Servitization in Construction and its Transformation Pathway: A Value-Adding Perspective

Against the current social and technological background dominated by services and technology,new opportunities are opening up for the industrial transformation and upgrading of the construction industry.Considering the successful transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry through servitization,scholars and practitioners have begun to explore the possibility of servitization in the construction industry.Current practices and theory show that different understandings of servitization in the construction sector exist;however,they are still in their infancy and lack a deep and systematic awareness,which does not benefit the transformation and upgrading of construction through servitization.Therefore,this paper systematically analyzes the motivation,definition,and implications of servitization in construction based on the value-adding nature of servitization and considers the problems confronting the construction industry.To facilitate this development,transformation pathways for servitization in construction are analyzed from multiple angles,including value co-creation,service innovation,and networked operation,which are in line with the new trends in digital construction.In addition,based on the supporting elements of construction,which include finance,human resources,technology,materials,and equipment,this paper examines the impact of servitization on the construction industry’s ecology.In short,we expect that this systematic analysis and exposition can provide a holistic view of servitization in construction from the inside out for scholars and practitioners and can help to promote servitization in construction.

A Blockchain-Based Life-Cycle Environmental Management Framework for Hospitals in the COVID-19 Context

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency, many hospitals were built or renovated around the world to meet the challenges posed by the rising number of infected cases. Environmental management in the hospital life cycle is vital in preventing nosocomial infection and includes many infection control procedures. In certain urgent situations, a hospital must be completed quickly, and work process approval and supervision must therefore be accelerated. Thus, many works cannot be checked in detail. This results in a lack of work liability control and increases the difficulty of ensuring the fulfillment of key infection prevention measures. This study investigates how blockchain technology can transform the work quality inspection workflow to assist in nosocomial infection control under a fast delivery requirement. A blockchain-based life-cycle environmental management framework is proposed to track the fulfillment of crucial infection control measures in the design, construction, and operation stages of hospitals. The proposed framework allows for work quality checking after the work is completed, when some work cannot be checked on time. Illustrative use cases are selected to demonstrate the capabilities of the developed solution. This study provides new insights into applying blockchain technology to address the challenge of environmental management brought by rapid delivery requirements.

Highway Planning and Design in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau of China: A Cost–Safety Balance Perspective

Engineering designs for mountainous highways emphasize compliance checking to ensure safety. However, relying solely on compliance checking may lead designers to minimize costs at the expense of high risk indicators, since the overall risk level of the highway design is unknown to the designers. This paper describes a method for the simultaneous consideration of traffic safety risks and the associated cost burden related to the appropriate planning and design of a mountainous highway. The method can be carried out in four steps: First, the highway design is represented by a new parametric framework to extract the key design variables that affect not only the life-cycle cost but also the operational safety. Second, the relationship between the life-cycle cost and the operational safety risk factors is established in the cost-estimation functions. Third, a fault tree analysis (FTA) is introduced to identify the traffic risk factors from the design variables. The safety performance of the design solutions is also assessed by the generalized linear-regression model. Fourth, a theory of acceptable risk analysis is introduced to the traffic safety assessment, and a computing algorithm is proposed to solve for a cost-efficient optimal solution within the range of acceptable risk, in order to help decision-makers. This approach was applied and examined in the Sichuan–Tibet Highway engineering project, which is located in a complex area with a large elevation gradient and a wide range of mountains. The experimental results show that the proposed approach significantly improved both the safety and cost performance of the project in the study area.

A review of metro construction in China: Organization,market, cost, safety and schedule

China is now in an era of large-scale metro construction. This paper reviews the nature of Chinese metro engineering with a specific focus on its organization and market mode, cost structure, safety control and schedule management. Then, an examination on recent research in metro engineering of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC) is also conducted,which indicates that information and automation based technologies are increasingly used in practice.

Hyperledger fabric-based consortium blockchain for construction quality information management

Lack of trust has been an ongoing issue for decades in construction quality management,hindering the improvement of quality performance.The development of mutual trust depends on immutable,traceable,and transparent construction quality information records.However,current information technologies cannot meet the requirements.To address the challenge,this study explores a blockchain-based framework for construction quality information management,which extends applications of blockchain in the domain of construction quality management.A consortium blockchain system is designed to support construction quality management in which participants’information permissions and lifecycle are discussed.Additionally,this study presents in detail the consensus process that aims to address the problem of information fraud.The automated compliance checking based on smart contracts is presented as well,aiming to assure that construction products meet regulation requirements.Finally,an example of the consortium blockchain network is visualized to validate the feasibility of blockchain-based construction quality information management.The research shows that blockchain can facilitate mutual trust in construction quality management by providing distributed,encrypted,and secure information records and supporting automated compliance checking of construction quality.

Intelligent technologies help operating mobile cabin hospitals effectively cope with COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)has spread fast,and the number of confirmed cases worldwide reaches 167511,in which 81077 are recorded in China until March 16,2020(WHO,2020a).In response to the situation,the Chinese government has marshalled the full resources and efforts of the country to reduce the COVID-19 morbidity and mortality.As the number of confirmed cases decreases considerably every day,China’s control approach for COVID-19 epidemic has been proven to be agile and productive(National Health Commission,2020;WHO,2020b).Among all interventions,operating Chinese mobile cabin hospitals is considered one of the most effective measures because it holds many patients simultaneously at the outbreak stage;as such,this strategy quickly and effectively contains the spread of the virus(WHO,2020b;Zhang,2020b).

IoT sensor-based BIM system for smart safety barriers of hazardous energy in petrochemical construction

The accidental release of hazardous energy is one of the causes of construction site accidents.This risk is considerably increased during petrochemical plant construction because the project itself is complex in terms of process,equipment,and environment.In addition,a general construction safety barrier hardly isolates and controls site hazardous energy effectively.Thus,this study proposes an Internet of Things(IoT)sensor-based building information modeling(BIM)system,which can be regarded as a new smart barrier design method for hazardous energy in petrochemical construction.In this system,BIM is used to support the identification of on-site hazardous energy,whereas IoT is used to collect the location of on-site personnel in real time.A hazardous energy isolation rule is defined to enable the system to generate a smart barrier on the web terminal window,thereby ensuring the safety of on-site person.This system has been applied to a large-scale construction project in Sinopec for one year and accumulated substantial practical data,which supported the idea about the application of sensor and BIM technology in construction.The related effects of the system on hazardous energy management are also presented in this work.

Development and application of an off-site maintenance system in the petrochemical industry

On-site maintenance(ONSM) is critical to ensuring the safety of equipment in the petrochemical industry. However, many accidents occur during ONSM processes because of unstable equipment, complicated work environment, and human error. To reduce congestion and exposure to hazards during on-site operations and thereby reduce the probability of accidents, off-site maintenance(OFSM) is proposed based on Energy Release Theory(ERT). The information requirements for OFSM are analyzed. A support system for OFSM, which makes use of visualization, information management, and localization capabilities, is developed. A case study utilizing OFSM and its support system for an oil-loading facility of a petrochemical company is conducted. The application results indicated that implementation of OFSM system can significantly reduce the operation risks and can improve the operation efficiency.

Special issue: Advances and prospect of engineering management

As an important part of engineering domain,construction engineering and management focuses on studying the planning,execution and maintenance of civil and infrastructure projects.This special issue is composed based on a collection of research papers contributed by a group of leading experts,dedicating to providing a state-of-the-art development in construction management research.