Constructability

A Tool for Project Management

Sharmin Khan

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780429996856
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Civil Engineering
• Index: Biological Sciences

This book focuses on Constructability, a project management tool and its effectiveness in promotion of sustainable development and architecture. Constructability concentrates on the optimum use of construction knowledge and experience in planning, engineering, procurement and field operations to achieve overall project objectives. Keeping in view the requirement of promotion of sustainable architectural practices, the book is aimed at establishing effective relationship between constructability and sustainability, including application of the project management systems and guidelines for sustainable development, in a systematic manner.

Key Features

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• Focuses on relationship between constructability and sustainability in detail, with respect to their definitions and historical background.

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• Summarizes formulation of recommendations and guidelines for various design and construction practices

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• Provides an updated information database having overview of constructability studies and researches conducted so far

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• Explores association of sustainable development to project management issues

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• Includes relevant case studies

CHAPTER 1

The Foundation of Constructability

1.1 Introduction

Construction industry is extremely important worldwide as it provides infrastructural facilities for people and it is a huge employment-generating sector. Unfortunately, there are some management issues that lead to delays in projects and hence loss of economy. Therefore, this emanates the need for introduction of constructability in construction industry. This section highlights the importance and need to promote the concept of constructability and its evolution.

1.2 The Construction Industry

Construction industry is one of the biggest industries in the world and contributes toward the gross domestic product of the country. The construction industry creates huge infrastructural facilities for the masses to use and enjoy. It generates employment opportunities for the communities. On the other hand, it is the biggest source of creating pollution and exhausting the nonrenewable resources of energy.

The construction industry has major environmental impacts. Redclift (2005) states that each scientific problem resolved by human intervention using fossil fuels and which manufactures materials is conventionally reviewed as a triumph of management and contribution to economic good; however, it is also seen as a future threat to sustainability. In 1990, residential, commercial, and institutional building sectors globally consumed 31% of global energy and emitted 1,900 megatons of carbon. It is expected that by 2050, this share will rise to 38% and emit 3,800 megatons of carbon (Watson et al., 1996).

The consumption of total natural resources is 50%, energy usage is 40%, and water consumption is 16%. The waste production during construction and demolition is more than the volume of household waste (Muller, 2002).

The building sector has largest potential for energy efficiency. The sustainable construction shall focus on three main areas of life cycle processes of building: its construction, utilization, and demolition or rehabilitation. The self-sustained building concept must have a closed cycle of flows of energy, water, and materials (TERI, 2004). The construction industry is essentially a service industry whose responsibility is to convert plans and specifications into finished products: it is exceedingly complex and highly individual in character (Peurifoy and Ledbetter, 1985). The construction industry consumes large amount of energy, water, materials, and land. This contributes to the exhaustion of natural resources and consumption of energy (Poon, 2000; Shen et al., 2000).

Shen et al. (2004) have mentioned various organizations, those which have been working on environment management systems, such as Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology in the United Kingdom, the Building Environmental Performance Assessment Criteria in Canada, the Green Building Challenge in the United States, and Hong Kong Building Environment Assessment Method in Hong Kong. The Chartered Institute of Building in 1989 has also identified certain areas for environmental management in construction activities. Some of these areas are identified as efficient use of energy, environment-friendly building materials, control of toxic chemicals, pollution control, recycling, and waste management (CIOB, 1988).

The traditional design and construction practices focus on cost performance and quality issues. Sustainable design and construction adds the issues of minimization of resource consumption, environmental degradation, and creation of healthy, built environment as well as ensuring human health and comfort (Sev, 2008).

The client and the contractor may not be interested in the energy-efficient designs, and the reasons could be that the benefits of such designs can be realized only in the long term, whereas the business in construction industry is oriented toward short-term profit making (Tai, 2000). Various construction activities, such as generation of excessive noise, dust, chemical particles, odor, toxic gases, and solid wastes can cause pollution and harm the environment (Shen et al., 2000). A paper by Riley et al. (2003) analyzed that contractors can help in achieving sustainable project objectives by providing conceptual estimating services during preconstruction, sourcing and procuring sustainable materials, managing construction waste, and helping to ensure that indoor air quality requirements are met.

India has a significant role in the global scenario with respect to some of the major issues related to design and construction practices. Reddy (2004) states that Indian construction industry is one of the largest in terms of economic expenditure, volume of raw material and products manufactured, employment generated, environmental impacts, etc. It is estimated that 22% of the greenhouse gas emission is contributed by construction sector in India. The total quantum of construction and demolition waste generated in India is estimated to be 12–14.7 million tonnes per annum (TIFAC, 2000). The waste is generated from construction industries, which include wasted sand, gravel, bitumen, bricks, masonry, and concrete. The present waste handling practices are not sufficient in terms of efficiency and recovery. The waste is generally disposed without segregation (Thomas and Wilson, 2013).

According to Widermuth (2008), there is an urgent need for a government-sponsored 40–50 year holistic infrastructure plan for India to continue to its high growth path toward economic maturity. Currently, the construction industry in India is facing many barriers and challenges such as lack of awareness among project participants, lack of interest from clients, lack of skilled labor, lack of market competition in terms of saving cost through waste minimization and management techniques, lack of proper training and education among clients and contractors through federations and professional institutes in terms of natural policies and regulations implementation, and lack of waste reduction approach by architects during the planning stage.

In 2012, the Supreme Court of India asked state governments to amend the rules to regulate mining of minerals and ensure environmental management. On August 2013, the National Green Tribunal declared that sand mining without environmental clearance is illegal. India needs to introduce some more policies as an emergent need in the construction industry. These include making of Bureau of Indian Standards codes on recycled material, promotion of alternative materials, introduction of tax policies for minimizing waste, and promotion of efficient construction management practices (CSE, 2014).

1.3 The Need for Constructability

Traditionally, the independent designer was under contract to client and owed a duty to client. He was under no legal obligation to introduce good buildability in his design. There is long-established tradition that the builder should do as the designer tells him and that it is not his province to suggest amendments to the designer. This lack of dialog affects the design. Increasing amount of rework is a proof of inefficient and uneconomical construction. It is a result of poor construction techniques or poor construction management. There is an emergent need for the introduction of processes which can integrate the design and construction activities. A joint approach is the need of time so that the two distinct processes of design and construction go hand in hand. The level of tolerance and acceptance of the other professional’s qualities and input is a major issue that needs to be addressed.

Also, the increasing levels of competition and the introduction of manufacturing concepts within the industry led to specialization with the passage of time. Such specialization led to the separation of design and construction facilities. The increasing complexity of many projects makes it more and more difficult for the designers to be fully aware of all the implications of their designs on the construction costs. With the problems associated with separated design and construction continuing to grow, the industry began implementing value engineering and construction management services, recognizing the benefits of constructor’s involvement during planning and design phases to reduce the project life cycle cost.

Constructability is a construction management approach that links design and construction processes, which have been isolated in the industry in the current scenario. Making use of construction knowledge, from the earliest stages of a project where the ability to influence cost is at greatest, makes sense from both practical and financial viewpoints. Constructability enhances the quality of constructed facility by better communication among project participants such as design, engineering, and construction professionals. Better communication among these participants reduces the project failure and other related problems.

1.4 The Concept Evolution

The increasing complexity and specialization in the projects has changed the scenario of construction industry today. The traditional system of design–build type of projects is replaced by a system of multiple contracts in the projects. The more the number of participants, the more the management required. The constructability in building projects has been an object of research since the 1970s in the United Kingdom and the United States. This concept is focused on the early involvement of construction knowledge and experience in planning, engineering, and procurement and field operations to achieve the objectives of the project.

During the 1970s, some studies were conducted in the United Kingdom and the United States, which aimed at maximizing the efficiency of construction projects through the concept of constructability. The Business Roundtable published “The Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness Project” in 1983 to motivate the stakeholders, to improve their work methods, and for cost-effectiveness. The Business Roundtable team had representatives from all groups of the construction industry. The summary report, “More Construction for the Money,” defined a problem and proposed actions to address them (Business Roundtable, 1982):

Problem: There is a lack of knowledge by owners with respect to opportunities for cost reduction and shortened schedules by integrating advanced construction methods and materials into the planning, design, and engineering phases of the project.

Action by owners individually: Write contracts that give contractors an incentive to mesh engineering and construction expertise with the process called “constructability,” which can often save 10–20 times the cost it adds to a project.

Action by owners jointly: Make concerted efforts to help overcome the shortage of experts in “constructability” by helping to develop training materials and encouraging universities and colleges to add this facet of construction management to their undergraduate curricula.

Action by academia: “Constructability” skills need to be added to undergraduate curricula in construction management.

The efforts of the Business Roundtable led way to the formation of the Construction Industry Institute (CII) based at the University of Texas, Austin, Texas. The term “constructability” was collectively used in the U.S. construction industry for the first time (Pocock et al., 2006). This organization comprises research organizations, construction companies, owners, private and academic institutions, etc.

The Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) is another nonprofit organization and works for the improvement of industry. CIRIA also laid emphasis on the design process and early involvement of construction expertise. The concept of constructability was very well promoted by the CII. They are leading researcher and formulated guidelines for implementing constructability (Trigunarsyah, 2004; Wong et al., 2006).

CII has defined constructability as “the optimum use of construction knowledge and experience in planning, engineering, procurement and field operations to achieve overall project objectives” (CII, 1986). The ability to influence the cost of project decreases with time; hence, there is maximum scope in the beginning of the project to consider issues that can affect the cost.

Among various other principles, the involvement of construction knowledge in conceptual planning stage is the most important and basic principle. CII Australia proposed 12 principles for execution of the constructability program. These principles are integration, construction knowledge, team skills, corporate objectives, available resources, external factors, programmer, construction methodology, accessibility, specifications, construction innovation, and feedback. In the 1990s, some studies were conducted at Singapore under the first assessment system for buildability of designs, and the results proved that the lack of integration of construction knowledge into the design process resulted in the exceeding budgets and scheduled deadlines of projects (Trigunarsyah, 2004; Wong et al., 2006). The evolution of this concept of constructability was followed by various research projects, which are still going on.

References

Business Roundtable. (1982). Construction industry cost effectiveness project report. NY: Business Roundtable.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). (2000). Management of municipal solid wastes. [Report]. New Delhi: MOEF.

CIOB. (1988). Design and build: Code of estimating practice supplement No.2: The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• About the Author
• Chapter 1 ▪ The Foundation of Constructability
• Chapter 2 ▪ An Overview of Constructability Practices
• Chapter 3 ▪ Benefits, Barriers, and Awareness about Constructability
• Chapter 4 ▪ Role of Constructability in the Life Cycle of Buildings
• Chapter 5 ▪ Case Studies in the Indian Context
• Chapter 6 ▪ General Recommendations
• Chapter 7 ▪ Project Management System Models
• Chapter 8 ▪ Responsibilities and Role of Project Participants
• Chapter 9 ▪ Checklist for Promotion of Constructability
• Index