The construction industry is notorious for its (lack of) innovativeness. Many papers, reports and articles have been written on this subject already for more than three decades. The explanations presented can be summarized by such terms as fragmentation, segmentation and segregation when referring to the industries’ structure and by qualifications such as opportunistic, hostile, antagonistic an...

Arc welding is a common unit operation in the construction industry, where frequent changes in location and welding position make it more difficult to control fume exposures than in industries where fixed locations are the norm. Welders may be exposed to a variety of toxic airborne contaminants including manganese (Mn) and hexavalent chromium (CrVI). Local exhaust ventilation (LEV) is a well-kn...

Technology innovation has been recognized as a main driver for the advancement of construction industry. Due to the lack of systematic innovation procedure, the advancement of construction technologies has been slow compared with the other industries, e.g., ICT and Biotech Engineering. This paper proposed a Systematic Technology Innovation Process (STIP) for innovation of construction technolog...

International Construction firms have extensively used joint ventures as a vehicle to enter new construction markets in South East Asia since the early seventies. Despite its immense popularity, the failure rate of such ventures has been quite alarming. While extensive research has been carried out in the manufacturing and service industries in determining the factors that influence the perform...

Radiographic Testing (RT) is widely used in industries, at airport for security checks, medical applications etc. to detect anomalies in materials and human bodies. Radiographic Testing is the common NDT methods used in the construction and fabrication industries for the oil & gas sectors using welding, gas/liquid transmission pipelines, casting foundries, and condition monitoring in existing o...

The construction industry in general is characterized with high fragmentation, low productivity, cost and time overruns, and conflicts compared with other manufacturing industries. Supply chain management as an innovative management mode provides a new solution for resolving these problems from systems perspective. Coordination is the core issue to improve construction performance in constructi...