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IMPACT OF WORK FLOW DISRUPTIONS, PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS AND FOREMEN CHARACTERISTICS ON IMPROVISATIONAL DECISIONS AND ACTIONS ON CONSTRUCTION SITES
Title
IMPACT OF WORK FLOW DISRUPTIONS, PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS AND FOREMEN CHARACTERISTICS ON IMPROVISATIONAL DECISIONS AND ACTIONS ON CONSTRUCTION SITES
Creator
Kleps, Stephen M.
Date
2013, 2013-12
Description
Disruptions on construction sites are a constant issue and unfortunately can have negative impacts on the workflow and productivity of the...
Show moreDisruptions on construction sites are a constant issue and unfortunately can have negative impacts on the workflow and productivity of the impacted crews. As a result of these disruptions, foremen must quickly generate improvised solutions to the disruptions to keep the work of their crew progressing. Yet the mechanics of how exactly this improvisational decision making is occurring has not been previously studied. To address this void in the literature, this study examined the factors that may influence a foremen's ability to improvise, such as the type of disruption, the jobsite characteristics, and the personality, experience, and education of the foremen, in relation to the level of improvisation occurring. To accomplish this, this study collected data from 50 foremen within the electrical construction industry to measure to what degree they improvised and with what speed they improvised in response to their daily disruptions, resulting in 244 recorded disruption incidents. In analyzing these incidents with multilevel modeling analysis techniques, it was determined that the type of disruption did not have as large of an effect on the degree and speed of the resulting improvisation as originally hypothesized. In addition, it was found that factors such as the level of cooperation on the job site, the time pressure on the foremen, and the level of collaboration on the job site influenced the degree and speed of the improvisation. Yet the factors that explained the largest total variance in both the degree and speed of improvisation were the personality traits of the foremen. Thus, these findings emphasize the importance of foremen on job sites, while also documenting how improvisation is occurring on job sites.
PH.D in Civil Engineering, December 2013
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Jobsite Characteristics that Influence Improvised Decision-making on Construction Sites
Title
Jobsite Characteristics that Influence Improvised Decision-making on Construction Sites
Creator
Kleps, Stephen M., Menches, Cindy
Date
2013-10-07, 2013-10-07
Description
This article examines the relationship between specific construction project characteristics and the degree and speed that the foremen are...
Show moreThis article examines the relationship between specific construction project characteristics and the degree and speed that the foremen are able to improvise in response to disruptive events on the jobsite. Specifically, characteristics such as the number of crew members working under the supervision of a foreman, the occupancy status of the project (i.e., occupied or unoccupied) during construction, the stage of completion of the project, and the levels of turbulence, time pressure, cooperation, collaboration, and organization, were examined. Using a multilevel regression modeling approach, an analysis of 244 disruptions reported by 50 foremen was conducted to determine whether the construction project characteristics could predict more or less improvisation and faster or slower improvisation by the foreman. The findings indicate that on construction projects that are rated by the foremen as more organized, the foremen can make more modest improvised decisions to resolve a disruption, but that on construction projects that were rated by the foremen as more collaborative (i.e., involved joint decision-making), a greater degree of improvisation was deployed. In addition, it was found that on sites that were rated by the foremen as more cooperative (i.e., involved greater willingness to help each other), the foremen required more time to improvise their decisions.
Sponsorship: National Science Foundation
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Innovative Uses of Native CAD Files
Title
Innovative Uses of Native CAD Files
Creator
Menches, Cindy L., Kleps, Stephen M.
Date
2012-08-31, 2011-08-31
Description
This technical report describes the outcomes resulting from conducting interviews with professional estimators within the electrical...
Show moreThis technical report describes the outcomes resulting from conducting interviews with professional estimators within the electrical construction industry. The purpose of the interviews was to identify whether native files are shared, why sharing does not occur more frequently, how file sharing might benefit the estimating process, and barriers to sharing native CAD files for the purpose of estimating from CAD drawings.
Sponsorship: Electri International
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