Large building projects involve complex on-site logistics regarding materials and subsystems, oft... more Large building projects involve complex on-site logistics regarding materials and subsystems, often encompassing hundreds of vehicles handling incoming and outcoming goods and requiring precise timing and space handling. Such a material flow is generally decoupled from the respective economic flow; however, the integration of the two could, among others, foster a holistic overview of the full construction project production, facilitate the collaboration of the supply chain stakeholders, and optimize constructability. Blockchain technologies can enable an integration of these flows by using the distributed ledger facility inherent in a decentralized blockchain network, as well as smart contracts. This paper aims at reviewing the emerging knowledge on blockchain in construction and identifying different constellations of companies and flows in digital building logistics. Theoretically, the paper draws on a sociotechnical approach, which views the development of digitalization as an in...
Big data, reflecting both qualitative information and quantitative material, can be used within t... more Big data, reflecting both qualitative information and quantitative material, can be used within the construction management processes of complex and large-scale building activities, such as the development of whole districts in urban areas. Such big data is probably largely focused on transport routes, productivity and site logistics portfolios. However, despite the capabilities offered by construction informatics, such data has scarcely been utilized systematically and in its full capacity for descriptive and predictive purposes. Such a systematic data utilization process can be framed through the lens of the novel construction management concept of district constructability, namely the extension of constructability into the collective level of entire districts. Constructability is here understood as the optimal use of construction knowledge and experience in planning, design, procurement, and field operations, to achieve the project objectives of time, cost and quality, and omit t...
Business and public interest and investments in digital ledgers, smart contracts and virtual curr... more Business and public interest and investments in digital ledgers, smart contracts and virtual currencies such as bitcoin, has skyrocketed. Blockchain is indeed a hyped technology – and should therefore raise healthy skepticism. During construction production, projects and the involved companies take on a disintegrated economic flow and allocation of economic resources; these include supplies of materials and services, payments, accounting tasks, and other economic decisions, that are often treated second-hand by site management, subcontractors, transport companies, retailers and material suppliers. Within such a situation, blockchain technologies can maybe create value for stakeholders in handling this economic flow and integrating it with other information and material flows. So, in this sense, blockchain represents a hope for construction; however, this paper critically scrutinizes blockchain for construction, in trying to answer the question whether it indeed constitutes hope, or ...
Regardless of the efforts of employers and public organizations to eliminate occupational acciden... more Regardless of the efforts of employers and public organizations to eliminate occupational accidents, the latter is a persistent problem in the construction industry. In the Swedish construction context, there is a desire to identify causes and factors playing a role in work-related accident prevention, as there are large underused databases of collected registrations that represent knowledge on causes and the context of accidents. The aim of the current contribution is to review the application of machine learning (ML) in the improved prevention of accidents and corresponding injuries, and to identify current limitations - and most importantly to answer the question of whether ML actually reveals more than what is currently known about accidents in construction. A systematic literature review on the use of ML for analysing data of accident records was carried out. In the reviewed literature, ML was applied in the prediction of accidents or their outcome, and the extraction or identi...
Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 2020
In this paper, a new digital business model for independent construction logistics consultants, w... more In this paper, a new digital business model for independent construction logistics consultants, which features the conceptualization of a sociomaterial blockchain solution for integrated information, material and economic flows, is proposed. Theoretically, we offer an understanding of the economic flow, stress the optimization of construction logistics through flow integration, analyse current approaches to understanding blockchain, adopt sociomateriality to envision a suitable blockchain solution, and consider the way blockchain can constitute part of the value proposition of a related digital business model. Methodologically, we systematically reviewed the literature on blockchain-related construction research, and conducted empirical studies on independent logistics consultants in the Swedish context for more than a year. On the one hand, the literature review reveals that core blockchain properties can generate value for construction logistics (e.g. shared ledger structure and r...
PICMET '99: Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology. Proceedings Vol-1: Book of Summaries (IEEE Cat. No.99CH36310)
Discourses on dynamic capabilities of organisations tend to rest in an unclear field of tension b... more Discourses on dynamic capabilities of organisations tend to rest in an unclear field of tension between structural and individual explanations. Most contributions submit to the structural features of the concept, yet some allow for explanations of a more individual character, such as top management leadership. This paper conceptualises and analyses the individual contribution of boundary spanners (including both top management and key individuals) to macro-level capability development of organisations. We show how two Danish SMEs’ resources and capabilities transform during an offshoring process of more than five years, where individual capabilities contribute to the struggle to implement changes over time when capabilities are ruptured. We thereby further add to the literature and the understanding of how dynamic capabilities evolve over time in organisations. Specifically the use of key boundary spanners emerges as a key capability in both cases for managing more complex constella...
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 2015
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study how operations strategy (OS) innovation occurs in... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study how operations strategy (OS) innovation occurs in a project-centred production and organisation. Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal case study encompassing the processes at the headquarters of the company and in two projects using lean. Findings – The operation strategy development commences at a middle level in the organisation, is underpinned and embedded in production projects and only after several years becomes embedded in the corporate operation strategy. Projects use lean principles in a differentiated manner. Research limitations/implications – A qualitative case study provides insight into only a single occasion of change in OS. More case studies would probably reveal several paths of OS development. OS development need to be handled as emergent, political and with contributions from several managers and management levels, bridging the vertical divides between projects and headquarter. Practical implications – A cons...
Presents the aims and needs of research in facilities management (FM) at the Section of Planning ... more Presents the aims and needs of research in facilities management (FM) at the Section of Planning and Management of Building Processes at BYG(DTU. As the building stock in Denmark is rapidly increasing, socio‐demographic development implies profound changes in both the needs of inhabitants and the way that buildings are used, combined with an increased consciousness of sustainability. Buildings should be seen as long‐term “investments” while also keeping in mind the construction sector's need for increased productivity, long‐term product quality and enhanced value. This is the background for developing a research position. Identifies “the Scandinavian way” as using FM on a multi‐actor level, rather than just to serve the interests of a single organisation. The aim is to focus on small and medium‐sized enterprises, non‐profit associations and tenants, as well as the bodies administrating infrastructure within the mainstream FM field. There is an urgent need to address how society ...
... and jobs can be done in a 'virtualized environment' since certain skills, competenc... more ... and jobs can be done in a 'virtualized environment' since certain skills, competencies, parts and ... by employees and unions continue to be the ones of either individual participation or ... The strategy of collective formation of resources at several levels has become even more rare ...
Strategic management and leadership in the building sector will gain increasing importance as glo... more Strategic management and leadership in the building sector will gain increasing importance as globalization and shorter product lifecycles will put pressure on company competences in moving fast and agile. A broader mobilisation of human resources at the top level could be a central avenue to improve strategic management. Through new recruiting the composition of the top level management could be strengthened. Today the building industry encompasses relatively few managers with strategic management competences and women at this level are very few. The paper uses institutionalist theory to explain the dynamics in changing and developing top level management. The theoretical framework argues for five interlinked domains of the individual, the enterprise, the strategic management, the board and the environment. Institutions in all areas contribute to the experienced constraints. Based on an exploratory study of Danish and Norwegian female representation as CEOs, member of boards of dir...
Where construction research and practice are ripe with examples of cost overrun, it rests predomi... more Where construction research and practice are ripe with examples of cost overrun, it rests predominantly with practical accounts when it comes to systematic reductions in functionality and other aspects of building design to avoid scope and cost creep. Research on such systematic reductions are rare. An emerging research literature on reverse innovation propose ways to understand such efforts. The rise of developing countries as emerging markets triggered a geographically oriented notion of reverse innovation denoting a product or service with limited functionality and a low price developed in a developing country, and later introduced in an advanced country. However, second generation conceptualizations include reverse innovation reducing cost and pricing, but also adding new values of the product or service addressing potential clients in a new way. As most reverse innovation examples communicated are simple consumer products, there is a potential in addressing more complex built p...
This paper contributes to the understanding of strategic sourcing through resource combination, w... more This paper contributes to the understanding of strategic sourcing through resource combination, with focus on knowledge interactions. The IMP approach, and especially the resource combination framework, views knowledge interaction as embedded in business relationships. Knowledge is understood as having soft and hard aspects and involving both inter- and intra-organizational interactions, as well as emergent physical and organizational resource combinations, such as IT systems, aimed at enabling virtual organizing, and humans acting as boundary spanners. Two case studies of enterprise journeys are conducted. Especially the last five years both companies experience change in the resource combination, first the physical and then the organizational, adjusting the mechanisms to improve knowledge interaction and competence within their value chain and inter- and intra-organizational processes. One SME, re-organizes its processes and integrates knowledge through a specific resource and kno...
Large building projects involve complex on-site logistics regarding materials and subsystems, oft... more Large building projects involve complex on-site logistics regarding materials and subsystems, often encompassing hundreds of vehicles handling incoming and outcoming goods and requiring precise timing and space handling. Such a material flow is generally decoupled from the respective economic flow; however, the integration of the two could, among others, foster a holistic overview of the full construction project production, facilitate the collaboration of the supply chain stakeholders, and optimize constructability. Blockchain technologies can enable an integration of these flows by using the distributed ledger facility inherent in a decentralized blockchain network, as well as smart contracts. This paper aims at reviewing the emerging knowledge on blockchain in construction and identifying different constellations of companies and flows in digital building logistics. Theoretically, the paper draws on a sociotechnical approach, which views the development of digitalization as an in...
Big data, reflecting both qualitative information and quantitative material, can be used within t... more Big data, reflecting both qualitative information and quantitative material, can be used within the construction management processes of complex and large-scale building activities, such as the development of whole districts in urban areas. Such big data is probably largely focused on transport routes, productivity and site logistics portfolios. However, despite the capabilities offered by construction informatics, such data has scarcely been utilized systematically and in its full capacity for descriptive and predictive purposes. Such a systematic data utilization process can be framed through the lens of the novel construction management concept of district constructability, namely the extension of constructability into the collective level of entire districts. Constructability is here understood as the optimal use of construction knowledge and experience in planning, design, procurement, and field operations, to achieve the project objectives of time, cost and quality, and omit t...
Business and public interest and investments in digital ledgers, smart contracts and virtual curr... more Business and public interest and investments in digital ledgers, smart contracts and virtual currencies such as bitcoin, has skyrocketed. Blockchain is indeed a hyped technology – and should therefore raise healthy skepticism. During construction production, projects and the involved companies take on a disintegrated economic flow and allocation of economic resources; these include supplies of materials and services, payments, accounting tasks, and other economic decisions, that are often treated second-hand by site management, subcontractors, transport companies, retailers and material suppliers. Within such a situation, blockchain technologies can maybe create value for stakeholders in handling this economic flow and integrating it with other information and material flows. So, in this sense, blockchain represents a hope for construction; however, this paper critically scrutinizes blockchain for construction, in trying to answer the question whether it indeed constitutes hope, or ...
Regardless of the efforts of employers and public organizations to eliminate occupational acciden... more Regardless of the efforts of employers and public organizations to eliminate occupational accidents, the latter is a persistent problem in the construction industry. In the Swedish construction context, there is a desire to identify causes and factors playing a role in work-related accident prevention, as there are large underused databases of collected registrations that represent knowledge on causes and the context of accidents. The aim of the current contribution is to review the application of machine learning (ML) in the improved prevention of accidents and corresponding injuries, and to identify current limitations - and most importantly to answer the question of whether ML actually reveals more than what is currently known about accidents in construction. A systematic literature review on the use of ML for analysing data of accident records was carried out. In the reviewed literature, ML was applied in the prediction of accidents or their outcome, and the extraction or identi...
Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 2020
In this paper, a new digital business model for independent construction logistics consultants, w... more In this paper, a new digital business model for independent construction logistics consultants, which features the conceptualization of a sociomaterial blockchain solution for integrated information, material and economic flows, is proposed. Theoretically, we offer an understanding of the economic flow, stress the optimization of construction logistics through flow integration, analyse current approaches to understanding blockchain, adopt sociomateriality to envision a suitable blockchain solution, and consider the way blockchain can constitute part of the value proposition of a related digital business model. Methodologically, we systematically reviewed the literature on blockchain-related construction research, and conducted empirical studies on independent logistics consultants in the Swedish context for more than a year. On the one hand, the literature review reveals that core blockchain properties can generate value for construction logistics (e.g. shared ledger structure and r...
PICMET '99: Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology. Proceedings Vol-1: Book of Summaries (IEEE Cat. No.99CH36310)
Discourses on dynamic capabilities of organisations tend to rest in an unclear field of tension b... more Discourses on dynamic capabilities of organisations tend to rest in an unclear field of tension between structural and individual explanations. Most contributions submit to the structural features of the concept, yet some allow for explanations of a more individual character, such as top management leadership. This paper conceptualises and analyses the individual contribution of boundary spanners (including both top management and key individuals) to macro-level capability development of organisations. We show how two Danish SMEs’ resources and capabilities transform during an offshoring process of more than five years, where individual capabilities contribute to the struggle to implement changes over time when capabilities are ruptured. We thereby further add to the literature and the understanding of how dynamic capabilities evolve over time in organisations. Specifically the use of key boundary spanners emerges as a key capability in both cases for managing more complex constella...
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 2015
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study how operations strategy (OS) innovation occurs in... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study how operations strategy (OS) innovation occurs in a project-centred production and organisation. Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal case study encompassing the processes at the headquarters of the company and in two projects using lean. Findings – The operation strategy development commences at a middle level in the organisation, is underpinned and embedded in production projects and only after several years becomes embedded in the corporate operation strategy. Projects use lean principles in a differentiated manner. Research limitations/implications – A qualitative case study provides insight into only a single occasion of change in OS. More case studies would probably reveal several paths of OS development. OS development need to be handled as emergent, political and with contributions from several managers and management levels, bridging the vertical divides between projects and headquarter. Practical implications – A cons...
Presents the aims and needs of research in facilities management (FM) at the Section of Planning ... more Presents the aims and needs of research in facilities management (FM) at the Section of Planning and Management of Building Processes at BYG(DTU. As the building stock in Denmark is rapidly increasing, socio‐demographic development implies profound changes in both the needs of inhabitants and the way that buildings are used, combined with an increased consciousness of sustainability. Buildings should be seen as long‐term “investments” while also keeping in mind the construction sector's need for increased productivity, long‐term product quality and enhanced value. This is the background for developing a research position. Identifies “the Scandinavian way” as using FM on a multi‐actor level, rather than just to serve the interests of a single organisation. The aim is to focus on small and medium‐sized enterprises, non‐profit associations and tenants, as well as the bodies administrating infrastructure within the mainstream FM field. There is an urgent need to address how society ...
... and jobs can be done in a 'virtualized environment' since certain skills, competenc... more ... and jobs can be done in a 'virtualized environment' since certain skills, competencies, parts and ... by employees and unions continue to be the ones of either individual participation or ... The strategy of collective formation of resources at several levels has become even more rare ...
Strategic management and leadership in the building sector will gain increasing importance as glo... more Strategic management and leadership in the building sector will gain increasing importance as globalization and shorter product lifecycles will put pressure on company competences in moving fast and agile. A broader mobilisation of human resources at the top level could be a central avenue to improve strategic management. Through new recruiting the composition of the top level management could be strengthened. Today the building industry encompasses relatively few managers with strategic management competences and women at this level are very few. The paper uses institutionalist theory to explain the dynamics in changing and developing top level management. The theoretical framework argues for five interlinked domains of the individual, the enterprise, the strategic management, the board and the environment. Institutions in all areas contribute to the experienced constraints. Based on an exploratory study of Danish and Norwegian female representation as CEOs, member of boards of dir...
Where construction research and practice are ripe with examples of cost overrun, it rests predomi... more Where construction research and practice are ripe with examples of cost overrun, it rests predominantly with practical accounts when it comes to systematic reductions in functionality and other aspects of building design to avoid scope and cost creep. Research on such systematic reductions are rare. An emerging research literature on reverse innovation propose ways to understand such efforts. The rise of developing countries as emerging markets triggered a geographically oriented notion of reverse innovation denoting a product or service with limited functionality and a low price developed in a developing country, and later introduced in an advanced country. However, second generation conceptualizations include reverse innovation reducing cost and pricing, but also adding new values of the product or service addressing potential clients in a new way. As most reverse innovation examples communicated are simple consumer products, there is a potential in addressing more complex built p...
This paper contributes to the understanding of strategic sourcing through resource combination, w... more This paper contributes to the understanding of strategic sourcing through resource combination, with focus on knowledge interactions. The IMP approach, and especially the resource combination framework, views knowledge interaction as embedded in business relationships. Knowledge is understood as having soft and hard aspects and involving both inter- and intra-organizational interactions, as well as emergent physical and organizational resource combinations, such as IT systems, aimed at enabling virtual organizing, and humans acting as boundary spanners. Two case studies of enterprise journeys are conducted. Especially the last five years both companies experience change in the resource combination, first the physical and then the organizational, adjusting the mechanisms to improve knowledge interaction and competence within their value chain and inter- and intra-organizational processes. One SME, re-organizes its processes and integrates knowledge through a specific resource and kno...
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