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Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment

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    Synthesising lean construction and building information modelling to improve the South African architecture, construction and engineering industries
    (IEOM Society, 2020-12-10) Olaniran, Temitope; Pillay, Nischolan
    The South African Architecture, Engineering and the Construction (AEC) industry falls victim to fragmentation of processes and lack of coordination amongst professionals. Therefore an urgent need to explore and embrace techniques, technologies and innovations reduces building cost, materials and time, while collaboration amongst professionals is enhanced. Building Information Modelling has shown promise to solve some of the problems associated with building design’s ineffectiveness and facilitates a more collaborative approach to project delivery. While Lean Construction can reduce waste and non-value added activities in a process. However, it is unclear how the two concepts straddled together can further improve efficiency in construction. Therefore, it is critical to determine the barriers and opportunities of combined systems. Various sources of literature reveal that several barriers affect the synergy between lean construction and building information modelling. This research uses a comprehensive literature review to gather data for analysis. Furthermore, the authors use their autoethnographic experience to synthesise factors contributing to the systems’ successes and failures in South Africa. Finally, a framework of strategies to synthesise lean construction and building information is created. This research will be necessary for researchers, practitioners, and other professionals to add to the body of knowledge in construction and information technology.
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    A comparative study of the construction of road formation layers using labour-intensive versus traditional mechanistic methods on road 1264 in KZN
    (2022-05-13) Mkhize, Mongezi S.; Walker, Mark; Mckune, Tom
    The urgent need to upgrade and construct roads in South Africa is one of the many critical utility provision challenges faced by the municipalities, consultants and departments involved in road construction. The biggest challenge that is faced by the government is to minimise unemployment and increase skills transfer through the training of inexperienced local communities on road construction. The road can be constructed using traditional mechanistic methods (TMM), commonly known as plant machines, which makes more use of plant machine than labour. On the other hand, the road can also be constructed using the labour-intensive construction (LIC) method which utilises more labour involvement during construction and minimal machine usage. The purpose of this research is to provide insight into the time and cost comparison between LIC and TMM of constructing road formation layers. Road D1264 in Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal will be used as a case study in the research to compare the difference between labour-intensive and traditional mechanistic construction of road formation layers, using cost and time to reach the same quality. This research aims to promote the use of LIC roadbed construction to be used more frequently in the road construction industry in South Africa. The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) encourages road construction to be undertaken using labour- intensive methods to allow unemployed people to be given more job opportunities. Municipalities, consultants and departments involved with road construction will be assisted through this research in making informed decisions and selections thereafter of the most reliable road formation construction method in terms of time and cost. Available cost, time and quality data from the Road D1264 will be used to compare the construction of road formation layers using LIC versus TMM in KZN. The decision making process will lie in the hands of the municipalities and consultants based on the cost and time required to complete the project. Furthermore, a quantitative survey questionnaire was developed by the researcher. This questionnaire was aimed at the road construction technical experts in the Department of Transport, Department of Works, consultants and the roads departments of districts and local municipalities. The results of the survey questionnaires revealed that the road construction experts agree with the finding of this study that LIC is more expensive when compared to TMM. LIC is also more time-consuming than TMM. LIC and TMM produce the same quality. The survey questionnaire revealed that South Africa may be advancing over the years in the use of LIC methods; however, more education in the form of training, seminars and other methds of marketing must be undertaken, starting at the universities, municipal level, the Department of Transport, Department of Works, and consultants. The comparative research in this study using the available data from Road D1264 revealed that during the construction of the road formation layers, using LIC is more expensive when compared to TMM. LIC is also more time-consuming than TMM. LIC and TMM produce the same quality. But it cannot be ignored that LIC creates employment particularly for women, youth and the disabled within the community. LIC maximises the use of local materials and plant owners as suppliers of goods and services. LIC can be the country’s solution to unemployment and porvety.
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    Ethics in construction industry : project managers’ case study
    (2018) Kahlela, Thobeka; Aiyetan, Olatunji Ayodeji
    Business ethics and corporate governance have taken centre stage globally in the last decade due to the increasing unethical practices by private and public institutions. These unethical practices adversely affect the image of professionals and organisations with a resultant negative impact on the competitive advantage of the organisation. This study aims to assess factors contributing to unethical behaviours of project managers. The study was conducted in five provinces of South Africa including KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Cape Town, Limpopo and Gauteng. The sample frame consists of construction project managers registered with South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions (SACPCMP) and Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Random sampling technique was employed in the selection of samples. A total number of thirty six questionnaires were analysed for the study. Descriptive statistics were employed for the analysis of data. Findings include personal value, organisational culture and education are very influential factors on ethical decisions of a project manager. Furthermore, corporate value and individual values are the factors which most influence the ethical judgment of a project manager. Improving ethical practice for the professionals could improve ethical performance in construction projects and production efficiency in the construction industry in SA. Based on the findings of the study, ways to mitigate unethical conduct would be; practicing ethical conduct at all times will improve production, the levels of risk on projects will decrease and also an improvement in communication and transparency will minimize the levels of unethical conduct of the project managers in South Africa.