Construction industry effects the environment through its outputs and its process (i.e. causing CO 2 emissions, exploitation of raw materials, energy consumption). There is need to reduce its environmental footprint of the construction industry with the help of efficient and effective construction project management, where possible benchmarking with management principles and applications in manufacturing industry. Such a key concept originated and adapted from manufacturing industry is lean and agile construction which can contribute to the reduction of environmental footprint of the construction industry, enabling especially reduction in waste, increasing value added activities. For this reason, this chapter focuses on the construction project management with respect to the agility and leanness perspective. It provides an indepth analysis of the whole project life cycle phases based on lean and agile principles.
Offices and retail spaces are among the most energy-intensive building typologies. Designing office buildings without proper consideration of their form, orientation, envelope, and other variables can lead to a considerable increase in energy usage. This research investigates how integrated usage of an atrium and courtyard can improve a building's energy performance. Thermal performance of both atrium and courtyard spaces as well as their energy-efficient integrated usage in office buildings have been investigated within the scope of this research. DesignBuilder as an interface and EnergyPlus (based on ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) as analytical software have been used to investigate the thermal behavior of an atrium and courtyard in two stages. From the results it appeared that a courtyard with 40% window-to-wall ratio and triple glazing has the best energy performance, while those with single glazing and an 80% window-to-wall ratio represent maximum energy consumption in all climates. The findings also revealed that the integrated usage of a courtyard and atrium can save energy if it is used as a courtyard type of building during summer in all climates and if it is used as an atrium in the cold months. This research is original and will contribute to the literature, as it investigates the integrated usage of an atrium and courtyard with respect to energy efficiency. This research is expected to be beneficial to professionals and academics, especially with respect to the energy-efficient use of courtyards, atria, and their integrated modes. Furthermore, the findings can contribute to the sustainability performance of the built environment through an integrated atrium-courtyard building, resulting in minimal energy consumption.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how a deep learning approach can impact the construction industry.Design/methodology/approachThe objectives of this paper were to investigate: the awareness of people dealing with sustainability in their daily working environment; how much training and information construction industry workers have had in the topic of sustainability; and if a deep learning approach to sustainability teaching can make an impact on everyday practise in the industry. With these objectives, following a literature review, a questionnaire survey has been applied to 133 office and site‐based construction workers. In total, 50 office‐based workers and 50 site‐based workers participated.FindingsThe findings reveal that deep learning can be a possible opportunity and that the Government and the construction industry should explore it when training their staff. Although there are agencies which specifically deal with green issues, they are not widely embraced and workers currently just use them as a way to meet criteria and not to fully grasp the concept and incorporate it into their everyday practice. If deep learning can be embraced it can lead to a continuous improvement in green practice.Originality/valueWith the UK government recently setting new targets for sustainability, it is important that the construction industry takes actions to reduce its carbon footprint. The construction industry needs to improve its ability to train and teach its staff about the importance of green issues and environmentally‐friendly practices. This paper presents the results of research which may contribute to meeting the government targets and can be useful for practitioners and researchers.
Employee turnover affects performance and competitiveness of companies. Traditional voluntary employee turnover models attempting to predict voluntary turnover are based on job satisfaction. A recent model that breaks away from this tradition is the unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover (UMVT) which takes account of additional factors such as labour market forces, economy and habit. UMVT has been tested in various industries. However, in the construction sector UMVT is tested for the first time in this study. A convenience sample of 320 construction professionals was taken from the Global Construction Consultants, Davis Langdon. The sample provided useable online survey data from 104 respondents who had voluntarily left their previous employers in the last four years. The results reveal that UMVT’s ability to interpret voluntary employee turnover among construction professionals was weak. In contrast to previous studies of UMVT, a significant number of respondents (80.8%) followed paths other than the original five theorized paths. As a result, a new extended version of the UMVT is proposed that includes two new paths that have been theorized, which add to the understanding of voluntary employee turnover and may, in the long term, help support human resource management in construction professional practices to predict and manage voluntary employee turnover.Human resource management, workforce, professional, professional service firms, employee relations,
The world's habitat is being deteriorated despite of the precautions taken. Construction industry is among the industries which highly effect the environment adversely not only through its outputs but also through the construction process and its inputs. The main focus in dealing with the reduction of its footprint has been on sustainable building certificates which mainly analyse the output of the construction activies. There is need to analyse the construction supply chain as a whole and to embed sustainability dynamics in construction supply chain management. Lean construction project management contributes to the reduction of the environmental footprint of the construction industry, enabling reduction in waste, and increasing value added activities. For this reason, based on an in depth literature review, this paper analyses and establishes the principles of the integration of the sustainability dynamics into lean construction supply chain management.
This study aims to determine the accuracy of the cash flow models and to investigate if these models could be more accurate if they accounted for the potentially influential variables specific to individual construction projects. An analytical case study research strategy has been implemented in collecting data for the construction projects. The data collected has been tested against recognised models. Statistical analyses have been carried out on the data for the specified variables, culminating in the potential proposal of an improved model with respect to these identified variables. The results revealed that the independent variables (type of construction, procurement route and type of work) affect the cash flow forecast. The findings suggested that a model could be more accurate with the input of more job-specific variables and that Hudson's DHSS model is best suited to a construction project procured traditionally. Adopting the 'trial and error' approach, Hudson's DHSS model has been recognised as an accurate model that could be adapted slightly, through changing the parameter values. The clients and the contractors are the main beneficiaries approached for this study.
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