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This is an account that should be heard of an important struggle: the struggle of a large group of experts who came together at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to warn the world about the risk of airborne transmission and the consequences of ignoring it. We alerted the World Health Organization about the potential significance of the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the urgent need to control it, but our concerns were dismissed. Here we describe how this happened and the consequences. We hope that by reporting this story we can raise awareness of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the need to be open to new evidence, and to prevent it from happening again. Acknowledgement of an issue, and the emergence of new evidence related to it, is the first necessary step towards finding effective mitigation solutions.

In the construction industry, digitalisation has led to increasing efforts to improve construction management using digital visual management (VM) devices. Although the amount of research on digital VM (DVM) in the design phase and in the management of construction sites has also increased, its implementation during the production phase and by construction crews remains limited. The objective of this study is to explore the adoption of DVM in construction sites, assess construction workers’ experiences regarding digital and analogue VM devices, and understand the challenges that hinder the adoption of such devices. This study used a mixed method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative research. Data included visual site explorations, surveys of construction workers and crew managers, and unstructured interviews with site managers and development directors to assess the use of DVM devices in construction sites, the need for them and their current implementation. The findings showed that VM should be conveniently located near the job site instead of the office site, which is the current situation. Construction crews who experienced more production and schedule disruptions reported that VM supported their work, compared with crews that had fewer disruptions. VM devices on construction sites are analogue, and their usage continues to be in construction site management, which perpetuates information silos during construction projects. The findings of this study provide insights into the development and deployment of DVM devices on construction sites. Construction workers’ need for visual information close at hand is of interest to both scholars and practitioners in future research and development.

Purpose Prefabricated products are continually entering the building construction market; yet, the decision to use prefabricated products in a construction project is based mostly on personal preferences and the evaluation of direct costs. Researchers and practitioners have debated appropriate measurement systems for evaluating the impacts of prefabricated products and for comparing them with conventional on-site construction practices. The more advanced, cost–benefit approach to evaluating prefabricated products often inspires controversy because it may generate inaccurate results when converting non-monetary effects into costs. As prefabrication may affect multiple organisations and product subsystems, the method used to decide on production methods should consider multiple direct and indirect impacts, including nonmonetary ones. Thus, this study aims to develop a multi-criteria method to evaluate both the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabrication solutions to facilitate decision-making on whether to use prefabricated products. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon a literature review, this research suggests a multi-criteria method that combines the choosing-by-advantage approach with a cost–benefit analysis. The method was presented for validation in focus group discussions and tested in a case involving a prefabricated bathroom. Findings The analysis indicates that the method helps a project’s stakeholders communicate about the relative merits of prefabrication and conventional construction while facilitating the final decision of whether to use prefabrication. Originality/value This research contributes a method of evaluating the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabricated products. The research underlines the need to evaluate the diverse benefits and sacrifices that stakeholder face when considering production methods in construction.

It is generally acknowledged that good-quality design is a prerequisite for good quality and productive construction work. One proposed measure to improve the quality of construction has been contractors’ involvement in the design phase, and this phenomenon has been studied by several researchers. However, such approaches have not adequately addressed how this involvement affects the quality of the design. In this study, the aim was to study the effects of the early involvement of contactors on design quality based on evaluating the design quality factors. A case study was used to collect data and content analysis to analyze structural drawings and design meeting minutes of a large-scale infrastructure project. Particularly, the focus was on gathering information on the quality of the design and how it was addressed in the design coordination. We combined this quantitative data with qualitative open-ended thematic interviews, including respondents who led and coordinated the design on both the client and contractor sides. Our findings suggest that despite the vast amount of design changes, contractors’ involvement and development work in the detailed design phase improved design quality and constructability. Our findings also suggest that the contractor’s involvement during the schematic design phase had a design-enhancing effect in the detailed design phase. This study contributes to our understanding of contractors’ valuable role in design quality.

The last planner system™ (LPS) is a production control method used in lean construction projects that has offered good results to construction companies in terms of improving labour productivity, increasing collaboration and the possibility for developing continuous learning. This short study contributes to LPS research on the reliability of promises and how parties perceive their effects on schedule and productivity. The study was conducted using a case study on an industrial construction project in which LPS had been in use since its start. Research data were collected using a semi-structured survey conducted online due to the pandemic. The study also utilized project progress data and measurement data from the LPS sessions. The most interesting result of the study was how little the LPS participants felt they had to compromise their goals. We also found how scheduling methods used in parallel with LPS can frustrate users and contribute to reducing its usefulness. Our findings can be used in further research in several ways, either by utilising the questionnaire we developed or by comparing our findings to other studies. We believe that practitioners using LPS will benefit from our results and can use them to address these shortcomings identified in future projects.

Building Design Management (DM) is challenging due to the fragmentation of project partners, the iterative nature of design and the tradition of informal management of designers. Therefore, many contractors do not trust the promises of designers and protect the construction schedule with schedule buffers that increase project lead times. To act upon this situation, several researchers have suggested using the Last Planner™ System (LPS) as a method for DM. Using two case studies, we present how the use of the LPS method as a tool for Daily Management (DAM) increases the reliability of the design and how, correspondingly, not using it can affect design reliability. So far, very little attention has been paid to the role of DAM in DM, and this short article seeks to provide new insights into this research gap for both researchers in the field and DM professionals. These early and exploratory results, despite the limited number of cases, can be utilised in further research as well as in practical project management, especially when the reduction of schedule buffers between construction and design is targeted

Digital twinning is a new approach to enhance the management of design, planning and construction operations. A construction digital twin aims to enhance the reality capture of ongoing operations using sensing technologies and AI functions to enable proactive process management. While a digital twin is clearly defined in the context of construction operations, where a digital replica is generated out of a physical site; a design digital twin lacks a clear framing as both twins are digital. This paper explores an approach to creating a design digital twin using agent-based simulation to mimic real BIM-based design projects. Accordingly, a digital replica is generated as an agent-based model. In addition, several KPIs are introduced to capture data related to BIM model dynamics. The results show that the suggested KPIs can increase the transparency of the design process, capture development dynamics at the level of BIM model elements, increase situational awareness among designers related to model development status, and identify higher clashing risk zones.

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 American Society for Engineering Management. The Critical Path Method (CPM), the Last Planner System (LPS) and location-based methods, such as the Line of Balance (LB), are discussed extensively in the technical literature about schedules. However, no discussion exists focusing on the differences and similarities of these methods in terms of their use in different countries. Using chi-squared and Fisher’s exact tests, this research compared three countries (Brazil, Finland, and United States) and the methods to evaluate both intra- and inter-country implementation to gain additional insights about their use. Results suggest statistically significant intra- and inter-country differences regarding how these methods are used, with a specific focus on mechanics in the countries, offering important information to address their various scheduling needs. The results reflect the current state of practice; engineering and construction managers should understand different ways of understanding scheduling. Such understanding can lead to more efficient communication with collaborators and when incorporating foreign teams in projects. The study identifies the need for further scientific explanation as to why these methods are used in the manner they are intra-country as well as adaptions made in inter-country relationships.

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Decentralised, autonomous planning and control is a potential avenue of improvement in several fields, including construction. However, research on this topic, particularly involving the production crew viewpoint, remains scarce within the construction production management domain. This study explores the effects of decentralisation (and in contrast, effects of centralisation) for construction production planning and control (PP&C) from the combined perspectives of production crews and managers, and utilises these viewpoints to suggest improvements for PP&C practices. The study answers the following research questions: How do decentralisation/centralisation affect construction PP&C practices when considering both the production crew and manager perspectives? and Based on the aforementioned perspectives, how may construction PP&C practices overall be improved? To achieve holistic assessment, the research is conducted as a multi-method comparative case study using survey-based social network analysis (SNA) and semi-structured interviews. The results show that decentralised PP&C offers several benefits—such as improved transparency, conflict resolution, commitment, and lower stress—while allowing a proactive building of resilience, trust, ownership and autonomy for crews. In its current applied form, however, the approach does not fully reach the worker level. Regardless of the approach that is used, production crews perceive PP&C as decentralised, while managers perceive PP&C as having centralised structures. This gap between perceptions forms barriers for effective PP&C that must be properly addressed. Eight improvement suggestions are constructed to improve PP&C, that generally emphasise more deliberate decentralisation but that also indicate the necessity of partial central planning and control.

It is difficult to find a cross-industry comparison where the construction industry is not one of the worst performing industries. Countless studies demonstrates that the industry is lacking other industries in productivity development and safety. But are we actually comparing apples-to-apples, or, moreover, are there areas where construction industry is performing better than most industries? It is easy to show what does not work but it seems to be harder to show what works. This paper presents some early results of performance measures that large number of leading engineering and construction companies have agreed to measure performance on in the Finnish construction industry. We compare reliability, user experience, sustainability, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Based on this baseline progress in the industry will be followed and also compared to other industries. There are already some interesting points to be lifted, like schedule reliability in Finland seems to be higher than in studies in other countries. Another interesting observation is customer satisfaction and Net Promotor score, where construction industry scores higher than most other industries. Based on the performance measures the paper discusses about industry performance in general.

Continuous improvement depends on appropriate productivity measures. Productivity can be measured through time-motion studies but relies heavily on manual efforts and therefore contributes insufficiently to real-time awareness in dynamic environments such as construction. Indoor positioning shows potential determining shares of construction workers VA (Value-adding), based on Bluetooth Low Energy technology in real-time. Different studies show positive correlations between VA and productivity. However, it is unknown from location data how much workers engage in VA work while being present. Applying both methods simultaneously to one worker, this paper shows how to numerically quantify direct work (DW) and VA. Such combined data can show how much VA and DW occur when uninterrupted presence is detected while applying thresholds, indicating minimum durations spent inside work locations. Utilizing a small data sample enabled proof-of-concept testing and resulted in numerical quantifications of DW and VA. Preliminary findings show larger proportions of DW and VA when uninterrupted presence time is higher. Future research needs to enlarge the included data. If findings hold true, uninterrupted presence with higher thresholds could predict more accurate workers´ VA levels in real-time. The study also contributes to knowledge positively impacting construction by bridging workers’ behaviors on-site with monitoring technologies detecting movement

MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) coordination is a challenging task in construction projects. Failing to properly manage the MEP activities can lead to consuming up to 60% of the total budget, as noted in literature. Previous studies have documented several challenges of MEP coordination; however, they did not focus on understanding different stakeholders' perspectives. Thus, in this research, we have analyzed the challenges of MEP coordination from different stakeholders’ perspectives taking the Finnish construction sector as a case. The study employed semi-structured interviews, web-based surveys, and experts’ workshops as means of data collection. In addition, we have also analyzed current practices for MEP coordination and presented possible ways to improve the MEP coordination in Finnish construction industries. The results showed significant shortcomings including non-accurate initial design plans, lack of trust between parties, unforeseen MEP cost at early phases, and unavailability of realtime progress monitoring tools. As a contribution, this study presented several challenges, especially in the regional context. Furthermore, this study also analyzed currently used MEP coordination practices in the Finnish construction market and presented suggestions for improvements. The findings of this study will help in the reduction of construction wastes, delays, and cost overruns in construction projects.

Construction projects need adequate planning to set a structure and direction for production, but simultaneously call for effective control to maintain the direction when something unexpected happens. Effective control is of utmost importance for takt production, which is especially vulnerable when disruptions occur. While previous takt production research has primarily focused on how to form a good takt plan, little attention has been given to how to control and continuously improve takt production systems effectively. Addressing the gap, this study inspects takt control through the lenses of failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA). First, we argue that takt control can be perceived through three different failure categories: failures within wagons, failures in handoffs, and failures in takt trains. We discuss the peculiarities of takt control through these categories and provide examples of failures with their respective failure mode(s) and possible control action(s). Second, we construct an FMEA-based framework for effective takt control that shows how to recover from failures and avoid them altogether. Future research may consider validating the failure categories and the framework through case studies or simulations, and examining their applicability in supporting digital takt production.

Continuous improvement requires visualizing process constraints which interrupt workflows. Production control from a management perspective often operates at lower levels of information granularity than required at operational levels to perform work without interruptions. If not controlled in detail, causes and effects of workflow interruptions remain unclear in environments of high complexity and non-standardized work. Workflow efficiency has been studied through work sampling or time-motion studies, estimating shares of direct work. However, few studies exist that show how to create digital representations of workflows and analyse them for interruptions, contributing to smoother workflows. The paper examines workflows of plumbing work from video footage. This video data is classified and analysed for frequency, causes, and effects of work interruptions. Results indicate that value-supporting activities caused the largest proportion of interruptions. Moreover, the proportion of non-value-adding activities increases when durations of interruptions rise. Based on the results, the paper contributes to further understanding of workflow interruptions in plumbing work. Finally, it provides suggestions on how to close gaps of information granularity between management and operational levels, through the development of simulation models and the application of automated data collection, contributing to developing digital twins of construction processes.

Funding Information: The research was conducted as part of the Aalto University’s research project “Building 2030 - industrialized construction“ which is funded by 19 companies operating in the real estate and construction sector. The Finnish Science Foundation for Economics and Technology has also financed the research. Earlier results have been published in a conference paper by Lavikka, R., Chauhan, K., Peltokorpi, A. and Seppänen, O. (2018) Fostering prefabrication in construction projects - case MEP in Finland in eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, eds. Karlshoj, J. and Scherer, R. Taylor and Francis Group, London, UK. Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling (ECPPM 2018), Copenhagen, Denmark, 12-14 September 2018. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, Rita Lavikka, Krishna Chauhan, Antti Peltokorpi and Olli Seppänen. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved. Purpose: Systemic innovations emerge and create value in an inter-organisational context. However, innovation studies rarely investigate the role of value creation and value capture among multiple organisations in successful innovation implementation. This paper aims to understand the role of value creation and value capture in the implementation of systemic innovations in construction which is by nature, an inter-organisational context. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical research focused on the barriers, enablers and opportunities for value creation and value capture of the Finnish construction project parties when trying to implement mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) prefabrication, which is a systemic innovation. Data were collected through interviews, observations and action workshops. Findings: The empirical study identified interaction patterns on how social, political, technical and economic barriers lead to uneven value capturing, lack of value-based procurement and unclear value creation between MEP design and installation. They hinder the implementation of MEP prefabrication. The results point to enablers leading to fairly shared value to all parties, procurement of value and collaborative value creation, thus increasing the usage of MEP prefabrication, a systemic innovation. Originality/value: The study adds new knowledge by demonstrating that the identification of barriers and their interaction with enablers and opportunities for value creation and capture lay a baseline for suggestions on how to implement a systemic innovation. This study stresses the importance of enabling value creation and capture for all construction project parties when implementing a systemic innovation.