A comparative study of buildability perspectives between clients, consultants and contractors

Purpose – This paper aims to highlight the similarities and differences in the buildability perspectives held by the client and the design team (collectively known as the design decision‐making group) and the contractor (known as the execution group).Design/methodology/approach – Buildability attributes were identified through a questionnaire survey, followed by factor analysis to consolidate them into nine buildability factors. These were then presented to 31 construction experts (comprising clients, consultants and contractors), who ranked the buildability factors in association with common construction systems using the analytical hierarchy process.Findings – Whilst the consensus was on “enabling design requirements to be easily visualised and co‐ordinated by site staff” to make designs buildable, clients and design teams differed from contractors in perspectives such as overcoming site restrictions, achieving standardisation and flexibility. When applied to construction systems, clients and design tea...

[1]  Ernest H. Forman,et al.  Decision By Objectives: How To Convince Others That You Are Right , 2001 .

[2]  Paul S.H. Poh,et al.  The Singapore buildable design appraisal system: a preliminary review of the relationship between buildability, site productivity and cost. , 1998 .

[3]  Thomas L. Saaty,et al.  How to Make a Decision: The Analytic Hierarchy Process , 1990 .

[4]  Sai On Cheung,et al.  An analytical hierarchy process based procurement selection method , 2001 .

[5]  Low Sui Pheng,et al.  Integrating buildability in ISO 9000 quality management systems: case study of a condominium project , 2001 .

[6]  George Jergeas,et al.  Benefits of Constructability on Construction Projects , 2001 .

[7]  James T. O'Connor,et al.  Barriers to Constructability Implementation , 1994 .

[8]  Patrick T.I. Lam,et al.  A scheme design buildability assessment model for building projects , 2012 .

[9]  Michael Riley,et al.  A multi‐criteria approach to contractor selection , 2002 .

[10]  Bambang Trigunarsyah,et al.  Constructability Practices among Construction Contractors in Indonesia , 2004 .

[11]  Alan Griffith,et al.  Constructability in Building and Engineering Projects , 1995 .

[12]  John Tookey,et al.  The Placing and Management of Contracts for Building and Civil Engineering Work: The Banwell Report (1964) , 2008 .

[13]  Patrick T.I. Lam,et al.  Identifying the critical success factors for target cost contracts in the construction industry , 2010 .

[14]  Felix T. Uhlik,et al.  Assessment of Constructability Practices among General Contractors , 1998 .

[15]  S. Austin,et al.  Never waste a good crisis: a review of progress since Rethinking Construction and thoughts for our future , 2009 .

[16]  Valerie Francis,et al.  Constructability Strategy for Improved Project Performance , 1999 .

[17]  Gurth Higgin,et al.  Communications in the building industry : the report of a pilot study , 1965 .

[18]  Sui Pheng Low,et al.  A fuzzy quality function deployment system for buildable design decision-makings , 2003 .

[19]  Mustafa Alshawi,et al.  Integrated models for construction planning: object flow and relationship , 1999 .

[20]  Sui Pheng Low,et al.  Quantifying the relationships between buildability, structural quality and productivity in construction , 2001 .

[21]  Zainuddin Hassan.  Conplan: construction planning and buildability evaluation in an integrated and intelligent construction environment , 1997 .

[22]  Irtishad Ahmad,et al.  Quantitative Techniques for Decision Making in Construction , 2004 .

[23]  Patrick T.I. Lam,et al.  Buildability assessment : the Singapore approach , 2002 .

[24]  Bambang Trigunarsyah.  Project owners' role in improving constructability of construction projects: an example analysis for Indonesia , 2004 .

[25]  Wai-ming Lam.  A conceptual model of success for design and build projects in the public sector of Hong Kong , 2005 .

[26]  Low Sui Pheng,et al.  Enhancing buildability in China's construction industry using Singapore's buildable design appraisal system , 2007 .

[27]  Chimay J. Anumba,et al.  The development of cognitive models for constructability assessment in steel frame structures , 2004 .

[28]  Thomas L. Saaty,et al.  The Analytic Hierarchy Process: A New Approach to Deal with Fuzziness in Architecture , 1982 .

[29]  Stephen Fox,et al.  Constructability rules: guidelines for successful application to bespoke buildings , 2002 .