Development of constructability concepts, principles and practices

Abstract

Constructability is a system for achieving optimum integration of construction knowledge in the building process and balancing the various project and environmental constraints to achieve maximisation of project goals and building performance (CII Australia 1993). Constructability concepts and principles, considered during conceptual planning, design, procurement, construction and use, can make the total building process easier to manage, quicker and more cost effective. When constructability becomes an implied and accepted aspect of the total building process it has the potential to deliver real benefits to clients, consultants, contractors and users. Constructability practices have developed from application and a considerable body of research conducted over the last thirty years. This paper reviews the development of constructability concepts and the identification of the key principles of constructability, and identifies the likely future developments in constructability research and practice. Historically, the attention given to constructability has been somewhat narrowly focused on individual project stages, and therefore, the multi‐dimensional aspects of constructability have not been fully considered and the real benefits may have been missed. The findings presented in this paper indicate that the construction industry has begun to address more purposefully the concerns and difficulties of actively managing the interface between the various stages of the building process in addition to considering the facets of the individual stages themselves. In this way, constructability is becoming an important and powerful concept which can be applied beneficially to the total building process.

A study of measures to improve constructability

“…Extrapolating from isolated examples of incorporating construction advice into the design, the savings were estimated to be within the range of 1 percent to 14 percent of the capital cost (Gray, 1983). Further studies have substantiated improved constructability resulting in savings of total project cost (Boyce, 1991;Pepper, 1994;Geile, 1996;Griffith and Sidwell, 1997;Eldin, 1999;Francis et al, 1999;Jergeas and Put, 2001;Elgohary et al, 2003;Trigunarsyah, 2004a). In particular, lower cost of bidding (Gibson et al, 1996), reduced site labour (Lam, 2002), increased cost effectiveness (Low and Abeyegoonasekera, 2001), and better resource utilisation (Eldin, 1999) have been reported.…”

“…Benefits in relation to time were referred to as early completion (Griffith and Sidwell, 1997;Eldin, 1999;Francis et al, 1999;Low and Abeyegoonasekera, 2001;Elgohary et al, 2003;Trigunarsyah, 2004a, b), increased productivity (Poh and Chen, 1998;Low, 2001) and reduced outage duration (Eldin, 1999). Higher quality of the built products was also achieved (Eldin, 1999;Francis et al, 1999;Low, 2001;Low and Abeyegoonasekera, 2001;Elgohary et al, 2003;Trigunarsyah, 2004c).…”

“…Another common approach of improvement is through reviewing constructability with different methodologies, such as using formalised constructability reviews at design IJQRM 24,6 and construction stages (Ford et al, 2004), early implementation of the review in the conceptual planning stage (Arditi et al, 2002), integration of constructability improvements into project development (Anderson et al, 2000), integration of analytical review tools into the constructability review process (Fisher et al, 2000), implementation of the constructability review process at different project stages (Young III, 1998), the in-house design-phase constructability review (Glavinich, 1995), and the carrying out of constructability review by an independent team with hands-on experience in similar projects (Pepper, 1994). Thirdly, improvement can be realized by implementing constructability programmes at various project stages (Harbuck, 1991;Vardhan et al, 1992;Opfer, 1994;Russell et al, 1994;Anderson et al, 1995;Geile, 1996;Griffith and Sidwell, 1997;Uhlik and Lores, 1998;Kog et al, 1999;Chasey and Schexnayder, 2000;Jergeas and Put, 2001;Nima et al, 2004Nima et al, , 2001aTrigunarsyah, 2004a, b).…”

“…For some, improvement measures were to be carried out throughout the whole building process (Chen and McGeorge, 1994;Opfer, 1994;Geile, 1996;Griffith and Sidwell, 1997;Francis et al, 1999;Chasey and Schexnayder, 2000;Dulaimi et al, 2004), whilst others applied their measures to the various stages of briefing, conceptual planning, design, procurement, construction, contract review and tendering, etc. (Harbuck, 1991;Uhlik and Lores, 1998;Anderson et al, 2000;Jergeas and Put, 2001;Low and Abeyegoonasekera, 2001;Nima et al, 1999Nima et al, , 2001aNima et al, , b, 2004Ford et al, 2004;Trigunarsyah, 2004a, b, c;Phair, 2005).…”

Constructability: Owners, Designers, and Contractors Practices in Industrial Projects

“…Furthermore, in the early 1990s, the CII in the United States of America and the CII of Australia collaboratively developed the Constructability Principles File tailored to the Australian construction industry (CII of Australia, 1993). The Constructability Principles File highlights 12 principles, which are considered the general fundamentals for implementing the constructability concepts and program (Adams, 1989;CII of Australia, 1993;Griffith and Sidwell, 1997). The 12 principles are integration, construction knowledge, team skills, corporate objectives, available resources, external factors, programmer, construction methodology, accessibility, specifications, construction innovation, and feedback.…”