US productivity and fast tracking starts on the drawing board

Gray, C. Boyden; Flanagan, Roy C.

doi:10.1080/01446198400000013

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This method, while relatively risk-free, cannot necessarily meet the obligation of sharp deadlines. Fasttracking, through the overlapping of activities, is a replacement to the sequential approach and has been adopted since the late 1970s and early 1980s (Gray and Flanagan, 1984;Wearne, 1984). Since the 1980s, fasttracking continues to grow in popularity due to growing industry demands (Blacud et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

An optimization-based model for maximizing the benefits of fast-track construction activities

Khoueiry

Srour

Yassine

2013

Journal of the Operational Research Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fast-track construction projects have become more popular in recent years in response to growing industry demand. By allowing downstream construction activities to start with incomplete information from upstream design activities, fast-tracking (through overlapping) allows for shorter project duration at the expense of potential rework. This leaves practitioners with the challenge of determining the optimal fast-tracking strategy to meet project schedule requirements while avoiding excessive amounts of rework. This paper presents an optimization-based model that serves as a decision support tool in scheduling fast-track construction activities. The model takes into consideration information exchange between upstream and downstream activities and uses the concepts of sensitivity and evolution to maximize the net benefits of fast-tracking. The model is illustrated on an ongoing construction project, which was analysed under various overlapping scenarios. The results indicate substantial time savings depending on the speed of evolution and sensitivity. The project schedule can be shortened by up to 50 days without causing excessive amounts of rework.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

An optimization-based model for maximizing the benefits of fast-track construction activities

Khoueiry

Srour

Yassine

2013

Journal of the Operational Research Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast to their limited presence in traditional design discourse, shop drawings have started to appear consistently in the technical discussion on the organization of information in the building process at least since the 1960s, first with the studies on communication in construction and modelling of construction activities -such as those by Ward [13], Bishop and Alsop [14], Honey [15] and Turin [16], and then with the studies on the changing divisions of labour in building design -for example Gray and Flanagan [17] [18], Bennett and Ferry [19], Haviland [20], and, particularly, Pietroforte [21] [22] [23], Notably, these later studies remark on the growth of shop drawings in relation to other types of projectbased documents. More and more, decisions about manufacturing and construction at project level are taken on the basis of visual information produced by the building side of the process.…”

Section: Introduction -Shop Drawings and Their Currencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural shop drawings at the Sydney Opera House: An instructive model of information flow?

Tombesi

Stracchi

Cardellicchio

2022

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The history of the design decisions directly related to the construction of the Sydney Opera House remains largely anecdotal. A rich group of items recently discovered in Australia may now start filling this gap, as documents brought to light include the drawings issued by the general contractor to build the concrete formwork for the shells, drawings of the temporary structures and falsework, site images, and contractor’s notes. All in all, the drawings display sophisticated combinatory solutions for attaining the structural form required whilst introducing repetition and flexibility in the making of the discrete pieces. While suggesting a remarkable combination of manufacturing and structural shrewdness, these blueprints call into question the canonical history of the building roof’s famous ‘sails’, the rhetoric of the ‘spherical solution’ used to arrive at them, and, most importantly, the information production and knowledge management model we conventionally work within.

show abstract

“…For example, Gray and Flanagan (1984) inferred that designs which considered the use of on-site technologies often resulted in higher labour productivity. Hinze and Parker (1988) also discovered the influence of design on the productivity of construction operations.…”

Section: Work Content Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Productivity improvements: understand the workforce perceptions of productivity first

Chan

Kaka

2007

Personnel Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeTo establish the differences between the perceptions of white‐collar managers and blue‐collar workers with respect to the factors that affect construction labour productivity, and to show that integrating the differences could lead to productivity improvements.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey administered to a purposive sample of 400 project managers and a convenience sample of 152 construction workers, eliciting current trends of their perceptions towards 59 factors that were extracted from an extensive literature review and exploratory study. This was followed by the identification of good practice examples from site observations across two project sites.FindingsThe study found distinct differences between the two groups, with white‐collar managers being more concerned with resource planning issues and the blue‐collar workers placing more value on the utilisation of resources. Furthermore, the site observations demonstrated that integrating these differences through employee involvement could lead to productivity improvements.Originality/valueThe study should extend previous productivity research, which had hitherto focussed on shorter‐term work content and work environment factors from a managerial perspective, with relatively lesser focus on the perspective of the general workforce.

show abstract

US productivity and fast tracking starts on the drawing board

Abstract: ~ of Reudirlg. MfltireCori~llrts, Recidi~l Show more

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

An optimization-based model for maximizing the benefits of fast-track construction activities

An optimization-based model for maximizing the benefits of fast-track construction activities

Structural shop drawings at the Sydney Opera House: An instructive model of information flow?

Productivity improvements: understand the workforce perceptions of productivity first

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About