One of the most perplexing issues facing organizations in the construction industry is their inability to become quality focused. As a result sub-standard products and services often emanate, which inadvertently result in rework. Typically, rework is caused by errors made during the design...

Construction problem solving characterizes much of construction management practice and thus is an important research domain. Nonetheless, research in construction problem solving has not yet crossed the threshold into a mature discipline as there is no universally accepted theory for...

Building procurement has become a fashionable term with industry practitioners and researchers. It determines the overall framework and structure of responsibilities and authorities for participants within the building process. It is a key factor contributing to overall client satisfaction and...

Life cycle assessments (LCAs) are used to evaluate the environmental impacts attributable to products and processes. For construction projects, LCAs can be used to assess the pollution associated with the manufacture of building materials for the construction process. Despite the reliability of...

Serendipitous findings are reported from an on-going research project that seeks to determine the effectiveness of quality assurance systems certified under the ISO 9000 series in Australian contracting organizations. In Australia, certification has become mandatory for all organizations wishing...

Very few construction companies and consulting firms in Australia measure their costs of quality. Consequently, it is difficult for them to prove that systems for preventing quality failures are cost-effective. Although the direct costs of a quality system can be quantified with some accuracy...

Construction project managers work under conditions of uncertainty and high risk, and this can contribute to an excessive level of work-related stress being experienced. To date, there has been limited research that has examined how project managers cope with work-related stress. This paper...

Many construction organizations have misunderstood the reality that total quality management (TQM) based on continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning and that essentially it is the means to a learning organization. The paper argues that if the construction industry is to improve...

Wong, K. C. and Walker, A. (2000) Construction Management and Economics, 18 (2), 131-138 have argued that co-operative joint venture arrangements (with state enterprises in the People's Republic of China) reduce the dissipation of rent under public ownership, which leads to an apparent transfer...

Rule-based expert systems and artificial neural networks are two major systems for developing intelligent decision support systems. The integration of the two systems can generate a new system which shares the strengths of both rule-based and artificial neural network systems. This research...