Advancing the Competitiveness and Efficiency of the U.S. Construction Industry

Advancing the Competitiveness and Efficiency of the U.S. Construction Industry PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309147476
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 123

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Book Description
Construction productivity-how well, how quickly, and at what cost buildings and infrastructure can be constructed-directly affects prices for homes and consumer goods and the robustness of the national economy. Industry analysts differ on whether construction industry productivity is improving or declining. Still, advances in available and emerging technologies offer significant opportunities to improve construction efficiency substantially in the 21st century and to help meet other national challenges, such as environmental sustainability. Advancing the Competitiveness and Efficiency of the U.S. Construction Industry identifies five interrelated activities that could significantly improve the quality, timeliness, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of construction projects. These activities include widespread deployment and use of interoperable technology applications; improved job-site efficiency through more effective interfacing of people, processes, materials, equipment, and information; greater use of prefabrication, preassembly, modularization, and off-site fabrication techniques and processes; innovative, widespread use of demonstration installations; and effective performance measurement to drive efficiency and support innovation. The book recommends that the National Institute of Standards and Technology work with industry leaders to develop a collaborative strategy to fully implement and deploy the five activities

The Construction Chart Book

The Construction Chart Book PDF Author: CPWR--The Center for Construction Research and Training
Publisher: Cpwr - The Center for Construction Research and Training
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
The Construction Chart Book presents the most complete data available on all facets of the U.S. construction industry: economic, demographic, employment/income, education/training, and safety and health issues. The book presents this information in a series of 50 topics, each with a description of the subject matter and corresponding charts and graphs. The contents of The Construction Chart Book are relevant to owners, contractors, unions, workers, and other organizations affiliated with the construction industry, such as health providers and workers compensation insurance companies, as well as researchers, economists, trainers, safety and health professionals, and industry observers.

Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction Industry

Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction Industry PDF Author: New York State Organized Crime Task Force
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814730345
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
This book, Corruption and Racketeering In The New York City Construction Industry: The Final Report of the New York State Organized Task Force, lays out in close and compelling detail the intricate patterns of currupt activities and relationships that for the better part of a century have characterized business as usual in the construction industry in America's largest metropolis. The book is the end product of more than five years' worth of investigation, prosecutions, and research by the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, a unique agency that has set a national example for marrying law enforcement initiatives with comprehensive and exhausting analysis of the causes and dynamics of industrial racketeering. This is a sobering analysis of the construction industry , one of New York City's largest industries, and in effect, one of the city's most significant economic sectors. In any given year during the 1980s, billions of dollars of construction were being carried out at any one time. The industry regularly employs more than 100,000 people in the city, involving some one hundred union locals and many hundreds of general and specialty contractors as well as a large number of architects, engineers, and materials suppliers. The book shows—in great and provocative detail—how organized extortion, bribery illegal cartels, and bid rigging characterize construction in the city. The basis for much of this crim is labor racketeering, controlled or orchestrated by organized crime. It reveals how this world of corruption affects not only the private sector but the city's vast public works program, and it spells out the ways in which both organized crime and official corruption each sustain the dynamics of ongoing criminality. Wrong-doing on a massive scale is documented at length. But this book is more than a recitation of extensive and systematic criminality. The book recommends a number of plausible options for genuine reform. Necessarily these are profound and radical solutions, but everyone who reads this book will conclude that only profound and radical solutions could hope to solve such an entrenched and intractable crime problem.

Knowledge Management in the Construction Industry

Knowledge Management in the Construction Industry PDF Author: Abdul Samad Kazi
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 9781591403616
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Annotation Presents a portfolio of concepts, methods, models, and tools supported by real life case studies from various corners of the globe providing insights into the management of knowledge in the construction industry.

Construction - Craft to Industry

Construction - Craft to Industry PDF Author: Gyula Sebestyen
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1135817960
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
This book provides a unique and comprehensive survey of changes and trends in the construction industry focusing on the post-war years and emphasizing their contemporary and future relevance.

OSHA Defense for the Construction Industry

OSHA Defense for the Construction Industry PDF Author: Trent Cotney
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781985861510
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description
The second biggest threat to the construction industry, behind the lack of skilled labor, is the unchecked expansion of regulatory agencies. Recent government expansion has granted the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) the authority it needs to single-handedly put contractors out of business through targeting, and repeat or excessive fines. The purpose of this book is to provide contractors, trades, design professionals, suppliers, manufacturers and others in the industry with an understanding of their rights during an OSHA inspection as well as critical defenses to use after an OSHA citation has been issued. Topics include safety compliance, recordkeeping and reporting, responsible use of social media, constitutional protections, witness statements, settlements with OSHA, willful citations, and a discussion of defenses including unpreventable employee misconduct, multi-employer site defense and the greater hazard defense. Finally, the book discusses some of the recent regulation changes including the new silica standard, the new confined space standards, and the increase in OSHA fines.

The Economics of the Construction Industry

The Economics of the Construction Industry PDF Author: Gerald Finkel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317457277
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
The American construction industry, reponsible for nearly 4% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, directly employs over five million people and provides millions of additional support jobs in related fields. This book provides an introductory overview of the economic aspects of the industry, including the historical development of building activity from earliest times to modern day market-based construction, including the work of individual artisans to complex construction unions. The book explores current trends in labor force participation; the measurement of industry performance; the determinants of investment; government involvement; competition; wage determination; training; and worker safety.

Creating Good Jobs

Creating Good Jobs PDF Author: Paul Osterman
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262357372
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Experts discuss improving job quality in low-wage industries including retail, residential construction, hospitals and long-term healthcare, restaurants, manufacturing, and long-haul trucking. Americans work harder and longer than our counterparts in other industrialized nations. Yet prosperity remains elusive to many. Workers in such low-wage industries as retail, restaurants, and home construction live from paycheck to paycheck, juggling multiple jobs with variable schedules, few benefits, and limited prospects for advancement. These bad outcomes are produced by a range of industry-specific factors, including intense competition, outsourcing and subcontracting, failure to enforce employment standards, overt discrimination, outmoded production and management systems, and inadequate worker voice. In this volume, experts look for ways to improve job quality in the low-wage sector. They offer in-depth examinations of specific industries—long-term healthcare, hospitals and outpatient care, retail, residential construction, restaurants, manufacturing, and long-haul trucking—that together account for more than half of all low-wage jobs. The book's sector view allows the contributors to address industry-specific variations that shape operational choices about work. Drawing on deep industry knowledge, they consider important distinctions within and between these industries; the financial, institutional, and structural incentives that shape the choices employers make; and what it would take to make more jobs better jobs. Contributors Eileen Appelbaum, Rosemary Batt, Dale Belman, Julie Brockman, Françoise Carré, Susan Helper, Matt Hinkel, Tashlin Lakhani, JaeEun Lee, Raphael Martins, Russell Ormiston, Paul Osterman, Can Ouyang, Chris Tilly, Steve Viscelli

Construction 4.0

Construction 4.0 PDF Author: Anil Sawhney
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429675119
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 527

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Book Description
Modelled on the concept of Industry 4.0, the idea of Construction 4.0 is based on a confluence of trends and technologies that promise to reshape the way built environment assets are designed, constructed, and operated. With the pervasive use of Building Information Modelling (BIM), lean principles, digital technologies, and offsite construction, the industry is at the cusp of this transformation. The critical challenge is the fragmented state of teaching, research, and professional practice in the built environment sector. This handbook aims to overcome this fragmentation by describing Construction 4.0 in the context of its current state, emerging trends and technologies, and the people and process issues that surround the coming transformation. Construction 4.0 is a framework that is a confluence and convergence of the following broad themes discussed in this book: Industrial production (prefabrication, 3D printing and assembly, offsite manufacture) Cyber-physical systems (actuators, sensors, IoT, robots, cobots, drones) Digital and computing technologies (BIM, video and laser scanning, AI and cloud computing, big data and data analytics, reality capture, Blockchain, simulation, augmented reality, data standards and interoperability, and vertical and horizontal integration) The aim of this handbook is to describe the Construction 4.0 framework and consequently highlight the resultant processes and practices that allow us to plan, design, deliver, and operate built environment assets more effectively and efficiently by focusing on the physical-to-digital transformation and then digital-to-physical transformation. This book is essential reading for all built environment and AEC stakeholders who need to get to grips with the technological transformations currently shaping their industry, research, and teaching.

Construction Industry Advance and Change

Construction Industry Advance and Change PDF Author: Michael Anson
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 1800435061
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Construction Industry Advance and Change: Progress in Eight Asian Economies since 1995 describes construction industry progress between 1995 and 2019, sharing information and context needed to appreciate the nature of construction industries and the factors affecting industry output performance.