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Despite the considerable amount of research that has examined rework causation in construction, it remains an inherent problem that can potentially result in adverse project outcomes. This situation has arisen as studies have tended to ignore the social organization of errors (i.e. the pattern of relationships and social interactions between and among individuals and teams). Instead, studies have adopted a 'reductionist view' of rework causation by identifying its proximal and root causes rather than addressing the conditions resulting in its manifestation. This paper uses a case study approach with a sense-making lens to create a series of narratives of rework events that arose while constructing a transport mega-project. By making sense of the context surrounding the error events, it is revealed rework manifests from failures in 'negotiated order' which stems from role ambiguity, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and break-downs in communications and interactions between people and organizations. As a consequence of these findings, their theoretical and practical implications arising from the research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the significant amount of research undertaken to determine the causes of rework, construction organizations still struggle to mitigate its occurrence. This paper presents research from an ongoing longitudinal study using a sense-making lens to examine rework causation in a transport megaproject. It was observed that rework often emerges as a consequence of hold-ups, which are failures in negotiated order stemming from misunderstandings, misinterpretations, role ambiguity, and breakdowns in communications and interactions between project participants. Rather than adopting a reductionist view of rework causation that focuses on the use of prefixes such as poor, limited, inadequate, and lack of, which abounds in the construction and engineering management literature, this research unearths the nuances associated with errors and rework, enabling a richer understanding of the context within which it manifests in projects. The upshot is that a new theoretical framing is presented to understand better the why and how of rework causation in construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the wealth of research that has sought to understand the causal nature of rework, it remains a recurrent problem in construction projects. Studies that have examined rework causation have tended to overlook the influence of errors and violations and the conditions that result from their occurrence. In filling this void, this paper identifies four underlying leitmotivs from an ongoing longitudinal study that aims to "make-sense" of rework causation. Addressing the chronic conditions that are identified in a systemic manner will provide construction organizations with the ability to make significant strides toward enacting an effective continuous improvement strategy to contain and reduce rework in their projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rail infrastructure that operates at its optimum will be economical and sustainable and thus positively contribute to the productivity and competitiveness of an economy. The health of rail infrastructure, however, needs to be monitored, measured and maintained, which falls within the remit of asset managers who are often charged with balancing costs, opportunities and risks against the desired performance of the assets and their respective systems at varying levels. Having appropriate and reliable information about an asset is pivotal for enabling asset management to support decision-making, planning and execution of activities and tasks of assets, particularly during operations and maintenance. But, having access to the right information at the right time, has been and remains a pervasive problem, hinders an asset owner’s ability to ensure their rail infrastructure performance is being optimized. A new approach to facilitate the acquisition and integration of information to support digital asset management (DAM) for rail infrastructure is presented. The research uses a case study to empirically assess the quality of ‘as-built’ documentation for electrical systems of Bayswater railway station that forms an integral part of the Forrestfield Airport Linkage project, in Perth Western Australia. Errors, omissions and information redundancy contained within the existing ‘as-built’ documentation is quantified. Then, a case for the adoption of a Systems Information Model is put forward as the rail industry moves toward a digital future and seeks to future-proof their assets and networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object oriented modeling (OOM) has become an integral part of the design process in construction due to advances in computer software. Despite these advances there remains a tendency for Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) to be used as the medium to assist in the creation, modification, analysis and optimization of Electrical and Instrumentation (E&I) systems within heavy industrial engineering projects. In this paper, a retrospective OOM (i.e., Systems Information Model (SIM)), for the E&I systems of a utility facility, which was constructed for an Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor for the purpose of undertaking a constructability assessment prior to the commencement of construction is presented and discussed. The CAD drawings and cable schedule produced by the EPC were provided to an E&I organization to undertake a constructability assessment; errors, omissions and information redundancy were identified and quantified. The SIM model was then used to examine a tender proposal from a construction subcontractor (CS) of the EPC; discrepancies were identified and it is suggested that differences arose due to the prevailing errors and omissions. The potential use of a SIM during construction as a quality assurance/control (QA/QC) is then examined, as it is suggested that it can be used to ensure the development of an ‘As-built’ model and provide a realistic representation of the constructed asset, which safeguards its integrity for operations and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of computer-aided-design (CAD) generated ‘As-built’ documentation is evaluated for a High Voltage Switchgear System (HVSS), which forms part of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition up-grade within a geo-thermal power plant. A total of 267 CAD drawings for the HVSS were used to create a Systems Information Model (SIM) whereby the physical components and associated connections were constructed in an object orientated database. Throughout the modelling process a considerable amount of errors and information redundancy were identified and examples are presented. The production of the CAD drawings took 10,680 man-h in stark contrast to the 80 man-h required to construct the SIM, illustrating the efficiency and effectiveness of SIM compared to CAD for the documentation of electrical instrumentation and control systems (EICS). To realise this significant potential cost and productivity saving requires a shift in mindset and a move beyond the use of CAD, to an object oriented SIM, with a 1:1 relationship between objects in the model, and components in the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]