The construction industry has a poor productivity record, which was predominantly ascribed to inadequate monitoring of how a project is progressing at any given time. Most available approaches do not offer key stakeholders a shared understanding of project performance in real-time, which as a result fail to identify any project slippage on the original schedule. This paper reports on the development of a novel automatic system for monitoring, updating and controlling construction site activities in real-time. The proposed system seeks to harness advances in close-range photogrammetry to deliver an original approach that is capable of continuous monitoring of construction activities, with progress status determined, at any given time, throughout the construction lifecycle. The proposed approach has the potential to identify any deviation of as planned construction schedules, so prompt action can be taken because of an automatic notification system, which informs decision-makers via emails and SMS. This system was rigorously tested in a real-life case study of an in-progress construction site. The findings revealed that the proposed system achieved a significant high level of accuracy and automation, and was relatively cheap and easier to operate.
Controlling construction site operations is one of the crucial overriding concerns for the clients and contractors, as the majority of the construction delays tend to occur in the construction phase. It is not surprising to see interest in deploying advanced technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) to help in addressing such concerns. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to integrate BIM with the daily construction activities to increase the effectiveness of construction operational activities and address customers and clients concerns and requirements. The study adopted the qualitative approach to collect the data from different construction sites. Clients and numerous members of the supply chain were involved in the data collection, which covered projects, in United Arab Emirates (UAE), such as real estate building, infrastructure (e.g. water and waste water) and road projects. The study concluded that, integrating BIM in the reoccurring daily construction operations highly assisted the construction industry to overcome several persisting and challenging problems related to the traditional disputes and mistrust among the supply chain players. These disputes resulted from the inaccurate data collection that leads to the absence of crucial actions, in addition to the huge time consumed to prepare reports. The results of the study suggest that, the integration of BIM with the construction operational activities have improved productivity and enhanced the trust among the project teams. Furthermore, the automation of the construction site activities using BIM avoided loss of information, enabled contractors to recognize their weaknesses, enabled immediate update of the progress reports and the program of works and the easy production of the payment statement.
Typically, the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is considered one of the most effective contributor to the national developments worldwide. However, the AEC industry is facing myriad challenges due to the pressing calls for creativity and innovative solutions. Several issues are confronted such as failure to meet client satisfaction, delays in delivering projects on time, cost overruns, low quality, conflicts among parties, safety issues, increasing requests for change orders, tremendous increases in materials waste and project complexity. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is rapidly growing worldwide as a viable tool for improving the efficiency of the AEC industry to solve its salient issues. However, BIM is seldom adopted on the government level, especially in the developing countries. This study aims to explore the stakeholders’ perceptions on the benefits of BIM and the barriers that hindered its adoption. Furthermore, practical solutions to motivate BIM non-users to adopt BIM are proposed. A questionnaire was sent to BIM users and non-users in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as a case study. The key findings that deterred the implementation of BIM were personal correlated issues such as resistance to change and lack of appropriate awareness of BIM. This study convinces the industry players concerning BIM benefits and reveals the barriers and their potential solutions to encourage them to reap the benefits from BIM adoption.
PurposePoor performance remains a challenge for the construction industry worldwide. One of the key performance indicators of the construction industry is the timely delivery of projects. Despite the recent methodological and technological advances in the field, project-overrun remains a significant challenge for the industry. This paper seeks to propose practical solutions that allow overcoming the challenges and promote the opportunities for improving the performance of the construction projects in Dubai.Design/methodology/approachThis study focussed on the construction projects in Dubai; therefore, this research adopted a sequential mixed approach in two stages. The first stage involved face-to-face interviews with seven carefully selected construction professionals. Their answers were analysed to provide with the literature study “the informed-basis for the development of the online questionnaire”. The second stage involved an online survey administrated to 425 carefully selected construction organisations working in Dubai. Accordingly, a meticulous analysis for the prime causes of project overruns has also been undertaken. This analysis assisted proposing the most suitable solutions-based technologies that enabled alleviating overruns in the construction projects.FindingsThe findings revealed that, there was a consensus agreement on the formidable opportunities for improving the performance of the construction industry in general and in particular in Dubai. These opportunities are intrinsically linked with the adoption of the latest technologies such as building information modelling, augmented reality, virtual reality and the artificial intelligence (AI). Whereas, adopting AI has already assisted two public authorities to release No Objection Certificates and work permits effectively within one day instead of 14 working days, which has saved 90% of the time and cost. Likewise, adoption of the AI has assisted delivering the construction project with a 9% of time saving and a 6% of cost saving due to embracing an automated system that enabled them to instantly detect and report the delays, once occurred.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study is that the study was limited to the construction industry in the Emirate of Dubai. Therefore, future research could target the whole United Arab Emirates construction industry to propose the practical solution on the country level.Practical implicationsThe literature study is replete with solutions, which tend to be theoretical more than practical. Therefore, the proposed practical recommendations will significantly assist the construction industry to improve its suboptimal performance to rescind the sovereignty of the irrelevant involvements. The research recommended establishing independent entity to lead the change in the construction industry; this entity will have the power of enacting rules and legislations. Furthermore, this independent entity will have the power and authority of dictations and impose sanctions on the non-committed organisations that are reluctant to adopt the recommended technologies and approaches.Originality/valueBased on the findings of the study, this paper draws a road map for the construction industry by determining practical solutions for improvements starting with an establishment of an independent authority that selects and tests the most appropriate technologies and approaches to contribute to performance improvements.
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