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Infrastructure projects are complex, task-based endeavours; the reliability of project schedules is often low, as delays occur. As a result, the infrastructure sector is constantly searching for innovative practices that might improve project performance. This study aims to pursue one research question: what are the benefits and challenges to last planner system (LPS) implementation in Australia’s infrastructure industry? It addresses this question through an examination of two rail infrastructure projects in Victoria, Australia.

The state of Victoria in Australia provides an excellent context for this study. The study was set in one of the programme alliances which was contracted to carry out five level-crossing removal projects. This study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research techniques, including surveys, interviews and site visits. The authors collected 43 valid survey responses. Additionally, 19 participants from the alliance programme’s two projects (Projects A and B) took part in the interviews. Extensive empirical evidence has been triangulated to achieve the research goals.

The findings show through the questionnaire survey that the greatest benefits that digital LPS brings are primarily associated with process improvement and social benefits. The interview results acknowledged that the roll-out of digital LPS had a positive impact on schedules, cost, occupational health and safety (OHS) and quality performance. The research also noted a few challenges in the introduction of digital LPS. Overall, the finding presents strong evidence that the introduction of digital LPS has been a clear success in the case company.

This is the first piece of research to fill this major gap in the LPS literature by exploring the issue of digital LPS adoption in Australia’s infrastructure sector. This study has thus laid the foundation for future work on LPS research in the Australian context. The authors are optimistic that this exploratory work will generate interest across other alliances, and perhaps extend into Australia’s construction sector.

This paper aims at identifying the main contributions of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies to the enhancement of knowledge management (KM).

A scoping review based on two stages was carried out. In the first stage, a numerical and descriptive analysis was conducted. In the second stage, the latent content of those papers was explored through a qualitative analysis, in which papers were assessed regarding the outcome of the implementation of ten I4.0 technologies on 14 KM abilities and 6 KM processes.

Six technologies (e.g. Internet of Things (IoT), big data, cloud computing, simulation, visualisation and industrial robot) were claimed to have a significant contribution on KM, especially for creation, organisation, dissemination and application processes. Overall, results indicated that technologies can significantly contribute to KM, although the extent of such contribution varies across technologies, learning levels, KM processes and abilities.

Existing studies in I4.0 fall short in exploring how embodied knowledge is articulated in practice, especially regarding opportunities to use new technological alternatives in favour of knowledge and learning development. This study complements the existing literature on I4.0 by identifying which technologies can contribute to KM. Also, a framework was proposed to examine the contribution of I4.0 technologies to KM at individual, team, and organisational levels.

This study aims at identifying the contribution of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) integration into supply chains (SCs) to the enhancement of SC resilience.

A scoping review was conducted so that the relevant literature on SC resilience, and I4.0 integrated into SC management was examined.

The authors summarize the main findings from existing research and propose three research directions: (1) empirical validation of the contribution of I4.0 ICTs to SC resilience; (2) explore the role of processing-actuation technologies in enhancing restorative capacity; and (3) integration between I4.0 ICTs and omni-channel strategy as a means to resilience development at consumer and retail levels. The literature on the design of resilient smart SCs is far outnumbered by works reporting applications of I4.0 ICTs at different SC tier levels. However, the authors’ scoping review organizes the information available on these themes, setting the ground for the development of new theoretical propositions.

The integration of digital technologies from I4.0 can fundamentally change the SC management, acting as enablers of a more effective response to disruptions. However, the digital transformation of SCs is still incipient, and literature is particularly sparse when considering the contribution of I4.0 to the resilience of SCs.

The purpose of this paper is to characterise the financial performance and to identify the operating strategies of property development companies in Malaysia during the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC).

The research approach includes a comprehensive analysis of the financial statements and annual reports of 35 property development companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange. The financial statements were analysed to evaluate the financial performance of these companies and to assess the severity of the impact of the GFC on revenues and profits. The operating strategies were determined from a content analysis of the statement to shareholders.

An aggregated analysis of the financial performance indicates a 23 per cent decline in net profit in 2008. Classifying these companies into two separate sets of distressed and non-distressed companies showed that poor financial performance and a high debt-to-equity ratio pre-GFC led to continuing poor performance during the GFC period and beyond. Survival strategies adopted by distressed companies include the disposal of assets to improve cash flow, refinancing loans, delaying the launch of new projects and reducing their workforce. Non-distressed companies adopted growth strategies such as purchasing land for development, focusing their offerings towards high-end products, vertically integrating and diversification.

The increased understanding of the financial performance and operational strategies will allow managers of property development companies to improve financial management and adopt appropriate strategies in response to the impact of future financial distress.

The study presented in this paper is the first to analyse the financial performance of Malaysian public-listed property development companies during the period of the 2008 GFC and to link their financial performance to operational strategies.

The aim of this case study is to characterize the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis on the financial performance of public listed construction companies.

Financial analysis was conducted on 32 public listed construction companies in Malaysia. Twelve financial ratios were examined to determine the profitability, liquidity, activity, leverage and solvency of these companies over the period between 2005 and 2010. This was complemented by a distress analysis using Altman’s Z-index. The study also used a content analysis of the Chairman’s or Managing Director’s statement to shareholders to uncover the responses and strategic initiatives undertaken by the management in response to the financial crisis.

The only direct impact of the financial crisis was a reduction in profitability. Total revenues and total assets of these companies continue to grow due to increased demand for construction from year 2007 following two large capital investment programs initiated by the Malaysian Government to mitigate the potential effects of the financial crisis. Net profits rebounded back to 5 per cent by year 2010. These companies immediately responded to the crisis with more prudent financial management; curtailing expenses, cutting dividends, reducing bank borrowings, increasing equity; and to the extent of disposing of assets to mitigate losses.

The sample of only 32 public listed companies out of a total of more than 60,000 construction companies may be considered small, but these 32 companies represent nearly 20 per cent of the total construction volume for 2010.

The study documents the effects of increased capital spending by the government to mitigate the loss of investor confidence followed by a slowdown in economic growth during a period of global financial distress. Key findings will inform on prudent financial management to withstand future financial crises.

The responses and strategies adopted by the management to mitigate the effects and to enhance future performance of these companies have been uncovered. These are important considerations in managing construction companies; the analysis and observations will be invaluable to researchers intending to study how the construction industry responds to a future slump in demand.

The study reported in this paper proposed the use of artificial neural networks (ANN) as viable alternative to regression for predicting the cost of building services elements at the early stage of design. The purpose of this paper is to develop, test and validate ANN models for predicting the costs of electrical services components.

The research is based on data mining of over 200 building projects in the office of a medium size electrical contractor. Of the over 200 projects examined, 71 usable data were found and used for the ANN modeling. Regression models were also explored using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences Statistics Software 21, for the purpose of comparison with the ANN models.

The findings show that the cost forecasting models based on ANN algorithm are more viable alternative to regression models for predicting the costs of light wiring, power wiring and cable pathways. The ANN prediction errors achieved are 6.4, 4.5 and 4.5 per cent for the three models developed whereas the regression models were insignificant. They did not fit any of the known regression distributions.

The validated ANN models were converted to a desktop application (user interface) package – “Intelligent Estimator.” The application is important because it can be used by construction professionals to reliably and quickly forecast the costs of power wiring, light wiring and cable pathways using building variables that are readily available or measurable during design stage, i.e. fully enclosed covered area, unenclosed covered area, internal perimeter length and number of floors.

Previous studies have concluded that the methods of estimating the budget for building structure and fabric work are inappropriate for use with mechanical and electrical services. Thus, this study is unique because it applied the ANN modeling technique, for the first time, to cost modeling of electrical services components for building using real world data. The analysis shows that ANN is a better alternative to regression models for predicting cost of services elements because the relationship between cost and the cost drivers are non-linear and distribution types are unknown.

The main objective of this research is to identify the most important human resource management (HRM) practices, which have the potential to enhance labour productivity using fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach.

The study used a mixed-methods research design in which qualitative data were collected and analysed during Phase I and quantitative data were analysed during Phase II. Nineteen experts who have experience in building construction projects were involved in interviews conducted in Phase I. During Phase II, quantitative data were collected from contractors that were involved in the delivery of building projects using questionnaires and the data were analysed using FSE technique.

Clear delegation of responsibility, stability of organisational structure and crew composition are found to be the three most important HRM practices that can enhance productivity in building construction projects. The findings of the study showed that the overall importance index computed using the FSE model is 3.65 (≈ 4) with an equivalent linguistic term of “very important”. The study also suggested that the top three HRM practices should be implemented conjointly as there is no significant difference among their weights.

The output of this research can provide important information regarding the HRM practices in the Australian construction industry. Thus, international developers or contractors who want to do construction business in Australia can implement the essential HRM practices so that the productivity of their construction projects will not be affected negatively.