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Generation of construction and demolition waste (CDW) is a challenge for sustainable development. Recycling is required in response to energy consumption and natural resource depletion caused by CDW. Public-private partnership (PPP) mode provides a strategy for CDW recycling. This study aims to investigate the decision-making behaviours of the government and recyclers and propose management mechanisms to improve CDW recycling. Based on evolutionary game model, the influencing factors of stakeholders' behavioural strategies were identified, including the government supervision costs, penalty, subsidy, the benefits and costs of recyclers' cooperation and opportunism and consumers' purchase intention. The results revealed how the initial strategy proportions, penalties, subsidies and consumers' purchase intentions affect the evolutionary paths of stakeholders' decision-making behaviours in CDW recycling PPP projects. The larger the initial strategy value, the faster the evolutionary trajectory reaches ESS (0, 1). The penalty can restrain speculative behaviours of recyclers, whilst the subsidy has no significant effect. Consumer purchase intention can reduce the cost of government supervision and improve the cooperation efficiency of recyclers. These findings may contribute to enriching the body of knowledge in CDW and providing management mechanisms for CDW recycling practice. Appropriate penalty, subsidy and financial support policies should be formulated to promote the development of CDW recycling PPP projects.

Offsite construction (OSC) delivers multiple products that vary in design and building complexity. Considering the growing prevalence of OSC, a systematic categorization of OSC types can offer operational and macroeconomic benefits to the construction industry. The purpose of this study is to develop an OSC typology through a systematic process, as existing studies do not present a rigorously evaluated typology that suits the modern OSC context. The research addresses the following research question: what are the distinct characteristics of unique OSC types that have emerged through the adoption of Industry 4.0-based technological advancements? Due to the rapid advancement of production and construction technologies, the existing OSC classifications are becoming outdated. As such, a detailed review of OSC technologies was conducted which enabled the identification of OSC categories: components, panels, pods, modules, complete buildings, and flat-pack (foldable structure). A series of case studies was then reviewed to explore and analyze the relevance of these OSC types in practice. It was then subjected to a Delphi-based multi-level expert forum to develop a modern and future-proof OSC typology. The rigorous process validated, defined, and delineated the boundaries between the OSC types. The research confirmed that OSC types can be broadly categorized as volumetric (pods, modules, complete buildings) and non-volumetric (components, panels, foldable structure). The results indicated that OSC skills vary with the complexity of OSC types, and that lightweight steel and timber are the most common materials.

Purpose Industry 4.0 is exacerbating the need for offsite construction (OSC) adoption, and this rapid transformation is pushing the boundaries of construction skills towards extensive modernisation. The adoption of this modern production strategy by the construction industry would redefine the position of OSC. This study aims to examine whether the existing skills are capable of satisfying the needs of different OSC types. Design/methodology/approach A critical literature review evaluated the impact of transformative technology on OSC skills. An existing industry standard OSC skill classification was used as the basis to develop a master list that recognises emerging and diminishing OSC skills. The master list recognises 67 OSC skills under six skill categories: managers, professionals, technicians and trade workers, clerical and administrative workers, machinery operators and drivers and labourers. The skills data was extracted from a series of 13 case studies using document reviews and semi-structured interviews with project stakeholders. Findings The multiple case study evaluation recognised 13 redundant skills and 16 emerging OSC skills such as architects with building information modelling and design for manufacture and assembly knowledge, architects specialised in design and logistics integration, advanced OSC technical skills, factory operators, OSC estimators, technicians for three dimensional visualisation and computer numeric control operators. Interview findings assessed the current state and future directions for OSC skills development. Findings indicate that the prevailing skills are not adequate to readily relocate construction activities from onsite to offsite. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first studies that recognises the major differences in skill requirements for non-volumetric and volumetric OSC types.

Purpose The construction industry is currently responding to pressures of industrialisation happening across all sectors. Consequently, offsite construction (OSC) has become a vehicle to achieve industrialisation. This requires changes in traditional construction processes resulting in possible changes in construction skill requirements. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to identify and review prevailing OSC practices and skills in the Australian construction industry. This study aims to critically analyse the existing skill profile classifications through a single case study and identify the need for an OSC specific skill classification. Design/methodology/approach This study follows a case study design, with an in-depth analysis of a single construction project. Only one case study was studied because scientifically, one example was enough to prove that the prevailing skill classifications do not represent OSC skills in a modern context. Data was retrospectively collected through semi-structured interviews of project stakeholders representing design, manufacture and assembly. Content analysis was conducted to analyse the collected data and produce findings. Findings This study identifies the inadequacy of the existing classification system, unavailability and the need of OSC specific skill categorisation. It highlights new skills that enter OSC; building information modelling engineer, three-dimensional draftsperson, OSC project manager and project coordinator, which are not identified in the available Australian skill classifications. These, together with existing skills need to be carved in to create a new skill classification. Originality/value This study is the first of its kind where a comprehensive OSC project is evaluated as a case study to determine OSC skill classification requirements in Australia.

Purpose This paper aims to evaluate the existing and emerging Offsite Construction (OSC) skills. Construction industry is inherently labour oriented, fashioning poor labour productivity, low sustainability, slow and costly processes. These shortcomings promote OSC alongside driving forces such as industrialisation, automation and digitalisation. However, the traditional construction skills are not on par with the complexity, where robots, co-bots and digital-driven automated systems create the need for novel OSC skills. Design/methodology/approach Data collection is executed through a Roundtable activity hosting Construction Management academics form Australian universities specialising in construction technology. They engaged in ranking of skills along with creating a word cloud for the question, “what are the future construction skills that will be more beneficial in an OSC platform?” Word cloud is reviewed in a discussion approach while skills ranking data is analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings The most prominent OSC skills are logistics manager, project manager and digital producer. Attributes of skills that come under construction trades workers, design, engineering and specialist professionals will vary based on onsite-offsite percentage combination in a construction project. Study reviews the required construction skills at two ends of a continuum featuring the trade-based skills; bricklayer, concreter and carpenter at one end (traditional build) and the heavily digitalised and automated skills at the other end (OSC). The noticeable transition towards OSC urges industry practitioners, policy-makers and education providers to focus on understanding and cultivating key OSC skills. Originality/value This study describes the transition of skills from onsite to OSC. It is presented as one of the earliest attempts to evaluate OSC skill profiles.

Over the past decade, work-life balance (WLB) has induced growing attention in the construction industry due to the concomitant effects on the mental health of construction workers, turnover rate a...

Human-robot interactions can offer alternatives and new pathways for construction industries, industrial growth and skilled labour, particularly in a context of industry 4.0. This research investigates the potential of collaborative robots (CoBots) for the construction industry and subject matter experts; by surveying industry requirements and assessments of CoBot acceptance; by investing processes and sequences of work protocols for standard architecture robots; and by exploring motion capture and tracking systems for a collaborative framework between human and robot co-workers. The research investigates CoBots as a labour and collaborative resource for construction processes that require precision, adaptability and variability. Thus, this paper reports on a joint industry, government and academic research investigation in an Australian construction context. In section 1, we introduce background data to architecture robotics in the context of construction industries and reports on three sections. Section 2 reports on current industry applications and survey results from industry and trade feedback for the adoption of robots specifically to task complexity, perceived safety, and risk awareness. Section 3, as a result of research conducted in Section 2, introduces a pilot study for carpentry task sequences with capture of computable actions. Section 4 provides a discussion of results and preliminary findings. Section 5 concludes with an outlook on how the capture of computable actions provide the foundation to future research for capturing motion and machine learning.

The research of emergency management networks (EMNs) attracted much attention in recent years. However, it is lack of a systematic study to review these results. This paper aims to review publications related to EMNs based on a three-stage research framework. Then, the main research status, research methods and research topics were determined through scientometric analysis and qualitative discussion. It turns out that the research interest in EMNs is increasing. The USA, Australia, South Korea and Hong Kong have been the countries/regions conducted the most EMNs research. The scholars include but not limited to Kapucu, Comfort, Jung, Song, and Drabek were identified as the active scholars in this field. Survey/interview was found as the most popular data collection method; social network analysis was the most commonly used data analysis method. Emergency management (EM) network characteristics, network structure, and network performance and its influencing factors were the main research topics. The results of this review would provide a useful reference for both disaster EM researchers and practitioners.

PurposeCultural differences have been frequently cited as a major source of risks for international joint ventures (IJVs). Cultural differences may cause extensive conflicts in technology, norms and emotion among the international joint venture (IJV) partners. The purpose of this study is to explore the interactive effects of national culture differences (NCDs) and conflict management approaches on the performance of international construction joint ventures (ICJV).Design/methodology/approachData were collected using a questionnaire survey method with 143 valid responses. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses.FindingsIt was found that ICJV performance declined with a high degree of NCDs. The negative effect of NCDs on ICJV performance was mitigated by adopting the cooperative conflict management approach; while it was aggravated by adopting the competitive conflict management approach. The findings may provide an alternative way (i.e. adopting the cooperative conflict management approach rather than avoiding or competitive approaches) to address the cultural conflicts in the multicultural project management teams.Practical implicationsFirstly, as NCD negatively impacts performance of ICJVs, project managers should pay attention to cultural issues and learn how to manage them; Secondly, as cooperative and competitive conflict management approaches have different moderating effects on the relationship between NCD and ICJV performance, project managers must choose appropriate conflict management styles in multination teams. Thirdly, as the avoiding approach has no significant moderating effect on the negative relationship between NCD and ICJV performance, it is important for Chinese partners not to employ avoiding approach to deal with conflicts in ICJV.Originality/valueThis study uniquely adds to the literature on cultural issues in managing ICJVs by integrating the moderating effects of conflict management approaches. The interactive effects of conflict management approaches and national cultural differences on ICJV project performance may contribute to the theories regarding conflict management theory in the context of cross-cultural management.

A well-designed collection system plays a critical role in establishing a financially sustainable construction and demolition (C&D) management system. In order to achieve the best performance of the collection system, the development of an advanced decision-making tool with trade-off among multiple criteria is significant. The main objective of this research is to select economically best locations of transfer stations (TSs) to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the collection system for C&D waste. This paper develops a scenario-based multi-period robust facility location model to minimize the total cost of the collection system for C&D waste. The novelty of the proposed model is the consideration of the uncertainty of C&D waste generation source locations in the construction industry. Also, besides the traditional economic criteria, the risk of decision-making or the reliability of the optimal solution obtained is taken into account for the best overall performance solution. A comparative analysis is performed to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed model. The trade-offs between decision-making risk and economic criteria are performed with a sensitivity analysis. By applying the proposed robust facility location model for TSs for a case study in Chongqing, China, this paper verify the effectiveness and usefulness of the model. The results of this study indicate that the dynamic location strategy made by the proposed robust model can remain the optimal layout of the TSs under uncertainty to improve facility efficiency. Moreover, focusing on risk criteria in decision-making can achieve the best performance solution with reliability.

Evidence suggests that team teaching is linked to significant tangible and intangible benefits to students, academic staff, and institutions. Partnering with industry participants is an emerging trend of team teaching in the higher education sector. Partnering with industry participants in curriculum design and unit delivery will ensure that students learn about important industry developments and help students improve their employability. It also will be helpful for academic staff to engage with the industry. Team teaching has been piloted at the School that the Authors are working at and the outcomes were very positive. In 2020, team teaching is required to be implemented in another core unit of Construction Management Undergraduate Program. By addressing the lessons learnt in implementing team teaching in the Authors’ units and being guided by previous research, a plan to implement Team Teaching in this core unit is presented in this paper. This plan will be evaluated and improved after each semester and it will be redeveloped with the industry partner every 3 years.

Non-Grain Production is verycommon to see in many areas in China, which threatens food security. To understand the spatio-temporal characteristics of NGP is helpful in mitigating it. This study has applied a new approach to measure the NGP rate. Results show that, the NGP rate reached the peak of 1.49 in 2003 across the 20 selected years. Moreover, the NGP rate was revealed to be higher in the north and the east compared to the south and the west. Additionally, the NGP rate is shown to move from north to south with a total of 68.78 km whenapplying the centroid migration model. The patterns of NGP are shown usingspatial heterogeneity: the high-high agglomeration pattern was revealed mainly in the north, while there are less provinces of this pattern as time goes by. In addition, the Theil index of the NGP rate indicates that the equity of NGP remains at a low level in the first ten years and getslarger and larger in the later ten years.

Purpose Although research on prefabricated construction has gained increasing attention in recent years, limited efforts have been devoted to investigating safety issues in the off-site manufacture, especially workers’ behavioral intentions to work safely. Thus, research is needed to identify the motivational factors determining off-site construction workers’ safety behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate workers’ safety behavior by examining the determinants of behavioral intention in the off-site manufacturing plants in China. Design/methodology/approach Theory of planned behavior (TPB) was modified and used in this study to explain how the elements in the hypothesized model interact. Data were collected using a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling technique with partial least-squares estimation was used to analyze the data collected. Findings The findings of this study indicated that workers’ tendency to engage in safety behavior is positively related to attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and behavioral habit, among which attitude toward the behavior and behavioral habit have most significant influences on safety behavior. This finding provides a better explanation on the pathways and the impacts of the crucial factors on the safety behaviors for the off-site manufacture. Originality/value The possible innovation of this research lies in its attempt to understand the antecedents of workers’ safety behavior in the off-site construction environment, which may make original contributions to construction safety research and practice. The findings of this study contribute to the body of knowledge in TPB. Corresponding countermeasures are put forward in order to improve workers’ safety behavior in off-site construction.

The high rates of fatalities and injuries in the construction industry highlight the importance of work health and safety (WHS). Building information modelling (BIM) could significantly improve WHS management in construction, but integration has been limited. The chapter explores the application of BIM for WHS management and the rationale for market leaders' role to catalyse a BIM-enabled WHS management ecosystem through procurement strategies and tendering proficiency. An international comparative analysis of BIM WHS is presented along with a BIM drivers and barriers critique, including a clustering into seven areas of market, perceptions and attitudes, leadership, supply chain integration and collaborative practice, procurement strategies and tendering proficiency, decision tools, and technical functionality. A focussed decision framework is outlined. The findings provide insights for researchers and practitioners to understand how a BIM-enabled WHS management system can be facilitated and supported through the project lifecycle.

Robotics adoption has been recognized as the solution to the decline in productivity and efficiency in the construction industry. Many literature has concentrated on the technical aspect of robotics application in the construction industry. Nevertheless, the human and organizational factors that can affect the benefits of adopting robotics necessitate the demand for the social impacts of robotics. Despite the significance of social impacts, there is no systematic analysis on the social impacts of robotics on the construction industry. This paper aims to examine the social impacts of adopting robotics in the construction industry through a three-stage literature review. The findings revealed that robotics affect human operator by changing the competencies skill and posing health and safety risks. It impacts the organization by changing the organizational structure, management approach, robot ethics standard and liability. The outcome of this paper contributes to the body of knowledge through summarizing, reviewing and analyzing the social impact of robotics on the construction industry. Additionally, it assists the practitioners to be aware of the issues behind the adoption of robotics.

Off-site construction is one of the most dangerous industrial sectors, which involve many types of safety risks influencing on health and safety of human beings. So far, construction workers’ unsafe behaviours have been recognized as the major cause of accidents in the construction workplaces. However, as there are few studies on safety behaviour in off-site manufacturing plants, the reason why construction workers have involved in unsafe behaviours and accidents is still unknown and workers’ unsafe behaviours still exist in the construction workplaces. Therefore, there’s a need for a better understanding on how construction workers have involved in unsafe behaviours and accidents in the off-site manufacturing plants. The aim of this research is to develop a conceptual framework of off-site construction workers’ safety behaviour, which captures the main factors that play a significant role in workers’ safety behaviour. The model’s value lies in its ability to explain the pathway of safety behaviour and the impacts of the crucial factors on safety behaviour in the off-site manufacturing plants and it will also contribute to the continuing work on the theory of planned behaviour.

Mental health is a significant topic in the construction industry. In the context of globalization, there is a growing trend of diverse culture in the construction industry which may exacerbate the mental health issues of construction workforce. To better understand the mental health conditions in construction workplace within a diversified culture, a review of previous research studies in this area would be of great importance. This study aims to review literature on mental health in the culturally diverse construction workplace, investigate the research gaps, and provide suggestions of future research directions. Ten academic papers published between 2010 and 2018 were identified. Severe mental health problems were found among people who work in the construction industry with disparate cultures. The studies were identified into two cultural categories. Research on the cross-cultural aspect was mainly focused on the stress management of expatriate construction professionals, while multi-cultural studies primarily investigated the prevalence of mental health problems of construction migrant workers. Based on the research gaps, further research is needed on exploring the stress management of construction workers in a cross-cultural background, investigating the cultural-related stressors, and adopting mixed research approaches.

Traditionally, construction and demolition waste (CDW) materials have been considered to be unwanted, surplus, or wastage materials or materials with zero value. Such a conceptualisation only embraces a negative aspect, which underpins the disposal of reusable and recyclable CDW materials in landfills, thus damaging the circular economy and the environment. The scope of this research was to conceptualise the circular economy potential of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste, which can be used as a resource for advancing the circular economy and sustainability in the built environment. Thus, the abbreviation ‘CEPCDR’ is used for this purpose. The study employs an integrative literature review to understand in depth whether the rationale in the existing CDW definitions advocates for the circular economy. Instead, the literature showed that the current definitions mainly support quantitative, economic, or classification needs, respectively. That is because they lack consideration of the dynamic nature of CDW materials, which embraces the spatial and temporal dimensions. The former involves the geographic context in which the CDW phenomenon eventuates, while the latter concerns the lifecycle of materials. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by conceptualising the CEPCDR using a holistic approach that includes five dimensions: the social, economic, environmental, spatial, and temporal perspectives. Furthermore, the study seeks to drive future research in measuring the CEPCDR. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

A resilient safety culture is characterized by the capability of addressing the changing and unforeseen safety risks associated with the increasingly complex nature of sociotechnical systems, and creating an ultrasafe organization. An assessment of the maturation of resilient safety culture helps organizations to evaluate their capabilities of managing safety risks and achieving a consistently high safety performance. This study aims to present a maturity model developed to measure and improve resilient safety culture in the construction environment. The research was conducted in two stages. The first stage consisted of a review of the literature on the concepts of a resilient safety culture and the capability maturity model for the development of a maturity model. In the second stage, the developed model was evaluated using the Delphi technique. The model defines five maturity levels that can be used to measure resilient safety culture of a construction organization. It presents a set of descriptions of 19 aspects of resilient safety culture at each maturity level. The assessment procedure and the way of using the model are further discussed. Theoretically, this study provides insights into the maturity characteristics of a resilient safety culture. In practical terms, it offers guidance for benchmarking and encouraging the enhancement of organizations’ capabilities to manage safety risks. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Aiming at the difficulty in locating and identifying the faults of oil-immersed transformers, a new spherical submersible transformer inspection robot is designed. The robot has a spherical structure with a zero turn radius, which ensures its flexible motion. It is a difficult problem for the underactuated spherical robot to realize the hovering control for identifying transformer fault points. To address the problem, the dynamic model and kinematics equations of the robot are derived by the hydrodynamic theory at first. Then, an adaptive sliding mode backstepping control (ASMBC) is used to design the cascade control system. The cascade control system consists of the depth control and the yaw control. The performance of the controller is verified by both simulation and real experiments. The simulation experimental results demonstrate that ASMBC controller is superior to the single neuron PID. The tank trials results show that the movement of the robot is flexible, and the hover control can satisfy the requirement of fault observation tasks.

Due to the increasing complexity of construction projects, the construction industry is acknowledged as having inherent risks with high levels of change and uncertainty. Therefore, resilien...

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought global economies to a standstill and created challenges for a variety of sectors, including housing, building and infrastructure. Many business and government organisations have experienced some form of supply chain disruption—either through suppliers going offline, a sudden spike in demand or both. While embedding sustainability in procurement is a powerful tool for bringing about positive change in an organisation’s supply chains, this global pandemic has had a myriad of impacts on these procurement processes. Through focus group discussions with industrial practitioners and government decision makers from the Australian built environment sector, this study presents their lived experiences related to COVID-19 impacts on sustainable procurement. The emergent themes are: (1) the effects of COVID-19 on sustainable procurement, (2) the rapid development of reactive procurement responses and (3) levers for post-COVID-19 sustainable procurement. In order to learn from the challenges related to COVID-19, both government and industry need to re-assess their supply chain risks and determine the supply chain design that will deliver the most resiliency in the event of another large-scale disruption. There are several key levers, including developing reliable, transparent and local supply chains, leveraging innovative tools and digital engineering approaches, creating a coalition between government and industry and assessing risks at multiple levels. This study is the first of its kind to evaluate the COVID-19 impacts on sustainable procurement in the Australian building and construction industries. Government and industry practitioners can immediately apply these actionable recommendations to overcome the impacts of the pandemic and other disruptions on sustainable procurement activities.

Effective rework management (RM) not only increases profitability but also enhances management competence of contractors. However, little research has been conducted to explore the learning nature of RM from the perspective of contractors. Based on a longitudinal case study of three construction projects, this paper aims to present a holistic analysis on the RM learning process from the experience of a small-to-medium (SM) general contractor (GC) in China to explore the underlying facts determining the effectiveness of RM practices. It was found that a variety of causes led to rework in the three projects, which highlighted the importance to enhance GC's learning capacity to effectively reduce rework. A conceptual RM learning framework (CRMLF), which consists of people, approach, process, tool and project environment, was developed based on the analysis of influential factors of successful learning within the RM domain. This paper is valuable for practitioners and academics to understand the inherent nature of RM to continuously improve the project performance.