Editorial

Citation

McCaffer, R. (2007), "Editorial", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 14 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam.2007.28614caa.001

Editorial

Volume 14 Number 3 is again rich in its variety drawing from the US, Thailand, Australia (although the work was based on Hong Kong), the UK, the Czech Republic and Canada. A total of 16 authors produced the six papers, four papers with two authors, one with three authors and one with five. I always wonder when we have a large number of authors for a paper how they all manage to agree.

The topics of the papers are as richly varied as the countries that produced them. These include:

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  measuring progress towards a learning culture;

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  heavy equipment management practices;

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  the interactions of the activities that make up knowledge management;

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  the management of the risk of vibration hazards in the workplace;

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  a mathematical approach to optimising cash flow; and

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  simulation based scheduling.

The papers in this issue are:

Chinowsky, Molenaar and Bastias offer a diagnostic tool that evaluates a company’s progress towards a learning culture. The tool is based on research to select the critical questions underlying the diagnostic tool. An interesting contribution to the development of learning cultures.

Prasertrungruang and Hadikusumo investigated the practices of the management of heavy equipment in Thailand. Using a survey based on a questionnaire they attempted to identify the differences in management practices. The key differences were based on the size of the contracting company. The medium and smaller companies behaving similarly. The larger contractors were more likely to use outsourcing and had clearly disposal and replacement policies based on equipment efficiency and likelihood of repair costs. Smaller computers were more driven by company finances and budgets.

Chen and Mohamed are interested in the pattern of interactions between the activities that make up “knowledge management”. A survey of contractors operating in Hong Kong produced 150 responses from 99 organisations which seems an excellent response to a questionnaire. The survey data was augmented by some 15 interviews. The findings give an interesting insight into “knowledge acquisition”, “knowledge utilisation” leading to development of the asset of “organisational knowledge”, the size of the “organisational knowledge pool” and the “dissemination capacity”.

Edwards and Holt review the perception of workplace vibration hazards among a small sample of construction professionals. Differences in the perception of risk exists between the health and safety professions and the construction managers. The need for improved communication between the two groups is established. Training workers is identified as the main management tool in risk control of vibration.

Beran and Dlask return us to the topic of cash flow. The authors use mathematical modelling to determine contractors’ optimal time and cost allocations that influence the contractors’ cash flow and thereby maximises the profit. The originality in this paper is the use of non-linear optimisation.

Mohamed, Davila Borrego, Al-Hussein, AbouRizk and Hermann use simulation-based scheduling applied to pipe-spool module assembly. The authors claim that the simulation-based approach is better than traditional CPM-based scheduling techniques in optimising the use of space in the assembly yard with the required delivery deadlines.

Ronald McCaffer