Models that depict innovation as a smooth, well-behaved linear process badly misspecify the nature and direction of the causal factors at work. Innovation is complex, uncertain, somewhat disorderly, and subject to changes of many sorts. Innovation is also difficult to measure and demands close coordination of adequate technical knowledge and excellent market judgment in order to satisfy economic, technological, and other types of constraints—all simultaneously. The process of innovation must be viewed as a series of changes in a complete system not only of hardware, but also of market environment, production facilities and knowledge, and the social contexts of the innovation organization.

An Overview of Innovation

https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/preview/909609/1.%20ADVEI-D-16-00028R2.pdf

Big Data in the construction industry

Rapid advancement of technology continues to leverage change and innovation in the construction industry. Continued digitization of the industry offers the opportunity to totally reinvent contemporary construction design and delivery practice for future development. Building Information Modelling (BIM) within the context of Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) has been developing since the early 2000s and is considered to be a key technology. Despite major technical advancements in BIM, it has not been fully adopted and its definitive benefits have not been fully capitalized upon by industry stakeholders. The lack of widespread uptake of BIM appears to be linked to the risks and challenges that are potentially impeding its effectiveness. This paper aims to discuss the reality of BIM, its widespread benefits and current level of uptake. The risks and challenges associated with the adoption of BIM, as well as recommendations regarding how future BIM adoption could be developed are also highlighted.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) uptake: Clear benefits, understanding its implementation, risks and challenges

Enhancing environmental sustainability over building life cycles through green BIM: A review

This study was designed to investigate the recent movement and current stage of China’s construction and demolition (C&D) waste recycling and reuse. Specifically, the research aimed to provide the big picture of recent C&D waste diversion practice in China, as well as to offer insights from Chinese field practitioners’ perceptions towards benefits, challenges, and recommendations of C&D recycling and reuse. This research was conducted based on a review of existing practice and a holistic approach by collecting feedback of professionals from multiple disciplines through a questionnaire-based survey. Totally 77 valid responses were received from 592 questionnaires sent. Both quantitative data and qualitative information implied that China was still at the early stage of recycling C&D wastes. Lack of client demands was identified as one of the main difficulties in C&D waste diversion. The study revealed that engineers and consultants had a more positive perception on promoting industrial training in C&D waste recycling, while construction management professionals held more conservative opinion on it. It was also found that gaining experience in C&D waste recycling and reuse would offer professionals more positive perception on the quality of products containing recycled contents. It was further implied that although governmental supervision had a high impact on China’s current C&D waste management practice, the economic viability should eventually dominate the C&D waste diversion.

/pdf/an-empirical-study-of-perceptions-towards-construction-and-b163ix6v3t.pdf

An empirical study of perceptions towards construction and demolition waste recycling and reuse in China

BIM implementation throughout the UK construction project lifecycle: An analysis

The UK Government has set a target date for the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) by 2016 Despite the many benefits identified in literature there are also barriers to be overcome but there is little by way of research ranking the importance of each To enable informed decision making during the implementation process this research provides a ranking of barriers The study gathered information via a web-based survey from the top 74 United Kingdom based main construction contractors The findings demonstrated that the barriers are reduced in importance after BIM adoption as the major hurdle of initial investment has been overcome reducing the “Fear” factor” The two most important barriers to implementing BIM overall are “Scale of Culture Change Required/Lack of Flexibility” and “Lack of supply Chain Buy-in” The low ranking awarded to “Lack of management support” and “Other Competing Initiatives” show the priority implementation is given in industry

/pdf/building-information-modelling-adoption-an-analysis-of-the-28oz42kz5o.pdf

Building Information Modelling Adoption: An Analysis of the Barriers of Implementation

SUMMARY: With the increasing use of the internet, E-Procurement and E-Tendering can offer viable alternatives to traditional paper-based processes. Despite the many benefits, and theorising about its pitfalls, little work has been carried out in the UK regarding the importance of the drivers and barriers related to this technology. This study examines the drivers and barriers for E-procurement in construction within Northern Ireland. Drivers and barriers have been ranked using a selection of 70 contractors who have expressed interest in tendering for Roads Service Northern Ireland (RSNI) contracts. RSNI is the agency in Northern Ireland responsible for roads and is one of the major construction clients. The results of this study have been compared with studies of a similar nature carried out in Australia and America in general goods and services eprocurement. Findings in this Northern Ireland study show that the two highest ranked drivers by the contractors were improving communication and reduced administration costs, while the two most important barriers were security of transactions and the uncertainty surrounding the legal issues of e-procurement. Therefore in Northern Ireland the results could be broadly categorised as costing and management issues for the main drivers while legal and technical issues are cited as the main barriers.

/pdf/drivers-and-barriers-to-public-sector-e-procurement-within-387rzeqlwc.pdf

Drivers and barriers to public sector e-procurement within Northern Ireland’s construction industry

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is one of the pillars of the UK Government Construction Strategy. While many benefits (drivers) of BIM are mentioned in literature there is little by way of research to evaluate their importance. The objective of the survey reported in this paper is therefore to fill this knowledge gap by identifying and prioritizing the factors driving BIM adoption to enable those seeking to adopt BIM to gain an understanding of the relative importance of each of these drivers in order to inform their strategic and operational decision making. The research sample was limited to the top 100 UK construction contractors with international business activity. Online survey respondents were asked to score on a Likert-type scale of 1-5 the level of importance they would place on the identified factors driving BIM adoption. Responses to the online survey were analysed using relative importance index and rank agreement factor. The study concluded that those who had adopted BIM ranked the drivers for BIM differently than those yet to implement a BIM solution.Overall, the study found that the three most important drivers for BIM implementation are “Clash Detection”,“Government Pressure” and “Competitive Pressure”. The top drivers for non-users of BIM could be grouped under pressure from external sources while operational drivers were more important for users of BIM.

/pdf/an-analysis-of-the-drivers-for-adopting-building-information-3bmnx9ri7e.pdf

An analysis of the drivers for adopting building information modelling

Purpose – Construction organisations are mandated to use Building Information Modelling (BIM) for Government projects from 2016. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current status of the management aspects of BIM. Design/methodology/approach – Following a telephone sift, a web-based questionnaire was conducted with UK construction BIM experts with 92 responses. Findings – This research demonstrates a paradigm shift in construction as operations were deemed more important than the technical aspects of BIM Adoption. Respondents agree with enforced Level 2 BIM, demonstrating client demand is a significant driver on uptake. BIM use will substantially increase in the next five years. Ranking of the importance of current BIM standards indicated BS1192 was most used but almost a third adopted individual standards producing fragmentation. BIM’s effect on consultant fees indicated the need for structural change. Practical implications – Front end design via BIM models and clash detection outweighed the...

Robert Eadie

Papers

BIM implementation throughout the UK construction project lifecycle: An analysis

Building Information Modelling Adoption: An Analysis of the Barriers of Implementation

Drivers and barriers to public sector e-procurement within Northern Ireland’s construction industry

An analysis of the drivers for adopting building information modelling

A survey of current status of and perceived changes required for BIM adoption in the UK