using project extranets are in fact not viewed as drawbacks by end‐user companies. Also, the benefits incurred appear to outweigh some of the issues. The end‐user organisations believe that an increasing number o...

Communities of practice in construction case study organisations: Questions and insights

Purpose – At the heart of knowledge management (KM) are the people – an organisations important knowledge asset. Although this is widely acknowledged, businesses seldom understand this axiom in terms of the communities through which individuals develop and share the capacity to create and use knowledge. It is the collective learning that takes place within the social systems, i.e. communities of practice (CoP) that are of particular significance to an organisation from a KM perspective. This paper aims to review, critique, and raise some pertinent questions on the role of CoPs; and with the help of case studies shed light on the “goings‐on” in construction practices.Design/methodology/approach – After critically reviewing the literature on CoPs and querying some underlying assertions, this research investigates how these issues are addressed in practice. A case study approach is adopted. Three organisations operating in the construction sector are interviewed for the purpose of this paper.Findings – Case...

Integrated use of technologies and techniques for construction knowledge management

The last two decades have witnessed a significant increase in discussions about the different dimensions of knowledge and knowledge management (KM). This is especially true in the construction context. Many factors have contributed to this growing interest including globalisation, increased competition, diffusion of new ICTs (information and communication technologies) and new procurement routes, among others. There are a range of techniques and technologies that can be used for KM in construction organisations. The use of techniques for KM is not new, but many technologies for KM are fairly new and still evolving. This paper begins with a review of different KM techniques and technologies and then reports the findings of case studies of selected U.K. construction organisations, carried out with the aim of establishing what tools are currently being used in U.K. construction organisations to support knowledge processes. Case study findings indicate that most organisations do not adopt a structured approach for selecting KM technologies and techniques. The use of KM techniques is more evident compared to KM technologies. There is also reluctance among construction companies to invest in highly specialised KM technologies. The high costs of specialist KM technologies are viewed as the barrier to their adoption. In conclusion, the paper advocates integrated use of KM techniques and technologies in construction organisations.

e-Business in Construction

This course will review the various technologies available for the construction manager to improve work flow processes. Specifically studied will be the benefits of collaboration systems that function through the internet and allow a company to communicate with various team members more efficiently. The student will be given a brief synopsis of the technology that has evolved in the past ten years, along with case studies of recent testimonials from teams using these leading systems to manage projects. The concepts of collaboration, online bidding, e-commerce, and estimating will be covered, along with a brief overview of estimating and coordinating from modeling (BIM) technologies. We shall also cover the basics of writing a research paper, which includes determining a theme, forming an outline, research techniques, and formulating a conclusion.

Contractor practices for managing extended supply chain tiers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how contractor firms manage their relationships with extended supply chain tiers and investigate the range of ICT technologies used to facilitate such practices. Design/methodology/approach – An on-line questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information about supply chain management operations, supplier relationship management and the ICT technologies used by contractor firms to manage their extended supply chain tiers. Findings – The extended supply chain relationships of contractor firms are primarily composed of contractual, technical and financial entities, but findings suggest that the vision to consider extended supply chain firms when selecting suppliers are still myopic. Majority of ICT technologies are used between Tier 1 supply chain firms and there is an inconsistency in the number of technologies adopted with the extended supply chain tiers. Despite having a high involvement relationship with Tier 2 downstream firms, findings indicate a l...

Towards a BIM-enabled sustainable building design process: roles, responsibilities, and requirements

ABSTRACT Environmental sustainability considerations are often treated as an add-on to building design, following ad hoc processes for their implementation. As a result, the most common problem to achieve a sustainable building outcome is the absence of the right information at the right time to make critical decisions. For design team members to appreciate the requirements of multidisciplinary collaboration, there is a need for transparency and a shared understanding of the process. This research presents the findings from 25 in-depth interviews with industry practitioners concerning 10 case studies of buildings, which achieved high-sustainability certification ratings (e.g. BREEAM, Passivhaus, Part L), to identify best practices in sustainable building design (SBD). The results identify the key players’ roles and responsibilities, tasks, deliverables, and critical decision points for SBD. These components have been coordinated explicitly in a systematic process that utilises Information and Communications Technology, Building Information Modelling, and Building Performance Analysis software to realise the benefits of combining distributed teams’ expertise.

Technology implementation strategies for construction organisations

Purpose – This paper aims to present an overview of the findings of a study aimed at investigating industry‐specific factors that influence the success of technology implementation in construction organisations. These include: the identification of a need, proposal procedures, benefit identification/evaluation, formulation of implementation strategies, implementation barriers, change management and overall implementation evaluation.Design/methodology/approach – A semi‐structured interview‐based approach is adopted to identify the industry‐specific factors that influence the success of technology implementation in construction organisations. The findings are discussed and recommendations to industry for potential improvements are given.Findings – The extent to which successful technology implementation can be achieved, ultimately depends on the degree to which changes are planned, managed and evaluated. Therefore, technology implementation within construction organisations is not so much a technological pr...

An Investigation into whether Building Information Modelling BIM can Assist with Construction Delay Claims

It is probable that a construction project anywhere in the world will encounter some form of delay as a consequence of change. The impact of the delay on a project will vary, but it is likely to have a negative financial outcome. Compensation can be requested by an affected party in the form of a claim; however, issues of liability and quantum can be difficult given the ever increasing complexity of construction work involving numerous differing successive parallel tasks with varying levels of interrelated resources. Experts are often employed to analyse delays based on project records and report their findings to a tribunal. This paper identifies the difficulties associated with the retrieval and representation of information for delay claims and recognises technological opportunities to deal with these challenges. The potential to exploit aspects of BIM to support these possibilities are discussed, concluding that it can assist through the ease of access to coordinated contemporaneous project information and the use of visualisation through multiple dimensions. In order to support this initiative a detailed review of the literature is undertaken which forms part of an Engineering Doctorate.

The need to improve double‐loop learning and design‐construction feedback loops

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the empirical findings of a survey aimed to investigate the need to improve cross‐phase learning between design and construction. Through exploring the need to introduce a design‐construction feedback loop, combined with the barriers against its development, an expansion of knowledge surrounding the deficiencies of current practice is provided.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports the results from an online survey conducted in spring 2011 targeted at experienced personnel in the planning, design, construction and facilities management phases of healthcare infrastructure projects.Findings – The current approach of detecting and correcting errors is significantly hindering the extent to which learning from previous experiences is taking place. It is shown that improved integration between design and construction is required in the form of improved feedback if continuous improvement in the areas of efficiency, quality, value and general learning from...